This year's ‘Prize for Sustainability Activities on Campus’ was awarded to a group of students who founded the registered association ‘Innwerk’. The ‘Innwerk’ is an open workshop that actively campaigns against the throwaway society by sharing tools and repairing them together. During the start-up phase, the project was supported by the University of Passau and the European Solidarity Corps. The students honoured by the Innwerk are Mathilda Dethleffsen, Julia Gasser, Hannes Hieronimi, Bastian Mogel, Georg Seibt and Pepe Voland. ‘The students are sending a conscious signal against the throwaway society and against unthinking consumption. The initiative started with five students, and now more than ten volunteers in the Innstadt are working on repairing and restoring all kinds of objects. Not only is this sustainable per se, but also the idea that not everyone needs the same large toolbox, but that the equipment can be used more efficiently if it is used more often - i.e. together. This idea is therefore also linked to the idea of sharing - an essential approach in times of conscious use of resources,’ said Prof Dr Werner Gamerith in his laudatory speech.
Today, we are not only celebrating Sustainability Day, but almost two whole weeks of sustainability - with a diverse programme every day, from panel discussions to campus tours, from community activities around sustainable food to the presentation of a Passau unpackaged food shop.
Behind this programme are eight to ten students who have been breathing student life into sustainability at the university for ten years now. In the years from 2018 to 2022 alone, the students organised 75 events and workshops. In addition to the Sustainability Weeks in June, the team is also involved in the eleven other months of the year - including a sustainable city rally, a quiz with questions that build a bridge to the sustainable offering structure of the city of Passau, a (digital) Advent calendar with tips on gift-giving, more sustainable behaviour and many other challenges in everyday student life. Joint initiatives with the canteen, such as the expansion of vegetarian or vegan dishes or the introduction of deposit cups, are also the responsibility of the students.
The result is an excellent balance of activities that make the campus more liveable and sustainable - and the duration of these activities, for ten years, is in itself a sign of sustainability.
The University of Passau 2023 Sustainability Award in the category ‘Sustainability activities on campus’ goes to the University Sustainability Group.
In its premiere, the EUR 1,500 prize for sustainability at the University of 2022 in the category ‘Sustainability activities on campus’ goes to four women, academics and Master's students who have been involved in the conception of the exhibition ‘A university is emerging. The architecture of the Passau campus'. A catalogue was also produced as part of this exhibition. With this catalogue, it has been possible to document for the first time the almost far-sighted building fabric of the young University of Passau, which could already be described as ‘sustainable’ in the contemporary sense in the 1970s. It shows the special position of the University of Passau in sustainability and makes it known far beyond the narrower borders of the region. Two master's theses and parts of a cumulative dissertation formed the basis for the texts in the catalogue.The reviewer, Prof. Dr Jörg Trempler, Chair of Art History and Visual Studies, also points out in his explanatory statement that another aspect of the project is the media communication: a widely known video was created that documents the competence of the digital communication of scientific content. All in all, the exhibition and catalogue have decisively anchored the reputation of the University of Passau as a sustainable urban development project in the public eye in the 1970s and brought the intentions of the architects and planners of the time back into the consciousness of today's university.
We are therefore convinced that this is an achievement worthy of an award.
The award for sustainability at the University 2022 in the category ‘Sustainability activities on campus’ goes to
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