Since 2004, the University of Bremen has been EMAS certified (EMAS: Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). In order to improve biodiversity, university members are planting old fruit trees on campus, students have established a conservation group, the campus prize from the Kellner-Stoll-Foundation is honoring “Research for a Sustainable Future”, university staff have founded a solar power association, and there are continually more and more teaching and information events addressing the topics of transformation in community and ecology and sustainable development. These are only a few reasons why the University of Bremen has now been nominated as the German representative for the “EMAS Award 2019” environmental prize from the EU commission. The EMAS Award is the most prestigious award that an institute can receive for eco-management.
“Honors our Day-to-Day Work”
The University Director of Finance and Administration Dr. Martin Mehrtens is extremely pleased about the nomination. “The fact that we have been chosen as German representative for the final round in the category “Public medium-sized and large organizations” honors our day-to-day work in the area of sustainable eco-management. We have been continually working on fine-tuning our eco-management system and strengthening the effects for over 20 years. We are also increasingly incorporating our sustainability concepts into teaching. The circumstance that this topic, in times of visible and tangible climate change, is becoming increasingly important has been reflected in our actions and impact for years.” The award confirms that the effort is worth it and that the many positive results are being noticed across regions.
The University of Bremen aims to incorporate sustainability from the grassroots to the top level. In this way, a sustainability forum, which considers ecological aspects as comprehensively as possible for all decisions that are made, has been established on the University Executive Board level. The sustainability of all areas of the institute is to be supported by the initiation of suitable measures for university work and teaching. Biodiversity is also increasingly becoming an area of focus: “The university’s ability to function in the future is not only characterizes by scientific results but also by the campus design”, says Dr. Doris Sövegjarto-Wigbers, the eco manager of the University of Bremen. With the campus, a habitat has been handed over, for which the university now holds responsibility – “and we want to design it so that we can hand it over to the next generations with a clear conscience”.
First Climate-Neutral Conference in 2020
According to Director of Finance and administration Mehrtens, students, staff, researchers and teaching staff are increasingly supporting sustainability at the University of Bremen: “the nomination is also a testament to this.” For the first time, the university is aiming to host a climate-neutral conference with the International Coral reef Symposium, which will take place at the Messe- und Congress Centrum (Exhibition and Congress Centre) in Bremen in July 2020.
The EMAS-Awards will take place on November 25, 2019, at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Every country will send one representative for each of the five categories. The University of Bremen was chosen as the representative in the category “Public medium-sized and large organizations”. The national final-round participants were chosen by a jury comprised of representatives from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the German Environment Agency, the Environmental Verification Committee, the Deutschen Akkreditierungsgesellschaft für Umweltgutachter (German Accreditation Body for Environmental Verifiers), and the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Further information:
http://www.ums.uni-bremen.de/en/index.html
www.emas.de/aktuelles/emas-wettbewerbe/emas-awards-2019 (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
Contact:
University of Bremen
Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology
Dr. Doris Sövegjarto-Wigbers
Phone: +49 421 218-63376
Email: soeve@uft.uni-bremen.de
www.ums.uni-bremen.de
