Participation of University Members

The Sustainability Working Group (Arbeitskreis Nachhaltigkeit, AKN) promotes the university-wide dialog on sustainability and is open to all members of TU Dortmund University. Current ideas and possible sustainability measures at TU Dortmund University are discussed at the biannual meetings. In 2022, 13 people took part in one AKN meeting. In 2023, a total of 35 people took part in two AKN meetings. The involvement of students at university policy level in the AKN is particularly welcome.

For students, the AStA's Office for Sustainability and Mobility is one of the places to go for sustainable engagement. Students can contribute ideas here or, for example, take part in the AStA's campus gardening group. In addition, voluntary groups such as Campus for Future or ENACTUS  offer the opportunity for student involvement. The Sustainability Office is in irregular contact with these groups.

In each department, sustainability contact persons have been appointed, who are available to students, researchers and university lecturers for questions and ideas on sustainability and implement sustainability measures together with the department members. As a result, the desired savings targets were achieved during the energy crisis from fall 2022 thanks to good cooperation with the departments. The accumulated knowledge of the network created in this way will be used to achieve the sustainability goals and strengthen communication on sustainability between students, employees and the administration.

The Sustainability Office (Nachhaltigkeitsbüro, NHB) was established at TU Dortmund University in 2021 as a central point of contact for all TU members on the topic of sustainability in order to promote, among other things, the opportunities for university members to participate in the sustainable development of TU Dortmund University. The NHB

• addresses its services equally to teaching staff, students and administrative staff,
• implements the goals of the TU Dortmund University sustainability strategy, which was published and communicated to all members,
• initiates sustainable projects to which members of the university are publicly invited,
• supports (student) groups and their projects or their foundation and
• provides comprehensive websites on the topic of sustainability at TU Dortmund University, which present current sustainable TU projects and opportunities for participation.

The NHB organizes various hands-on activities. In 2022,

From January 2022 to January 2024, the NHB offered a format for sustainability exchange for all TU members on the last Wednesday of every month. Around 30 people took part in the "Sustainability Regulars' Table" in 2022. In the Winter semester 2023/24, the "Get-Your-Group" face-to-face format was supplemented with the aim of networking people interested in sustainability with similar interests and promoting the establishment of university groups on the topic of sustainability at TU Dortmund University. Due to low participation numbers in 2023, both formats were discontinued in January 2024. However, the NHB continues to moderate a Discord channel in which committed people can network and uses this channel to provide information about NHB activities as well as sustainability-related topics and events via a newsletter.

In addition, TU members are invited to use the TU Dortmund University seed library and actively promote biodiversity by exchanging seed-proof seeds.

The ideas and complaint management system VIBA (Verbesserungen, Ideen, Beschwerden, Anregungen, internal link) was introduced at TU Dortmund University in 2016 by service agreement. VIBA is structurally located in the Section Organizational Development of the Corporate Center University Development and Organization in the Sustainability Office. The aim of VIBA is to harness the experience and detailed knowledge of all employees, drive forward the further development of TU Dortmund University and further improve its services. Employees can use the online portal to submit their suggestions for improvement, ideas, critical comments, complaints and praise. An evaluation committee makes a recommendation for implementation, taking into account the concerned department and the feasibility or implementation effort of the submissions. The employees are then involved in the success of their ideas, provided the submission meets the requirements for an award. For maximum transparency, the topics discussed in the committee and the award-winning projects are published (anonymously). Suggestions for improvement and ideas on the subject of sustainability are also regularly submitted via VIBA:

Interactive Graphic. Source: Sustainability Office/TU Dortmund University

In addition to student involvement in student councils, groups or projects, students can submit sustainable suggestions for improvements to teaching and studies as well as complaints via the student complaints management system. Usually the complaints managers in the departments are the first point of contact for ideas or problems in teaching and study operations. However, if there are reasons or even conflicts that do not allow for processing in the department or, as in the case of the sustainability issue, issues that affect several departments or the entire university, students can contact the central Complaints Office. Complaints relating to sustainability are forwarded to the Sustainability Office for processing.