The Green Office: Adrian Heider (r.) and Jonathan Bauer
Green Office
Since the summer semester 2018 we have had the Green Office (GO) as a new institution on our campus.
Who we are:
The core of the Green Office consists of student staff and Dr. Marina Zapilko as a direct connection to the administration of the TUM CS.
Our founding history:
Already since the foundation of the Working Group Environment in November 2016, the student body has dealt more intensively with the topic of sustainability and environmental protection at the TUM Campus Straubing and actively implemented it. When in July 2017 the AK received a request from the management to take part in a workshop on the subject of Green Office, a group of interested people was found who took part in a workshop of the organisation “rootability” at the end of October 2017. In cooperation with Tim Strasser, a co-founder of the first GO in Maastricht, the foundation stone was laid for the Green Office at the TUM Campus Straubing and afterwards the following concept paper was elaborated:
What is the Green Office?
As an institution, the Green Office is a contact point for impulses on the subject of sustainability and deals with their practical implementation on campus. It is run by students for students, so that they can become designers of change at the universities.
What does the Green Office do?
Sustainability should be anchored in the various university structures through the GO. At the same time, the aim is to promote and stimulate a more sustainable way of life for all actors on campus. In addition, we will carry our ideas and topics to schools and the public.
Furthermore, the GO coordinates projects, simplifies the communication of existing initiatives, networks actors and sets new impulses itself.
Projects within the framework of the GO can be of very different kinds: from initiatives for waste separation and recycling, to lectures, lecture series or auditorium cinemas, to workshops and excursions, there is a whole range of possibilities.
Beyond our own ideas and projects, we are always grateful and open for impulses and inspiration from you students or staff on campus, as well as from external students.
How can you contribute to the Green Office?
In order to make an even more effective impact, we depend on volunteers who are involved in the implementation of projects and contribute their own ideas. This gives you the opportunity to plan and carry out your projects as a project manager. This gives you the opportunity to gain experience in the field of project coordination. As volunteers you will be provided by us with tips and contacts for the project design, financial means for their implementation, as well as with certificates from the management of the TUM CS in case of long-term or frequent engagement.
In plain language: We want you for the GO.
Do you have an idea for a sustainable campus? You lack the means or the know-how to get a project off the ground? Contact us!
You can find the Green Office in the bioinformatics corridor opposite the Mensa.
You can reach us anytime at greenoffice@cs.tum.de and make appointments with us.
In addition to its function as a contact point, the room also serves as a place for meetings, internal and external meetings as well as a think tank for creative ideas on the topic of sustainability and their elaboration.
We look forward to your visit.
Feel Good Go Green
The Green Office
Green Office Summit in Gent, Belgien
“When did you get up today?” – Tim Strasser from rootability thus addressed an interesting aspect of our trip to Ghent. The answer – 04:30 o’clock – gave my colleague Jonathan and me some pitiful looks from the group. In fact, the remaining 114 participants of the fifth international Green Office Summit in Ghent in this room had positioned themselves mostly in the direction of “just arrived” and less close than we to “very early”. “Of course”, some might have thought, “the two of them are coming by train from southern Germany, Belgium is not just around the corner.”
Such thoughts certainly didn’t all happen in German, but probably also in Dutch or French. But the general language of communication at the meeting of 28 European Green Offices and corresponding initiatives was, of course, English.
In front of the door of the “Green Hub”, the rooms of the Summit host Green Office Gent, the food truck of the dinner is parked. The food on our trip would always be vegetarian or vegan in the next few days. After all, you are part of an interest group that represents sustainable values. The participants were able to see for themselves what their concrete implementation looks like at the various universities by presenting example projects this evening.
And what a picture that was.
The Green Office of the TU Eindhoven, for example, recently purchased 4000 recyclable cups, which will be awarded to regional festivals as part of the Sustainability Office. Other GOs try their hand at organising sustainability weeks, with lectures, workshops and daily changing overtopics. “Classical” projects such as a do-it-yourself workshop, such as the one we presented, were of course also to be found.
Jonathan and I quickly became aware once again that many of the other Green Offices simply have a larger dimension for their activities. It was not for nothing that the fact that there are currently around 300 students in Straubing as “fun facts” at another section of the get-to-know-you-round was a good thing – even with the effect that implies.
From our point of view the summit was not about a direct and probably not very constructive comparison between the TUM CS and other universities with tens of thousands of students. Rather, we focused our attention on the working methods of the other GOs and were inspired by their project ideas. There were highly interesting discussions, for example about the possibilities of a paper-free university or the role of gender in the social aspect of sustainability.
The above was discussed further and independently of the regular workshops with titles such as “Flights and Mobility”, “Social Sustainability” or “Circular Economy”. As a rule, the whole event consisted partly of an expert lecture and partly of a discussion round with a participation fee.
So everything “Business as usual” in Ghent? By no means. In addition to the work, we also enjoyed a very varied supporting programme. From a gala dinner in a real castle to an evening of quizzes and games to city tours and a beer tasting with Belgian beer – the offer was great.
After a large portion of Belgian fries (if you are already there) we left Ghent on Sunday 25.11.18 after four days by train. Our colleagues from Kaiserslautern, Landau and Birkenfeld joined us directly.
Ghent – Brussels – Cologne – Frankfurt am Main – Regensburg – Straubing. The journey of our Green Office continues.
News
Vege.Table – selfgrow vegetables
In cooperation with Donaumarkt Gartencenter Gartenplanung GmbH and Firmengruppe Leibl, students at the campus have recently been given the opportunity to discover their inner vegetable gardener.