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Sustainable University Rostock
The Agenda 21
The activity programme for the 21st century was decided in 1992 on the conference of the United Nations of Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. More than 70 states, Germany among them, signed a document that refers to all significant fields of policy for an environmentally compatible, sustainable development. Here, the fields ecology, economy and social safety shape the inseparable core unit of the mission statement for a sustainable development.
The University of Rostock’s role
Universities are asked to develop concrete solutions for global challenges of research and education. One contribution to this shall be provided by the COPERNICUS-Charta of the European Rector’s Conference of 1994 („COPERNICUS – The University Charter for Sustainable Development“ / Cooperation Programme in Europe for Research on Nature and Industry through Coordinated University Studies). This project, founded in 1988, aims to move the environmental questions more into the public conscious, inside and outside universities, and to practice environmental education. Together with currently about 300 other European universities, the University of Rostock signed the University Charta of sustainable development and committed to implement the sustainability concept at their own university.
Boards inside the university
Working group Agenda 21 and coordination point
In the beginning of 1999, a coordination point for Agenda 21 was founded under the chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Riedel (by then, deputy rector of research) to implement the following targets:
- Coordination of existing Agenda 21-activities at the University of Rostock and interlinking with related activities in Rostock city and region
- Support of the regions sustainable development via knowledge and technology transfer
- Support of and contribution to additional partnerships with urban and regional institutions
- Development of concept approaches and implementation of the mission statement on sustainable development in education, research, further education and use of resources
A working team “Agenda 21”, was established in the end of 1999 to develop sustainable strategies for the abovementioned fields. It comprises of university teachers, administration staff members and scientific staff members. Students are also invited to contribute.
The work of the coordination point has both, internal (implementation of sustainable development inside the University of Rostock) and external effects (effects of university potentials on the region) .
From 2002 on, the coordination point was affiliated to the Science Association Um-Welt (WVU) where a close cooperation takes place.
These activities include among others:
- Registration of existing Agenda 21-activities at the University of Rostock and interlink with related activities in city and region
- Organisation and implementation of exhibitions on the topics Sustainability and Agenda 21 with regional partners – annual sustainability exhibition
- Organisation and implementation of conferences or symposia – conference series „The University of Rostock as active partner of municipalities and regions for a sustainable development“.
- „The regional sustainability exhibition of StAUN Rostock and the University of Rostock and the Opening symposium“ is an official project of the UN-world decade 2009/2010 Education for sustainable development (BNE).
- Conferences and working group meetings of the AG Agenda 21 aiming to analyse positive and negative developments at the University of Rostock
- Contribution to urban and regional working teams to the Local Agenda 21
- Public relations on the topic Agenda 21 at the University of Rostock
Other boards
In addition to the AG Agenda 21 and the coordination point, there are other institutions at the university working on the topic sustainability: the General Student Committee, AStA (environmental and social department), the university group of Germany’s Green Party and, inside the university administration, the department 3 (Technology, Construction and Real Estates) and department 4 (Human Resources and Human Resource Development) and the working group for social problems in the job (ASPA).
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