Are you planning to travel by plane any time soon?
Have you bought chocolate without a Fairtrade seal again?
How often do you take the car even though public transport could get you to your destination just as easily?
If you feel caught out now: Don’t worry, you are not alone. Living a sustainable lifestyle is hard for most people, especially in a highly industrialised country such as Germany. In our “Focus Topic”, we therefore not only want to highlight problems, but also present solutions. What can we do as individuals and how can we take action as a society?
As always, we explore this topic primarily from the viewpoint of universities of applied sciences (UAS): How are they approaching sustainability and what aspects are they researching? The detailed portrait of the KlinKe project and the video interview with the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) provide an in-depth insight into different facets. For further reading, we have compiled a list of other UAS projects dealing with sustainability topics at the bottom of this page.
However, we would also like to talk about the term sustainability in general. In our overview text, you will find information on its origins and the various aspects that the term encompasses and that are set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Find out more about sustainability in politics, society, and everyday life as well as current research on the subject at UAS:
More projects on this topic
TecZePro: Sustainable innovation - “Paper” as a material for injection-moulded components
Plastics are increasingly being criticised because they pollute living spaces and thus place a heavy burden on people and the environment. Consumers are therefore increasingly demanding products made from sustainable or plastic-free materials. The TecZePro project aims to produce paper components using injection moulding. Current processes for moulding paper into three-dimensional components only achieve low stability or offer too little design freedom, so that the areas of application for paper-based components are limited. Injection moulding technology, on the other hand, enables an economical process for producing high-quality and complex components. Combined with the development of a new type of material made from paper, water and additives, this processing technology will extend the range of applications for paper and thus meet current demands for sustainable alternatives.
Project title: Spritzgießen von Zellulosefasern - Entwicklung des Herstellungsprozesses für Anwendungsbereiche von Papier für werkzeugfallende technische Bauteile (TecZePro)
Funding recipient: Technische Hochschule Rosenheim
Project reference number: 13FH519KX1
Project duration: October 2023 to September 2026
Funding: FH-Kooperativ
Find out more: Information about the project on the website of Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences
LaNDER3_2_IP6: From green waste to compostable tableware
The LaNDER3_2_IP6 project from the LaNDER3 partnership takes a similar approach to avoiding plastic. This project aims to develop fully biodegradable everyday goods and disposable products from residual biomass such as green waste, chaff, straw, or banana trunks. The work focuses on the processing and conditioning of natural fibres from residual biomass and on the production of natural fibre-based materials that can be used for industrial shaping processes such as compression moulding. One of the aims is to establish a new technology platform for the production of biodegradable everyday goods and disposable products.
The LaNDER³ partnership develops manufacturing processes for products based on natural fibres, factoring in all aspects of sustainability along the production and value chains. It is a network of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and regional companies. With its focus on natural fibre-based materials, it contributes to the sustainable and economical use of renewable raw materials.
Project title: Technologie naturfaserbasierter, biodegradierbarer Alltags- und Einwegprodukte (LaNDER3_2_IP6)
Funding recipient: Hochschule Zittau / Görlitz
Project reference number: 13FH2I06IA
Project duration: May 2021 to April 2024
Funding: FH-Impuls
BIODIV-SOLAR: Sustainable land use and biodiversity promotion in solar parks
Renewable forms of energy such as solar or wind power have one disadvantage: they fluctuate greatly and only supply electricity when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. With so-called power-to-X technologies, temporary surpluses of electricity are converted into another form of energy: In power-to-gas plants, for example, energy is stored in the form of gas and can thus be used flexibly. The method is therefore the technology of the future for the energy transition. The goal of the BioCO2nvert project was to first convert electricity from wind and solar energy into hydrogen and then convert this into methane using carbon dioxide. This gas can be stored with existing infrastructure. Carbon dioxide is produced in many combustion processes in industry, but also in alcoholic fermentation – for example in the production of bioethanol. One of the partners in the project was therefore Südzucker AG, which operates large bioethanol plants. Recycling the carbon dioxide improves the climate balance of production.
In the interdisciplinary research project BIODIV-SOLAR, Anhalt University is setting up six biodiversity solar parks and an agrivoltaic plant in three federal states. The project aims to research innovative concepts for increasing biodiversity through insect-promoting wild plant structures and the integration of agriculture and biodiversity in photovoltaic plants. In addition, the project team develops a web-based planning aid for an economic and environmentally friendly design of ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. Agriculture will be explicitly integrated into new value creation models. One of the objectives of the project is to reduce fossil fuels and the proportion of land used for energy crop cultivation, as the latter requires a high use of fertilisers and pesticides. It is to be replaced by more efficient and ecological solar parks so that no additional land is required in agriculture despite the increasing demand for renewable energies.
Project title: Biodiversität im Solarpark - Innovative Konzepte und Aufbau von Demonstratoren zur besseren Vereinbarkeit von Photovoltaik-Freiflächenanlagen, Naturschutz und Landwirtschaft (BIODIV-SOLAR)
Funding recipient: Hochschule Anhalt
Project reference number: 13FH133KX0
Project duration: September 2021 to April 2025
Funding: FH-Kooperativ
Find out more: Information about the project on the project website
GreenProtAct: Cleaner detergents via AI
Many detergents contain enzymes that enable high washing performance at low temperatures and thus help to make detergents more environmentally friendly. The GreenProtAct project aims to investigate whether the performance of such enzymes can be further increased by interacting with novel environmentally friendly additives. The aim of the project is to create a prediction model to describe enzyme activation. The research approach combines AI-based formulation and data analysis to identify activity-enhancing additives with modern methods of biophysical chemistry and surface analytics that can be used to elucidate the enzyme activation mechanism at the interface. As enzymes are an important component for developing environmentally friendly detergents, this research approach particularly investigates biodegradable additives to come closer to the overall goal of environmentally neutral detergents.
Project title: Hyperaktivierung von Proteinen durch intelligente chemische Formulierung für umweltschonende Waschmittel (GreenProtAct)
Funding recipient: Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences
Project reference number: 13FH027KX1
Project duration: February 2023 to January 2026
Funding: FH-Kooperativ
Find out more: Information about the project on the HS Niederrhein website
SciSusMob & SciSusMob_2: Sustainable and smart micro mobility in metroplitan areas - living lab Ruhr
The SciSusMob and SciSusMob_2 projects are dedicated to the transformation of the transport sector and are therefore researching the use of so-called Light Electric Vehicles (LEV), which include e-scooters, pedelecs, cargo bikes and e-mopeds. The initial SciSusMob project developed ideas on how sharing and logistics services with LEVs can improve the sustainability of the urban mobility system – such as a platform that intelligently links these services with the energy supply infrastructure to create a holistic system solution. The follow-up project SciSusMob_2 focuses on testing and validating the platform in a living lab.
The FH Dortmund, Bochum University of Applied Sciences, and the Westphalian University of Applied in Gelsenkirchen have joined forces in the ruhrvalley partnership to research resource-saving approaches to energy and heat supply as well as sustainable mobility concepts. Together with young, medium-sized companies in the region, the universities are working on holistic ideas to develop the Ruhr area into a leading centre of technology and innovation.
Project title: Smart City Sustainable Mobility (SciSusMob | SciSusMob_2)
Funding recipient: Hochschule Bochum | Westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen
Project reference number: 13FH0I73IA | 13FH0I03IA
Project duration: April 2021 to April 2022 | July 2022 to June 2024
Funding: FH-Impuls
Find out more: Information about the project on the UAS_BO website | ruhrvalley
HIKE: Start-ups for sustainable development
With its “University Incubator for Entrepreneurship” (HIKE), Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences has set up a start-up programme for the targeted and structured promotion of start-ups from the student body. The programme aims to develop start-up ideas to a high level of maturity. The university is focussing on topics such as sustainability and the Internet of Things (IoT) and thus on its main areas of study and research. The project also aims to develop a (supra-)regional network. Since its foundation in 2020, 17 start-up teams have already got off the ground – for instance with kick-start projects on the design of reusable plant pots in hydroponic systems, changing social welfare, or improving the planning of group trips.
Project title: Hochschulinkubator für Entrepreneurship (HIKE_NDH)
Funding recipient: Hochschule Nordhausen
Project reference number: 13FH005SU8
Project duration: June 2020 to May 2025
Funding: StartUpLab@FH
Find out more: Information about the project on the website of Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences