In the first phase, the HochN network universities dedicated themselves to anchoring processes for the development, implementation and establishment of sustainability at German universities. The project was intended to combine practical and scientific requirements and pursues the overarching goal of pooling, processing and further expanding expert knowledge and process skills on the topic in order to promote sustainable development at universities. In a project tandem, the partners are working on the areas of reporting, governance, teaching, research, operations (HSZG and TUD) and transfer.

The result of this project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), are six application-related guidelines (beta versions) that have been available on the homepage of HochN since October 2018.

The guidelines are intended to be a low-threshold entry option for promoting and reporting on sustainability at universities. The good practice examples and case studies collected in the network serve both as documentation of sustainability activities in the network and as suggestions for universities that would like to (further) strengthen sustainability-related action in their structures.

In the continuation phase of HochN (11/2018-10/2020), the guidelines will be tested, sustainability measures will be promoted in the universities themselves, further practical examples will be collected and then brought together to produce an overall result that takes into account the cross-sectional areas and interfaces. 

For further information, please contact the project team at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.