The university's BUP team recruits two new members for the international university network.
On the afternoon of September 3, 2018, Prof. Bernd Delakowitz, Markus Will and Anke Zenker-Hoffmann set off on a road trip for the Baltic University Program (BUP), of which we as a university have been an active member since 2003.
The destination was the University of Rostock on 4 September and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development on 5 September, after which the summer course organized jointly with HAW Hamburg was held.
The aim of the visit to Rostock and Eberswalde was to introduce the BUP to these institutions, promote membership and discuss common interests and upcoming activities. In his role as German Center Director of the BUP, Prof. Delakowitz has long been pursuing the idea of finding further German partners in order to strengthen the network, expand offers for students and lecturers and take up new topics.
The BUP's focus on the topics of sustainable development and democracy with various offers for students (courses, conferences, summer schools, sailing trips, etc.) and for lecturers (training courses and conferences) met with great interest from our discussion partners in Rostock: the Rector of the University of Rostock, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schareck, the Vice-Rectors Prof. Dr. Patrick Kaeding and apl. Prof. Dr. Meike Klettke as well as Mr. Paulus, Head of the International Office and around 15 other participants from all faculties and institutions. Possible joint activities, for example the development of joint English-language modules, were discussed and ideas developed. The day at the University of Rostock ended very successfully with Prof. Schareck's promise to sign the contract as a partner university in the BUP in the next few days.
Our road trip continued south again, to Eberswalde. There, too, we had a meeting at the Rectorate of the University for Sustainable Development (HNEE). Together with the President Prof. Dr. Wilhelm-Günther Vahrson, his advisor Juliane Pöschke, the Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer Prof. Dr. Alexander Pfriem, the Head of Student Services Vera Clauder and her colleague Manuela as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Environment Prof. Dr. Peter Spathelf, we discussed commonalities and opportunities for cooperation in the BUP network and specified the membership modalities for HNEE. In particular, the thematic focus on the HNEE's guiding principle of sustainable development and the content of the BUP shows synergies for future cooperation. Almost incidentally, a declaration was signed by Prof. Vahrson at this meeting, which seals the cooperation between HNEE and HSZG in the further development of the modular system for the sustainable campus (BNC) as a new consortium partner.
The next stop was Hamburg. This year's summer course began there with an upcycling workshop and a presentation by Cradle to Cradle e.V.. For the 15th time, this event was jointly organized by Prof. Dr. mult. Walter Leal and Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Bernd Delakowitz and the organizing teams from Hamburg and Zittau. 35 participants from various countries discussed the theory and practice of the circular economy. In addition to the interesting lectures, the program also included group work on the development of circular economy business models and an excursion to the company Stilbruch (www.stilbruch.de), a subsidiary of Stadtreinigung Hamburg. Used products, especially furniture and household appliances, are refurbished and sold in the various stores. The tour concluded with a joint climate cooking session in the Kultur Energie Bunker (http://kulturenergiebunker.blogspot.com/). The "Climate Kitchen for Altona" project builds on many years of activities in the community garden and good contacts with regional food producers.
