The Green Office Initiative is formed by students with the aim of establishing a sustainability office within the structure of the University of Cologne according to the Green Office model.

The initiative promotes the anchoring of sustainability in university operations and its establishment in teaching and research. It also supports communication between the university community and the city. In addition, all existing efforts to promote sustainability on the part of students and the university can be made transparent.

The sustainability office is supported by student assistants and university staff who initiate new projects and support existing ones together with student volunteers and academic staff.    

This ensures that the work is continuous. Existing student initiatives are supported and can network with each other. The Green Office is also intended to provide a contact platform for sustainability inquiries from students, faculty, and staff.

The student initiative meets every third Wednesday of the month and is always looking for motivated students who would like to advocate more sustainability at the University of Cologne.
If you are interested, feel free to email green-officeuni-koeln.de or contact us through our Instagram account.
 

Existing projects of the Green Office Initiative

Participation in the Sustainability Working Group of the University of Cologne

In October 2020, the request for a sustainability office (‘Green Office’) was presented to the Senate and Rectorate. Based on this request and the demands of ‘Students for Future’ already made in 2019, a working group was established. The aim of the working group is to develop a coherent overall concept based on an inventory. The main question is how the cross-cutting issue of sustainability can be established at the University of Cologne. The working group consists of academic and administrative staff members as well as representatives of the student initiatives ‘Green Office’ and ‘Students for Future’.

Further nformationen
 

NEiS - Nachhaltige Ernährung im Studierendenalltag (Sustainable nutrition in daily student life)

NEiS is a project of the Verbraucherzentrale NRW (consumer association of North-Rhine-Westphalia), which was launched in 2021 in cooperation with universities from North-Rhine-Westphalia. The aim of the project is to inform and motivate students at three university locations (in Bonn and Cologne) to contribute to sustainable, low-waste food consumption and shopping behaviour. In doing so, NEiS targets two core areas: structure as well as information and education. The structural dimension includes, for example, support and advice for existing initiatives and actors. The education dimension includes projects such as lectures and entertaining and informative formats such as cooking classes.

Through motivating and training staff members and students, projects and strategies aiming at sustainable and low-waste food consumption shall be created. For the implementation of this project in Cologne, a NEiS working group has been formed consisting of the Verbrauchzentrale, the Green Office Initiative of the University of Technology, Arts, and Sciences Cologne (Technische Hochschule Köln), the Green Office Initiative of the German Sport University Cologne (Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln), and the Green Office Initiative of the University of Cologne.

The entire project is accompanied by a close exchange with Kölner Studierendenwerk (Cologne Student Services), especially the area of gastronomy at the University, and will last three years. We are happy to provide information about upcoming projects. If you are interested, you are always welcome. You can reach us on the social media channels of the Green Office initiatives of Technische Hochschule Köln, Sporthochschule Köln, and the UoC, as well as via this mail address: green-office@uni-koeln.de.