The University of Bonn was honored with a National ESD Award on November 8, 2023.
The accolade, which this year went to 32 recipients in all, is given by the German Commission for UNESCO and the BMBF for outstanding engagement in the field of sustainability education.
“We’re very proud to receive this award, because integrating sustainability into teaching is a key task in our sustainability strategy,” says a delighted Professor Annette Scheersoi, Vice Rector for Sustainability.
ESD refers to any education or training that empowers people to think and act responsibly with an eye on the future. It is intended to enable members of society to understand how their own actions impact the world around them.
The University of Bonn is employing innovative teaching and learning methods to support this kind of education, such as the interdisciplinary project seminars “StadtKlimaWandeln” (“Transforming the urban climate”) and “CampusAckerdemie” (“Campus in the field”), which are tackling topical sustainability issues such as biodiversity loss, food security and the use of resources. “Participatory approaches are the clear focus of our ESD projects,” Scheersoi says. “So we’re really happy that the judges were impressed by that too.”
You can read the full press release here.