Having been certified for a third time in a row, the University of Bonn is entitled to call itself Fairtrade University for two more years. “Promoting fair trade is important to us at the University of Bonn. We are delighted that successes achieved and measures still in planning have been officially recognized and have become more visible through this award,” Professor Annette Scheersoi, Vice Rector for Sustainability, emphatically states. 

In the new Sustainability Rankings of ranking provider Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the University of Bonn has emerged as one of the world’s top 100 universities. Climbing 43 slots, the institution now ranks 95th worldwide, showing very good results in many of the ranking categories.

With five action areas, several dozen objectives and measures, and well over 250 people involved in its creation, the new Strategy Paper on Sustainability is set to embed the issue even more firmly across the University of Bonn. Representatives from all status groups put it together in a collaborative process and will continue to adapt it in line with changing requirements going forward.

Trash separation systems with a uniform look, fewer waste bins in lecture halls and offices, better communication—2023 saw the University of Bonn launch a new waste management system. Professor Annette Scheersoi, Vice Rector for Sustainability, takes stock of developments after a year.  

What to do with used clothing and other items? Instead of just throwing them away, try the sustainable alternative of giving them away to others, extending their useful life. And this was precisely the idea behind the campus Night Flea Market.  

On July 8, 2024, the Vice Dean's Office for Sustainability and Scientific Infrastructure in the Medical Dean's Office was elected by the Faculty Council. As Germany's first and so far only Vice Dean's Office in the field of sustainability, this is a major step - both for the university and UKB and also for a more sustainable future.

What effect does a vegan/vegetarian month have on a canteen? For this experiment, the Studierendenwerk Bonn sought scientific support from researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Kassel. They found that the impact could still be felt up to eight weeks after the campaign month had ended: as a result of the vegan/vegetarian month, the amount of meat consumed in the canteen fell by 7 to 12 percent compared to the level recorded beforehand. In addition, around half of the people surveyed agreed with the idea of one meat-free month a year, while over 80 percent said that canteens should offer more vegetarian options. The findings have been published in a working paper prepared by the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn.

During the Mighty May campaign month, 20 keen bee lovers took part in a workshop on designing bug hotels for wild bees and made numerous new nesting sites out of empty jam jars and reeds to put in their own gardens. The informative and fun event was led by Assistant Professor Antonia Mayr, who is researching the effects of climate change and land usage on wild bees at the Bonn Institute for Organismic Biology.