Since the 1990s, TU Dresden has established various initiatives and processes to implement environmental sustainability goals. There are environmental guidelines, and the uni has had an EMAS-certified environmental management system since 2003. The Green Office and an ecological sustainability team was established in 2021. So why does TU Dresden need a Sustainability Strategy?

It's true that sustainability efforts at TUD have long been driven by a high level of commitment from many members of our university. I would like to emphasize the importance of our students here, who founded the TU Environmental Initiative – tuuwi for short – back in 1989 and thus played a major role in promoting environmental protection issues. There are also many projects in the faculties that teach or research sustainability, be it in energy supply or sustainable construction, in materials science or microelectronics, in disruption research or in the education sciences. Then there are the new patrons for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and sustainability ambassadors. With the Sustainability Strategy, we now want to bring together the many fantastic and effective ideas we have at TUD.

What exactly does TU Dresden mean by a Sustainability Strategy? What are its goals and how does it contribute to sustainability at TUD?

The Sustainability Strategy provides a systematic framework as well as guidance for implementing change. We focus on six areas of activity, such as campus and operations or teaching and research, to determine where we as a university can make a meaningful contribution to addressing current challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity. These strains on the environment result in high costs and endanger the livelihoods of future generations. On the one hand, as a large university community, we have an obligation to take responsibility, both as an institutional body and as individuals. On the other hand, as a University of Excellence, we are in demand for our expertise: Through our research, we work on innovative solutions; through our teaching, we sensitize tomorrow's teachers to issues of sustainable development.

In concrete terms, what can TUD do to become more sustainable?

We have set ourselves specific targets in each of the strategy’s areas of activity. For example, in the area of campus and operations, we have set ourselves the following goals: We want to significantly reduce our use of resources, and we want to be greenhouse gas-neutral by 2035. As a large educational and research institution with many buildings and a lot of space, this is a real challenge. But we are ready to rise to it. And how will we do this? We are working with the City of Dresden and our Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences to develop a mobility concept for a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly campus. In this way, we can reduce emissions and improve the campus environment because we will be able to create more green spaces. We are already focussing on Scope 1 and 2 emissions as per the Green House Gas Protocol in our greenhouse gas balance. We want to expand this assessment to include indirect greenhouse gas emissions according to Scope 3, then identify possible pathways to reduction for TUD. We are switching to LED lighting for indoor and outdoor areas and are looking into installing additional photovoltaic systems on the roofs of our buildings. We have developed a total of 13 goals, which we have supported with a working plan comprising 80 measures.

TU Dresden stands for excellence in research. Can sustainability succeed here – without compromising on quality?

I am convinced it can. Our sustainability strategy is not about restricting our members in what they do, because the freedom of research and teaching will be preserved in any case. Rather, we want to inspire them and raise their awareness. Over the past few years, we have faced a multitude of challenges – the pandemic, energy crisis, global conflicts. None of them have affected the quality of our research to such an extent that I would now have to worry about sustainable research putting our excellent standards at TUD to the test.

Some areas of research, such as high-performance computing, AI or robotics, are very energy-intensive. What can TUD do about this?

In this area, we are also actively doing something to improve resource efficiency: In future, we want to use the surplus heat from the computing center and feed it into the district heating network. To this end, we signed contracts last year with Staatsbetrieb Sächsisches Immobilien- und Baumanagement (SIB), which manages public buildings, and with SachsenEnergie. With regard to high-performance computing in particular, I would like to point out an aspect that I consider essential in sustainability efforts: Our computing center also operates services for other universities in Saxony and beyond, who in turn do not have to provide these energy-intensive services at their locations. For me, this networking, cooperation and the resulting resource-saving synergies are important levers for tackling the issues of sustainable development together. And there’s another aspect that’s important to me here: Sustainable management does not mean choosing the cheapest offer, but rather the one that is viable over a longer period of time. If we invest in technological innovations today, within an appropriate framework and with the help of natural resources, this will help us to live and research sustainably tomorrow, even in currently energy-intensive fields.

Research is international and thrives on dialog, in more ways than just online. What about business trips or organizing conferences on site, for example?

That’s an important point, and something we also thought about when developing the Sustainability Strategy. Even if digitalization has temporarily reduced the amount of traveling our researchers have to do, virtual spaces have not completely replaced face-to-face meetings, which includes developing new projects together over coffee. We already provide support for the sustainable organization and holding of events and conferences. Our guidelines and checklists contain information on arrival and departure, the procurement of materials, energy, lighting and media technology, waste avoidance, and catering. We will also provide advice and support services for the sustainable and resource-efficient design of research activities in the future. We are also looking into establishing a sustainability fund to compensate for unavoidable flights for business travel, which can then be used to support other sustainability projects at our university.

Creative ideas and personal initiative are always required for implementing our strategy's sustainable development goals – and we want to promote these with our strategy.