Doing your part for sustainability
There are many ways in which students and teaching and support staff at the HWR Berlin can make a contribution to the achievement of greater sustainability. Here are just a few tips to make a difference:
Contents
- Climate-friendly travel: save 700 kg of CO2 by cycling to campus
- Heat less in winter: Save 160 kg of CO2 per year with one degree less
- Wash your hands in cold water to save up to 177 kg of CO2 per year
- Plant trees and offset CO2 with Ecosia to reduce your digital carbon footprint
- Avoid standby: switch off five electrical appliances to save 28.5 kg of CO2 per year
- Reusable instead of disposable: save 7.7 kg of CO2 per year with reusable cups
- Climate-friendly eating: save around 50 per cent CO2 with a vegetarian diet
- Take the stairs instead of a lift: save 5.2 kg of CO2 a year by climbing the stairs
- Tap water instead of mineral water: save 148 kg of CO2 by drinking tap water
- Community gardening: offset 400 grams of CO2 per square metre by creating green space
01
Climate-friendly travel: save 700 kg of CO2 by cycling to campus
You can reduce your carbon footprint by changing the way you travel, even when making short journeys. Travelling from Schlesisches Tor to the Schöneberg Campus by car takes 25 minutes and generates 2.23 kg of carbon dioxide. Making the weekly return journey to the HWR Berlin three times a week for a year produces almost 700 kg of carbon dioxide.
Making the switch to public transport or cycling for climate-friendly travel. Photograph: © querbeet/ iStock/ Getty Images Plus
In contrast, the underground will not only get you to work two minutes faster, but by generating only 0.54 kg of carbon dioxide per journey, reduces your carbon footprint by 75 per cent. Cycling the same distance takes only eight minutes longer, but it is entirely climate-neutral.
02
Use less heating in winter: save 160 kg of CO2 per year by lowering the temperature by one degree
Rising energy prices are causing changes in behavioural patterns. Reducing the temperature of your 70 square metre flat from 21 to 20 degrees will save €40 and 160 kg of carbon dioxide per year.
Turn down the thermostat in winter. Photograph: © Patrick Daxenbichler/ iStock/ Getty Images Plus
Reducing the temperature of your flat by one degree saves an average of six per cent of heating energy.
03
Wash your hands in cold water to save up to 177 kg of CO2 per year
Washing your hands in water heated to around 40 degrees causes the emission of 14 grams of carbon dioxide per wash. If the average person washes their hands ten times a day, this soon adds up to 14.74 kg of carbon dioxide per month, which is easy to avoid.
Clean hands, even with cold water. Photograph: © JAY YUNO PHOTOGRAPHY/Getty Images/E+
Hot water does not make for clean hands: cleanliness depends on how thoroughly you apply soap and how long you rub your hands.
04
Plant trees and offset CO2 with Ecosia to reduce your digital carbon footprint
Using the internet to research your next written assignment or to stream a documentary can cause a considerable carbon footprint. The Lancester study attributes 2.1 to 3.9 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions to the use of information and communication technologies. This is almost the same as all the emissions from global air travel.
Using the Ecosia search engine, you plant trees and offset a lot of carbon dioxide. Photograph: © andreswd/ E+/ Getty Images
The search engine Ecosia dedicates its revenue to planting trees. Over 150,000,000 trees have already been planted at more than 13,000 locations worldwide thanks to the searches made using this sustainable application.
05
Avoid standby: switch off five electrical appliances to save 28.5 kg of CO2 per year
All the electrical appliances kept in standby mode in Germany consume as much electricity per year as the whole of Berlin. Just five appliances in standby generate 28.5 kg of carbon dioxide every year, unless you use green electricity. Transformers continue to consume power even when switched off.
Switch off to protect the climate: using a simple multiple socket extension with an on/off switch reduces your carbon footprint. Photograph: © ollo/iStock/Getty Images Plus
We recommend switching off your computer monitor after just five minutes and your computer after fifteen minutes of not using them. Using a simple multiple socket extension with an on/off switch will enable you to reduce your carbon footprint in a matter of seconds.
06
Reusable instead of disposable: save 7.7 kg of CO2 per year with reusable cups
Around 320,000 hot drinks were consumed in disposable cups every hour in Germany in 2015, making for a total of 2.8 billion disposable cups per year. Of these, 1.66 billion are paper cups, the production of which consumes 17,500 tonnes of paper. This paper is made from 43,000 felled trees that take 80 to 120 years to grow and which are then consumed in 15 minutes.
Making the switch from a disposable to a reusable cup will save around 21 grams of carbon dioxide. Photograph: © Yagi-Studio/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Paper cups not only generate too much waste, but consume a lot of water in their production. One kilogram of paper requires 50 litres of water. This means that our annual thirst for takeaway coffee consumes 875 million litres of water per year. Making the change from paper to permanent saves some 7.7 kg of carbon dioxide every year.
Another way to reduce your carbon footprint: making the switch from a disposable to a reusable cup will save around 21 grams of carbon dioxide. Making the change from paper to permanent can save some 7.7 kg of carbon dioxide every year.
07
Climate-friendly eating: save around 50 per cent CO2 with a vegetarian diet
Hungry students and staff make a beeline for the dining hall or cafeteria at the HWR Berlin. Carbon dioxide is not only generated through the production of ingredients and preparation of food, but also through the construction and operation of kitchen appliances.
Students and staff can do little to influence these factors, but your food choices do make an impact on your carbon footprint, which can be decreased by reducing your meat consumption or by going vegetarian. The table below shows the potential for reducing carbon emissions by deciding to skip meat every once in a while.
Staff: three meals per week in 46 weeks per year => 138 meals per year with 30 days holiday
Students: three meals per week in 37 weeks per year => 111 meals per year with three and a half months of non-teaching period
Exclusively meat-based diet (equal number of meals containing white and red meat)
411,24 CO2e
330,78 CO2e
Mixed diet (equal number of meals containing red meat, white meat and vegetarian meals)
349,14 CO2e
280,83 CO2e
Vegetarian diet
224,94 CO2e
180,93 CO2e
08
Take the stairs instead of a lift: save 5.2 kg of CO2 a year by climbing the stairs
We all know that we should walk 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy. In addition to burning calories, climbing the stairs trains your cardiovascular system and leg and posterior muscles. It also prevents high blood pressure. 400 steps are equivalent to a 15-minute jogging session.
Healthy and environmentally friendly: taking the stairs trains your cardiovascular system and your leg and posterior muscles. It also prevents high blood pressure. Photograph: © hyejin kang/ iStock / Getty Images Plus
Climbing stairs is also good for the climate. A lift taking four people up three floors emits around 10 grams of carbon dioxide per person and journey. This means that you can save 100 grams of carbon dioxide per week just by taking the stairs on five out of seven days.
09
Tap water instead of mineral water: save 148 kg of CO2 by drinking tap water
Making the switch from bottled to tap water not only reduces the amount of shopping that you have to carry home, it will also reduce your carbon footprint and saves you money: bottled water is around 140 times more expensive than tap water.
Making the switch from bottled to tap water saves €507.35 a year. Photograph: © VVargas/ iStock/ Getty Images Plus
Those who drink two litres of water a day will save €507.35 a year and reduce their carbon footprint by 148 grams of carbon dioxide a year by switching from bottled to tap water.
10
Community gardening: offset 400 grams of CO2 per square metre by creating green space
Urban gardening, a growth in popularity of the allotment and the possibility of establishing roof gardens is not just the latest trend amongst young people, but makes a key contribution to the improvement of our living environment. Providing an important habitat for insects, urban gardens are also great places to meet with friends.
There are climate-friendly urban gardening projects on both the Lichtenberg and Schöneberg campuses of the HWR Berlin. Photograph: Oana Popa-Costea
The sustainable impact of flowering meadows and gardens can also be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide reductions, as meadows bind carbon dioxide twice as effectively as farmland. Depending on what is planted, a meadow can bind 400 grams of carbon dioxide per square metre whilst also producing oxygen. The HWR Berlin also maintains a number of gardening projects. Whilst the Student Council looks after the raised beds at House 5 on the Lichtenberg Campus, an ecological flower meadow is currently being created on Kufsteiner Straße on the Schöneberg Campus in cooperation with the neighbouring garden colony “Am Stadtpark I”.
Volunteering with voluntary organizations and NGOs
Are you interested in becoming active in service of the cause of sustainability? A range of private associations and non-governmental organizations are dedicated to advancing the cause of sustainable development, equal rights and greater participation. They always welcome volunteers.
A range of private associations and non-governmental organizations are dedicated to advancing the cause of sustainable development, equal rights and greater participation. They always welcome volunteers. Photograph: © blackred/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Even if the carbon dioxide reductions made through such volunteer work cannot be quantified, you can still make a big difference. Here is a selection:
Questions or suggestions on the topic of sustainability?
Prof. Dr. Silke Bustamante
Vice President
T +49 30 30877-1003
E
vp3@hwr-berlin.de