Sustainability Concept

An introduction to sustainability concepts for more sustainability in research institutes by Marco Wietzoreck from MPI-C in Mainz.

Workshop Host:

Marco Wietzoreck MPI for Chemistry, Mainz

What is the benefit? By writing down and by broad support of the sustainability concept by the employees, implementation is promoted more effectively than through individual verbal agreements.

What is needed? The basis for this support is a well-founded presentation of the current situation at the institute and a realistic assessment of the savings potential as well as the effort and feasibility with concrete recommendations for action.

History at the MPI for Chemistry: At our institute, the works council founded a new working group "Climate and environmental action" at the end of 2018 and asked employees for ideas for more sustainability at the institute. As a result, a sustainability concept was created, which was then presented to the directorate of the institute. It was made available to employees in April 2019 and then officially presented to employees at a works meeting in June 2019 and questions / comments were answered. Since then, some of the plans have been implemented step by step. Through the cooperation of the works council with employees, the sustainability group and also the board of directors, a common concept was found that is supported by all parts of the institute.

Content of the sustainability concept: The sustainability concept describes in detail ideas and measures for more sustainability at the institute, such as

Improved sustainability at institute events
Conversion to green electricity
Constructional measures to reduce energy losses
Energy saving through behavior change
Use of recycled paper & paper savings

The individual subject areas are then divided into

Brief summary of the current situation at the institute.
Description of the proposed measure with discussion of the advantages and disadvantages.
Overview of the potential of the measure.
Estimated effort associated with the measure.
Propose how to implement the measure

At the end of the concept, the measures are divided into 3 categories:

Category 1: Very important measures
Category 2: Recommended measures
Category 3: Measures not recommended