The symposium was organised byProf. Dr. Sonja Haug (OTH Regensburg), doc. Ing. Dita Hommerová, Ph.D., MBA (WBU Pilsen) and Jana Stadlbauer M.A. (OTH Regensburg), who began by thanking the BTHA for its financial support and the INDIGO network for its non-material support. The growing responsibility of educational institutions in the promotion of sustainable development was taken up in the choice of the conference topic and highlighted in a practical way.
Prof Jan Váně, Ph.D., and Mgr Jan Kaňák, Ph.D., from WBU Pilsen, showed how students can be involved in implementing sustainability as a fundamental idea. Prof. Dr Karsten Weber from OTH Regensburg presented an illustrative example of this in the field of autonomous driving based on his teaching in the Department of Computer Science. The subsequent discussion showed that it is important to sensitise students to the relevance of sustainability in their professional field without imposing a certain way of thinking on them. Mgr Zuzana Huňková from the Palacký University of Olomouc referred to a best-practice example of student engagement: a student-run free shop promotes the circular economy by allowing used items to be reused. These and other developments represent elements of the establishment of a sustainability strategy at many universities. Prof. Dr Christoph Skornia, Vice President of OTH Regensburg, presented the special methodology of a double materiality analysis implemented there to generate strategic goals.
Other presentations focussed on the concrete implementation of the set goals, which are often based on the SDGs. It became clear that broad implementation requires the participation of various status groups at the university in order to achieve a high level of acceptance and participation. OTH Amberg-Weiden, represented by Prof Dr Christiane Hellbach and Christoph Brechler, presented an example of best practice. They explained the process of introducing an environmental management system and the university's accreditation in accordance with the ISO 14001:2015 standard. Stefan Schröder from the University of Passau followed up on the associated goals, such as reducing the environmental impact, by presenting measures for sustainable building technology such as heat exchange systems.
During the open discussion, the content of the presentation by doc. Ing. Bc. Mojmír Sabolovič, Ph.D. from the University of Economics in Prague, questions regarding ethics and sustainability in the context of teaching were explored. Prof Dr Skornia had already pointed out the special responsibility in the education of students with regard to knowledge of sustainable development. The BayZen (Bavarian Centre for Higher Education and Sustainability) acts as an important think tank in this regard, whose work was presented by Managing Director Lara Lütke-Spatz. 32 member universities are united there in an interdisciplinary and diverse exchange format, for example to develop change management processes and other guidelines and to pool expertise.
The conference highlighted the endeavours of Bavarian and Czech universities to embed sustainability at both an operational and strategic level. From the development of strategic objectives to concrete teaching content and environmentally friendly infrastructure, the universities show that they are willing to take their responsibility for sustainable development seriously and work together with students, lecturers and society to create an ecologically and socially just future.
