• The Senate of the University of Cologne already established the Sustainability Working Group in October 2020.
• The university was recognized as a "Fairtrade University" in May 2018 and recertified in July 2022.
• There has been a bike station at the university since 2022 with 1,000 bike parking spaces below Albertus Magnus Platz, where you can also charge e-bikes.

        Portal Sustainability of the University of Cologne: Further Information

Since July 01, 2022, the university systematically records whether newly acquired third-party funding projects deal with one of the 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the future, all third-party funding announcements must indicate whether a third-party project focuses on at least one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. If yes, it is requested to indicate the (up to three) most important goals. Source: https://portal.uni-koeln.de/universitaet/universitaet-auf-einen-blick/nachhaltigkeit/aktuell.

The Youtube channel of Science-Lab Cologne provides many contributions on sustainability topics: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceLabCologne/videos

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: In 2015, the United Nations adopted the "2030 Agenda", committing to 17 global goals for a decent life and the conservation of natural resources. Politics, business, science, civil society and each individual should be jointly responsible for the implementation of these goals: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/nachhaltigkeitspolitik/nachhaltigkeitsziele-verstaendlich-erklaert-232174.   

"My Green Lab" initiative: My Green Lab aims to make a fundamental and lasting contribution to greater sustainability in scientific research worldwide. My Green Lab was founded as a non-profit organization to implement the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility in research. This initiative includes the certification of scientific laboratories. The program provides concrete opportunities for scientists and their research groups to make a meaningful change. To date, My Green Lab has supported more than 1000 laboratories in a variety of settings. My Green Lab certification saves money and conserves resources while ensuring a safe, healthy, and pleasant environment to support our scientific work. If your working group would like to apply for My Green Lab certification, click on the link below: https://www.mygreenlab.org/green-lab-certification.html.

• that scientists in the U.S. found that rain floods protected national parks with 1,000 tons of microplastics each year – the equivalent of more than 120 million plastic bottles. Microplastic pollution has reached every part of the globe, from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. It is already known that people ingest and inhale the tiny particles through food and water. Recent studies show that microplastic pollution can even be found in human placenta!
• that fifty years ago this month, meteorologist John Sawyer published a brief but prescient article in Nature. In it, he summarized what was known about the role of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse effect and made one of the first predictions about future global warming: that temperatures would rise by 0.6°C by the end of the twentieth century.
• that 30% of biodiversity loss is related to global trade. This came out of an analysis that linked 25,000 threatened species to 5 billion supply chains and consumption of goods such as coffee, tea, sugar, textiles, and fish (Lenzen, M. et al. Nature 486, 109-112, 2012).
• that rapid urbanization threatens biodiversity in 93% of the top 200 ecoregions to be conserved (Li, G. et al. Nature Commun. 13, 1628, 2022).
• that in many soccer stadiums lawn is heated! When a lawn heating system is in operation, it is assumed that the average electricity consumption is about 4000 kWh per day. For large stadiums, this is around 500,000 kWh per year for 120 to 140 days of use. For comparison: a 2-person household consumes on average between 2500 and 3200 kWh throughout the year!

• Capstick, S., et al. Civil disobedience by scientists helps press for urgent climate action. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01461-y
• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01601-5
• www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151223221353.htm
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484718302634
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2019.00146/full
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-00772-y  
• https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/224725/Klimaschutz-im-Krankenhaus-(I)-Kliniken-reduzieren-Emissionen
• https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/224702/Klimaschutz-im-Krankenhaus-(II)-Klimaneutralitaet-ist-erreichbar
• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/global-treaty-to-regulate-plastic-pollution-gains-momentum
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/22/microplastics-revealed-in-placentas-unborn-babies