Sustainability Office of the Humboldt University

Bachelors and Masters

The Sustainability Office (Nachhaltigkeitsbüro) is a student-led initiative which aims to promote an institutionalised commitment to sustainability at the HU. The growing initiative collaborates with other sustainability programs at the university, coordinates projects for resource conservation, produces research and creates seminars and lectures in the area of sustainable development. It also plays an active role in the Commission for a Sustainable University (KNU)—the new climate strategy for the HU—and is in constant dialogue with the presidium to further promote an institutional commitment to sustainability. Since it was founded in 2014, the Sustainability Office has been hosted by IRI THESys at the institute’s office location in Berlin-Mitte and continues to work together on diverse projects and events.

One of the core activities of the Sustainability Office is the Studium Oecologicum—a 10 credit course program within the interdisciplinary elective area of the HU. The Studium Oecologicum was first created as a lecture series by a group of Humboldt-Scholarship ‘Sustainability and Global Justice’ students in 2014 and was developed into a study programme about sustainability in the following year. THESys Members give lectures within the course curriculum on topics related to climate change, transformation research, human-environment systems etc.

In addition, IRI THESys and the Studium Oecologicum have held joint outreach events, including several THESys Public Lectures and the annual THESys Award. Recordings of these events can be heard on the podcast series from the Sustainability Office ‘NachHall’.