Our Sustainability Strategy
We work together on goals to underpin our direction! You can download our Sustainability Strategy from this page, as well as information on our concept of sustainability, our strategic approaches, and further principles.
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“The University of Hohenheim views itself to be an important player when it comes to the question of how the future of our society can be made more environmentally friendly, just, and productive. Therefore, we are working on contributing to sustainability transformation in research, transfer, teaching, campus operations, and in a vibrant sustainability culture; this is being undertaken systematically and across society. Our Sustainability Strategy provides a solid foundation and guidance for this, containing our sustainability goals we formulated in a university-wide participation process in 2025. We hold in esteem all of those who showed commitment and dedication to joining us on the path to a more sustainable university, city, region, and society.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schneider and Prof. Dr. Caroline Ruiner
President of the University of Hohenheim and Vice President for Digital Transformation and Sustainability (until April 2026)
Our sustainability goals
Our Sustainability Strategy includes a total of 23 overarching goals and numerous sub-goals in our five key areas of action. These are supplemented by a list of measures with over 200 specific example measures and projects, which is constantly being updated and adapted. For example, we intend to further promote biodiversity on the campus; to this end, maintenance and management measures will be further optimized, e.g. by reducing leaf blowing measures in the fall. Measures to achieve a culture of sustainability include increasing accessibility, inclusion, and participation on campus and in everyday life at the university. Equally relevant are the various measures designed to help the university adapt to climate change, reduce resource consumption, and expand sustainable mobility on campus.
For initial information about measures that have already been implemented, as well as the how implementation of our strategy is progressing, visit the Monitoring section; this is currently being constructed and expanded.
Overarching sustainability goals: overview
- We are embedding education for sustainable innovations (BNE) in the first phase of studies.
- We are integrating learning opportunities for sustainability subjects and transformative skills in the degree programs.
- We are supporting lecturers in terms of sustainability through a program of continuing education courses.
- We are supporting sustainability-related teaching through an incentive system (e.g. teaching prize) and increase the visibility of good practice examples.
- We are bolstering the infrastructure for implementing transformative teaching.
To the Department of Academic Affairs field of action
- We are promoting sustainability-oriented, disciplinary, inter- and transdisciplinary research on a structural, conceptional, and methodical basis.
- We are promoting the visibility of sustainability research and sustainable research in Hohenheim.
- We are promoting resource efficiency in laboratories.
To the Research field of action
- We are continuing to implement the Mobility Concept 2030 and expand sustainable and inclusive mobility on the campus and to the campus.
- We are promoting business trips and student trips in an academic setting with lower CO2 footprints; we are also increasing awareness for alternatives to business trips.
- We are promoting the economical, efficient, and, as far as possible, environmentally and socially responsible use of resources.
- We are promoting the transition to renewable energies.
- We are adjusting our operations and infrastructures to reflect climate change.
- We are promoting biodiversity on the campus, as well as in the Hohenheim Garden, and are making university members and visitors aware of the topic.
- We are enabling all university members to act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.
To the Sustainable Campus field of action
- We are embedding sustainability into the entire university’s structures in a binding manner.
- We are further expanding the active participation of university members.
- We are continuing to expand the realization of equality of women in academic careers.
- We are strengthening the fair handling of diversity of employees and students at the university.
- We regularly record the status quo of sustainability and visibly communicate all sustainability activities to the public.
To the Governance & Structure field of action
Get involved! Get active!
All university members are responsible for contributing to implementing the sustainability strategy insofar as they are able to do so. Our Green Teams as well as further structures help us here to tackle measures systematically and to safeguard the conditions for successful implementation.
Would you like to implement a measure from the sustainability strategy or get involved in ongoing projects? The Green Office is your first point of contact! We are looking forward to meeting you!
The Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at the university is also guided by the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).
PRME report from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Our concept of sustainability
Together, we have agreed a concept of sustainability as part of a university-wide discussion process. Based on our joint concept, we have compiled our Sustainability Strategy, strategically integrated such into the university and embedded it structurally (see Green Office). Moreover, we are working in a continuous implementation and participation process (see Get Involved) in prioritizing and implementing the measures. In the process, we are pursuing a whole institution approach (see Monitoring).
Our concept of sustainability
At the University of Hohenheim, sustainability is viewed as being the goal of acting so that satisfying today’s requirements do not curb the opportunities of future generations. Not only retaining the fundamentals of life is important, but also the fair distribution of development opportunities. This task is multi-dimensional – consistent with this, both the ecological as well as the social and economical dimension should be taken into account, together with their interdependencies; furthermore, sustainable development should be reflected across the broad range of their subject matters. This is in keeping with the approach of Sustainable Development Goals as the global reference framework. Particularly in the context of the climate and biodiversity crises, our concept of sustainability takes into account various dimensions of equality and addresses global, social, and intergenerational inequalities.
Contributions to sustainable development in Hohenheim...
...in this context are such transformative projects and processes demonstrated to retaining the fundamentals of life, improve or reduce the consumption of resources, improve life circumstances, as well as to organize the distribution of resources and development opportunities more justly. The measures taken by the university should also contribute to supporting and promoting the culture of sustainability, including taking into account and handling conflicts among goals.
Cooperation instead of competition
The University of Hohenheim is active in a structure of the widest range of stakeholders at local, regional, state, national, and international level. To achieve our sustainability goals, we are placing our faith in participatory processes, networking, and cooperation.
- Diverse groups and networks are represented on the university campus and are active in helping to shape the Sustainability Strategy. Important stakeholders here are initiatives such as the Sustainability working group (AKN), F.R.E.S.H, Hohenheim bewegt e.V., the Ecological Campus working group, or the Ecumenical University Group.
- We are in regular dialog with the Studierendenwerk Tübingen-Hohenheim (Mensa, Cafeteria, halls of residence), the university property (Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg), or the municipality (City of Stuttgart).
- We are members of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschulen (DG HochN) [German Society for Sustainability at Universities]; moreover, the Green Office is active in further sustainability networks, particularly at the state level.
- At international level, the university and its members champion the construction and expansion of resilient networks, fostering long-term and trustful cooperation and enabling us to tackle challenges together. Examples of these are the Euroleague for Life Sciences (ELLS), with which the University of Hohenheim is promoting a European University Initiative focusing on the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems, the European Bioeconomy University (EBU) or the HERMES network. For further information on our International activities, please click here .
