Green Office Cam­pus Tech­niker­straße

The Green Office at the Engineering site is an office for sustainability run by five students from the MIP, Biology, Architecture and Technical Sciences faculties. The aim of the Green Office is to make a contribution to environmental protection and to anchor the concept of social and ecological sustainability more firmly on campus.

In close co-operation with relevant bodies of the university, solutions and concepts for existing structures are being developed in order to improve them sustainably.

To this end, each faculty has set specific goals that relate to its own specialisation. For example, the MIP aims to reduce electricity consumption on campus and give electronic waste a second life. The Faculty of Biology wants to promote regional and sustainable food choices on campus and the Faculty of Architecture wants to reduce waste/material consumption. The technical sciences are working on future-orientated measures to reduce drinking water consumption.

Overall, there is still an internal division of the goals, namely 50% of the time should go into infrastructure projects, 40% into sustainable teaching and 10% for the community, i.e. social sustainability.

The most important information in brief

WHO makes up the Green Office?
The Green Office is made up of five students from the Faculties of Biology, MIP, Architecture and Technical Sciences at the Engineering Campus.

WHERE is the Green Office located?
In the ICT building in room N106 (ground floor)

WHAT is the Green Office movement?
The student initiative was launched with the first Green Office in Maastricht in 2010 and thus has its origins in the Netherlands. The idea behind it is to provide information, networking and support from students for students in order to promote joint and sustainable action.

HOW can you contact the team at the Technik-Campus?
Either by email to go-technik@uibk.ac.at or in person at the office.

WHAT are the contents/topics that are dealt with?
A lot of work is done on structural measures to improve the building infrastructure, for example to save electricity or reduce drinking water consumption. But projects to promote social sustainability and raise awareness are also part of the tasks.

Ongoing projects

The Green Office at Campus Technik is currently involved in several exciting projects to promote sustainability and environmental friendliness on campus. One of these projects is the design of the university garden as part of INGE-Initiative. Work is underway here to create a meeting place where students from different degree programmes, as well as university staff, can come together and design the garden together.

Another Green Office project is the installation of thermostatic valves in the Viktor Franz Hess building. This structural measure enables the heating to be used more efficiently, as the valves automatically regulate the temperatures in the rooms. It also reduces CO2 emissions and at the same time uses less energy to heat the building. Overall, the installation therefore contributes to more sustainable building management.

The Green Office is also actively involved in the redesign of the canteen at the Campus Technik with the aim of making the canteen an ecologically sustainable place. It is working on a good selection of healthy, environmentally friendly and, above all, regional meals and, through cooperation with the university administration and the catering service, is investigating ways of reducing food waste and using regional and seasonal products.

The Green Office is also focussing on developing a concept for saving drinking water at the Campus Technik. By installing water-saving taps, raising awareness of economical water consumption and promoting measures such as collecting and reusing rainwater, the aim is to reduce water costs and utilise resources sustainably.

Furthermore, the Green Office is also involved in reviewing the volume of waste in the Faculty of Architecture. When recycling the various model buildings that are created in the courses during the degree programme, waste separation is to be improved and made more sustainable. This is intended to raise awareness of the importance of waste reduction and recycling and to provide additional support through corresponding awareness-raising campaigns.

The Green Office is also working on a concept to establish a reusable cup system. By introducing reusable cups in the campus cafeterias and cafés, the aim is to reduce the consumption of disposable cups. The Green Office is working closely with the operators of the facilities to develop an efficient and practical system that makes it easier for students and staff to use reusable cups.

The team