Die Fachhochschule Südwestfalen hat im Mai 2025 eine englischsprachige internationale Nachhaltigkeitswoche mit europäischen Partnern angeboten. Hier ist die Rückschau mit den Ergebnissen.
It’s the attitude - Sustainable action needs interdisciplinary enthusiasm and inner development
More than 110 participants from Canada, Finland, Poland, France, Belgium, Lithuania and other countries at South Westphalia campus Soest in May 2025
The implementation of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is progressing too slowly. Katharina Moser kicked off the first South Westphalia International Sustainability Week by showing how far away we still are from the 2030 targets. Almost a third of all children under the age of five worldwide are undernourished. CO2 emissions continue to rise, the earth is getting warmer and warmer and 80 percent of the global energy supply is still based on fossil fuels. “We all know these facts, but we are doing nothing about it,” Moser states. The dramatic effects on the environment, human and animal health as well as social coexistence are clearly noticeable to all of us.
Moser is a board member of the “
Inner Development Goals”, a non-profit initiative that focuses on the dissemination of science-based individual skills necessary for social change.
Over the course of the week, the students then learned to understand sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective and implement their inner development goal in five disciplinary Tracks. The week was supported by the European Erasmus+ program as Blended Intensive Programmes and included virtual meetings.
Here is our South Westphalia International Sustainability Week
Instagram Reel.
Thank you to all our enthusiastic participants from our partner universities and to our committed teaching staff who made it all happen! In these frightening times, we all carry the hope for sustainable futures into our everyday lives. Take good care of yourself and together let’s take care of the world.
We appreciate our visitors from UniLaSalle, France; University of Jyväskylä, Finland; Vilnius Tech, Lithuania; Lodz University of Technology, Poland; Laurentian University, Canada; Tec de Monterrey, Mexico; Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey; WSB University, Poland; UC Leuven-Limburg, Belgium; École supérieure d’agricultures d’Angers (ESA), France; AERES UAS, the Netherlands; University of Ljubljana, Slowenia; TU Rzeszow, Poland; FH BFI Vienna, Austria
Video
externer Inhalt (Youtube)
Review of the South Westphalia International Sustainability Week
Impressions
Katharina Moser kicked off the first South Westphalia International Sustainability Week by showing how far away we still are from the 2030 targets
Moser's presentation was well received by more than 110 participants from Canada, Finland, Poland, France, Belgium, Lithuania and other countries
Over the course of the week, the students then learned to understand sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective and implement their inner development goal in five disciplinary Tracks.
Track #1 - Agriculture (FB Agrarwirtschaft) was about sustainability in agricultural land use and food systems.
Track #3: exploring climate change in early childhood
Claudia Henrichwark with Otto Virrkula and Tiia Papilla from University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Track #3 analyzed how sustainability topics could be addressed in Early Childhood Education Centers by focusing on values and non-frightening settings, such as Lego Serious Play, Stop Motion short films, a children’s picture book, and a field trip to the forest kindergarten Möhnesee.
Track #4: engineering – applied smart building systems
Harald Mundinger and Heiko Ziefuß with Aurore Bordet from UniLaSalle, France
Students of Track #4 developed efficient building solutions by practicing “nudgin” in social and technical settings: a) “cut the power – save by the hour” for middle-class households; b) “the game to save energy” targets residents of apartment buildings, aiming to transform energy usage behavior through digital engagement; c) “smart students – smart cities”: aims to create awareness for efficient energy use in primary and secondary schools.
Track #5: engineering – hydrogen as a clean energy carrier
Mark Schülke und Alexander Schaaf with Sinan Kandemir, Izmir Institute of Technology
Participants of Track # 5 experimented with hydron as a clean energy source by highlighting the stages of its production from generating hydrogen energy in solar cells and wind turbines, to conversion technologies, to its use (for example, in cars) and to its storage.
Track #6: Management – sustainability of companies
Christian Goldscheid and Andrea Schulte
Students of Track #6 defined corporate sustainability measures in contrast to greenwashing, how corporate sustainability can be measured, explains the concept of the environmental footprint, and developed recommendations for sustainable corporate actions.
