In its mission statement, the University of Konstanz describes its commitment to the principle of sustainability. Sustainable development is one of the university’s most important strategic topics, and, since April 2021, it has been grounded in the role of Vice Rector for Sustainability, Information and Communication Technology (CIO). The corresponding Staff Unit Sustainability centrally coordinates and enables the active participation of all the university's status groups and the entire administration on matters involving sustainability. Members of the Senate's Sustainable Development Working Group are from all university status groups, and through its participatory approach, the group links the members of the university with the Rectorate. The working group collects ideas, drafts concepts and writes recommendations for strategic decisions at the University of Konstanz in the area of sustainability. Another important component is our student-led Green Office (GO). The first such institution in Germany, our Green Office coordinates the university’s sustainability report, offers courses related to sustainability (e.g. the certificate “Qualifikation N”) and regularly organizes project weeks on sustainability, among other things.
The university's structure and development plan fleshes out our commitment to sustainability at every institutional level. The goals of sustainable development already shape our research and teaching, and we aim at becoming even more sustainable as an institution and at working toward our goal of climate neutrality by 2030.