oikos
oikos is an international student organization that aims to anchor sustainability in research, teaching, and business. oikos Hamburg is one of many local groups in the network and was founded in 2004 at Universität Hamburg with the objective of promoting sustainability and corporate responsibility. Since its founding, oikos has attracted many members in Hamburg, networked intensively with local oikos groups from other countries and cities, and created cooperative partnerships with other student initiatives at Universität Hamburg.
oikos Hamburg is currently carrying out and has already carried out the following projects:
Nachhaltigkeitsbericht 2.0
In August 2016 oikos published the second sustainability report on behalf of Universität Hamburg. The first report was also compiled by oikos in 2012. Nachhaltigkeitsbericht 2.0 covers the years 2011 to 2014 and summarizes information on the University’s performance in four areas of relevance to sustainability (social affairs, ecological affairs, economic affairs, and research, teaching, and transfer). It is particularly worth mentioning that the students had to invent new indicators for the area “research, teaching, and transfer” as this segment was not covered by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or other systems for sustainability reporting. The report is intended to draw attention to the various aspects of sustainability, create transparency, and further develop the University’s vision of becoming a “University for a Sustainable Future.”
CupChange
The long-term goal of the project group CupChange is to replace paper coffee cups served at cafés on campus with more sustainable alternatives such as cups that people bring with them from home, travel thermoses, etc. During the German Sustainability Days 2016 at Universität Hamburg, the project team set up an information stand and offered information on the large volume of waste created by paper cups to passers-by.
The EcoMap
The EcoMap team is preparing a digital map of Hamburg indicating the location of sustainable stores and restaurants for everyone who wants to know where they can shop sustainably in Hamburg. Among other things, EcoMap shows users how sustainable and regional the products offered at a business are. Surveys will be conducted by individual team members. Users can also search for businesses by category such as restaurants, clothing, good, cosmetics, etc. In the future, an internal app for fast and easy evaluation of businesses and another user app for viewing the map and calling up other functions on a smartphone will be developed.
For current information, please visit the oikos Hamburg facebook page or the website.