Sustainable development is globally and locally an important as well as complex undertake. The Network Sustainability at the KIT wants to contribute to it.

The initiative "Network Sustainability at the KIT" is being undertaken while a growing political will to establish a sustainable development is forming. Representatively, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014), the National Sustainability Strategy of 2002, with its four progress reports so far, but also the Sustainability Strategy of Baden-Württemberg should be named. The establishment of the sustainability model has also arrived in research- and education policy. "Sustainability" does not just remain a catchword but it is increasingly filled with content, supported by funding, and approached by demands. Recent financially strong research programs like the BMBF frame program "Research for Sustainable Development"(FONA) are an evidence. The joint statement of the University Rectors’ Conference (HRK) and of the German UNESCO Commission (DUK) "Education for Sustainable Development in Germany" should be mentioned here.

With its largeness and its orientation the KIT takes an important position in implementing a sustainable future: as a location for science and knowledge production, as an educational center, as a space for technical and societal innovation, and as a regionally and globally active institution. Out of the KIT focus Humans and Technology with its profile topic "Sustainable Development" and the topic of "Environment and Technology" and the "School of Sustainability" a joint platform is offered as the "Network Sustainability at the KIT" in order to network interesting KIT players more efficiently and to be able to consistently implement ideas and new approaches in research and education.

Every interested staff member and student is cordially invited to participate in the network.

The project's and network's purposes

The project "Network Sustainability at the KIT", established mid of 2010, wants to express the innovation culture for more sustainability and substance at the KIT and especially wants to:

• compile, systematize and possibly extend activities on sustainability in research, education, and innovation
• network players in the field of "Sustainability" at the KIT more efficiently
• develop suggestions for an offer- and service profile of the KIT for research and education in the field of "Sustainability"
• collect suggestions on discussion topics, support their realization after discussing

Milestones

Definite working targets of the current project "Network Sustainability at the KIT" are:

• surveying the status quo of the activities relating to sustainability in research and education at the KIT
• systematization of the determined research activities and courses according to specific criteria (e.g. perspectives, time horizon, dimensions of sustainability)
• reflection and deficiency analysis, pointing out of blank positions in research and education at the KIT
• development of a stand-alone offer- and service profile of the KIT for research and education in the field of "Sustainability"
• coordination of already existing courses for the purpose of the "School of Sustainability", illustration of options for new offers
• hosting of the workshop "Perspectives of Sustainability at the KIT" including impulses from science, economy, and non-government organizations
• networking of the players in research and education at the KIT (e.g. via an Internet platform or joint events)

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