Sustainability Day: Bielefeld celebrates creative student ideas!

Sustainability Day: Bielefeld celebrates creative student ideas!

On July 2, 2025, the Sustainability Office at Bielefeld University announces with great anticipation the upcoming Sustainability Day, which will take place on July 9, 2025. This event aims to raise awareness of sustainable practices and present a variety of sustainable options for action. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the Bielefeld University campus and is open to all members of the university and interested parties.

A central highlight of the day will be the awarding of the Sustainability Prize, which is dedicated to outstanding student theses on sustainability topics. The sustainability award will be awarded from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in lecture hall H5. Professor Dr. Dominik Schwarz, who has been the Rectorate's representative for sustainability since April 2025, underlines the importance that this award has for promoting sustainable fields of study.

Sustainability Award: Criteria and application

Students and former students of Bielefeld University can apply for the Sustainability Prize provided that their theses were graded “Good” (at least 2.0) in the last two academic years, i.e. between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2025. Applications should include the research subject of the work, the approach, the central findings and a self-assessment of the relevance for sustainable development or climate change adaptation. In addition, a letter of recommendation from an examiner is required, which provides an assessment of the scientific level and relevance of the work. A digital copy of the thesis is also part of the application.

Participants will also have the opportunity to take part in various information stands, including those from health management and university sports. An accompanying lecture by Verónica Zuccarelli Freire, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, will enrich the program. Her talk is entitled “Not all that glitters is green: rethinking the energy transition through ancestral Indigenous ecologies and environmental justice in the Andes” and will be held in English.

Other events and workshops

In addition to the central program points, a workshop on education for sustainable development (ESD) and a clothes swap party are also planned, which are organized by the biology department and the Students for Future. This reflects the university's commitment to promoting a lively culture of discussion around the topic of sustainability.

For further information about Sustainability Day and how to apply for the Sustainability Award, those interested can contact the Sustainability Office at the email address sustainabilitybuero@uni-bielefeld.de contact. Further details about the sustainability award and the application modalities are available on the Bielefeld University website and the corresponding publications. According to the Bielefeld University You are advised to apply early and submit all necessary documents in full.

Finally, Sustainability Day not only serves to honor outstanding work, but also as a platform to promote active discussions about future approaches and solutions for sustainable development. In this way, Bielefeld University lives up to its responsibility and shows how important the topic of sustainability is for the academic community and beyond.