Survey results: ideas for making our campus more sustainable

Survey results: ideas for making our campus more sustainable

Sustainability is a cross-cutting issue at TH Wildau and is relevant for teaching, research, knowledge transfer and campus management. Together we are investing in a future worth living. This also includes the joint design of a campus worth living on.

Many university members and visitors are impressed by our campus. The mixture of technology and history in the architecture of the buildings and the short distances from seminar rooms to the Mensa (cafeteria) or the S-Bahn station create a coherent whole. This creates many opportunities for a livable learning and working environment at the TH Wildau.

How can we make even better use of the campus's potential? What do students and staff want?

Between March 18th and 28th we asked students and employees for their opinion about campus design. The goal was to get to know their interests and needs in order to eventually develop feasible projects together. During the week of March 18, visitors to the mensa were able to talk with the Sustainability Manager and members of the Sustainability Working Group at the sustainability information stand every day of the week. They were asked about their wishes and to write down suggestions for a more liveable campus on cards.

Some wrote several cards with one suggestion each, others wrote several suggestions on one card. A total of 160 people took advantage of this opportunity and provided 285 suggestions.

During the first two days, it became apparent that some topics were repeated: Suggestions for charging stations for e-cars and e-bikes, parking space management, more greenery, catering outside cafeteria hours, food vending machines, drinking water fountains and, time and again, the desire for seating and gathering opportunities inside and outside the buildings. This was followed by an online survey that asked for a ranking of 5 projects. 263 participants ranked the offers from 1 (favorite) to 5 (least favorite). In the aggregation, the proposals occupied the following places from 1 to 5: seating, drinking water fountains, food vending machines, flowering meadows and cargo bikes to borrow. The online survey also offered participants the opportunity to contribute additional ideas for the campus. Not all participants took advantage of this. But another 218 suggestions were added.

Additional survey via Instagram

Many thanks to everyone who took part and wrote down their ideas. The three methods to elicit responses were not intended to be scientific. Nevertheless, patterns can be recognized. An evaluation of the 503 suggestions collected at the information stand and in the online survey shows that there is great interest in informal meeting spaces on campus.

Analysis of the contributions at the information stand and in the online survey

Taken together, almost 27% of the suggestions mentioned the desire for seating: inside buildings, outside buildings, with shade, for group work, for socializing in the evening, for educational discussions. The following selection of statements show an interest in seating to spend time together, to learn and to work:

• I would like to see “communication islands” in various places on campus, preferably with inviting seating.
• Study/group rooms distributed around the campus that are easy to use without having to walk long distances to the library.    
• There is nothing to do in the evenings, the student club is closed, the mensa and cafeteria are closed.

The interest in meeting spaces is also evident in combination with the desire for more greenery on campus: 15.5% of suggestions mentioned trees, orchards and raised beds.

• I would very much welcome more greenery in the large open spaces (especially between Houses 10 and 13). In summer, shady areas are also increasingly important.  Perhaps there are also interested parties for a “community garden or similar”?
• Trees would provide shade and cool through evaporation. If fruit trees were planted, for example, you could pick an apple or pear from the tree from time to time

Another category of suggestions, desire for additional catering facilities, is in a broader sense related to the interest in meeting spaces. Suggestions relating to catering accounted for a fifth of the responses: 20.3%. University members would like a better supply of water, coffee, food outside of mensa hours, but also the option to heat up food they have brought with them.

• The campus should be a place to meet and communicate. The cafeteria space next to the mensa should be open again.
• Please reopen the Hasi (student café in Hall 17) reliably under all circumstances. There needs to be another possibility to get food/drinks even during short breaks.
• Microwave !!! or generally a kitchen where I can warm up my food.
• Definitely a water dispenser. Especially in summer this is so important! Because the mensa is only open between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., you hardly have the opportunity to drink enough on long days if you don't want to take a lot or large bottles with you. Please please please please a drink dispenser!!!

What happens next?

The Sustainability Manager is currently investigating means to implement some of the suggestions and is developing proposals in consultation with the Strategy Development Steering Committee and the university administration. Regulations for escape and rescue routes must be observed. We ask for your patience.

Further suggestions for the campus design are welcome at any time. This also includes the identification of "little-noticed places on campus". Send ideas to: nachhaltigkeit@th-wildau.de.