ZU sustainably

All good things come in threes. For the third time, we are reporting on our efforts to make ZU sustainable and to become climate-neutral by 2035. The format changed and the days of printed sustainability reports are over. Find out everything you need to know about sustainability at ZU. We update this website on an ongoing basis. And the picture in the background shows our university beach.

You can browse through the chapters or, if you find out more specifically, you can jump to the individual chapters via the menu.

| ZU Mobile: Mobility and fleet | ZU Energy: Energy consumption and saving | ZU Procurement: Procurement, Waste, Ressources | ZU Together: Transfer and our netwerks

Who is involved and how? We continue with our sustainability goals and the participating stakeholders.

The United Nations have defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The following goals are addressed here:



This is how ZU gets sustainable: | We want to achieve climate neutrality by 2035. We therefore want to continuously reduce our CO2 emissions (SDG 12, SDG 13). We are focussing on our own reductions and not on certificates or offsetting projects.

| We accelerate the key issue sustainability in research and teaching. New chairs, new teaching programmes and events organised by the sustainability management are just some aspects (SDG 4).

| We can be used as a sustainable innovation lab and are happy to work with partners to share our knowledge locally and beyond (SDG 11, 17). More on this later (or here, if you can't wait).



Who is working with sustainability at Zeppelin University? Our Sustainability Management is the focal point within and outside of ZU, and is reporting to the President and CEO. The sustainability management is in charge of operational sustainability projects and all relevant data. And then we report on it. Right here on this website (and no longer on paper).

Sustainability also plays a role in research and teaching, e.g.

| at the Institute for Sustainable Economy, which brings together several chairs of economics,

| at the ZF Centre for Sustainability Research,

| a summer school with an African perspective on the connection between culture and sustainability, which has now been completed.

Our two Equal Opportunities Officers are responsible for gender equality and diversity at ZU. The Presidential Board and the Executive Board have adopted the ZU Gender Equality Plan.

The student commitment to sustainability is concentrated in the Green Office which we call Zukunftsbüro (Future Office).



How are ZU's greenhouse gas emissions developing?

2019 was the first year in which we calculated ZU emissions. Since then, the emissions could be reduced in all in all scopes (except heat). Overall, ZU will emit 15 % less CO₂ in 2023 than in 2019:

Most of our emissions are caused by heating (62%), followed by business flights (31%). Waste (5 %) and fuel for the vehicle fleet (1 %) play a subordinate role.

Now let's take a closer look at the different scopes. We start with the mobility which is followed by energy thereafter. The third scope in focus is procurement, resources and waste.

Train instead of short-haul flight, job ticket, job bike, own cargo bike. ZU gets things moving. Find out everything you need to know about mobility here.

We care about travelling sustainably.

A university without international exchange? This we can't image having over 80 international partnerships with other universities signed. Short-haul flights, even though you would be just as fast by train? This makes no sense, does it? That's why we consistently use buses and trains for business trips and don't allow short-haul flights since 2021.

We defined a flight exclusion zone based on the travel time from centre to centre. If the journey by train is equally fast or at most approx. 1.5 hours slower than by plane.

Let's look at the emissions from our business flights which have roughly halved compared to 2019. We calculate every business flight based on distance using a calculator from the Federal Environment Agency. It works with emission factors that have been scientifically determined.

We care about our vehicles.



Small and electric: that' is what our vehicle fleet. is like. We currently have two electric Smarts, one electric and one conventional delivery van and one hybrid vehicle. And a cargo bike, which we were able to purchase with the kind support of our university society ZUG. We are able to charge at the SeeCampus. For technical reasons, it cannot be separated at the ZF Campus. Since July 2022, we have been delivering our canteen food to the SeeCampus fully electrically, which has increased the amount of charging power we use.



And what about fuel? The maintenance equipment (e.g. lawn tractor) powered by fuel hardly makes a difference. Fuel consumption has increased because our managing director has been travelling more. Overall, however, fuel consumption is only responsible for 1 % of the ZU emissions.

We care about your mobility.

We are happy to support you if you use public transport. Our employees can get the Deutschland-Ticket, a monthly ticket, at a reduced price as a job ticket. Our students can get the Deutschland-Ticket Jugend BW at an even lower price. Our Seecampus can be reached via the bus stop "ZU Seemooser Horn" and the stop "Manzell". The ZF Campus is served by the bus stop "Hochschulen".

ZU employees have been able to lease a job bike since 2019. And to make cycling even more fun, we participate in the City Cycling event every year with a ZU team. During this event, we collect all the kilometres cycled within three weeks.

And if anyone runs out of air, we have a publicly accessible bike repair station on the ZF Campus. Mayor Dieter Stauber (left) and ZU President Prof Dr Klaus Mühlhahn (right) were delighted to be able to test it out at the inauguration. ZU-Sustainability manager Dr Fabian Sennekamp is supervising (in the middle).

External providers offer e-scooters, pedelecs (Dott) and car-sharing cars (Stadtwerk am See) in Friedrichshafen. There are stations at both campuses of Zeppelin University.

How we save, generate and purchase energy. That's what it's all about now.



We care about green energy.

Sometimes you obviously need to recharge the batteries. We have been doing this since 2019 with green electricity from a regional supplier (SDG 7).

In mid-November 2023, after long waiting, our first photovoltaic system went into operation on the flat roof above the Graf Soden Forum. We use the electricity generated ourselves. The amount currently produced is displayed on the welcome page of our intranet ZUniverse.

At the Seecampus, ZU has been leasing a 32 kWp photovoltaic system from our landlord Luftschiffbau Zeppelin since 2024.

We care about saving energy.

Every kilowatt hour saved is our favourite. This is why ZU has introduced a certified energy management system. An auditor checks that energy is saved every year.

The auditor was satisfied (and so were we). This is because our electricity consumption is declining compared to the level before the coronavirus pandemic. The increase compared to 2021 and 2022 can be explained by the return to normal operations and an increase in events. The picture above says in German that ZU has a certified energy management system.

Comparing apples with oranges makes no sense. We therefore correct our heat consumption with a climate factor using data from the German Weather Service for Friedrichshafen. Our absolute heat consumption in 2023 has decreased compared to 2019. However, as 2023 was very warm, the weather-adjusted consumption increased.

We care about good food.

Fresh, regional and delicious: Three words to describe our canteen, which is open to everyone. We are one of the few universities in Germany to run it ourselves. There is a vegan and vegetarian option every day.

We have a pre-order system in place so that as little food and energy as possible is wasted. The dishes are served exclusively on china.

Our chef Chris, who you can see here, had most kilometres on his clock for the ZU team in the 2024 City Cycling event.

We have been certified as Fairtrade University since 2019. The coffee beans we use are certified in Fairtrade and organic quality. Other products in the canteen are also Fairtrade labelled and organic. We buy our beverages in deposit bottles and mainly from the Allgäu region. We don't like disposable containers and cups.



We care about a clean university.

Just like at home: separating waste, conserving resources and producing as little waste as possible. We act as many people do at home. We use environmentally friendly detergents in the areas that we clean ourselves. These can be kept in a closed material cycle according to the closed-loop principle (including detergents made from renewable raw materials, packaging made from recycled materials).

You need water to clean up. We installed drinking water dispensers at both locations many years ago. Our water consumption has remained constant compared to 2022 and is below the 2019 level.

Moving on to waste. Our neighbourhood should not be littered. In September 2024, we have organised the second Clean Up Day in the Fallenbrunnen disctrict collecting litter together with our neighbours.

As for our own waste, we calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from the invoiced waste volumes using emission factors.

This is how waste volumes have developed:

ZU's waste volumes are decreasing compared to 2019. This is due in particular to residual waste, which has decreased by approx. 45 % compared to 2019. Glass and food waste are roughly constant.

We are unable to calculate packaging waste as it is not billed on a quantity basis. Paper waste has decreased significantly. We are therefore taking a closer look at it.

We care about prints and paper.

Digital instead of print. Digital transformation is a key topic at ZU - and this we really mean it. In administration, we have digitalised many processes such as invoices, the workflow of the travel expenses as well as the documents used in meetings. Moreover, of course, the sustainability report is no longer available on paper.

Since 2020, ZU has exclusively procured recycled copy paper with Blue Angel certification. It regularly participates in the Paper Atlas in the nationwide university competition (2022 Rising Star of the year, 2024 5th place).

When we print materials such as brochures or business cards, we pay attention to regional added value.

We care about dumping your ex.

Who doesn't know it? There is that old mobile phone that is still in the drawer. You should have get rid of it a long time ago. At ZU, we have the solution: our sponsoring partner ELiProCoM provides us with two return bins for old smartphones, tablets and notebooks. Many thanks for that! The devices are refurbished or recycled. The bins are located in the canteen at both locations.

Long relationship: We use our own IT equipment as long as possible. We reduce local printers to a minimum and have abolished our landline telephone system as well as the fax machines. We now call directly through the computer. We rely on cloud-based applications.

We care about your outfit.

Where it says ZU, there should obviously be something sustainable inside. Our hoodies, T-shirts and cloth bags from the ZU shop are made from organic cotton and are certified according to the FairWair Foundation standard. Sounds good? All products from the ZU shop can be purchased at the CheckIn, our reception desk, during the opening hours.

Pioneering spirit is in the DNA of ZU. We offer ourselves as an innovation laboratory to work on sustainable solutions. So let's now look at the subject of transfer.

We work together with various stakeholders on sustainability. As we work closely with companies, we exchange ideas with them on how to become (even more) sustainable. We are also in dialogue with the city and county of Friedrichshafen. We take part in the European Mobility Week every year, for example.



A(n even more) sustainable campus

With the support of the Planning and Environment Department of the city of Friedrichshafen, we were able to plant additional native trees, perennials and shrubs at both locations. Thank you!

Incidentally, we also have our own wine grapes. You can find out which animals have already been spotted on campus by reading to the end of the Sustainability page of the library.

Sustainable events for everyone

Exciting topics, exciting guests. Mobility transition, climate change adaptation, climate-neutral shipping on Lake Constance - there have already been events on these various topics at ZU. As a standard, they are open to the public and always free of charge. Just take a look for yourself.



Sustainable news for everyone

Communication is key: We report on everything which is sustainable at ZU on our intranet ZUniverse, on our social media channels and in the press. We launched our new newsletter in September 2024 to link our activities even more closely with other stakeholders in the region. You can subscribe to it here (unfortunately the newsletter is in German only).