We remember the global climate strike at the end of 2019, when schoolchildren, students and many other people around the world made an appeal to decision-makers to give climate protection more priority. The TU Dresden also went on strike in order to attract the attention of the university management and to demand more commitment to climate and environmental protection.

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Against the background of these eventful times, members of the TU environmental initiative and the Students for Future group founded the Green Office initiative at the beginning of 2020. Its aim was to support the TU Dresden in fulfilling its role model function in the field of climate and environmental protection and in being able to act as a multiplier.

For this purpose, a clearly visible and central contact point should be created, which, as a permanent part of the university, collects, processes and communicates knowledge and information on ecological sustainability at TUD. In addition, this contact point should offer the diverse actors already active at TUD in the field of ecological sustainability the opportunity to network and to strengthen the exchange of knowledge between all university members.

The basic idea of the Green Office movement served as a model. A green office is a sustainability office designed jointly by students and university employees, which, in contrast to purely voluntary initiatives, has secure funding and legitimation from the university. The declared aim of the Green Office Initiative was to establish such an institutionally firmly anchored position at the TU Dresden in order to be able to have a positive effect on both the university and society in the field of climate and environmental protection. The initiative developed a first draft concept for the TU Dresden and thus approached the environmental protection group of the building management department. From April 2020, this supported the further development of the idea as part of the "Sustainable Campus" project.

In the course of the conceptual work, extensive research was carried out with regard to possible implementation paths, good practice examples and the existing commitment at TUD. The group exchanged ideas with other initiatives and sustainability offices and networked with stakeholders in the field of ecological sustainability. The first project pitch in September 2020 was used to work on improving the concept in a larger group with students, employees and alumni of the TU Dresden in a workshop. As a result, the Green Office initiative team also received support from the environmental coordinator at TU Dresden and the chairman of the Environment Commission. The GOI then presented its draft to the new Vice-Rector for University Culture and the Environment Commission and then specified its draft. In this way, the existing structures in the area of ​​environmental and climate protection could ultimately be merged with the Green Office within the new "Team for Ecological Sustainability". This idea ultimately convinced the extended rectorate and so the establishment of the Green Office by rector Staudinger was officially announced in February 2021.

The affiliation of the Green Office is now carried out within the newly established Directorate for University Culture in the field of campus life. For the coordination of the Green Office, a 75% position was created for five years and financed from funds from the Excellence Strategy. Student and academic assistants will provide support to fulfill the extensive tasks of the Green Office.

The project report for the creation of the concept can be found here soon.