TUD Lectures "Challenges of our time"
The TUD Lectures, initiated in 2021, provide an insight into current research at the TUD and enable an exchange between the public and scientists. In lectures of up to 1 1/2 hours, the experts present their knowledge in a clear and understandable way. The audience can address their questions directly to the experts after the lecture. The TUD Lectures are aimed at the TUD community and all interested parties.
In the first half of 2022, the TUD Lectures series will approach the topic "Challenges of our time" from different perspectives.
Table of contents
Sustainable building - Why we need to change the way we build.
Construction represents Germany's most resource-intensive industry and is responsible for a significant proportion of environmentally harmful emissions. Over 500 million tons of material input per year are attributed to the sector. Similarly, demolition waste accounted for 223 million tons in 2016, or about 54% of the country's total waste generation. Globally, construction is responsible for 38% of total CO2 emissions, making it a real climate polluter.
Consequently, the currently prevailing principles of construction and building operation consume enormous amounts of non-renewable resources and entail significant environmental impacts. A shift towards more sustainable building practices is necessary and overdue to limit environmental, climate change and social impacts. Dipl.-Ing. Christian Popp, research associate at the Institute of Structural Design of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and member of the Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Research Group addressed this topic in the TUD Lectures "Sustainable Building - Why we would need to change the way we build." on Feb. 28 and provided answers to audience questions.
The questions were addressed to the speaker by the Sustainability Working Group of the Student Representative Council (FSR) for Architecture and Landscape Architecture. An FSR is an elected student council in which, in the case of architecture and landscape architecture, around 20 members are involved. Within this council, a working group for more sustainable and climate-friendly building was formed, which advocated that this should be taught in the curriculum.
This is the link to the event.
Overheating, flooding, survival? - How much "over" can our society take?
Record summer droughts, floods in the Ahr Valley, tornadoes in Kentucky - society is increasingly confronted with extreme weather events. Scientists worldwide have been warning of man-made climate change for decades and urging governments to rethink. With the Green Deal, the EU wants to achieve a 55% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and the coalition agreement of the new German government also contains climate targets. But are all these steps enough? How much "over" can our society take at all?
Attention new edition on 16.03.
"Overheating, flooding, survival? - How much "over" can our society take?" Dr. Valeri Goldberg and Dr. André Lindner focused on regional and global climate change in our region and its consequences, especially in relation to heat and drought. Dr. Valeri Goldberg works at the Chair of Meteorology and conducts research in the HeatResilientCity project, among others, which was awarded the German Sustainability Prize Research 2022 on 3 December. Since 2020 André Lindner has headed the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (with its five faculties: Environmental Sciences, Civil Engineering, Architecture, Transportation Sciences, Economics). Previously, he was able to deepen his experience in international and interdisciplinary exchange during his work at the Center for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM) and was, among other things, project coordinator of the "International Network on Climate Change (INCA): Understanding Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies of Tropical Andean People". His talk looks at the aspects of global climate change and climate justice, and why the climate crisis is actually the lesser problem when our most significant toolbox for countering and adapting is being lost in just the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history, and why sustainable action is essential in terms of biosphere, society, and economy.
The event was moderated by the student group "ÜberfluTUng - change TUD", whose goal is to bring the 20 demands of the TUD's climate policy catalog of demands to the broad university public. The catalog was developed in the wake of the Climate Action Week in early 2020 by committed people in a StuRa project group and legitimized by the StuRa plenum in June 2020. Change-TUD initially launched "überfluTUng 1.0" in summer 2020, a digital social media campaign with over 70 sharepics that made the demands visually tangible. The campaign was shared across Germany by other student representatives and initiatives. Numerous demands have been implemented since 2020. Further demands are currently being explored and implemented by students and employees.
Which contribution can the circular economy provide to resource protection?
If we want to achieve the goals of a sustainable society and climate neutrality by 2045, a largely closed-loop recycling economy is indispensable as one of the many adjusting screws. At present, only 14% of so-called secondary materials and resources - raw materials recovered by reprocessing (recycling) from disposed materials - are returned to the economy. Promising approaches to realizing this will have to go beyond pure disposal solutions, start much earlier in the production process and, for example, include consumer decisions to a greater extent than has been the case to date. The goal must be to avoid waste as much as possible and to create a far more resource-efficient circular economy.
Prof. Christina Dornack presented how these goals currently stand and how the circular economy can be implemented in the future. Prof. Dornack heads the Institute for Waste and Circular Economy and is Vice Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences. She also currently advises the German government on the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU). Her research includes material flow and CO2 balancing, recycling processes and circular economy strategies. The event was moderated by the RepairCafé of the TU Dresden, which is being established in the summer semester.
The RepairCafé Dresden/Freital initiative is building a self-repair workshop together with volunteer students and employees of TU Dresden. Starting in May 2022, there will be regular appointments in the SLUB Makerspace, where devices, clothing and other commodities can be repaired with the help of the volunteers on site. The help is free of charge and can be used by anyone.
Written interpretation will be available for the event. If required, sign language interpretation can also be organised through the Department of University Culture, simply contact this E-Mail.