Eighth sustainability report published

The Leuphana University of Lüneburg has now presented its eighth sustainability report. Four levels within the university's development are addressed: examples from operations, research, teaching and cooperation, among many other activities, are given here.

Research: The Leuphana faculties set various research priorities in sustainability: The project ‘A social-ecological systems approach to the restoration of ecosystems in rural regions of Africa’ deals with the consequences of the ongoing loss of biodiversity and climate change. The research group applies a social-ecological systems perspective to better understand mechanisms that lead to different outcomes in ecosystem restoration.

The project ‘TransPharm: Transformation to a sustainable European pharmaceutical sector’ aims to promote the development of more sustainable and environmentally friendly active ingredients while reducing the ecological footprint and dependence on third countries in the production of active ingredients.

Teaching/Education: Leuphana offers various sustainability degree programmes: three majors at the College, five majors at the Graduate School and six master's programmes.

Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching research projects are offered at the Leuphana Bachelor and Master. For example, in the seminar ‘Sustainable Local Development in the Biosphere Reserves of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region’ of the Master's programme in Sustainability Science, students work with local authorities in the region to develop concrete measures to promote local sustainability processes.

Cooperation: In the ‘Lüneburg 2030+ City of the Future’ project, citizens and scientists developed visions together with politicians and administrators. In 15 experiments, the city administration, civil society and Leuphana tried out and demonstrated how change can happen locally. The Zukunftsstadt magazine presented the results and reflected on them with citizens and experts. Topics included land consumption and internal consolidation, ownership structures, real-world laboratory research, political perspectives and challenges for Lüneburg. The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The next report will be prepared in accordance with the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This enables transparent disclosure of the university's sustainability performance and facilitates comparability with other organisations. The sustainability report is prepared in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Patrick Velte, Professor of Business Administration, esp. Accounting, Auditing & Corporate Governance.

Company operations: A special feature is the climate rotection fund: CO₂ emissions from business trips are to be kept to a minimum and, if unavoidable, offset. To this end, Leuphana has had a ‘Guideline on Climate Protection Measures’ for business trips since 2023.

In addition, the seminar ‘Restoration of Biodiversity in Urban Settings - The Leuphana Campus’ has created further flowering meadows on campus. These are intended to promote biodiversity and are regularly scientifically examined.

On a social level, Leuphana's gender equality concept should be mentioned. This has led to the University of Lüneburg being included in the 2030 Women Professors Programme. The university has succeeded in continuously appointing women to professorships, so that between 2010 and 2022, nine regular appointments and one advance professorship could be funded.

In addition to the existing gender equality plan, Leuphana University has for the first time developed a diversity plan with specific goals and measures, which has been approved by the Presidential Board for four years until 2026. The gender equality and diversity measures are aimed at the fields of university development, research, teaching and studies, human resources development, quality management and infrastructure development.

The new sustainability report is now available online for the first time. Here you will find stories, films and podcasts, as well as all the facts and figures.