New centre promotes quality of life in rural areas
Social logistics, environmental management of small and medium-sized enterprises and citizen science are topics that are brought together in the new Centre for Sustainable and Innovative Concepts (Zentrum für Nachhaltige und Innovative Konzeptionen), or ZENIKPlus for short. The good life (the "Plus" in the name stands for this) is at the centre of all activities promoted and supported by the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) in cooperation with the bbw University of Applied Sciences Berlin (bbw). The exchange with science, business and society, as well as the participatory involvement of civil society, are a particular characteristic of the centre.
The good life is an ethical concept that is defined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, among others. In the context of the new ZENIKPlus research centre, it refers to the approaches of the ethics of justice, the ethics of responsibility and the ideas of responsible action in integrative business ethics. "The good life is a life that, firstly, enables fair participation for all people and, secondly, in which every person is committed to the consequences of their actions - both of which are geared towards the sustainable existence of the planet," explains Thoralf Buller, one of the two directors of the centre and lecturer at bbw.
ZENIKPlus promotes and supports projects in which citizens become researchers themselves and get involved in their region, for example as part of the "Smells like" project. Back in 2018, HNEE students worked with citizens of the city of Eberswalde to collect air data using sensors, which was processed in an interactive city map. This led to another project in 2020. In spring, students planted Germany's first Tiny Forest in the Uckermark on their own initiative. Sensors for air and soil were installed on the 700 square metre area in the summer to record the microclimate and thus the effects of the mini forest on the environment. "In cities, smaller fallow areas could be upgraded in this way and help to improve the air in urban areas and provide more cooling," says Alexander Conrad, also Head of the Centre and Vice Dean at HNEE. ZENIKPlus is therefore supporting this project by founding an ecological-economic-social-innovative start-up. "This is a great help for us, as we not only receive helpful tips for the start-up phase, but also belong to a network that facilitates contacts with stakeholders from various fields. This is very enriching for us," says Lukas Steingässer, HNEE student and founder of the "Forest of Diversity" ("Wald der Vielfalt") project. ZENIKPlus also supports the further development of the HNEE Eco-Good Award, a study prize to promote innovative and sustainable approaches to corporate environmental management by regional companies.
The centre emerged from the activities of the WIR! innovation alliance region 4.0, which develops and implements technical, social and ecological innovations in various fields of action in the Barnim, Uckermark and Uecker-Randow regions. ZENIKPlus researches in this tradition - but with its own focus - on social, ecological and technical innovations and their linkage to promote and secure the good life, primarily in communities outside the metropolises and often in the periphery. The ZENIKPlus team thus builds on the HNEE research focus "Sustainable Management of Limited Resources" and the bbw research field "Sustainable Corporate Management" and "Corporate Environmental Management" and develops its own subject areas from specific activities from third-party funded projects, research projects, further education programmes and spin-offs, which are based at the two universities and here specifically at the Faculties of Sustainable Business (HNEE) and Economics (bbw). In addition, the centre publishes in the economic and ecological publication series OIKOS of the Faculty of Sustainable Business at HNEE. The series is edited by the two directors of the centre, Prof. Dr. Thoralf Buller (bbw) and Prof. Dr. Alexander Conrad (HNEE).
Further information:
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, also known as the Ruggie Principles after one of their initiators, are among the most important internationally recognised standards of corporate responsibility for human rights. In 31 principles, they establish duties of care in the areas of the state's obligation to protect human rights, corporate responsibility: respect for human rights and access to effective legal remedies. The UN Guiding Principles were unanimously adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011.
WE! alliance "region 4.0" is an association of over 50 stakeholders in Uecker-Randow - Uckermark - Barnim who want to shape the future of the region together. True to the motto "Living a culture of innovation instead of mandating it", stakeholders are pooling their ideas and commitment to initiate and establish a local innovation network.
"Smells like" is the pragmatic project that improves the everyday reality of Eberswalde's citizens. In 2018, air data was collected as closely as possible together with citizens using sensors in a university database, analysed and presented in an interactive map made available online. This allowed polluted routes and locations to be identified and replaced with an alternative proposal. The aim of the map was to achieve a better life through environmental awareness.
The Eco-Good Award has been awarded at HNEE's Faculty of Sustainable Business since 2018. Students in the "Corporate Environmental Management" module are invited to enter their projects that provide impetus for social change in terms of environmental awareness. The prize is endowed with 350 euros and is awarded at the opening of each summer semester.
OIKOS is the economic and ecological publication series of the Faculty of Sustainable Business at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. It summarises and publishes the findings of the faculty.