Documentation

The Hamburg Sustainable Development Summit (HSDS), organized by the Center for a Sustainable University (KNU) at the Universität Hamburg, took place from September 26^th to 29^th 2017. The conference was initiated in order to offer a broad international network platform for sustainability initiatives and projects. The summit aimed at setting new horizons for collaborations, using innovative network formats and inviting sustainability researchers and agents to be part of the global community to foster sustainable development ‒ in Higher Education Institutions as well as in society in general.

The individual conference sessions were assigned to different topic rooms. Below you find an overview of these topic rooms. Short summaries of the individual sessions can be found on the respective sub-pages.

Also, have a look at the HSDS Guidebook (more information about the event, the partners, the venue and all abstracts), the conference live blog and the HSDS-Survey (in order to get an idea about what is improtant for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the future).

Light bulb lying on a chalk-drawn text bubble

Photo: pexels, CC0 Lizenz

Opening and Key Notes

Each of the conference days started with a panel session with keynotes and subsequent panel discussions.

HOCH-N

On September 28^th the HOCH^N network-day took place where all fields of action presented their research agendas and intermediate results.

Photo: Marie Seeberger

Photo: Markus Scholz / scholzfoto.de

Market of Ideas

The market of ideas provided an open space serving as a central meeting point.

Congress evaluation

The HSDS took place for the first time, which is why the evaluation of the event was particularly important to us. Have a look at the overview of the results here.

Photo: Lilian Trechsel

Overview by Topic Room

topic rooms

Session on education, persons sitting around table

Photo: Markus Scholz / scholzfoto.de

Education for Sustainable Development

The sessions have addressed questions regarding the normativity of science and teaching and the reorientiation of educational curricula towards education for sustainable development. Another core aspect was the role of hierarchies in educational settings and how these can be changed.

Photo: Markus Scholz / scholzfoto.de

Reporting and Governance

How can informal and formal barriers to the implementation of sustainability be overcome? How can the implementation of sustainability at HEI's be assessed properly? And what are the opportunities and risks of sustainability reporting and ranking? These and other issues were raised in this topic room.

topic rooms

Photo: KNU/Wegener

Steering our Cities towards Sustainability

Sustainable cities require (among others) a climate-friendly appropriation of space as well as new concepts in the fields of mobility and energy supply. In this topic room different strategies for a transformational change such as the "vision zero" approach and concepts for enhanced actor participation were presented.

Photo: Markus Scholz / scholzfoto.de

Higher Education Institutions – Aims, Agendas, Actors

How can the sustainable development goals be incorporated into the structures of higher education institutions (HEIs)? And in what ways can international networks support this integration? The sessions in this topic room were dealing with possible answers to these questions (such as the "green office model").

topic rooms

Photo: Michaela Haase

Methods and Perspectives

In this topic room, ways and means are being explored which can help to foster transformational change towards sustainable development. A special focus is placed on the process of creating future visions. Examples for the presented methods are LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and the Systematic Living Lab Approach.

Photo: Markus Scholz / scholzfoto.de

Team

The organizational team from the Center for a Sustainable University wants to thank everyone who was involved in the conference for contributing to the success of the Hamburg Sustainable Development Summit. We hope that each of you could take home inspirational thoughts, new insights and contacts for future collaborations. We hope to meet you again at upcoming events!