Sustainability Report 2023
Mobility
With almost 25,000 students, around 2,000 research and teaching staff and around 1,200 staff in administration and service, Bielefeld University is a scientific and educational institution with a considerable amount of mobility. Many of these people make their way to the university almost every day, students travel abroad for a semester, researchers present their results at national or international conferences. This means that the university is not only responsible for a corresponding volume of traffic, but also for the associated greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is only through mobility that personal exchange, networking and cooperation are made possible and the university comes alive. Although digital alternatives were also established at Bielefeld University during the coronavirus pandemic for studying, teaching and daily collaboration, face-to-face interaction is still indispensable for many.
Commuting
Staff and students commute to Bielefeld University from a large catchment area. Almost all means of transport are used:
In its mobility strategy, the city of Bielefeld stipulates that the "share of eco-mobility in the total traffic volume in Bielefeld is to be increased to 75%, with a reduction in motorised private transport from 50% to 25%". With a 75% use of eco-mobility among students, this group already fulfils the City of Bielefeld's target. At 56%, employees are still well below the target. Through infrastructure and behavioural measures, the university would like to contribute to increasing the share of eco-mobility, i.e. walking, cycling and public transport, in the commuting behaviour of university members to ideally at least 75% by 2030 in order to reduce the contribution of commuting behaviour to Bielefeld University's greenhouse gas balance.
With the OWL semester ticket and the integrated NRW ticket - both financed by the social fee - students can use buses, light rail and local trains in the transport associations and communities of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city railway line 4 and buses stop directly at the university.
© Bielefeld University Radtschlag
The Radtschlag is the bicycle self-help workshop, financed by the AStA [Student Union]. Appointments can be made on the website.
© Bielefeld University BISELA cargo bike
The AStA [Student Union] organises the free loan of a cargo bike from Transition Town Bielefeld's BISELA project at Radtschlag. The bike can be reserved online.
© Cambio Carsharing Car sharing parking spaces
The university provides the company Cambio with car parking spaces in Building C. Registration with Cambio is required to use the vehicles.
Parking
Commuter traffic at the university requires parking spaces for various means of transport. As part of the traffic concept and the parking space certificate for the construction of the Faculty of Medicine, the utilisation of parking spaces for cars and bicycles on campus was surveyed in 2020. In its sustainability mission statement, the university has also set itself the goal of promoting an electromobility-friendly campus design.
- Parking space requirements for cars and bicycles
As part of the traffic concept for the construction of the Faculty of Medicine, a comprehensive parking space survey for car and bicycle traffic in the vicinity of the university was carried out at the end of 2019.
For car parking spaces, the three car park areas North, West/Southwest and Southeast were included in the count. The car park (including the women's car park) on Universitätsstraße, which is currently not available for parking due to the refurbishment of the UHG, was not included in the survey. The survey revealed a total number of 4,015 car parking spaces.
The future demand for car parking spaces was determined in consultation with the city of Bielefeld. One car parking space per ten students with an attendance rate of 80 % and one car parking space per four employees with an attendance rate of 85 % are to be provided. This results in a requirement of around 2,800 car parking spaces for 2022. In the course of the expansion of Bielefeld University on campus south, an additional 384 car parking spaces are expected to be required by the winter semester 2025/2026.
A reduction in the current surplus of car parking spaces is to be achieved, for example, by building a new multi-storey car park on Universitätsstraße.
A total of 1,048 bicycle racks were counted in the area around Building X, the main university building, Konsequenz and Morgenbreede during the 2019 survey. It is assumed that one bicycle rack offers space for two bicycles, meaning that a total of 2,096 bicycle parking spaces were available.
In recent years, an additional 522 bicycle parking spaces have been created in several locations (multi-storey car park 3, educational corridor, main university building C/D, sports centres, buildings X, Y and Z). The total number of bicycle parking spaces in 2023 will be 2,618. More than 300 additional bicycle parking spaces are currently planned for campus south.
- New university car park on Universitätsstraße
BLB NRW The Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (BLB) NRW is building a new multi-storey car park for Bielefeld University from 2024. The new multi-storey car park will be built in two construction phases on the site of the existing car parks. With a length of 130 metres and a width of 70 metres, the new multi-storey car park will have six levels with a total of 1,600 parking spaces. The multi-storey car park will also be equipped with a high-performance photovoltaic system (up to 700,000 kWp per year) and a green façade and roof. In addition to the car park, there will also be 100 covered parking spaces for bicycles.
Many employees and students are still dependent on their cars to reach the university. Nevertheless, the new car park will reduce the number of parking spaces, meaning that less space will be sealed. To avoid having to do without parking spaces during the construction period, the new multi-storey car park will be built in two phases. Firstly, the existing multi-storey car park 1 will be demolished in 2023 and the first construction phase of the new building will be built in its place. Once this has been completed, the second multi-storey car park will be demolished and the second construction phase will be built.
The requirements for charging facilities for electric vehicles will be met so that around a third of the car parks can be equipped with e-charging points in future.
The parking space regulations of the city of Bielefeld stipulate 384 parking spaces for the new buildings as part of the expansion of Campus south by the winter semester 2025/2026. The planned multi-storey car park already has 276 parking spaces and will be built below Wertherstraße. Some of the car parks will be equipped with charging facilities for electric vehicles.
Travelling activities
- Business trips
Bielefeld University Business trips pose a sustainability dilemma, especially in science: On the one hand, there is the awareness that every flight has a negative impact on the environment that would like to be avoided. On the other hand, maintaining and expanding international contacts, exchanging ideas and conducting research together, as well as experiencing other scientific cultures, are qualitative characteristics of outstanding science.
For this reason, Bielefeld University is committed to economic efficiency and economy as well as climate protection when choosing the means of transport (see information sheet on travelling expenses). Flight costs are only reimbursed if the flight is necessary for business reasons (e.g. due to deadlines) or economic reasons (e.g. significantly lower costs than travelling by train) or if the total working time saved is at least one whole working day. A stricter standard must also be applied to domestic German flights.
In the sustainability mission statement, the University has set itself the goal of acting in the interests of greenhouse gas neutrality when employees travel on business and students travel abroad and to sensitise people to the choice of sustainable travel options. Short-haul flights should be avoided and medium- and long-haul flights should only be taken if the journey makes a significant contribution to fostering international cooperation, research or teaching. Where reduction is impossible, compensation complements this endeavour.
One measure to achieve this goal was implemented at the beginning of 2023: The Rectorate commissioned the Vice Rectorate for Science and Society to develop a concept for how business trips can continue to be sponsored, but at the same time reduce their carbon footprint through an internal compensation mechanism.
- (More) sustainable business trips
Bielefeld University Find out how you can make your business trips (more) sustainable and how CO2-emissions differ from air and rail travel within Europe on the topic page in the sustainability portal.
- Student mobility
Bielefeld University In the 2019 academic year, 172 trips were made as part of student mobility (Erasmus+), 64 of which were by train and 108 by plane. Due to data availability, it should be noted that the breakdown by plane and train is based on extrapolations. A journey only refers to the journey to the destination.
University vehicle fleet
Due to the reduced use during the coronavirus pandemic, a reduction in fuel consumption (or, in the case of electric vehicles, a lower number of kilometres travelled) can be observed for all vehicles, but this has fallen significantly more in relation to each other in the diesel and petrol sectors.