Sustainable development goals

In 2015, the UN member states adopted the Agenda 2030. With the 2030 Agenda, the global community aims to enable people around the world to live in dignity while preserving the natural foundations of life in the long term. The aim is to achieve economic progress in harmony with social justice within the Earth's ecological limits.

The 17 global goals for sustainable development of the 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are aimed at everyone: governments worldwide, but also civil society, the private sector and academia. As a university library, we are making a contribution to these goals.

The "Sustainable University Library" working group, which was founded in July 2021, is working to identify concrete opportunities for action for employees and customers of the University Library and to motivate everyone to reduce their carbon footprint, for example by taking action. Every small contribution counts (see also "How the University Library is becoming more sustainable", RUB News, June 4, 2023).

More links

• Article in the news portal
• Article in the RUB Sustainability Portal
• Video about sustainability at the UB on Youtube

Goal 1: No poverty

Bochum University Library (UB Bochum) offers educational tools and passes on skills. In this way, we contribute to educational biographies and support future prospects.

We are committed to ensuring that no social group is disadvantaged. Our "Barrier free UB team" offers active support and numerous services. We support the university's diversity goals and take part in Diversity Day, for example.

We also work together with other RUB institutions that support young people's access to our University.

Goal 3: Health and well-being

We are constantly improving the quality of life in our building. Hanging gardens green our listed staircase, our learning and reading landscapes with lounge areas offer space for study and leisure. In addition, our "Barrier-free University Library Team" offers extensive services for different usage needs.

Goal 4: High-quality education

Bochum University Library supports study, research and teaching at RUB. We do this through extensive printed and online holdings, the hosting of publication platforms (including open access resources), participation in the RUB's Research Data Services and much more. In the "Digi-komp.nrw project" we contribute to the creation of materials to promote information and media literacy. In addition we offer a variety of tutorials as well as synchronous course and training offers and asynchronous self-learning resources, e.g. via Moodle and YouTube.

Goal 5: Gender equality

Like the RUB as a whole, we are committed to equal opportunities and diversity (see also goal number 1).

Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

We enable resource-conscious, flexible working. Our material procurement pays attention to sustainability. We have already greatly improved our processes, particularly in the area of paper consumption. We use recycled paper wherever possible, double-sided printing (e.g. for interlibrary loans) and reduce paper consumption (e.g. through optional receipt printing at our lending and return machines).

By providing electronic resources that can also be accessed from home, we are helping to reduce the number of journeys and thus improve the CO2 balance.

Some of the lighting in the building has already been converted to LED and is to be continued as part of a large-scale campus project.

For the approx. 500 lights at the customer workstations, the UB has relied on LEDs from the outset.

Goal 10: Less inequality

We cultivate openness and accessibility. Our library is open not only to members of the university but also to citizens of the Ruhr metropolis and is both a place of learning and a meeting place for people from all over the world. Our library cards are free of charge and we support the RUB's Open Science Policy through our Open Access publication services and the provision of Open Access resources and participation in OA transformation projects such as Knowledge Unlatched.

Our books can be borrowed free of charge by all our users and are therefore equally accessible to all, without financial barriers.

In order to reduce educational barriers, our courses are accessible to all interested parties free of charge. Our IT equipment is also available to all our visitors.

Goal 12: Sustainable consume and production

We have set up our "sustainable corner" at the bottom of our stairwell.
We collect champagne and wine corks there, which we pass on to the RUB Repair Café. From there, they are passed on to a charitable organization that uses them to make insulation boards.

We also collect cell phones, cables etc. for NABU. The latter has been running an environmental protection cooperation with the Telefónica Deutschland Group since 2011.

As a lending library, we contribute to sustainable consumption by using books several times. The provision of electronic media reduces material consumption and literature production processes.

Goal 13: Climate protection measures

The employees of the University Library integrate various measures for climate and resource protection into their everyday work. For example:

• Shock ventilation
• Energy-saving use of PCs
• Use of power sockets with toggle switches
• Sale of sustainable goodies (UB sticks for use on our scanners instead of copies, sustainable cotton bags and pencils)
• Procurement of materials from a sustainability perspective

Paper consumption is an aspect to which we pay particular attention. (See also goal number 9.)

We also support the energy-saving measures of the entire RUB.

Goal 17: Partnerships to achieve the goals

We are in contact with other sustainability activists on the RUB campus. These include the RUB student sustainability forum and the central sustainability office at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

In order to exchange ideas and be informed about new perspectives, we are also in exchange and cooperation with other libraries and cultural institutions in Germany and abroad.