17.10.2022
University must urgently save energy
Dear students, dear colleagues,
I' m sure that you – like myself – have been following the news about the energy situation in Germany intensively over the past few months. Due to the extensive outage of Russian natural gas supplies and the shutdown of more than half of France's nuclear power plants, electricity and gas are currently scarce and expensive throughout Europe. Similar to you as individual energy consumers, the University is currently facing sharply increasing prices.
Unlike all other types of higher education institutions in Baden-Württemberg, universities must generally bear their own energy costs. According to preliminary estimates, the University of Tübingen will therefore be faced with additional costs of around eight million euros in 2023. In the current year, it is likely to be an additional two to three million euros. Meanwhile, the state government has promised partial support. We will, however, still be faced with additional costs in the millions. Moreover, the government expects us to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent.
The German federal government has already stipulated by ordinance that the temperature in normal office, laboratory, teaching, learning and workshop areas be lowered to 19 degrees Celsius. However, this alone will not be enough to achieve the 20 percent target. The President's Office is committed to making the winter semester a semester of face-to-face teaching on campus. Nevertheless, the University of Tübingen’s premises give little opportunity for saving energy other than to exclude certain buildings for study and teaching from use for a period of time. Against this background, the President's Office is planning the following energy-saving measures for the 2022/23 turn of the year as a first
step:
- During the week of December 19 to 23, courses are to be offered online only. This does not include laboratory practicals and similar courses, which must be held on campus. The existing regulations on the obligatory attendance of employees remain in place.
- From December 19 to January 8, the Kupferbau building and the event rooms in the Morgenstelle 3 building will be closed. Examinations scheduled in either building during this time will have to be moved to the Morgenstelle Lecture Center or the Neue Aula building. This is due to the better energy balance of the lecture center and the Neue Aula.
- In order to provide a sufficient number of workplaces for students, the opening hours of the libraries planned for the period in question remain unchanged.
In the coming weeks, the help of all members of the university will be crucial.
Only if you as students or employees actively contribute to our aim, we will have a chance of effectively saving energy. I therefore ask you all: When you are the last to leave a room, turn off the lights. If the room will not be used for a longer period of time, please turn any radiators to position 1 and, if possible, turn off electrical equipment completely. Wherever possible, refrain from using standby mode. This applies especially between December 19 and January 8 as well as on weekends and holidays.
The University will be launching a campaign in the coming weeks in which we would like to work with you to identify additional opportunities to save energy quickly and efficiently. More information on this will be sent to you soon.
Already today, I would like to ask all building supervisors: Talk to your colleagues and find out what options there are on your premises to reduce consumption. This is not just about saving costs. Reducing our energy consumption is also necessary to prevent the utility systems from collapsing this coming winter. And let's not forget: by doing so, we are doing something to protect the climate.
I think you understand that, at the beginning of my term as president, I would rather announce good news to you all than new burdens. As I see it, one thing is important: We can achieve a lot if we tackle the challenges ahead of us with determination and distribute the resulting burdens fairly and with a sense of proportion. In this, both your constructive feedback and your responsible cooperation are crucial. My overriding objective here is to keep the university a place of cutting-edge research, a home of excellent teaching, and a good place to work. Together, we can overcome this crisis as well.
I wish you all the best for the start of the new semester.
Kind regards,
Professor Dr. Karla Pollmann
(President)