The year 2024 has begun and hopefully you have all had time to relax and appreciate the old year over the winter break and can now embrace the new year with joy and optimism. Optimism is one of the skills we need to take action according to the Inner Development Goals - which describe the focus on our inner development. It also requires courage, creativity and perseverance, and you certainly have other skills that will allow you to take personal action.
The CSR Office is definitely facing the new year 2024 with optimism, because together with you, we have already set so many things in motion over the past year: In the HEP focus group "Social Responsibility", we have now completed over 20 large and small projects in the area of socially and environmentally sustainable development. The HEP project "Mobility Management" ends this year in February and Anna-Maria Reinartz and Moritz Niermann, who have both been successfully involved in the implementation of mobility activities and projects, will unfortunately be leaving us.
Another very extensive field of activity in 2023 was to put the university of applied sciences on a good path towards the common good. We talked to so many people at Fachhochschule Dortmund about the common good and developed ideas from this. On 18.01.2024 we will be presented with the Common Good Certificate and we cordially invite you to this event. The event will take place from 17:00-20:00 in the Kostbar. You can find more details on the CSR Office website.
We would like to take many ideas and the momentum for implementation with us into the new year. We have set ourselves priorities for 2024/25, and we would like to tackle these together with all of you again:
- At the beginning of the year, we are launching a double materiality analysis with the support of VIA student consultancy and the Faculty of Business Studies to find out which topics in the area of sustainable development concern you as employees and students.
- This year, we will connect our first PV system to the grid at Fachhochschule Dortmund.
- We will present the climate protection concept this fall and thus create the basis for further climate protection and climate change adaptation measures. Our experience will also be incorporated into the "Climate-neutral state administration 2023" project and thus benefit all universities in NRW.
- This year, we would like to develop the sustainability strategy for Fachhochschule Dortmund. To this end, we want to set up a steering committee in which all areas of the university are represented. This group is to help shape the strategic orientation towards sustainable development on the basis of the findings developed in the CSR Office. If you are interested in participating in the strategy and have time on four dates this year, please write to us at csr-officefh-dortmundde The first meeting of the steering group will be in February 2024.
And now, to get you in the mood for the new year, we would like to tell you the story of the hummingbird:
The hummingbird and the forest fire
One day, a huge fire broke out in the forest, threatening to destroy everything. The animals in the forest ran out and stared paralyzed at the burning trees.
Only a little hummingbird said to himself: "I have to do something about the fire." He flew to the nearest river, took a drop of water in his beak and let the drop fall over the fire. Then he flew back, took the next drop and so on.
All the other animals, much bigger than him, like the elephant with its long trunk, could carry much more water, but all these animals stood helplessly in front of the wall of fire.
And they said to the hummingbird: "What do you think you can do? You are much too small. The fire is too big. Your wings are too small and your beak is so narrow that you can only take one drop of water at a time." But when they kept trying to discourage him, he turned around and told them without wasting any time: "I'll do what I can. I'm doing the best I can."