Summer School „Sustainability and digitalisation“

In the district of Lichtenfels, the new edition of the regional Summer School "Sustainability and Digitalisation" will take place on two dates this summer: from 24 August to 4 September in Lichtenfels and from 28 August to 8 September 2023, 15 to 20-year-olds can look forward to exciting projects. At the end of the ten days, the participants will receive a certificate from the University of Bayreuth. The first five proud students and trainees received their certificates last year from Lichtenfels District Administrator Christian Meißner. The pilot was a complete success.

UBTaktuell: Sustainability and digitalisation - how did you get the idea for the Summer School?

Prof. Brink: In recent years, the University of Bayreuth has increasingly focused on the topic of sustainability and sharpened its profile in the process. It took part in the THE sustainability ranking for the first time in 2022 and immediately achieved third place among the German universities listed in the ranking. In this ranking, the university is classified in the top 10 percent worldwide in the category of innovation (SDG 9). The University of Bayreuth also achieves very good results in the category "Education" (SDG 4). Here, it ranks among the top 20 percent of universities worldwide. In the interlocking area of "Philosophy & Economics", we have been making a contribution to a socio-ecologically oriented economy for over 20 years by representing the area of tension between philosophy and economics in research, teaching and transfer. Our students are also involved in the bayreuth dialogues and bring the topics to a broader public. Further milestones have been set with the supplementary sustainability course and the You4Impact Social Entrepreneurship project. Green Campus also bundles all sustainability activities. The University of Bayreuth has even developed its own sustainability strategy. There is a lot going on on the way to a sustainable society. The digital transformation is now presenting this development with new challenges. We talk about the twin transformation of sustainability and digitalisation.

Can you give us an example of how digitalisation and sustainability are connected?

The two topics are indeed closely linked. If we look at the ecological pillar of sustainability, for example, CO2 emissions - there are reinforcing and mitigating effects here. On the one hand, increasing digitalisation contributes to climate protection, e.g. by increasing efficiency, but on the other hand it consumes a lot of energy itself and thus has a negative effect on the climate through its own consumption of resources. The twin transformation describes precisely this combined development of digitalisation and sustainability. We see a special educational mission in the twin transformation. In our consultancy concern, which was founded in 2010 out of Philosophy & Economics, we also advise not only companies but also politicians at state and federal level. Together with my colleague Dr Frank Esselmann, an expert in digital ethics and regional management, we have ventured into this topic. Since 2023, we have been managing the "Corporate Digital Responsibility" office of the BMUV (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection) together with the policy consultancy conpolicy.

A twin transformation in tranquil Lichtenfels?

The challenges, as defined in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, are global. However, in many cases they are implemented locally, in the individual countries of the world and even, to stay with Germany, in our regions, districts and cities. We want to activate the impulses for innovation where they have their primary effect: on a small scale. The solutions should be developed from the region for the region and thus increase the attractiveness in the Lichtenfels region and beyond in Upper Franconia. We currently have two million vacancies in Germany, more than ever before, and can thus make a small contribution to securing skilled workers and managers in the region. And our aim is to motivate and raise awareness among young people at an early stage, regardless of whether they are at secondary schools, intermediate schools or grammar schools, are being trained in companies or are studying at our university. Young people are the transformation drivers of the future - no matter which educational path they take. From the USA, the idea of service learning, in which civic engagement is to be combined with theoretical reflection, is already widespread. We need to become more pragmatic.

If I understand it correctly, the participants work together on a theme . How did the young people agree on the topic at last year's Summer School?

The Summer School lasted a total of nine days. We worked in an agile way for long stretches. The welcome and kick-off meeting took place in the large conference room of the district administration office. In the State Vocational School in Lichtenfels, various ideas were presented on metaplan walls, which we had requested from companies in advance. This ensured that we addressed relevant challenges. The needs of regional SMEs came from manufacturing, agriculture, building management and energy, for example. We collected further ideas from students at the University of Bayreuth in advance. These in turn gave rise to project ideas in four areas, such as energy saving in the home, mobility in the region, the production of houses from 3D printing or networking in the district. In the course of the discussion, they came up with the idea of optimising the district's landing page as well. The participants agreed to develop an app for the region.

An app for the region - how can I imagine that?

The participants first analysed what was already available and what could be improved. All of them had regional experience and could quickly assess the situation. Then new ideas were collected to increase the performance of the planned app. For this purpose, a survey was created on the topics of geoportal and neighbourhood assistance. The students surveyed citizens in the city centre of Lichtenfels.

Your own project was the core of the Summer School - what else did you offer?

In addition, theoretical modules on sustainability and digitalisation were taught, fundamentally - but primarily with a view to the project. As the Summer School progressed, the independent project components increased. In addition, we offered modules on project management and exclusive professional coaching by Max Hösl, a former P&E employee. The participants thus dealt in depth with topics at the interface of digitalisation and sustainability, did their own research, evaluated results and developed their own concept for the region. The results were consolidated and presented in a comprehensible way. We practised the final presentation with the participants and worked on improving their language skills and presentation techniques. At the end, the projects were presented at the district administration office.

What are your findings from the pilot study?

The feedback from the participants was very good. In particular, the personal support and the highly topical issues were appreciated. The feedback from the district administration was also consistently positive. We presented the results of the pilot to the headmasters and headmistresses from the region afterwards and were able to further sharpen our concept through the feedback. There were interesting suggestions, e.g. on the time frame of the event, on how to recruit participants, but we also took on board new impulses in terms of content. In addition, the consolidated results were presented to about a dozen local medium-sized entrepreneurs who are rooted in the region. In this way, we were able to take up further suggestions, such as the involvement of trainees in the project. We achieved our goal of building young people's competencies in dealing with these two top issues as early as possible. In order for the twin transformation of our society to succeed, theoretical knowledge should be transferred early and across all educational sectors into practical implementation to solve concrete challenges. This creates a valuable contribution for our region. This is exactly what we succeeded in doing with the first cohort. I am still amazed today how our small team of five participants, who did not know each other beforehand, developed an idea in a very short time, then worked it out confidently as a concept and finally prepared and presented it. A steep learning curve. Now the ball is in the district administration's court - some of the impulses have already been incorporated into the planning.

When will the Summer School be continued and who can participate?

We have worked out dates for two more Summer Schools in consultation with the schools and the companies. From 24 August to 4 September in Lichtenfels and from 28 August to 8 September 2023, the Summer Schools will again take place in Lichtenfels. Pupils can apply under this link https://www.lkr-lif.de/landratsamt/kreisentwicklung/summer-school/10159.Anmeldung-zur-Summer-School-2023.html.