Environmental prize winner

Good news from the Ministry for the Environment: Studierendenwerk Trier is one of the three 2012 environmental prize winners in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In her speech, environment minister Ulrike Höfken praised the broad scope of the Trier application for the environmental prize:
"The environmental philosophy of Studiwerk involves numerous individual measures that primarily represent concrete environmentally-friendly acts (e.g. energy savings) and, in turn, are (almost) always accompanied by ambitious environmental communication or education.

A few examples of this are:

Green “stop” signs in a total of more than 1500 Studiwerk apartments to raise residents' awareness of the issue of conservation of resources.
Alongside improving the energy efficiency of buildings, replacement of more than 800 toilet tanks and 900 shower heads resulting in a 45% water saving, 25% heating saving and 20% electricity saving.
Façade-mounted solar panels at the Petrisberg residence under the state-supported project “solar und sozial" together with Caritas Werkstätten Trier – as nice to look at as they are effective and environmentally-friendly.
Upgrading of the outdoor areas of the residences with insect houses, bat boxes, natural grassy areas (=nice to look at) and outdoor furniture (=resident request from the first satisfaction study in 2008)
Annual day excursion ("To-the-roots tour") to the regional suppliers of the Trier refectories with national media coverage (Zeit online)
Commercial kitchen visit ("Refectory backstage tour – 30 kilometres of spaghetti in 3 hours") with LA 21 as part of the “Trierer Zukunftsdiplom” education programme.
Quality standards of the Trier catering companies: eggs from uncaged hens, primarily regional products (with regular regional campaign weeks in the refectories), fish from sustainable fisheries, vegan option at all times, organic bananas from a fair trade shop, fair trade organic coffee (own brand “caffè correct”) from a regional roasting house, glutamate-free sausage from environmental prize winner 2011 Hofgut Serrig, overall: poster and free card series

Overall, the aim is to bring ideology-free, motivational and exemplarily environmentally-friendly conduct closer to students – as the decision-makers of tomorrow – and to communicate the concrete benefits of this as a personal experience."

In his short speech, Managing director Andreas Wagner accepted the prize on behalf of his company and thanked the staff and numerous suppliers and business partners who play a considerable role in the Studierendenwerk's prize-worthy environmental performance.

Keynote speaker Sven Giegold (Green member of the EU parliament) expressly praised Studiwerk's (double) strategy – namely technical optimisation combined with environmental communication and education – and, based on personal experience, highlighted the quality of the vegetarian options in the Trier refectory.