Biosphere Reserves Institute

Sustainable and Diverse - Our Guiding Principles

Sustainability

We are aware that organising a large international conference represents a pressure on the environment. We have tried to minimise this impact as much as possible. In order to create a sustainable research conference, the following measures were implemented:

• Regional and organic food: The meals during the conference are regional, organic and mostly vegetarian. This ensures that the food has been produced with low environmental impact and respect for animal welfare.
• CO2 compensation: The calculated greenhouse gas emissions of 183 t CO2eq resulting from the conference were compensated via the Kakamega Stove Project by Ivakale e.V.. This project in Kenya compensates emissions in particular through installing efficient clay cookstoves (Upesi-Stoves) at beneficiary households. We received an official Gold Standard certificate proving this compensation.

Democracy, Diversity and Tolerance

In Universities, different people from different countries realise their right to individual development and education. Therefore, at our institution and our events people are valued and respected regardless their race, class, gender, sexual orientation or abilities. Brandenburg's higher education institutions are committed to democracy, diversity and tolerance within a joint position paper. Accordingly, a diversity concept as well as an anti-racism concept have been established for the university's activities.

Goals of our diversity-concept

• Refrain from discrimination and improve the integration of persons with different attributes.
• Notice the differences of all persons without prejudice, accept this and above all, appreciate this diversity.
• Guarantee social justice and equal opportunities for all status groups.
• Benefit of the potential of diversity (optimal usage of the different competencies, experiences and qualification of all persons).
• Increase diversity (e.g. more international students and employees, more women in technical fields, more female professors).

Goals of our anti-racism concept

• Establish systematic protection against discrimination. The measures of our anti-racism concept are intended to raise awareness of (unconscious) everyday racism and to promote critical thinking and action.
• All persons should be sure that they are protected from racist discrimination and that they receive the best possible support and organisation of solidarity in the event of incidents.
• All persons are strengthened through networking as well as racism- and discrimination-critical educational offers in order to escape the feeling of powerlessness and lack of influence and to expand their own scope for action.

According to these goals, when selecting the participants we tried to achieve a balanced composition in terms of world region and gender. Read more on selection criteria.