Social and environmental sustainability –

How WHU fosters social impact.

Social Impact@WHU

Conscious awareness of the world around us –
Continued sustainable development of the School.

WHU aspires to be at the forefront of sustainable entrepreneurship and management and to drive positive change in the world. Sustainability should be a core focus of all activities, from research and teaching to practice and beyond. The goal is to generate new insights, approaches, and solutions that can address the most pressing challenges that society is facing today.

As a community, we are committing ourselves to establishing an environment at WHU that allows us to reach these goals. This, of course, implies that we aim to reach net zero emission targets on our premises and for our operations as soon as possible. As a first important step towards carbon neutrality, we have recorded our carbon footprint of 2022 (Scope 1 and 2) in an official Carbon Footprint Report verified by TÜV NORD CERT. This emissions report was prepared in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) Corporate Standard, established by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Signatory member of:

Impressive 1st place result for WHU's sustainability research

In a new study conducted by the Rotterdam School of Management that analyzes how intensely business schools focus on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their research, WHU has ranked #1 in Germany and #11 worldwide. The Financial Times published the results of this analysis as part of a special report on responsible business education, evincing how important contributions made by business schools such as WHU can help realize higher levels of sustainability—not only for the economy, but also for the environment and the whole of society.

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Environmental sustainability at WHU

"Greening" the campus –
Meeting high environmental standards.

In terms of environmental sustainability, recent infrastructural improvements to the WHU campuses in Vallendar and Düsseldorf enable WHU to meet the highest environmental standards. A sustainability check was carried out to provide the School with valuable insights concerning areas where WHU could make an even larger contribution to the sustainable use of natural resources. Together with the TSB (Transferstelle Bingen) of Bingen University we are looking for ways to create more efficient and environmentally friendly energy in the areas of heating, air circulation, lighting and cooling systems. These efforts are hoped to make our campus greener by reducing the amount of resources used.

WHU offers its employees an array of offers that support environmentally friendly transportation and in turn, increase the attractiveness of the working environment at WHU. Employees can choose between four environmentally friendly mobility options: ‘Jobticket’ for public transport (VRM Job ticket for Campus Vallendar and Rheinbahn Job ticket for Campus Düsseldorf), JobRad (bike and eBike leasing), the use of car-charging devices installed on Campus Vallendar that use 100% green electricity, and e-carsharing with the use of an electric car located on Campus Vallendar.

Since April 2020, WHU has a double charging station for electric cars with 2x11-KW charging power on Campus Vallendar.The charging station is powered with 100% green energy and is there to service the e-cars of the WHU community. The charging station may also be used by the local community meaning also non-WHU members.

WHU began using its first photovoltaic system on the roofs of buildings F, G, and H in 2021. The modules installed provide total power of nearly 58 kWp (kilowatt peak). Most of the energy produced is used by WHU itself. By using this self-generated energy, WHU will be able to reduce its CO2 emission by up to 30,445 kg/year. WHU is planning to install more solar panels on the roofs of more buildings over the next few years. 

Study at WHU

Joining a sustainable environment –
Showing courage and commitment!

All programs at WHU are designed to foster personal growth and prepare our students for a managerial position in the business world. Therefore, an entrepreneurial attitude and responsible leadership are strongly encouraged and supported in the curricula. Ethics, responsibility, and sustainability have been integrated into the curricula and program designs, courses, and other learning formats since the School’s foundation. All WHU programs include semesters or modules abroad, which sharpen intercultural competence and raise awareness about global economic, environmental, and social issues.

Students are challenged on various social impact topics in numerous courses at WHU, such as Creating Social Value , Sustainability in the Food Supply Chain,  Sustainable Urban Transport, Sustainable mega sport events: Oxymoron or reality? , Sustainable Entrepreneurship and New Business Development and Health Economics, Policy and Management.

Next to the undergraduate (BSc in International Business Administration) and graduate programs (MSc in Management, MSc in Finance, MSc in Entrepreneurship, MSc in International Business, Part-Time MA in Management), WHU offers Full-Time and Part-Time MBA programs, a Global Online MBA Program, a Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA program and Executive Education. All the degree programs, as well as majority of the executive programs are taught completely in English.

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Study at WHU

Joining a sustainable environment –
Showing courage and commitment!

All programs at WHU are designed to foster personal growth and prepare our students for a managerial position in the business world. Therefore, an entrepreneurial attitude and responsible leadership are strongly encouraged and supported in the curricula. Ethics, responsibility, and sustainability have been integrated into the curricula and program designs, courses, and other learning formats since the School’s foundation. All WHU programs include semesters or modules abroad, which sharpen intercultural competence and raise awareness about global economic, environmental, and social issues.

Students are challenged on various social impact topics in numerous courses at WHU, such as Creating Social Value , Sustainability in the Food Supply Chain,  Sustainable Urban Transport, Sustainable mega sport events: Oxymoron or reality? , Sustainable Entrepreneurship and New Business Development and Health Economics, Policy and Management.

Next to the undergraduate (BSc in International Business Administration) and graduate programs (MSc in Management, MSc in Finance, MSc in Entrepreneurship, MSc in International Business, Part-Time MA in Management), WHU offers Full-Time and Part-Time MBA programs, a Global Online MBA Program, a Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA program and Executive Education. All the degree programs, as well as majority of the executive programs are taught completely in English.

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Putting theory into action:

Future Leaders Fundraising Challenge

Social responsibility –
Teaching leadership through experience.

The Future Leaders Fundraising Challenge is a one-week leadership course at the outset of WHU’s MBA Program. It is designed to teach leadership through experience, to introduce topics covered in the MBA Program, and instill in students a lasting sense of leaders’ social responsibility beyond their organizations. The students work in teams and face a different challenge every day. The ideas and the funds that the students raise during the week benefit children's rights organizations. Since its inception in April 2016, MBA students have raised around €400,000 for charity.

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General Management Plus Program

Develop as a leader -
Create social impact.

Boost your General Management skills with the General Management Plus Program: By combining the WHU Management Essentials Program with the Capability Program, which we conduct in cooperation with BOOKBRIDGE, we offer you the opportunity to obtain a WHU Mini MBA certificate with 15 ECTS. At the same time, we empower you to transform yourself and your organization with purpose. You will enhance your general management skills in the areas of finance, leadership, strategy, and entrepreneurship. Facilitated by BOOKBRIDGE, you will establish a real-life and fully independent social enterprise in a deprived community during the Capability Program.

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Learn more about the student clubs at WHU that address topics such as sustainability and social impact:

3 Day Startup
WHU Founders Bootcamp

This event aims to foster startup ideas and help partici­pants find their co­founders by connecting the par­ticipants in small groups of four to six participants. The group works over the course of 3 days on their idea and pitches it on the final day. Unlike many other initiatives, this is not a conference but rather a hands­on bootcamp that not only aims to con­nect people but also to create something over the course of these three days. This makes the plan­ning very different from other initiatives where the magic happens on its own, namely by the speak­ers giving speeches and participants networking.

www.3dsgermany.com

Business Meets Tech
WHU's Tech Initiative

Business Meets Tech aims to connect the tech and business world on campus through internal education (two accredited tech tracks in Applied Product Development and Applied Data Science and workshops): particularly by the organization of a 24h hackathon as a pre­event of IdeaLab! (most recently attended by 150 students from all over Europe), supporting the digitalization of processes at WHU: e.g. developing Moodle 2.0, managing VallerLunch, and building a network (connections to top­tier tech universities and monthly events).

www.businessmeetstech.de

Diversity at WHU
Diversity and Equal Rights

Diversity at WHU is a stu­dent­network aimed at fostering diversity­related topics within the WHU Community. The group provides information and guidance for navigating diversity and, thereby, supports students’ under­standing of the topic and the university’s measures for becoming more diverse. The group organizes an annual Diversity Week, which provides the WHU community with various opportunities to learn about all dimensions of diversity, discuss current approaches, and get in touch with each other. In 2020 via a digital format, Diversity Week covered a record number of diversity & inclusion topics, featur­ing speakers such as WHU Alumna and German Diversity Award Winner (2020) Lina Maria Kotsche­doff on “Diversity is an attitude not a management approach” and Apollo CEO Dr. Jörg Ehmer on “The Diversity Discourse”.

www.diversity-at-whu.de

forumWHU
Wirtschaft in der Verantwortung

Every year, over 200 stu­dents from renowned universities in Germany and the EU meet with decision­makers from business and politics on the WHU campus to discuss cur­rent topics from the fields of business, politics and society. The topic of 2020 was “Forward Thinking – The Decade of Change”. The event addressed questions such as “How do we want to shape our future?” And, “What do we have to do today to enable the life of tomorrow?” Speakers included Christian Wulff (Bundespräsident a.D.), Christian Lindner (Member of the German Bundestag) and Dr. Erich Vad (former security advisor to Angela Merkel).

www.forumwhu.com

IdeaLab!
WHU Founders' Conference

The IdeaLab! – WHU Founders’ Conference is one of Europe’s leading conferences on startups and entrepreneurship entirely organized by 12 WHU stu­dents. In it’s 20th year in 2020, it is renowned for offering a platform for the exchange of ideas and visions between students, academics, entrepre­neurs and VC’s. Attendees appreciate the quality networking opportunities and meaningful connec­tions which can be made here, such as the startup DailyDeal, which secured its first financing here and was later sold to Google for more than $100 million.

www.idealab.io

Saidia Consulting
Die Pro Bono Beratung an der WHU

Saidia provides consulting services for socially engaged undertakings, e.g., voluntary and educational institutions as well as social startups. Through the combination of acquired business knowledge and practical expertise, students create further value for clients in a sustainable way. Recent projects include supporting the AMES Foundation in protection of some of the most endangered species in Africa and Children for a Better world in support of preventing negative effects of child poverty in Germany.

www.saidiaconsulting.com

SensAbility
The WHU Impact Summit

This conference has been a unique platform ever since its inception, having hosted more than 250 international students, entrepreneurs, young pro­fessionals and investors. The diverse and exciting program includes inspirational speeches, hands­on workshops, a panel discussion, the pitch battle, and countless networking opportunities. Over the course of two unforgettable days, attendees from all over the world are inspired towards impactful economic behaviour and corporate social respon­sibility. The ninth SensAbility conference was held in March 2019 with the theme “Innovation – Driving Sustainable Consumption”. While 2020 was can­celled due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference with the theme “People, Planet, Profit – Business Redefined” is planned in a completely digital format.

www.sensability.de

SmartUp!
The WHU Entrepreneur Network

The mission of SmartUp! is to foster the entrepreneurial culture and network at WHU while helping its members acquire the knowledge and capabilities necessary to become better entrepre­neurs. SmartUp! hosts regular on­campus work­shops with experienced entrepreneurs, especially WHU founders, and organizes yearly tours to a selected set of start­ups from various industries.

www.whu-smartup.org

Start-Up Academy
by Jugend gründet & WHU

The aim is to inspire students about entrepreneur­ship over a two­day event where participants learn more about the start­up scene through interactive speeches, creative workshops, and networking opportunities. Around 200 local high school stu­dents from grade 10 onwards participate in our event free of charge.

www.startupacademywhu.de

TEDxWHU
Independently organized TED event

TEDxWHU provides a platform for revolutionary, inspiring, and creative thinkers. It is designed to stimulate dialogues through a TED­like experience. TEDxWHU is an immersive, day­long conference with numerous speakers. The con­ference offers networking opportunities between speeches, as well as a Meet & Eat during which participants can interact directly with the speakers. The sixth conference in February 2020 was on the subject “Future 2020 – Anything is possible?”.

www.tedxwhu.com

Tradity meets WHU
Gamifying Education

Tradity works to improve financial education in Germany through: work­shops, trading simulation for students (attended by 15,000 participants so far), cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Education, and the organization of a conference with about 100 participants on finance, banking and programming each year.

www.tradity.de

WHU-Campus for ...
Series

This portfolio of annual conferences professionally organized by WHU students and/or faculty members is poten­tially the most visible sign of extra­curricular aca­demic student activity. Several of the conferences address issues of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

WHU Entrepreneurship Roundtable
An Initiative of MBA students

The Roundtable is a platform for MBA students to dis­cuss business ideas, practice pitching, and receive expert advice about start­ups and entrepreneur­ship. The Entrepreneurship Roundtable organizes world­class events to establish a network and exchange between VCs, CVCs, founders, legal experts, and business professionals. The sixth Entrepreneurship Roundtable entitled “Mobile Banks and FinTech Startups: Transforming Financial Markets” took place in April 2019 at WHU Cam­pus Düsseldorf. Speakers such as Doris Dietze (Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance) and Ulrich Coenen (Commerzbank) cov­ered upcoming trends and technologies and their impact on traditional banks, banking startups and insurtech startups.

www.whu.edu/er

WHU First Responder e.V.
Contributing to a valuable communal living

WHU First Responder e.V. provides qualified emergency services from students who have taken an extensive four­month medical emergency training course, who volunteer as first responders to provide first aid before emergency personnel arrives. Members have treated a variety of medi­cal emergencies since 2003 and can be reached via the usual emergency number 112 for internal emergencies. The group has a direct and immedi­ate impact in Vallendar and the surrounding area. They are financed by donations which are used to purchase medical equipment and maintain active service, including the recent purchase of a new emergency vehicle equipped with a special signal­ing system and extensive medical equipment. The group also conducts three blood donation drives in Vallendar every year.

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WHUSH
WHU Students Help

The aim of the initiative is to “press pause” in a fast­paced world, to be grateful for what we have, and to encourage students to give back. A recurring event is the annual Christmas charity concert, in which students from the WHU commu­nity get together to perform a vivid music program. Donations collected during the last event went to the Koblenz children’s hospital. Regular projects concerning the community in Vallendar are also consistently on the agenda.

www.whush.org

SensAbility - The WHU Impact Summit

THE 11TH WHU IMPACT SUMMIT IN MARCH/APRIL 2023

Ever since 2010, SensAbility - The WHU Impact Summit has been a unique platform for more than 250 international students, entrepreneurs, young professionals and investors. The diverse and exciting program includes inspirational speeches, hands-on workshops, a panel discussion, the pitch battle, and countless networking opportunities. Over the course of two unforgettable days, attendees from all over the world are inspired towards impactful economic behaviour and corporate social responsibility.

Find out more

SensAbility - The WHU Impact Summit

THE 11TH WHU IMPACT SUMMIT IN MARCH/APRIL 2023

Ever since 2010, SensAbility - The WHU Impact Summit has been a unique platform for more than 250 international students, entrepreneurs, young professionals and investors. The diverse and exciting program includes inspirational speeches, hands-on workshops, a panel discussion, the pitch battle, and countless networking opportunities. Over the course of two unforgettable days, attendees from all over the world are inspired towards impactful economic behaviour and corporate social responsibility.

Find out more

Research focus

At WHU there are a number of chairs and centers that focus their efforts and resources entirely on exploring subjects such as sustainability, responsibility, and ethics.

Center for Responsible Leadership

The Center for Responsible Leadership is research-based as well as practice-oriented and serves as a platform for interaction between companies and scientists. Its aim is to provide a basis for teaching and knowledge creation in the field of leadership, business ethics and entrepreneurship, and to create awareness for social responsibility and personal development.

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Mercator Endowed Chair of Demand Management & Sustainable Transport

The Mercator Endowed Chair of Demand Management & Sustainable Transport is a significant addition in the fields of logistics and digitalization. It will provide the managers of today and tomorrow with the knowledge and tools they need to align their business success increasingly with the policies of climate protection.

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Research & Publications

Our knowledge base –
Generating thought leadership through research and publications.

WHU is home to an expert faculty whereby professors conduct a diverse range of projects and studies, regularly releasing publications addressing and answering relevant questions on topics such as sustainability and social impact in all areas and sectors of management.

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In the media

Do you need an interview partner for sustainable topics?
Get in touch with us!

World Snowboard Guide, January 27, 2023 | Professor Sascha L. Schmidt (WHU Faculty)
Technology is fundamental to a sustainable ski industry

Stadionwelt.de, January 26, 2023 | Professor Sascha L. Schmidt (WHU Faculty)
Sports Venues 2019/2020

Deal-Magazin, December 16, 2022 | Katrin Mohr (WHU Alumna)
Katrin Mohr wird neue Geschäftsführerin des Digital Hub Cologne

Handelsblatt Online, December 13, 2022 | Thomas Mersch (WHU Alumnus)
Vordenker Gebäude: Umbauen für das Klima

Markenartikel Online, October 21, 2022 | Professor Nadine Kammerlander (WHU Faculty)
​​​​​​​Normen für Nachhaltigkeit sind hilfreich

Solarify, October 16, 2022 | Professor Nadine Kammerlander (WHU Faculty)
Standardisierung als Hebel zur Umsetzung von Klimaschutz

PR Contacts

Contact our PR team –
Get in touch with our experts on sustainable topics.

Our public relations department is the interface between the business school and the public. For your interviews, we convey experts who will provide you with qualified information concerning various sustainable topics as well as studying at WHU.

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News

News from the WHU community – Find out more about social impact at WHU.

Jury member Professor Arne Strauss evaluated companies active in the field of transport and logistics

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Scientists from around the globe discuss research findings in the field of CSR and their impact on financial markets

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Foundation laid for further climate protection measures at the school

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Forty WHU students participate in international efforts to clean up areas along the Rhine River

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WHU start-up has innovative and sustainable ideas for wetlands

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Published in Transportation Research Part A: Policy

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Business leaders and experts gather at Campus Düsseldorf for sustainability workshop on proposed “hydrogen economy”

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Get in touch

Get in touch with us –
We look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Dr. Nadine Kammerlander

Associate Dean DEI & Sustainability

Tel.: +49 261 6509-780

sustainability(at)whu.edu