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Review: ICA Biodiversity Challenge 2023 | 744 species identified on our campus

In June, the sustainability activities at Hochschule Geisenheim University were dedicated to the topic of biodiversity. Many motivated staff and students diligently identified species and explored the campus in search of particularly rare plants and insects.

From May 22 to June 30, 2023, Hochschule Geisenheim University competed with 17 other European universities in the "BioBlitz 2023" - with the goal of finding out which plant and animal species shape and animate our campus. Together with many helping hands, Hochschule Geisenheim University was placed 7th in the ranking. Thank you very much for your support!

A big thank you also goes to everyone who offered exciting tours and introductions on the topics of wild plants, bird and insect species, as well as plant diversity on campus as part of the competition. We are sure that the participants now perceive our campus with completely different eyes and ears.

The results of the challenge also give us new impulses and ideas for a more sustainable campus design in terms of species protection. In this context, a joint workshop with Bingen Technical University of Applied Sciences also took place on June 22, 2023. Under the title "Inspiration and measures for climate adaptation and biodiversity by and for the universities of Bingen and Geisenheim", we spent an exciting workshop afternoon on the campus in Bingen. A total of 25 participants took part in this first interdisciplinary exchange and spent an enriching afternoon full of exciting presentations and getting to know each other, as well as exchanging ideas.

What we learned? The desires and challenges regarding sustainable campus design are similar, but the implementation possibilities differ. This in turn offers a lot of potential for cooperation - we are convinced that we can learn a lot from and with each other through the technical-planning view of the TH Bingen on the one hand and the horticultural-design approach at our university on the other hand.  We look forward to future workshops and possible student cooperation projects to make our campus fit for the future.

We are happy to receive suggestions on this topic at nachhaltigkeitsbuero(at)hs-gm.de.