Sustainability at the University of Mannheim

Since 2012, the University of Mannheim has covered 100 percent of its power demand from renewable energy sources and thus saves 60 percent of CO² (4,500 tons) annually.

Both the rooms in the Schloss and in the other buildings on campus are heated to 100 percent by district heating, 99 percent of which is obtained from cogeneration of heat and power (CHP). As cogeneration uses waste heat to generate heat, hardly any additional greenhouse gases are produced during production.

The University of Mannheim also relies on energy from photovoltaic systems: existing new buildings are retrofitted in cooperation with Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg, and future new buildings will be equipped with photovoltaic systems from the outset.

Since 2011, the University of Mannheim has been continuously developing and enhancing its energy management. Energy monitoring and building management systems are used to regularly control and evaluate energy consumption on campus. For electricity and heat consumption, for example, electronically readable meters have been installed that do not only record energy consumption for the building as a whole, but also for individual floors and utilization units.

Based on this, the adopted energy-saving measures have significantly reduced the energy consumption and costs of the University of Mannheim in recent years. This way, the university saves 70,000 to 100,000 kilowatt hours and 40 tons of CO² annually.

In recent years, the university has adjusted the operating time of the heating, cooling, and ventilation systems to the actual room temperature: in the lecture halls, for example, presence detectors and CO² monitors were installed in order to ensure that the ventilation systems are only in operation when they are actually needed.

In addition, half of the unregulated heat pumps have been replaced by highly efficient energy-saving heat pumps so far.

In case of renovations and when new buildings are constructed, the university installs heat recovery and energy-saving free cooling systems. For the new building of the University IT in A5, for example, it is envisaged to install innovative cooling solutions for the machine rooms and to benefit from waste heat by using heat recovery systems.

Exceeding the legal provisions stipulated in the German Energy Conservation Regulations (Energieeinsparverordnung, EnEV) of 2014, both the university and the Land of Baden-Württemberg, in their function as real estate developers, aim at implementing highest energy-efficiency standards in all construction plans for state-owned buildings.

For example, the energy performance of the building for research and teaching in B6, which has been financed by the university, is 40 percent higher than required by the EnEV. Moreover, the energy yield of the photovoltaic system covers about 15 percent of the electric power demand for the building.

High energy standards will also be implemented in the construction plans for the new buildings around the Friedrichspark, including the construction of the building envelope according to passive house standards, sustainable constructing with the objective of achieving at least a “silver” building certification according to the Assessment System for Sustainable Building (Bewertungssystem Nachhaltiges Bauen, BNB), the partial on-site coverage of the energy demand, e.g. by the internal use of PV-gains from photovoltaic systems, as well as the implementation of technical monitoring and energy management to optimize the buildings during regular operations.

Special challenges arise with regard to the Schloss, which has the status of cultural property: taking into consideration the requirements regarding the protection and preservation of historic buildings, energy measures with respect to the shell of the building can unfortunately not be implemented easily or are not possible at all.

There are also good news on lighting: the proportion of LED lighting in all university buildings is at 20 percent already and even is to increase further. In corridors, washrooms, and basements, lamps will be gradually replaced by LED lighting wherever this is technically feasible. In these parts of the buildings, presence detectors will avoid unnecessary operating times.

95 percent of the paper that the print office (Hausdruckerei) of the University of Mannheim uses for standard prints is made from recycled paper fibers. Furthermore, the university has significantly reduced the amount of printed circulars and replaced them by large e-mail distribution lists. Since 2012, thanks to the digital coordination of committees and bodies, documents for the meetings of the university bodies have been forwarded electronically.

The university has a small vehicle fleet consisting of only four vehicles that may almost exclusively be used for transporting material and equipment. In April 2021, an electric car was purchased for transporting the mail, replacing an older vehicle with a combustion engine.

Current or future (energy saving) projects include:

• the continued switching from the old lighting system to LED lighting,
• the installation of movement sensors in corridors and staircases wherever this is technically feasible,
• the further replacement of unregulated heat pumps by high-efficiency heat pumps,
• the retrofitting of old buildings and the equipment of new buildings with photovoltaic systems,
• creating awareness among both employees and students for a more sustainable and environmentally conscious behavior on campus.