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04/03/2020 | Porträts und Geschichten

Taking stock for the common good

In a seminar, students helped companies from the region to prepare a common good balance sheet

Imke-Marie Badur heads the Service Learning department

Not sitting in the proverbial ivory tower, but actively making knowledge from the university useful for society - this is the guiding principle that the University of Kassel has been committed to since its founding. One outstanding example of this is the service learning seminars that the university has been offering since 2011. In these seminars, students develop their knowledge based on very real tasks.

"To do this, either institutions approach us or we approach them specifically to cooperate in a concrete project," reports Imke Marie Badur, who established and still heads the Service Learning department. "The important thing here is that the practical engagement projects serve the common good."

Among students, these seminars are met with great interest. For example, Prof. Dr. Christian Herzig, who offered a service learning seminar at the university's Witzenhausen location last summer semester, reports a great rush: "We had originally planned the seminar for 20 participants and then increased it to 28 - but even then we had to draw lots for the places at the end."

The title of the event was "Responsible Corporate Governance in the Agrifood Sector" - specifically, the seminar was about creating a Common Good Balance Sheet for companies; the final voting round took place in early December 2019. The common good balance sheet is at the heart of the common good economy - this concept, known as GWÖ for short, has attracted a lot of attention in recent years.

 

The goal is an alternative economic model

"The goal of the common good economy is to establish an alternative economic model that no longer focuses on growth and competition, but instead rewards cooperation and common good benefits," Herzig describes.

The mastermind behind the common good economy is the Austrian Christian Felber - he was also a guest in Kassel as part of the service-learning seminar and gave a much-attended lecture together with Herzig, head of the Management in the International Food Industry department. About a year ago, a regional group was founded in Kassel. It was the initiator for the discussion of GWÖ in the service-learning seminar and approached the companies for the pilot project.  

The students were enthusiastic about the content of the seminar, Herzig describes. "We supported a total of seven pilot farms from the agriculture and food industry in Kassel, Witzenhausen and Göttingen with student small groups to create a common good balance sheet and process the collected data in the form of a common good report." A total of 20 topics had to be considered for the common good balance sheet, including topics such as human dignity, solidarity and justice, ecological sustainability, and transparency and co-decision. Points are to be awarded in each of the topic areas - in the end, a maximum of 1,000 points can be achieved. Herzig: "For me, however, the points scored by companies are of secondary importance; far more important are the internal thought-provoking impulses and opportunities for reflection that the examination of the topics provides."

According to its own information, the GWÖ movement now has around 11,000 supporters worldwide. Around 500 companies have had their accounts drawn up in accordance with the GWÖ standards, and cities and municipalities also use the instrument to anchor a sustainable economic approach in a verifiable manner.

For Imke-Marie Badur, Prof. Herzig's seminar represents an ideal example of how service learning can become a win-win-win situation for all involved: "The companies were grateful to receive support in this rather complex process, while the students were able to put their theoretical knowledge directly into practice and also gained insights into a possible professional field, as potential sustainability consultants. The seminar helped the members of the GWÖ group in Kassel to spread the idea of GWÖ further and to expand their network."

 

Information on service learning:
www.uni-kassel.de/go/service-learning

On the common good economy:
www.ecogood.org/de