Sustainability in social institutions and non-profit organisations - examples, guidelines, assistance

Examples and inspiration as well as checklists and guidelines are very useful for orientation on the path to sustainability in social organisations. We are aware of this. In our work, we regularly use best practices and frameworks relating to sustainability to get people excited about the topic and provide guidance on how to proceed. In this blog post, we want to share our knowledge. To do this, we want to provide easy-to-use tools and examples for social organisations and non-profit institutions to help them develop sustainably.

In this article we summarise for you:

• Positive examples and best practice to make social institutions tangible
• Information and teaching material for sustainability
• Orientation and guidelines for sustainability for social organisations and sustainability in the social association

We are constantly updating this collection. We will be adding more areas of the social sector and more examples of different non-profit organisations in the future. Initially, we are starting the collection with the following areas.

Contents

• Sustainability in kindergartens and daycare centres
• Sustainability in schools
• Sustainable care, sustainability for social organisations

For more Sustainability in the office, in administration or in advice centresit is worth taking a look at our previous collection: Sustainability in the office - 26 tips from simple to comprehensive.
We have also created our own guidelines. We use it to one Step-by-step guide for sustainable alignment of public welfare organisations and social institutions to the hand.
Tips and links about Sustainability for the cultural sector, sustainable art, sustainability in sport and sustainable sports facilities are published in a separate article.

Sustainability in kindergartens and daycare centres (daycare centres)

Kindergartens and daycare centres have several starting points for a sustainable impact. On the one hand, the day-to-day running of the daycare centre, i.e. within the organisation, can be more environmentally friendly. There is also the aspect of treating employees in a caring and sustainable manner in terms of social sustainability.

On the other hand, a major lever for sustainable development lies in sensitising and educating children. They will apply the knowledge they learn about sustainability throughout their lives. We have compiled the following helpful links and examples:

• Download teaching material: The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) information portal provides Numerous teaching materials for kindergartens to download ready.
• Examples of sustainability projects in daycare centres: for In cooperation with 147 daycare centres, a practical guide to embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been developed. Illustrated, the digital brochure Versatile inspiration for projectsthat can be implemented in your own daycare centre.
• Social sustainability in daycare centres: Social sustainability plays an important role in daycare centres. On the creative portal for educational professionals central questions and potentials of social sustainability in kindergartens shown.
• Guidelines for sustainability in kindergarten: An entire guide is dedicated to the topic of "Paths to a sustainable daycare centre". For this purpose A step-by-step guide on how to develop a sustainable approach for a daycare centre.
• Comprehensive brochure for daycare centres on climate issues: Here Climate protection and climate adaptation in the centre of attention. Simply described and well illustrated with numerous tips, concrete examples, pedagogical approaches, communication channels and much more can be found in this brochure from the Paritätischer Gesamtverband.

Sustainability in schools - topics, projects, examples

Schools are extremely important when it comes to sustainability in social institutions. They have many points of contact with various environmental issues and social aspects. Energy consumption, waste generation, nutrition, mobility of teachers and pupils are just a few of the keywords. Social aspects are aimed at the teachers, the content (educational programmes) and the interaction with the pupils, and in a broader sense also at the school environment and, for example, the responsible purchasing of teaching materials.
To support sustainability in schools, we show the following examples and assistance:

• ESD in schools: Schools have a key lever in terms of sustainability by training and empowering young people. With a view to sustainability, a whole new field of skills and expertise to be learnt is coming into focus. The corresponding educational concept is summarised under the abbreviation ESD - Education for Sustainable Development. The official ESD web portal offers basic information for this.
• ESD teaching material for schools: There is a web portal for ESD Extensive media centre with numerous teaching materials on sustainability in schools. These are available for Download ready.

• Facts and assistance on typical sustainability topics at school: This is where the web portal "Das macht Schule" helps. The contribution is supported by many helpful infographics.
• Practical projects for sustainability in schools: In addition, the web portal in the Ideas box numerous practical projects relating to sustainability and project templates for schools to implement themselves. They stand for download ready.

[glossary_exclude] [/glossary_exclude]

Concrete examples from schools:

• Project example for climate protection at Schutz: Another source of inspiration for sustainable action in schools is the project collection of the Berlin climate schools. Pupils use this Own climate projects at the school around. The projects can be found on the linked page for inspiration.
• Practical example of ESD at school: Another A positive example is the Presentation of ESD approaches of the Gartenstadtschule Neumünster. The school describes its ESD approach in detail and finds easy-to-understand diagrams for it, which in turn can serve as a model for other schools.

Sustainability at social organisations: Climate-friendly care and sustainability in nursing homes

Sustainable care and climate protection in the care of people

In the care sector, there are many different starting points where sustainability measures have an impact. The often consistently high physical and mental strain on employees and the simultaneously high labour turnover show how important social sustainability is in this area.
On the other hand, ecological aspects play an important role. These result from the intensive care with sometimes high energy and material consumption, provision of living space, nutrition, medical care, mobility of care staff and, fundamentally, from the high number of people requiring care. Small changes can therefore have a very big impact here.

• Example of innovative work organisation in care: An example from the Netherlands shows the Reorganisation of employees and teams in nursing care according to New Work approaches. This rethinks work culture and social sustainability for employees in the care sector. This approach is described in the Change Magazinethe concept is also described in the company blog of Lindera presented. In Leipzig has now also established a German branch founded.
• Climate-friendly care: The project "Climate-friendly care" organised by the AWO and funded by the Federal Environment Ministry provides information about Climate protection in care. The approach thus contributes to the ecological dimension of sustainability. Among other things. Brochures and guides to download made available. There is also a inspiring Collection of best practice Projects relating to climate protection in the care sector.

Tips and assistance for social organisations and sustainability in social work

• Climate protection for social organisations and in social facilities: The Paritätischer Bundesverband has published a Internet portal focussing on climate protection in social work. The page holds Positive examples of social organisations, assistance and current event invitations ready.
• Guideline for sustainability report: A Entry-friendly standard for reporting on sustainability is represented by the DNK (German Sustainability Code). The linked guide shows in 8 steps how a social institution, organisation or independent charity can achieve a DNK declaration (sustainability report according to DNK).

-

[glossary_exclude] [/glossary_exclude]

Sustainability in social institutions: still a major area of development

This collection is constantly being expanded. If you know of other good collections of examples, guidelines or similar, please write to us and we will check whether we can include them in our collection.

This article should be seen as a source of orientation, motivation and inspiration. We think it's important that you still find your own way that suits your organisation. We wish you lots of fun and every success!

It is important to us that you take action yourself and think strategically about how to integrate sustainability into core processes and how to implement sustainability measures in a structured way. How to We have described the strategic approach to sustainability in social institutions and non-profit organisations in detail in another blog post. 

If you have any questions about sustainability in social organisations and are looking for active support, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Further contributions:

• Step-by-step guide for a sustainability strategy in social and community-orientated institutions
• Ecological sustainability in cultural institutions: Tips for action for theatres, operas and exhibition spaces
• Climate calculator in comparison
• Tips, help, guidelines: Sustainability in sport and sustainability in art & culture