Dear Sir/Madam,
Dear full and affiliate members of HHU,

The current energy crisis is affecting us all, both at home and at work, our society as a whole and our University.

On behalf of the university management, we appeal to you all to play your part in helping Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and all its members cope as well as possible during the coming months, which will undoubtedly not be easy.

After the recent semesters affected by the coronavirus, which were difficult for us all, our central objective is to ensure that teaching, research and work at the University in the upcoming winter semester can take place on campus. Digital formats in teaching/research and working from home should of course be utilised to an appropriate extent within this framework. Above all, however, it is important that we offer our students the best possible study conditions here on campus.

At the same time, it is essential that we all save energy. Against the background of the debate in society as a whole, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and its universities have agreed to make energy savings of 20% compared with the normal level before the current crisis. At HHU, we need and want to play our part in this effort to save energy being undertaken by society as a whole and meet the agreed target of 20%. This will enable us to demonstrate our goodwill and our ability to save energy wherever possible with a view to the current debate about the categorisation of universities as critical infrastructure with preferential access to energy supplies.

We therefore need to reconcile these two objectives – ensuring on-site operations and saving energy – as best we can.

To this end, the Rectorate has established an “Energy Savings Task Force”, which will initially include the four non-medical faculties (the Faculty of Medicine will work under its own specific conditions due to its role in medical care), the Centre for Information and Media Technology (ZIM) as the central – and simultaneously energy-intensive – infrastructure provider, the Chancellor as representative of the Rectorate and the Facility Management Division. This Task Force may of course add new members and/or invite experts and guests to its meetings where this proves necessary.

In consultation with the Rectorate, work already began on switching off the hot water network and shutting down buildings/large sections of buildings with only a few active users before the Task Force took up its activities. This will enable significant energy savings to be achieved, but these measures alone will not be enough to meet the 20% target. At the same time, ongoing technical measures, which have now been further intensified (e.g. installation of photovoltaic systems, conversion to LED lighting, etc.), will not lead to notable energy savings in the short term.

Consequently, we can only achieve the significant additional energy savings required by reducing building operating times and changing our behaviour accordingly.

In the first meeting of the Energy Savings Task Force on 14 September 2022, it was decided after an intensive debate to issue the following recommendations for building operating times for the period from 1 October 2022. The university management welcomes these changes and will implement them accordingly:

The operating times for all buildings will generally be limited to the period Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., while shorter operating times from 6.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. will apply for buildings 16.11 and 23.40. Outside these periods, the technical systems in the buildings will run in restricted operation mode, i.e. the room temperature will be reduced by several degrees and the ventilation levels will be reduced or the systems switched off. This will result in significant energy savings. Building opening hours and access regulations will however remain unchanged. Those who wish to and who are prepared to accept these conditions may also work at their workplace outside the operating times. During these periods, however, the prescribed room temperature cannot be guaranteed at individual workplaces. All supervisors are requested to complete the requisite risk assessment and define specific health and safety measures for this case. The Occupational and Environmental Safety Unit have prepared a corresponding template, which will be available on the “energy savings” website before the end of this week.

The timers for the ventilation and heating systems in the lecture theatres will continue to be programmed according to demand on the basis of bookings in HIS-LSF.

As the restricted operation of technical systems in the laboratories outside the shortened operating times raises certain issues, including safety issues, we will develop specific strategies for this area in close consultation with the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and announce them as soon as possible.

Otherwise – also from 1 October – longer resp. different operating hours than those set out above will apply exclusively for the following areas, primarily the libraries as study locations for students:

·        Central Library
Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
·        Law Library
Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
·        Humanities Library PhilBib
Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
·        Humanities Library PhilBib 2
Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
·        Science Library
Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
·        Self-Study Centre
Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
·        The relevant areas of the Juridicum will also be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays for the regular mandatory classes held by the Faculty of Law.
·        The Facility Management Division will concentrate the decentralised use of seminar rooms across the campus at weekends at one location as far as possible. Representatives from the Facility Management Division will contact users individually about this in good time.

An intensive debate was held in the Task Force meeting as the entire Task Force and the Rectorate are conscious of the fact that the agreed restrictions are severe and therefore not easy for anyone. Nevertheless, we must face up to our responsibility and accept that there are no less restrictive alternatives that can offer anything like comparable potential for savings. We therefore believe that these measures, which will take us close to the 20% target, can solve the conflict of objectives mentioned above and ensure that it remains possible for students and employees to continue working on site at the University to a reasonable and acceptable extent.

We would be grateful to you all if you were to play an active part in our team effort and arrange workflows in your areas of work and responsibility to accommodate the new operating times and conditions as far as possible. All further efforts and suggestions for energy savings are very welcome.

We will of course keep you updated on further developments. To this end, we have created the following website – analogous to the coronavirus information website – as the central information platform dedicated to the topic of energy savings: https://www.hhu.de/energy

The Heine-Center for Sustainable Development bears editorial responsibility for this site, which includes valuable information and tips on how to save energy. In the future, it will also include binding regulations in the context of energy savings. A functional e-mail address () is also provided, which you can contact if you have any questions; mails to this address will be forwarded to the appropriate offices.

Please continue to demonstrate the confidence and commitment you have shown in the past so that we can master these challenges together, too.

Professor Dr Anja Steinbeck, President                                           Dr Martin Goch, Chancellor