Students in the “Sustainability Management” master’s program are developing sustainability concepts for the 2028 State Garden Show in Neustadt an der Weinstraße.
800,000 visitors, a 193-day run, and a catchment area that extends well beyond the region: How can a major event like the State Garden Show be organized sustainably without compromising the visitor experience? Three student groups from the “Sustainability Management” master’s program addressed this question as part of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practical project led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Doruk Özdemir: “The goal of the project was to integrate environmental and social aspects more closely into the planning and implementation while also taking economic and functional requirements into account,” said Özdemir. What made this project unique was that the recommendations weren’t developed “just to be filed away,” but were commissioned directly by the State Garden Show. “As the client, the State Garden Show defined a series of thematic areas for our students, including an Excel-based emissions accounting tool, a sustainable catering concept, and ideas for optimizing mobility structures. “In addition to the substantive quality of the measures, we used their practical feasibility, the impact on climate-relevant emissions, consideration of material cycles, and the resulting costs as evaluation criteria,” explains Özdemir.
After a semester of research, Excel programming, and creative thinking, the time had finally come at the end of June: Three teams presented their proposed solutions to the decision-making committee—consisting of Prof. Özdemir and the two clients, Dr. Andrea Petmecky (Neustadt an der Weinstraße City Administration, responsible for climate protection, climate adaptation, and sustainable development) and Reinhard Goos (Project Manager for Exhibition & Operations at Landesgartenschau Neustadt an der Weinstraße gGmbH).
“We have set ambitious but achievable goals,” the first group explains in its introduction, setting the tone for the following student teams as well. Naturally, they do not propose strictly vegan catering, but they do suggest a significant reduction in meat-based dishes, as well as a proportion of regional and organically produced products—a requirement already stipulated in the contract as part of the call for proposals. Social inclusion is not overlooked either: “We believe it’s important to offer at least one dish for under 6 EUR so that people with lower incomes can also afford it.”
The second group impressed the committee with a series of well-thought-out proposals for reducing food waste and packaging waste, for sustainable food choices, and for reducing traffic volume. “What I particularly liked here was that the students backed up all their ideas with concrete estimates regarding implementation and resource requirements. This was also very well received by our external guests,” praised Prof. Özdemir. For example, to address the issue of surplus food, they proposed a partnership with the Too-Good-To-Go platform: Through this initiative, visitors could purchase food at the end of the day at a discount—food that catering providers had left over.
The third team took an even more comprehensive approach to the assignment: In addition to a plan to use hybrid solar power generators for on-site electricity production, the students presented ideas for combined packages linking the State Garden Show with sustainable lodging options in the region, as well as event-based bike tours. The ideas were illustrated with appropriate print materials and an initial proposal for a website. Project manager Reinhard Goos gave them his seal of approval: “Their ability to think outside the box impressed me so much that, in a real bidding process, I probably would have awarded the contract directly to this team.”
And so, at the end of the presentation day, both the supervising professor and the guests were highly satisfied: “I found the students’ ideas very refreshing—in some cases, in the truest sense of the word. For example, one group suggested treating visitors who come to the State Garden Show on foot or by bike to a popsicle,” summarizes Dr. Andrea Petmecky, who is responsible for climate protection, climate adaptation, and sustainable development at the Neustadt a. d. Weinstraße city administration. And University President Prof. Dr. Gunter Piller adds: “For the students, projects of this kind are an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience, gain insights into exciting fields of work, and establish initial contacts in the professional world. At the same time, we as a university are also very interested in the approaches developed. Some of these could potentially be implemented as part of our own sustainability initiatives.”
