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With the Thinking Green initiative, the TUM Global & Alumni Office wants to create more awareness for sustainable action and to highlight the many opportunities for environmentally friendly engagement. Image: Jana Jokisch / TUM

Coral farming in the Mexican Caribbean: While he was studying abroad, TUM student Christopher Chvalina got involved with a coral nursery. Image: Private

Larissa Böhrkircher was in Rotterdam via Erasmus+ for an internship. You can get to know the country and its people particularly well by bike – and that's not just true in the bike-friendly Netherlands. Image: L. Böhrkircher / TUM

Travel environmentally friendly in your host country and experience its culture: At 110 km, Stockholm's Tunnelbana is considered the world's longest art gallery. Image: Franziska Zhu / TUM

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Climate-friendly stay abroad – Thinking Green

In the light of climate change, the question arises for many of us: How can the desire for study and practical experience abroad be reconciled with the will to act in an environmentally responsible manner? We have compiled information and tips on this question for your further research. For some exchange programs there is additional financial support. In addition, your commitment should be rewarded: Show us how sustainable you make your stay! The best contributions will be published on this page.

  • Stays within Europe
  • Erasmus+ Award
  • Thinking Green Travel Stories
  • Worldwide stays
  • Green engagement on site

According to the climate protection organization Atmosfair, scientists assume a climate-friendly annual budget of 1.5 tons of CO2 per person. International exchange can quickly increase the climate footprint. For example, one of our exchange students from Costa Rica consumes three tons of CO2 on a single flight to Germany. With the Thinking Green initiative, the TUM Global & Alumni Office wants to create more awareness for sustainable action and to highlight the many opportunities for environmentally friendly engagement.

Table with CO2 consumption on different travel routes and with different means of travel
Comparison of CO2 consumption for intra-European travel by train, car, and plane. Source: TUM student council Umweltlifeguide

Stays within Europe

By avoiding air travel, participants in the Erasmus+ program can make a significant contribution to environmental protection and thus also to the implementation of the European Green Deal: organize your trip by train, bus, or carpool. This may take longer, but it gives you the chance to make stopovers and thus arrive at your destination in a relaxed and peaceful manner. 

And on site? It's best to take public transportation or ride your bike! The easiest way to get around quickly and with low or zero emissions.

On the following platforms you can learn how to plan your trip by train or bus easily and inexpensively:

  • Interrail Railway map
  • Interrail Pass for Erasmus
  • Erasmus by train
  • Interrail night trains
  • Trainline – Rail and bus travel within Europe
  • Environmental lifeguide (Umweltlifeguide) of the TUM student council

Green grants for TUM outgoing and incoming students

Erasmus+ Green Travel Grant

Environmentally friendly travel is rewarded: students who travel green can receive additional funding for up to six days of travel. Learn more

Two TUM students during a stopover of their train in wintry landscape
Christian and Agnes were in Korea via TUMexchange: For their return trip, both have ruled out a long-haul flight – and were able to collect a lot of great memories over the course of six weeks. Image: Christian Leib / TUM

Erasmus+ Award

With the Erasmus+ Award we additionally reward environmentally friendly travel to your Erasmus+ destination and back home again.

Simply send us photos and a short report or link to your blog about your green journey by train, bus, or bike.

We select the most beautiful examples at the end of each winter and summer semester and award them with lump sums of 300 to 500 euros – depending on the distance.

Submit your Green Travel Story via TUM Wiki 

Thinking Green Travel Stories

In the Thinking Green Travel Stories, we feature stories of TUM outgoing and incoming students who gave some thought to their carbon footprint before their stay abroad and traveled in an environmentally friendly way. Get inspired!

Thinking Green Travel Stories - Teaser with an example story
Infographic CO2 calculation of a flight and corresponding climate footprint
Example of the CO2 consumption of an exchange student for a one-way flight from her home country Costa Rica to Munich. Source: Atmosfair

Worldwide stays

Do not decide lightly to embark on stays abroad, especially in more distant regions. Considering the high fossil consumption of such journeys, we advise you to plan appropriately long and substantial stays.

We recommend at least 100 days per 10,000 kilometers. For a flight from Munich to Beijing, for example, this would mean spending three months there. If possible, book direct flights or flights with as few stopovers as possible.

To get an idea of your CO2 consumption and other climate-damaging emissions and to find alternative travel options, we recommend one of the following calculation platforms:

  • Erasmus Goes Green
  • EcoPassenger
  • Carbon calculator of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
  • Atmosfair flight emissions calculator
  • WWF environmental footprint calculator

Of course, avoiding or reducing flights is the most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint. However, by offsetting your CO2 consumption, you can ensure that CO2 is saved at another level for flights that cannot be avoided.

Support climate protection projects, compensate CO2 emissions

When selecting providers, we recommend paying attention to strict selection and monitoring standards, such as the CDM Gold Standard. These guarantee, among other things, that CO2 is demonstrably saved and that the project only became profitable and thus feasible through the provider's subsidies.

Below you will find some examples of German and international providers.

  • Atmosfair
  • Myclimate
  • Primaklima e.V.
  • South Pole

Avoid intermediate flights back home and domestic flights in the host country during your stay abroad. Use trains, buses, or carpools to get to know the country and its people in a much better way.

Participate! Engage, inspire, win

Send us links to blogs, photos, Instagram stories, or video clips about your climate-friendly travel to your worldwide study or internship abroad – or about your involvement in sustainable projects or events. We'll publish the coolest entries here and award them with vouchers worth up to 50 euros for sustainable stores. Contact

Green engagement on site

Take green courses at the partner university

Two people standing in a grain field with a tablet

Look explicitly for green courses in the course catalog and take advantage of the opportunity to learn about completely different approaches to environmental protection or sustainable economic cycles during your stay abroad.

TUM, for example, offers the Sustainable Management and Technology degree programs at the Straubing campus and Sustainable Resource Management at the TUM School of Life Sciences in Freising. Further green study programs

Engage in sustainable initiatives

Plant a Seed: Kick-Off | TUMinside

More Info

During your stay abroad, use your skills, wealth of ideas and motivation to help shape a world that continues to be worth living in and share this with other students from around the world.

At TUM, one way to get involved is to join the Environmental Student Representation (Asta Umweltreferat), which has been working for many years to increase the presence of the environment and sustainability in teaching and campus life.

Learn about the host country's green habits

Young hipster standing in front of bushes carries Save The Earth jute bag over his shoulder

Whether it's a study program, an internship, or further education: A stay abroad becomes truly complete when you get to know the country and its people up close. In addition to the language, food, and culture, you can also discover other ways of behaving and measures to protect the environment. Waste separation, deposit system, cloth bags instead of plastic bags – how do things work in your host country? Pay attention to this consciously and incorporate the experiences into your everyday life in the best sense after your return.

TUM Without Borders

TUM International Development Cooperation, Waterwheel Project in Nepal

Through the TUM Without Borders scholarship program, researchers, students, and employees of TUM address global social challenges, such as climate change or the lack of energy or health care.

Their commitment contributes to the sustainable improvement of global economic, social, and ecological conditions.
 

 

Learn more about TUM Without Borders

More ideas for eco-friendly travel and green trips abroad can be found at the Sustainability dossier of the initiative Studieren weltweit (only available in German). 

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TUM Global & Alumni Office

Technical University of Munich
Arcisstr. 21
80333 Munich
Germany

Contact

Angelika Weindel
Angelika Weindel, Dipl.-Betriebsw. (FH)

thinking-green(at)tum.de

Thomas Bergmann
Thomas Bergmann, M.A.

thinking-green(at)tum.de

Sustainability­
initiatives at TUM

  • Environmental Student Representation
  • Student initiatives
  • Enactus e.V. 
  • Green Office Straubing
  • Sustainability Award
  • Sustainability Office

Digital learning formats

You don't necessarily have to travel to obtain further education at an international level. Take advantage of the wide range of online offerings both at TUM and at our partners, such as

  • MOOCs at TUM
  • EuroTeQ course catalogue
  • Montgelas Workshops for employees
  • Privacy
  • Imprint
  • Accessibility