Suddenly everything happened very quickly. With the April sun behind us, we stood on the balcony on the 3rd floor of the existing ASH Berlin building and looked at our work. Two small tomato plants peeked out of the wooden planter boxes, which we had filled with sticks, stones, soil and compost in fifteen minutes. Satisfied, we knocked the soil off our hands and gave the tomato plants a good drink of water.
In the weeks and months that followed, the tomato plants grew under the care of Susen Frank from the third-party funding administration department and her shared office (room 341). The tomato plants gradually grew in height, formed inflorescences and produced their first green fruits. Over the summer, the tomatoes gradually turned red and made a small but excellent tomato harvest possible at ASH Berlin.
Greenery as an important tool for climate adaptation measures
The mini tomato garden is admittedly only a tiny project on the way to a highly sustainable and healthy university. But it is worth looking at it in a wider context.
Greenery is an important tool for meeting the sustainability targets set out in the Berlin University Agreements 2024 to 2028 and for climate adaptation measures. The Sustainability and Health department is currently applying for funding from the BENE 2 program to implement a more comprehensive greening project, including rainwater management, at ASH Berlin. The first hurdle in the application process was successfully overcome. In the future, the aim will be to increasingly integrate greenery into university life at ASH Berlin. Susen Frank and her office colleagues have set an example of how this can work.
By greening ASH Berlin, the Sustainability and Health department also hopes to make our university an even more beautiful place. Greenery can support a structurally diverse design of the university buildings and increase the quality of time spent indoors and outdoors. Plants also offer opportunities for (different) aesthetic experiences that can have health-promoting effects.
Next year, we want to continue the mini tomato garden and expand it if necessary. If you would like to join us in gardening and bring more biodiversity to ASH Berlin, please get in touch at: nachhaltigkeit@ ash-berlin.eu.
Read more: "Living sustainability as a principle - be completely climate-neutral by 2045", the interview with Yannick Liedholz.
