Sustainable mobility: Witten/Herdecke University students benefit from new electric car

Witten/Wuppertal. Medicine students commute from Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) to the Helios University Hospital in Wuppertal (HUKW) every day for several weeks for the clinical teaching units in their practical year (PJ) - and put up with long journey times. By public transport, they need around one and a half hours to cover a distance that can be covered in less than 30 minutes by car. So it's only natural that they often opt for the car. To make sustainable commuting easier for them in future and save them long journey times, the UW/H and Helios University Hospital Wuppertal have now launched a unique project: The hospital is now providing students with an electric car that they can use for their journeys.

The project was initiated jointly by the hospital management, Prof Dr Serge Thal and Prof Dr Friedrich-Carl von Rundstedt as Chairs, and Prof Dr Marzellus Hofmann, Dean of Student Affairs at the Faculty of Health. "Students have repeatedly pointed out the problem," says Prof Hofmann. "We are delighted that we were able to find a good solution together." The HUKW physicians von Rundstedt and Thal agree: "This is a sensible offer to creatively inspire the next generation for our practical training centre. Our clinic managing director Dr Raphael was immediately taken with the idea and is happy to make the e-car available to the students."

Promoting the idea of sustainability

The project promotes both better accessibility of the hospital for students and the concept of sustainability, which is a high priority at both institutions. "Both Helios University Hospital and UW/H stand for sustainability, not only in terms of mobility, but also in terms of recruiting employees, for example," says Prof Dr Petra Thürmann, Vice President for Research at UW/H and Deputy Medical Director of HUKW. "We can retain students as future employees through programmes like this."

Five students can now travel between Witten and Wuppertal in the new electric car. With four students in the car - assuming that four students currently also commute together in a normal petrol car - CO2 emissions can be reduced by two kilograms per journey. If the car travels from Witten to Wuppertal and back on 120 days a year, this corresponds to an annual reduction of 480 kilograms of CO2. That's how much an aeroplane consumes on the route from Munich to Berlin.

Further information

An overview of other sustainable mobility programmes implemented by Witten/Herdecke University can be found on the mobility portal.

A joint press release by Witten/Herdecke University and Helios University Hospital Wuppertal.