First Sustainability Day of the Max Planck Campus.

Lecture featuring impressive live experiments and a sustainable team challenge.

​​​The first Max Planck Campus Sustainability Day took place on September 1, 2026, in the packed Staudinger Lecture Hall at the MPI for Polymer Research. All employees of the two Mainz-based institutes were invited. Following a welcome and introduction to the “17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals” by MPI-P Director Katharina Landfester, Walter Leitner took the audience on a journey through a lively lecture—accompanied by live experiments—on the topic “Fire and Ice: Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide as Building Blocks for a Sustainable Energy-Chemistry Nexus.” Leitner is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mühlheim an der Ruhr.

Afterward, mixed teams from both institutes took on the challenge of creating something new from the contents of a colorful “scrap box.” Each team focused on one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The result was a series of unique and imaginative creations. The sustainable sculptures will be on display on the ground floor of the MPI for Chemistry through September 15, 2026. Afterward, they will be exhibited again at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.