EBS Students Develop Sustainable Concepts for Local Parking Areas

How can large, paved parking lots be transformed into climate-resilient, ecologically valuable and attractive spaces? Students from the three universities explored this question as part of the project "Rethinking Parking Lots". The initiative was launched by the Sustainability Office of Geisenheim University together with Dr Marcus Kreikebaum, Lecturer in Ethics and Service Learning at EBS Business School. The challenge took place on 30 October 2026 at the EBS Campus in Oestrich-Winkel.

The event was organised as part of the Rhein-Nahe Alliance (nRNA), a collaboration between the three universities in the field of sustainability. Within five hours, the interdisciplinary teams developed sustainable concepts for the municipal Molsberger parking lot and the ALDI SÜD parking lot in Oestrich-Winkel. Their proposed solutions combined ecological, technical and economic perspectives.

EBS Students Represented in Both Winning Teams

The first prize of €300 went to the team "Fläche & Freiraum", consisting of Louis Schenkel and Mark Wathuta from EBS Universität and Ali Asad from TH Bingen. Their concept for redesigning the ALDI parking lot impressed the jury in particular through its balanced consideration of the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social.

Second place also went to a team including EBS students: Julian Hofmann and Felix Mocken from EBS Universität, together with Lara Guthmann from Geisenheim University and Isabelle Schmid from TH Bingen, developed a concept for the Molsberger parking lot under the team name "Asphalt & Aufbruch". In recognition of their work, the jury awarded an additional second prize of €200.
 

The challenge demonstrated how cross-university collaboration and the combination of different disciplines can lead to practical solutions for local sustainability challenges.