Presenting the GIZ Bonn Campus

Speaking at the reception, Chair of the GIZ Management Board Tanja Gönner said, ‘Our aim is to strengthen Bonn as a hub for international cooperation. Our large workforce here, three new buildings over the past eight years and an investment totalling some EUR 267 million underscore GIZ’s clear commitment to this city.’

On the way to climate neutrality

Sustainability is a basic architectural principle that runs throughout the entire Campus – from its building materials, energy-efficient heating and green power right through to the interior fittings. ‘With the Campus, GIZ has created a sustainable office complex in which everyone feels at ease and is able to unleash their full creativity – in the service of a future worth living around the world,’ explained Gönner.

Both Campus buildings have already been awarded a gold certificate by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), and preparations are currently underway to obtain platinum standard certification for the Campus Forum.

Workspaces for every purpose

The GIZ Campus offers staff everything in one place and a lot of flexibility in their everyday work. There are spaces for all different kinds of work: large, open co-working spaces, zones for smaller meetings and presentations, an area for break-time and informal events, café-style kitchenettes for impromptu get-togethers, versatile green spaces – and, at the same time, enough closed office areas where people can work undisturbed and hold confidential discussions.

Mobile working was already part of GIZ’s world of work before the coronavirus struck. But the company has used the past year to further expand its digital capacity. Virtual meetings and online events will continue to shape the working environment – also post-pandemic – at the Campus and in international cooperation in general.

Sustainable engagement in Bonn

Martin Jäger, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), explained that, ‘GIZ’s new Campus Forum stands for sustainability and networking, and so for the central objectives of German development cooperation. In its buildings, GIZ is innovatively realising the very same principles it advocates on behalf the German Government around the globe.’

‘GIZ is an important and pro-active partner of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and supports the state with its development expertise and knowledge pool,’ said Stephan Holthoff-Pförtner, North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister for Federal, European and International Affairs. ‘Bonn is a German competence centre for international policy and global sustainability strategies. The fact that Bonn was chosen as the location for GIZ’s new building – where it stands alongside the United Nations Campus, international organisations and federal ministries – is a clear affirmation by GIZ of the outstanding conditions and international diversity here. Once again, Bonn and North Rhine-Westphalia have demonstrated they are an internationally networked hub of science and expertise. The state government is looking forward to continuing our strong working relationship.’

Bonn’s Deputy Mayor Ursula Sautter added that, ‘The GIZ Campus is situated in the international quarter of the City of Bonn, in direct proximity to the offices of the United Nations, international broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Bonn Offices of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Campus therefore not only underlines the central role of GIZ for the international city of Bonn and for German development cooperation, but also points the way in matters of sustainability.’

At a glance: the new Campus Forum building

Covering an area of 28,000 square metres, the new Campus Forum offers 850 workspaces which GIZ moved into in November 2019. Together with the neighbouring Meander Building, which was inaugurated in 2015, this now forms the GIZ Bonn Campus. As at 31 March 2021, some 1,641 GIZ employees were working in Bonn and the surrounding area; 1,484 of them at the Campus. The new Campus Forum was built by the Ten Brinke Group.

With the two Campus buildings and the Academy for International Cooperation opened in 2018 in the sub-district of Röttgen, GIZ has invested a total of more than EUR 267 million in its registered offices in Bonn.