We are ready, are you? While the global pandemic will still have an impact on how our students will be studying this upcoming winter term, at the TUM School of Management, we view this unusual situation as a chance to shape the new campus life. An intelligent mix of online offerings and on-site teachings will enable all of our students to attend, whether on campus or virtually. To ensure the health and safety of those who can attend in-person, the university is working on an elaborate hygiene concept. Face masks are recommended as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the mask coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice and thus helps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The new campus life therefore means smiling with your eyes!
However, as the preventive measures to contain the spread of the Corona virus continue, increasing numbers of single-use, throwaway face masks are polluting our environment and are starting to become a problem. In order to ensure our students’ and staff’s safety, help reduce our Covid impact on the environment, and support those who have been impacted most by the crisis: small, independent businesses, TUM School of Management is working together with the social enterprise Township to produce high-quality and eco-friendly reusable face masks for our students and staff.
As one of the strongest universities for start-ups, the promotion of these young entrepreneurial ventures as well as small, independent businesses that operate responsibly and sustainably (two of the TUM School of Management’s cornerstone values) is very important to us. The ethical textile brand Township is a Fair Trade social enterprise that produces a wide range of products, supporting six cooperatives that currently employ 50 women in the communities of Khayelitsha and Manenberg in Cape Town, South Africa. As part of their mission statement, Township works with independent women-owned cooperatives in the townships of Cape Town to produce South African products according to their clients’ specifications and needs. Township engages with clients worldwide and secures regular orders to ensure sustainable growth and development of the cooperatives they work with. They are also committed to environmental protection. As such, they produce eco-friendly, reusable, and durable alternatives to single use items: All of their products are made out of 100% natural cotton, jute or recycled PET fabric.
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