The Mission

We aim to help Maastricht University understand how changing weather conditions affect employees who work outdoors or regularly travel between campus locations. By listening to workers, gathering evidence, and translating their experiences into practical recommendations, we want to develop an approach that protects people while remaining realistic for the organisation implementing it. Our ambition is to create a worker-informed climate protection model that universities can use to identify exposure, prioritise risks, and introduce effective measures. Ultimately, Climate Care Campus strives to make climate resilience tangible: not just through environmental commitments, but through meaningful improvements in the safety, wellbeing, and daily working conditions of university staff.

The Challenge

Climate change is increasing the importance of preparing for conditions such as extreme heat, intense sunlight, heavy rainfall, strong winds, and other weather-related hazards. For workers who spend time outdoors or move between campus locations, these conditions can create challenges that are often overlooked in general workplace policies. Groundskeeping staff, bicycle couriers, facilities workers, and event teams may face different levels of exposure depending on their tasks, working hours, access to shelter, available equipment, and opportunities to take breaks. However, organisations may lack a clear, worker-informed overview of who faces the greatest risks and which protective measures would be most effective. Without a structured approach, climate protection can remain broad and reactive rather than addressing the specific needs of exposed workers. Climate Care Campus aims to close this gap by helping Maastricht University understand these risks and identify practical ways to reduce them.

The solution

Climate Care Campus proposes developing and piloting a practical climate protection protocol tailored to the needs of university workers. The approach would combine worker feedback, an assessment of everyday climate exposure, and research into evidence-based protective measures. The first step would be to collaborate with Maastricht University and relevant staff to identify priority risks and determine which measures are both effective and feasible. The long-term ambition is to develop a replicable model that other universities and campus-based organisations can adapt to protect their own workers.