Prof.'in Dr.-Ing. Annette Hafner explained in her lecture "Building for climate change and resource conservation - current approaches", which she presented during the kick-off event of Humboldtⁿ, the Sustainability Initiative of the universities in NRW, how we can build in a climate-neutral and sustainable way and recycle everything we use. Now those interested can listen to the lecture online as part of a feature on Deutschlandfunk Nova.

In 2021, the 16 universities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia joined forces with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy to form the Humboldtⁿ Initiative to actively promote the topic of sustainability at universities. Humboldtⁿ sees itself as a multiplier and mediator for coordinating joint research interests of the universities, the Wuppertal Institute and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts as well as other research and science institutions. It provides a joint platform and network for the expertise of basic, implementation and application-oriented sustainability research.

On 31 May 2022, the Humboldtⁿ launch event took place in the auditorium in the castle at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. Participants included rectors, students from the universities of North Rhine-Westphalia and representatives of various NGOs and the business community. The former Minister for Culture and Science of the state, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, also took part in the opening event. New perspectives on sustainability issues were opened up by the four keynote speeches by renowned scientists, including Prof. Annette Hafner with her lecture on "Building for climate change and resource conservation - current approaches".