Dear colleagues,

the end of the year is approaching, and with it the well-deserved Christmas holidays. Many employees are taking holiday or working from home. In view of the overlap between academic holidays and school holidays in Berlin/Brandenburg, as well as the attractive timing of the public holidays for employees (max. 5 days' holiday, flexitime days and/or working from home) and the generation of the greatest possible energy savings and associated cost reductions, the buildings of Freie Universität will be closed. 

All employees of Freie Universität Berlin should be given the opportunity to either

• take holiday,
• take any overtime compensation days (flexitime days) or
• work remotely

during the period from 20^th December 2025 to 2^nd January 2026 inclusive. 

Please note the following suggestions:

1. During the building closure, the heating systems will be throttled centrally. Please support our joint efforts and turn the controls on the radiators in your room to setting 1 at the end of your last working day. Please organise this within your team and also remember lecture halls, seminar rooms, corridors and sanitary facilities.

Please do not turn the heater down to 0 or * ! 

2. The buildings will be heated again from 2^nd January 2025 and the heating will be turned up by the caretakers and cleaning staff. (Information on how the heating works and the settings can be found here). 

3. Please take a moment at the end of your last working day before your holiday or before closing time to check the following:

• Are all heating controls set correctly?
• Are all electrical devices switched off and disconnected from the mains? Please leave only Ricoh multifunction devices switched on.
• Are the lights off?
• Are the windows closed?

Checklists for offices, kitchenettes and laboratories with further details can be found at the bottom of the page.

4. Special note for laboratories: As every year, we would like to point out that it is essential that all hazardous substances are cleared away into the hazardous substance cabinets/storage areas and that the digesters are completely empty. We kindly ask you to organise this within your team. For further information, please contact your departmental administration and the Sustainability & Energy Unit.

We wish you a happy and relaxing holiday and a good start to the New Year!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us: telephone number 57551 or via schliesszeit@nachhaltigkeit.fu-berlin.de.

Your Sustainability and Energy Management Team