Eat, move, dress: with a sense of community (eng)

Sustainability has become the recurring theme throughout Düsseldorf’s economy. VIVID took a look around the city’s trade and business sectors.

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It starts with the very ground North-Rhine-Westphalia’s capital is built on – sustainability is central to Düsseldorf’s city planning. The development programme ’Raumwerk D’ is looking to answer questions such as: How do we progress Düsseldorf’s rapid growth in a balanced and blended way? How can we make it greener at the same time? And how can we reduce traffic or make it more sustainable? A number of businesses are already offering several exemplary solutions. ABC Logistik’s concept ’Incharge’ for example consolidates existing strands of goods movements by making only one delivery daily to the city’s businesses which are taking part in the programme – and that by electric vehicle. This way emissions and inner-city traffic are being reduced. The energy company Uniper is currently dealing with mobile charging stations for electric cars through their project MOVE: “Our mobile charging stations generate enough power for a range of 100km within ten minutes. They are fed through batteries, so no power network is necessary. The batteries themselves are charged at central network junctions and can also be used as power banks,” explains Georg Oppermann, press officer for Uniper. MOVE can be used at concerts and festivals as well, but also for restaurants, petrol stations, supermarkets and in town and community settings. Climate friendly mobility is just as important to the transport service CleverShuttle and eddy, the e-scooters provided by Düsseldorf’s public utility company Stadtwerke. Hydrogen, the technology of the future, is also a hot topic in the city and is already available at public filling stations through Air Liquide.

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“For us sustainability also means an organic company growth,
by the way.”

The possibly best known example for sustainable architecture in Düsseldorf has to be ’Kö-Bogen 2’, designed by ingenhoven architects. The building’s exterior is decorated with a hornbeam hedge measuring no less than 8km, which makes ’Kö-Bogen 2’ Europe’s largest green facade. It improves the micro climate of the city and strongly illustrates Düsseldorf’s commitment to the fight against climate change. A bit further north, close to the airport, another flagship complex – the EUREF-Campus Düsseldorf – is being constructed. Just like a laboratory dealing with real world components the CO2 neutral campus is aimed to get together start-ups, established businesses and research facilities. This space is to become the ’international showcase of the energy revolution’.

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USustainable architecture also means the preservation of older building stock according to Annelen Schmidt, managing director of the architecture and development business Nidus, founded in 2016. “Older buildings are basically in quite good shape in Düsseldorf,” she says. Annelen Schmidt, Ana Vollenbroich and their team are particularly enamoured by buildings from the 1950s due to their ’certain lightness’. Nidus is currently redeveloping an apartment building (dating from 1955 and situated in the Zoo-quarter) which had originally been designed by the famous Düsseldorf architect Bruno Lambart. They have already sustainably refurbished a former industrial fittings and fixtures building in the Oberbilk area and turned it into an office building. “We feel that sustainability also means an organic growth of the business – slowly, but healthily and re-financed through projects,” says Schmidt.

It is possible to promote sustainability in our daily lives through our own behaviour as consumers. Dotted all around the city there are lots of initiatives and offers promoting sustainability as part of our daily living, for example vegetarian or vegan delivery services or a number of refill shops, repair cafes and public gardens to grow your own veg and fruit in.

Leading the development of sustainable food-solutions is Düsseldorf’s trade giant METRO. Its business unit NX-Food has been testing innovative approaches such as vertical farming, food sources like insects or utilising 3D printers, and it also supports other successful start-ups at the same time. In March 2019 METRO was also one of the founding members of the German Association of Alternative Sources of Protein, BALPro. This association is based at the co-working space SUPER7000, just around the corner from Foodhub NRW and lots of other food start-ups. Fabio Ziemßen, director of Food Innovation at METRO, is head of the association. He says: “Transparent and clear information about non-conventional protein sources, for example plant-, algae- or fungus-based, is being made available to our members by our expert networks”. Ziemßen has also noticed that this is no longer a niche topic and that the interest of consumers is increasing steadily. “We are currently experiencing the transformation into an alternative universe with regards to food.”

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Another widely known business based in Düsseldorf has committed itself specifically to reduce food waste. Düsseldorf Messe, the city’s exhibition centre, initiated the SAVEFOOD programme back in 2011 in conjunction with the world food organisation FAO and the UN. The aim was to bring together people from the world of economics, politics and science and to come up with sustainable ways to stop food products from spoiling and going to waste. And an increasing number of catering establishments, supermarkets, cafes and hotels are joining the Danish food start-up ’Too Good to Go’, which offers surplus groceries to be purchased at a reduced rate instead of going to landfill.

Düsseldorf is also a hot location within the fashion industry and more and more start-ups, businesses and initiatives have begun to deal with the topic of sustainability within fashion. The Department for Economic Development is heavily invested in bringing everyone together, to offer support and create platforms to present and share thoughts and findings. The event organisation ’the eco experience’ was conceived this way with the Department being its cooperation partner. In November 2019 people were able to experience sustainable fashion in Düsseldorf through fashion markets, talks and workshops at a location measuring more than 1,000 square meters. And in 2018 the global movement ’Fashion Revolution’ came to Düsseldorf (please see page 54), commending everyone who wants to promote and support an ethical and sustainable future in fashion through talks, discussion platforms and film screenings.

Across many business sectors one thing has become apparent – the change towards a more sustainable future is possible – and lots of businesses and initiatives in Düsseldorf are already showing how it’s done. • 


Questions about sustainability to ... 

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... Hans Jürgen Hohnen, former State Secretary. He has over 40 years of experience in leading positions in police authorities, regional councils and ministries. Today he is managing director of the consulting firm Reconcilia, which supports companies, institutions and administrations in crisis management and resilience. 

How do you proceed as a consultant in these times?

Currently, we are mainly identifying the infection risks of the pandemic. We analyse core processes and risks in the company and develop ways to enable our clients to fully resume business life and return to a “new” normality faster and, above all, more safely. In parallel, we prepare them for new crises. I believe there is a growing understanding among companies that careful crisis management is essential today. 

To what extent can and should a company today position itself in a fundamentally resilient and at the same time sustainable manner in order to arm itself against crises in the best possible way? And what could be the first steps along this path? 

An entrepreneur should first identify what is most valuable in and for the company. Then it is necessary to investigate what could endanger these “crown jewels”. This could be dependence on a supply chain or a supplier, the risk of a loss of staff due to illness, sabotage of production or IT. In this context, resilience and thus sustainability means not risking shutdown or even ruin due to a lack of prevention. • 

Reconcilia GmbH
Büro Korschenbroich
Raderbroich 143
41352 Korschenbroich
Germany
www.reconcilia.de


Words: Tom Corrinth 
Pictures: PR