Sustainable Restart
The coronavirus pandemic has shown that our world is fragile. A sustainable life style and economic approach is therefore more important than ever before – and these aspects of sustainability are already known to be one of Düsseldorf’s special features.
What has the lack of sustainability to do with the coronavirus pandemic? If you look at it in more detail then the answer must be: a lot! This is clearly illustrated in David Quammen’s book ’Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic’. According to him a number of life-threatening infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola, SARS or AIDS have come into existence through the ’Spillover-Effect’: The virus jumped from animal to human. And the reason for this is? Animal species, the host of the virus, are going increasingly extinct, their natural habitat is being diminished, animals and humans are getting more and more into contact. So in this context the coronavirus also mirrors what many of us have known for a while already: our natural resources and the resilience of planet earth are limited and our worldwide network is rather fragile.
Maja Göpel, secretary-general of the German Advisory Group on Global Change (WBG), sustainability scientist and political economist says in her new book ’Unsere Welt neu denken’ (’Reimagining our world’) – which was actually published in 2020 just ahead of the pandemic: “An economic system that aims for constant growth within a world with capped, limited resources is simply not sustainable. We have to re-evaluate what will define the well-being of humanity of the future.” She goes on to say that sustainability is much more than conservation of wildlife and environment – it must be about a more holistic approach aiming to harmonise environmental, social and economic targets in a meaningful and balanced way, so that future generations can have a future worth having. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN alone illustrate the complexity of this (see box next page).
The aim is to implement these UN goals on a more local level as well. Scandinavia, for example, has strong ambitions. Copenhagen is aiming to become the first co2-neutral capital of the world by 2025. It helps, of course, that due to the exemplary cycling network more than half of the city’s population use their bicycle for daily transport. Stockholm aims to source all its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. And in Oslo the proportion of hybrid cars is higher than 50% and fully electric cars are exempt of toll zone charges. Düsseldorf is also trying hard – a local initiative called ’Lokale Agenda 21’ was founded way back in 1996 and since then local residents have worked hard together with the local authority in developing and implementing sustainable projects and actions. It is a local offshoot of the global action programme Agenda 21 which was passed at the UN summit in Rio in 1992. It also inspired the Agenda 2030 (passed in 2015) which lists the aforementioned 17 Sustainable Development Goals. “Over the last years sustainability has increasingly gained importance as a deciding feature of location. We therefore increasingly support spaces like the EUREF-Campus, where commerce, science and politics come together in order to create a more sustainable future,” says Theresa Winkels, chief officer of the Department for Business Development. At the end of 2019 the new Department of Sustainability was founded as part of the Office for the Protection of the Environment and Consumers, and its aim is to facilitate coordination of growth in terms of sustainability in Düsseldorf. Ursula Keller and her team have a very comprehensive task at hand. “We introduce our own ideas and facilitate communication between government and society, so that we can together come up and initiate solutions for a more sustainable Düsseldorf,” says Keller. This includes all areas – construction, urban-and mobility development, social services, the Department for Culture and also the Department for Business Development. One of the successful results of this is the by now well established project ’Ökoprofit’, a programme initiated by the Department of Environment and Business Development. It advises on how businesses can reduce outgoings, increase efficiency in using resources and therefore protect the environment.
What would make people living in Düsseldorf think and act in a more sustainable way? “This depends largely on positive experiences, as a more sustainable city improves our daily life both locally and globally. In order to achieve this, I believe we have to offer a combination of guidelines and see the emergence of people who take the lead on their own accord and become role models,” Ursula Keller says. The department for Sustainable Development is offering exactly these positive experiences as part of the Düsseldorf Network of Education. Schools taking part in this project enable young people to get involved and learn how to turn knowledge into sustainable action. In this context Ursula Keller considers the coronavirus pandemic as a great chance to grow the sustainability movement. “The current situation shows that people all over the world can change their behaviour at very short notice. We should use the momentum to pave the way for a more sustainable future.” •
Helpful sustainability links
www.duesseldorf.de/nachhaltigkeit
www.duesseldorf.de/agenda21/agenda2030
Here you find e.g.,
• a schedule with events, campaigns, exhibitions, online offers around the topic of sustainability as well as insider tips and major events in cultural institutions and event locations
• a participation card for civil society with an overview of committed initiatives and organisations in the city
• information and links on Agenda 2030 and sustainability
Selected sustainability projects
Fair trade
By buying fair trade products, consumers support producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America and make politics with the shopping basket. As an excellent Fairtrade-town, Düsseldorf is exemplary on all levels. An online city map shows, among other things, where you can buy Fairtrade.
www.duesseldorf.de/agenda21/fairtradetown
Edible city
This refers to different ideas of bringing crops into the city as greenery. Urban green is thus also given ecological and economic functions. The advantages: long transport routes, emissions and packaging waste are avoided or reduced, and the appreciation of our own food increased.
www.duesseldorf.de/agenda21/aktuelles/essbare-stadt.html
Sustainable consumption
In Düsseldorf, you can e.g. shop unpackaged and/or fair; repair things, continue to use them or give them away; exchange/share/economize with solidarity; enjoy vegan/vegetarian food and products.
Words: Tom Corrinth
Pictures: PR