FREIBURG GREEN CITY - SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The City of Freiburg, located in the southwest of Germany, may justly refer to itself as a birthplace of the green movement. "Freiburg Green City" not only ranks high in Germany when it comes to the utilisation and funding of alternative energy sources in urban planning, but also in promoting local public transport and bicycle infrastructure.
The "Green City" label of Freiburg represents a combination of many ideals which compliment each other, and forms a solid and unified communal environmental and climate protection policy. As a "Green City" Freiburg has become a model for cities and communities across the globe. This recognition motivates us, to develop new ideas and work harder towards achieving our goals.
Dr. Dieter Salomon, Mayor of the City of Freiburg
Transport policy is an integral part of a sustainable urban development policy and contributes largely to the reduction of both energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Over the course of twenty years, the passenger count on public transports in Freiburg has tripled because of the employment of attractive fares and modern streetcars. The proportion of individual traffic on the other hand has been stagnating and is even slightly regressing. The proportion of the use of the public transportation system, of bicycles and of walking in the overall traffic has increased. Seventy percent of all traffic routes in Freiburg are distances covered by environmentally friendly means – via public transport, on bicycles, or on foot. The city railway has been exclusively running on power generated from renewable sources since 2009.
The principle of sustainability is also evident in Freiburg’s urban planning and urban design. Between the years 2002 and 2006 the city worked out a land-use plan which was the first municipal land-use plan in Germany to prioritise landscape protection over the development of settlement areas.
The district Vauban with its approximately 5.000 inhabitants is a prominent example of what future urban life could look like. The diverse construction styles of the buildings range from low energy buildings to plus energy houses. The car-reduced district has a car density of only about 200 cars per 1.000 inhabitants. The combination of residential spaces, of the social intermix, of spaces for work and recreation, of local public transport, of local heat supply based on woodchips and combined heat and power generation, of shops and businesses and infrastructural facilities in its compactness and design attracts visitors from all over the world.
50 percent of the city area are nature protection and landscape conservation areas and are therefore excluded from settlement. This includes almost 700 hectares of public green spaces, parks and public gardens. More than one third of the cityscape consists of wooded areas. With over 5.000 hectares of forests, Freiburg is one of the largest municipal forest owners in Germany. Since 1999 it is the first forest enterprise that has been certified according to the criteria of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).
A sustainable policy requires the support and the active participation of all citizens. To achieve this requires more than the right political objectives and a good legislation. It also needs networks to connect the citizenry with science, industry, transportation companies, and other institutions. Therefore it is one of the main tasks of city policy – through information, public discourse, and participation – to incite the commitment of the citizens, and to maintain it. “Green City Freiburg” is not just a marketing term, but stands as a synonym for sustainable policy which is actively maintained by all political parties and interest groups, and actively supported and lived everyday by our citizens. The vision of a sustainable city becomes more real every day through our common action.
