Freiburg is a city of 205 000 people that was founded 900 years ago in the wine-growing area of southwest Germany, close to the French and Switzerland border, the upper Rhine and the Black Forest. During World War 2, bombs destroyed 80% of the old city, but most has been rebuilt in a replica of the old historical style.
In 1992 it has become the capital of the ecology and it was rewarded as a sustainable city in 2004. We have to notice that until 1962, Freiburg was quite a conservative city. But in the middle of the 70's, some important ecological conflicts happened.
In fact, the region of Baden-Württemberg planned to build a nuclear power plant at Wyhl, just 30 km from Freiburg. There was a major protest, with widespread civil disobedience, and in 1975 the plans were defeated. As well, the building of two other nuclear power plants, one in Kaiseraugst in Switzerland, and one in Gerstheim in France, was prevented, and the building of a chemical plant in Markolsheim in France too1.
This raised the environmental awareness of many of Freiburg's citizens. During this time, Freiburg developed a reputation as Germany's "ecological capital", and a wide network of environmental organizations, businesses and research institutes were founded. For example, the roots of the BUND, of the ecological institute of Freiburg, of the political party "die Grünen", come from this period.
In 1986, the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl happened. Freiburg's municipal council decided to abandon nuclear power and voted to adopt the guidelines for a future-oriented energy policy: solar energy was to become the new principle source of energy. That same year, Freiburg became one of the first cities in Germany to establish an Environmental Protection Office2.
Freiburg is the first and the only one city of Germany to elect a Green Party mayor, Dieter Salomon (in 2002) who was re-elected in 2010 for another 8 years.
We will see how Freiburg has become the green capital of Germany and the European City of the Year 2010 for sustainable urban development.
The city of Freiburg is internationnaly know to be a "green city". It is why its policy is mainly orientated to the environment and the sustainable development. In fact, every aspect of the development of the city are thought to be safe for the environment. We consider, the housing environment, the green spaces, and so on.
So, the policy of Freiburg's municipality is focused on things like the renewable energies. We have to notice that its a pioneer city in this field. Plus, the policy in terms of protecting the environment led the development of a wide economic sector (focused on this special issue) which employ nowadays, around 9400 people in the region of Freiburg.
Moreover, because environment is so important for the city, the political party "Die Grünen" get around 20% of the votes at each municipal election and the elected major was from this political view3.
After the second world war, it was decided to rebuilt Freiburg without altering the city's character. Planners of public spaces use the natural stone surfaces traditional to Freiburg in designing road.
In 1969 Freiburg launched its first integrated traffic management plan and cycle path network. The plan which aims to improve mobility while reducing traffic and benefiting the environment, is updated every 10 years. It prioritizes traffic avoidance and gives preference to environment-friendly modes of transport such as walking, cycling, and public transit.
All major urban development decisions follow the concept of preventive traffic avoidance. The aim is to design a compact city that can be crossed quickly and includes strong neighborhood centers4.
Today the tramway network comprises 30 km and is connected to 168 km of city bus routes as well as to the regional railway system. 70% of the population lives within 500 meters of a tram stop.Besides working to make public transport convenient, fast, reliable and comfortable, the city administration also made it cheap.5.
The Region Card costs 47 euros per month and allows passengers unlimited use of not only Freiburg's urban transit but also public transport in the whole region that is to say 2900 km of routes of 17 different transportation companies. In the future, the administration wants to link the city and the region as a whole. The city wants to develop an integrated regional transport concept in collaboration with the Breisgau S-Bahn. The aim is to integrate the Deutsche Bahn's rail network, the tram network, and both city and regional buses into a unified system6.
The bicycle is an essential mode of transport for short and medium distance journeys. Freiburg's administration has developed over 400km of cycle paths, about 9000 bicycle parking spaces ans a "bike and Ride" system were also developed, cycling is promoted with free maps and other information. Between 1982 and 1999, the contribution of cycling to the city's volume of traffic increased from 15 to 28 percent7.
In 1973 the entire city center was converted to a pedestrian zone, after several years of preparation, the city center was closed to all motorized vehicles. An other aspect of Freiburg's transport policy is traffic calming. Indeed, for most streets the speed limit is 30 Km per hour. On some streets cars can travel no faster than walking speed8.
Between 1982 and 1999, the distances driven by motor vehicles decreased from 38 to 30 percent. Compared with other major cities in Germany today, Freiburg has the lowest motor vehicle density, with 423 motor vehicles per 1000 people. Concerning the parking spaces policy,there is a system of financial fees (actually parking spaces are very expensive in Freiburg and there is no free parking), multi-storey car parks and parking guidance systems9,10.
Vauban is a new neighborhood of 5000 inhabitants. It was built as a sustainable model district. Within this area, transportation is primarily by foot or bicycle, it is connected to the city center by the tramway, and all homes are within easy walking distance of a tram stop. In 2009, around 70% of the households had chose to live without a private car; the level of car ownership has fallen over time11.
Beyond the work of the municipality, we see a real engagement of the citizens in the sustainable development. In fact, we know that there are leader organizations but there are also a lot of small and medium firms involved in the sustainable development. Especially, these firms are using renewable energies12.
The citizens also feel individually concerned by the environment. There were many protests of inhabitants to get a common ecological transport card. And finally, the Regiokart was created. Moreover, there was really an engagement under the protest against the nuclear power plant, for example. People refuse the nuclear energy and it reflected on the energy provider "Badenova". In fact, since 2008, clients of Badenova don't use nuclear energy anymore, but electricity which comes from renewable energies by 25%.
These citizens play a role in the triage of the rubbish too. It is really an important issue for the city. There are already taxes, for those who don't put their garbage in the right place, but now, the city want to install surveillance cameras to identify precisely who don't respect this. We can notice that the waste volume per inhabitant is much lower than the national average. This is because everybody feels concerned by the triage and the recycling of the waste. Plus, as another example, a lot of people are using recycled paper13.
Civic engagement is like a tradition in Freiburg. Lots of inhabitants put photovoltaic panels on their roof. But the most important example of the citizen participation in the sustainable development is the following. There is an important network of photovoltaic installations in different places in the city. One of these installations is on the roof of the football stadium. The concept's originality is that these installations are detained in condominium by the inhabitants who have not the surface to have solar installations. So they are pleased to be provider of solar electricity14.
They are also involved in lots of ecological aspects of their city. For example, when the "eco district" Vauban was created, all the points were discussed in work groups composed of partly inhabitants.
"Green" in appearance: Freiburg is one of the "greenest" cities in Germany, not just from the political perspective, but also in terms of nature. The Freiburg communal forest is the largest communal forest in Germany. Its covers an area of 6400 hectares (43 percent of the territory). It has a diverse terrain and ecosystems from high mountains to boggy lowlands. About 44% of the forest is used as an "environmentally appropriate economic forest". Wood is harvested at a rate of 35 000 m3, which is about three-fourths of the amount that grows back in a year15.
The forest is a key element in the Freiburg tourism experience. It is located in the Black Forest; is naturally abundant, with 90% of the area covered as a natural conservation area and 15% is designated as biotope area; and has got an excellent infrastructure, with 450 kilometers of forest paths, sports, adventure and instructional trails, barbecue and playground areas, look-out towers, and lakes16.
Sustainable Forest Management: The forest is, after the ocean, the most important carbon sink to capture CO2, and is centrally significant for climate protection. For this reason, Freiburg has engaged in sustainable forestry over a long period, on the local, national and international arena.
Since 1999, the Forestry Office has been certified as the first forestry operation in Baden-Württemberg that complied with the guidelines of the Forest Stewardship (FSC eco-label), and is permitted to sell timber using this eco-label. Therefore, high standards apply to the management of the forest: monocropping is avoided; there is no clearcutting and no use of pesticides and insecticides. In 2001, the "Freiburg Forest Convention" was adopted. This was the first action of its kind at municipal level. Through this convention, Freiburg recognized its ecological, economical and social responsibilities for sustainable forest management as an ongoing program17.
The remaining 56% of the city forest are nature conservation areas: 50% is managed and 6% is wild. Besides providing wood and jobs in the forestry and woodworking sectors, the city forest has a wide variety of beneficial functions. It:
The forest is a natural habitat for fauna and flora and a leisure and recreation area for people. In the forest, wood is grown and produced as renewable raw material, groundwater is retained and the forest itself is critical for climate protection. So it is not by accident that the term "sustainability" comes from the forestry sector.
However, as an ecosystem, the forest can only be preserved and developed if economic and ecological management work together.
In the local Mooswald, wood can be used to build kindergartens and multi-family housing. This uses local resources efficiently and saves money, as there is no need to import material and also helps to safeguard jobs in the region19.
Freiburg has over 600 hectares of parks and 160 playgrounds providing greenery, recreation and biodiversity. Pesticides are not used, and only indigenous trees and shrubs are planted. The lawn mowing schedule has been changed from 12 times to only twice a year. It has significantly revived the biodiversity in the meadows. 22 000 trees were planted in the parks and the same number along streets.
There are also 3 800 small garden allotments on the outskirts of the city which serve as private oases for the inhabitants as well as a source of fresh fruits and vegetables.
All this green space is the result of deliberate urban planning that wants to keep development compact while accommodating population growth.
For example, in the new neighborhoods of Vauban and Rieselfeld, the homes are four-to-five-story apartment buildings instead of single-family houses, allowing for more green space. In the Rieselfelf district, 240 hectares were designated as landscape conservation area and only 78 hectares for residential development.
Shops and offices are located on the ground floor of the apartment buildings, allowing residents easy access, on foot or bicycle and supermarkets will not be constructed on green meadows.
The urban planning has been participatory. For the new Land Use Plan 2020, citizens form 19 working groups to discuss potential construction areas and can make recommendations to the city council20.
Nowadays, it is very hard to combine the use and development of decreasing space and the need of social and environmental compatibility. In Freiburg, the land use plan 2020 aims to reduce land use as far as possible and includes about 30 hectares less building space than was previously available. The municipal council wants to propose valuable living space for humans and animals while respecting environment and nature measures.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, demand for new housing was very strong. In response to this request, two districts were created, and grow again now: Vauban and Rieselfeld21. In both neighborhoods, all houses are built to a low energy standard; other buildings are heated by a combined heat and power station burning wood, while many of the buildings have solar collectors or photovoltaic cells. The solar energy surplus is sold back into the city's grid for a profit on every home. Old trees were preserved as much as possible. The green spaces allow good climatic conditions and provide play areas for children. Infrastructures were created : schools, kindergartens, youth premises, civic meeting places,market place as well as spaces for recreation and play. In total, Vauban's neighborhood created more than 600 jobs. Besides, neighborhoods are traffic-calmed, that is to say that majority of households do not own a car.
Since 2006, Vauban neighborhood has been linked to the city tram system that is why people are abble to do without a car and use local public transport or their bike22,23.
Rieselfeld and Vauban are now models for eco-districts, and match with the urban strategy of Freiburg, often called a "solar city"or "green city". Eco-Delegations from around the world come from elsewhere to find their inspiration.
As we already mentioned, the region of Baden-Württemberg where Freiburg is located decided to build a nuclear power plant 30km from Freiburg, in the 1970's. This plan didn't be approved by the citizens and many protests had been done. Thus in 1975, the project is canceled letting a big hole in the energy politic plan. This history permits to Freiburg to be called the "Germany's ecological capital" and attracts a lot of environmental organization, businesses and research institute.
In April 1986, Ukraine experienced the worst ecological disaster in the history of human beings with the explosion of the reactor core of the nuclear power plant. This catastrophe shocked the whole world and change mentalities about this kind of energy and the risks associated. The Freiburg city hall decided just after that to change its energy policy and to give priority to the solar solutions.
The objectives of Freiburg concerning the energy were: energy conservation, the use of new technologies such as combined heat and power, and the use of renewable energy sources such as solar to meet new demand, instead of fossil fuels, with the goal of realizing an ecologically-oriented energy supply. In 1996, an aim was decided which is that the CO2 emissions should be reduced by 25% by 2010 compares to the level of 1992. In 2007, a new step was done. The conference "Local Renewable Freiburg 2007" has permitted to take some decisions and a new direction. The decisions about energy were to move from vision to reality with the aim of using only energies which are sustainable24.
Thanks to the climate in Freiburg, the city decided to deal with the problem of the consumption of energy mainly with solar panels. This politic is seeable when you look all the buildings in the city. Actually the city hall takes the decision to put those panels as on the big buildings (the Badenova Stadium, the City Hall, churchs…) as on the smaller building (private houses, school…). Freiburg can count on the fact that it's the one of the sunniest city in Germany with more than 1,800 hours of sunshine each year.
As said before, solar energy is by far the most visible renewable resource used in Freiburg. The city is home to approximately 400 photovoltaic installations on both public and private buildings. The most important are:
Except the solar panels, the sun is used through different ways: Solar thermal to warm the water; solar sunroom; passive solar design; solar cooling; transparent solar insulation which permit to convert the solar heat which hits a wall into useable thermal energy.
However, Freiburg didn't become a Solar Capitol only due to the natural conditions. It's overall thanks to the awareness of citizens about the problems of environment. There, the fact that the economy and urban development could be done with the solar energy have been understood earlier than anywhere else. This particularity attracts a lot of tourists and especially the Heliotrope. This one is nothing less than first building in the world which is totally self-sustainable thanks to the sun and solar panels.
For twenty years, a lot of actions have been made to build a green city as an ecologically settlement of 2000 houses. This is the housing project the most modern in Europe. Fifty houses produce more energy than they consume.
Between 2004 and 2010, the consumption of oil decreased but the one of electricity increased by 3% while the goal had been a reduction of 10%. But this fact is mainly due to the fact that the population increased by 1%/year. Per capita, the consumption had gone down by 1.6%.
The main limit to this project is that the direction took by the city can't become a model for every town all around the world. The politic and the decisions made for twenty five years are very efficient and Freiburg became one of the most sustainable cities on the world. Despite this fact, we can't conclude that the German city is a model and be pasted.
The first point is the particularity of the population. We can notice it from the beginning of the history seeing that the protests organized by the citizen against the project of the new nuclear power plant were very important. After that, when the city hall decided to organize its politics in a sustainable way, the citizens agreed despite the inconvenience it could bring. Another fact is that the life is more expensive in Freiburg than in some others cities in Germany because this sustainable development has a cost. The most important example is the cost of the houses.
What Freiburg has done for twenty year would be difficult to do it somewhere else, especially in Germany. Why? Because this city has become the "Germany's capital of green". And there are reasons for this fact. After the battle in the middle of 1970's, a lot of green organization came to Freiburg to settle down, as a lot of companies working on the green business. Freiburg's economy grew a lot thanks to its reputation. And the growth was pulled by green activities. But none countries and especially Germany can survive without a strong industry. And unfortunately, the industries are often polluting. In one sentence, Freiburg has a growth pulled by a specific sector very sustainable but it can't be the only one in a national point of view.
Beyond the fact that Freiburg developed a very interesting politics but which can't be spread all around the world, Europe or Germany, some difficulties appeared:
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