Visit to Freiburg Sept 12 to 19th
Laura and I went on a Quaker organised visit to Freiburg which
has won awards for being one of the 'greenest cities' in
Germany. 30% of their electricity now comes from renewable
sources, especially solar energy and they hope to increase that to
60% by 2050. The centre of the city is banned to cars leaving space
for cyclists and pedestrians to move around freely without
congestion or pollution. We visited Vauban a suburb on the edge of
Freiburg which was designed as an eco-friendly area with low energy
building being mandatory and 170 units built on the passivhaus
principle. 400 residents there voted to build a community garden
and a play area instead of having a car park. Whilst the average
car ownership in German is 60 per 100 households, in Vauban it is
20. This is made possible by easy access to the efficient
tram system. Overall in Freiburg, everyone lives within 500 metres
of a tram stop. The central station acts as a hub for transport of
all kinds ie buses, coaches and trams and people are able to buy a
monthly card enabling them to use any of these services. In the
centre of the town there are only medium sized shops and
there is a ban on large supermarkets in the outskirts of the
city.
The impetus for these changes came from a protest against a plan
to build a nuclear power station near Freiburg in the early
seventies. The protesters were succesful but realized that they
needed to come up with an alternative vision for how energy would
be generated. Hence the focus on renewable energy as well as
ways of reducing carbon emissions through reducing car usage and
developing good public transport and encouraging cycling. These
ideas came from a range of people, including farmers, and business
people. ie it was not just green activists.
In Germany local authorities have much larger budgets than in
the UK and there is much stronger partnership between the public
and the private sector. Both of these were key factors in
terms of implementing the changes.
There is a lot we can learn from what has happened in Freiburg
and we plan to organise a meeting to show photos and talk about
developments there.