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"Municipalities are crucial drivers for the sustainable development of our society," explains Dr. Werner Schnappauf, Chairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE). "All 17 sustainability goals are directly or indirectly related to the tasks of a municipality. The new reporting framework sustainable municipality, the BNK, can be a great help for further progress in the field of sustainability", says Schnappauf.

From the municipal side, there has long been great interest in a tool for good sustainability reporting. Many municipalities have already developed sustainability strategies, for example within the framework of the project "Globally Sustainable Municipality" of the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) of Engagement Global. However, until now there has been no instrument to evaluate the implementation of the strategies and to adjust them if necessary. The Dialogue "Sustainable City represented mayors have therefore asked the RNE in 2019 to develop a reporting system that can build on the German Sustainability Code (DNK) for companies. In response, the Sustainability Council, together with the mayors represented in the "Sustainable City" dialogue, the Regional Sustainability Strategy Network (RENN) and a large number of other stakeholders, has developed a "Sustainable Community Reporting Framework" (BNK).

"Based on my many years of experience as a district administrator, it is particularly important to me that the RNE represents an offer for all municipalities and is thus also available to districts. We are pleased that the RNE has also been cooperating closely with the districts since last year," said Schnappauf.

"As municipalities, we are implementing the transformation to sustainability" emphasizes Markus Lewe, Council Member, Lord Mayor of the City of Münster and Vice-President of the German Association of Cities, in the foreword to the BNK handout. "Overall, the BNK focuses on process orientation. It is not about evaluating results or comparing municipalities with each other. It is about moving forward together and the many steps on the way to more sustainability," said Lewe.

The BNK will be tested in joint projects with SKEW and many RENN partners from March 2021. The city of Aschaffenburg will be the first of probably 20 pilot municipalities from all over Germany to prepare its own sustainability report based on the BNK. The kick-off for the Aschaffenburg sustainability report was yesterday's city council meeting. "The city of Aschaffenburg sees itself as a municipality with the responsibility to perform all its tasks in terms of sustainability and thus to be a role model. This responsibility is seen as a cross-sectional task in the administration and the council, in which all citizens also participate, and has a long tradition in Aschaffenburg," said Jürgen Herzing, Lord Mayor of the City of Aschaffenburg and member of the RNE's "Sustainable City" dialogue.

The experiences from the 20 pilot municipalities will be incorporated into the further development of the reporting framework. The publication "Reporting framework for sustainable municipalities" is now available at here.

Source: PM of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) of 4.3.2021

Keywords:
DE-News, SDG 2030, City, Environmental policy