New municipal guideline for climate protection projects published

The Federal Environment Ministry's funding programme now offers more opportunities for your climate protection projects. The programme has been significantly expanded with new funding priorities and improved funding for financially weak municipalities. A separate funding priority has been introduced for the renovation of day-care centres, schools, youth leisure facilities, sports facilities and swimming pools. The chances of receiving funding are good, because so far all eligible applications have been funded.

Since summer 2008, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) has been providing funding on the basis of the "Guideline for the promotion of climate protection projects in social, cultural and public institutions within the framework of the National Climate Protection Initiative"(Municipal Directive) climate protection projects in municipalities.

The interest in the municipal guideline is great: between 2008 and 2014, more than 7,000 projects were funded. Funds are available again this year and in the coming years. In 2014 alone, the funding volume amounted to more than 60 million euros and has once again resulted in all eligible applications being funded. The various funding priorities of the Municipal Guidelines can be found on the following pages.

Applications can be submitted to Project Management Jülich from now (1 October 2015) until 31 March 2016. All documents, fact sheets and further information can be found here.A brief description of the various funding priorities of the Municipal Guidelines can be found below.

With the 2015 information tour, the Service and Competence Centre: Municipal Climate Protection (SK:KK), in cooperation with the federal states, provides information on the funding available for municipalities in climate protection in 2016. Everyone who is interested in the funding opportunities for municipalities in climate protection is invited to the information events - whether as an applicant, as an advisory institution or as a multiplier.

The upcoming SK:KK info tour events around the Eifel are:
25.11.2015 SK:KK - Information Tour 2015: Kaiserslautern
02.12.2015 SK:KK - Information Tour 2015: Wiesbaden

If you have any questions about the Municipal Guidelines, please contact the Service and Competence Centre: Municipal Climate Protection (SK:KK) at: 030-39001 170

Keywords: Procurement, DE-News, Funding, Communities

Published 11 August 2017

Karlsruhe Reallabor receives award from the Sustainability Council

Image: German Council for Sustainable Development

Making life in the neighbourhood more ecologically, socially, economically and culturally sustainable together with the residents; that is the aim of "Real-world laboratory 131: KIT finds the city" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In Karlsruhe's Oststadt district, researchers in this laboratory are looking for ways to reduce CO2 emissions, conserve resources, strengthen neighbourhoods and improve the health of people in the district. The project has now been honoured twice by the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE).

"The special thing about this project is that we work directly with the people living and working on the ground at eye level and can therefore not only incorporate specific local knowledge and think ahead. Rather, this makes it possible to take action for sustainable development," says Alexandra Quint from the project team at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS). Ways to make neighbourhoods more pedestrian-friendly are being researched, as are new methods for energy-efficient building refurbishment, and services for sustainable living and sustainable mobility behaviour are being developed. The researchers' work is highly interdisciplinary: "Architects, philosophers, landscape planners, cultural scientists, environmental scientists and geoecologists work together in this team," says the urban geographer.

This is not just research, but also very practical work: "For example, there is a newly developed energy concept for increasing the proportion of renewable energies in existing buildings or initiatives for slowing down our increasingly hectic everyday lives," reports Dr Oliver Parodi, Head of Reallabor 131. In the "Beds and Bees" project, citizens and scientists have jointly designed a snack bed with herbs, fruit and vegetables in public spaces and set up a hive as a home for bees. Quint explains that this not only serves to raise environmental and nutritional awareness, but above all to build community. All of this is done in co-operation with civil society groups, the city administration, associations, businesses and, above all, the local citizens who regularly take part.

A series of events also provides approaches and ideas for alternative consumer behaviour. Parodi mentions plant swaps, clothes swap parties and a regular repair café. "Reallabor 131 is designed as a platform for participation and has a strong networking character." The project's own "Future Space for Sustainability and Science", a former shop, combines the characteristics of a neighbourhood office, a science shop and a community centre and is now a popular meeting point, event and educational venue.

According to Quint, the concept is attracting worldwide interest: "The laboratory is a model, is designed to be transferable and has so far been researched by scientists from the Netherlands, Spain and Australia, with requests for cooperation coming from Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, the USA, Estonia, Portugal and Spain."

Honoured as a transformation project
The German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), which advises the German government on sustainability issues, has now honoured the Reallabor twice: with the "Project Sustainability 2017" seal of quality and as one of four "transformation projects" nationwide. With this seal, the RNE recognises initiatives from society that make a special contribution to sustainable development in Germany and the world. Around 240 projects applied for the award. According to the jury, the transformation projects honoured have particularly great potential to make the world more sustainable. The awards were presented at the end of May at the RNE's annual conference in Berlin.

The website provides information on all the activities of the real-world laboratory: www.quartierzukunft.de

Photo of the award ceremony under:
www.tatenfuermorgen.de/galerien/jahreskonferenz

Source: Press release 076/2017 from 09/06/2017

Keywords:
Stock, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, Quarters, Contests & Prizes