German Sustainable Places

The Island of Mainau, Lake Constance (Ellen Boldt)

Mainau island has been converted into a beautiful and natural tourist attraction with gardens and hiking trails.  There are many interactive experiences for the tourists to sample, which allows the owners to expand sustainability beyond their business practice to also educate visitors.  As a business which advertises itself as reaching out to teach visitors, Mainau is able to help further all three pillars of sustainability.  It practices environmental sustainability, then as a business operating as a popular tourist attraction, it has economic sustainability, and by educating the visitors it is able to help further social sustainability. 

Templin Solar Park, Templin (Zoe Broich) 

This is a solar plant that was built on land that was previously used as a Soviet military airport in 2012. It is the largest thin-film solar project in all of Europe. The plant generates around 120 million kWh of energy per year and offsets around 90 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year. The solar plant not only provides enough energy to power large cities such as Berlin, but it has also created around 400 jobs over the period it has been in use.  

Ökowerk, Berlin (Monica Cummings)

The Okowerk used to be an operational waterwork pump which sorted and cleaned drinking water from the Teufelsee and the Havel and is the oldest walk-in waterworks plant in Berlin (opened 1872). Today it's closed but operates as a nature conservatory with information centers on aquatic life with interactive models. Surrounding the historic building are natural themed gardens with historic fruits and vegetables. The surrounding area is set up for walking with educational adventure places for children. There are also weekly environmental education workshops centered around sustainable living and survival training. 

Benergie, Bremen (Scarlett Davidovich)

As people were becoming more and more concerned with where they were sourcing their energy from and without much support from the government, in the city of Bremen, a group of people joined together to create Benergie. Benergie, is an energy cooperative that is based on the principle that the citizens of Bremen want to source their energy from either low-carbon fuels or renewable energy. This co-op allows for a group of citizens and investors to be able to get their energy independent of banks and corporations. Their goal is to supply all of their customers with electricity and gas at fair market prices and to promote the use of renewable energies. This co-op also invests any profits that they make into renewable energy projects and carbon offsets projects. This  co-op is designed to help their customers have a beneficial impact on the environment by implementing a small change in their life.  

Merkur, Borkum island (Jacob Franciscus)

The Merkur offshore wind farm consists of 66 wind turbines and is the largest offshore wind farm project in Germany’s recognized offshore territory. The project produces 396 MW of green energy which is used throughout the country. The location of the wind farm is mostly focused in an incredibly windy portion of the sea off of Germany’s northern coast. The power facilities produce enough power to completely power nearly 500,000 homes within Germany, which is a major step towards their initiative to get 80% of their energy supplies from renewables in the near future. Especially with the war in Ukraine, Germany is increasing its reliance on and abilities to use renewable energy to produce a more energy independent country ( Source ).

Juist Island, Aurich (Kiara Ganther)

Juist Island aims to become climate neutral by 2030. The project expects both tourists and residents to be involved in this progressive energy transition project. Juist has a goal of becoming the first carbon neutral destination in the world. The island is completely car free besides for emergencies such as ambulances, fire trucks, etc. The two main forms of transportation on the island include bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. In order to arrive on the island many tourists are encouraged to take the ferry to the island rather than an airplane. The island as a whole works to create buy sustainable by establishing “veggie day” where only vegetarian food is served. Tourism is a major economic source to the island, so establishing sustainable efforts is a must. A lot of the energy on the island is naturally sourced. Many hotels have solar panels installed and make efforts to make businesses more climate friendly. In 2015, Juist Island won the German Sustainability award due to the island’s “mandatory and authentic sustainability policies”.

Emsland, Lingen (Nina Grafton)

The Emsland Nuclear Power Plant is one of three still operating power plants in Germany. The plant was due to shut down in 2022, but that date has been pushed back to this month, April 2023, to offset the loss of energy from Russia. The plant began operation in 1988 and has averaged about 11 billion kWh per year since then. It is estimated that the plant supports around 3.5 million households with its energy. Additionally, about 10 million tons less CO2 is released into the atmosphere by utilizing nuclear energy from the plant. The Emsland plant is a pressurized-water reactor, which produces steam to run the engine. The plant uses Uranium 235 to produce its energy. The plans to shut down the remaining power plants in Germany are a part of the Energiewende. Germany does not want to rely on nuclear energy, as they consider it dangerous and unsustainable. Though in many other developed countries, nuclear energy is considered much more sustainable than burning fossil fuels or other forms of obtaining energy.

The Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg (Billie Grimshaw)

The Black Forest is a mountain range that covers the border between Germany and France. It is made up of a massive amount of evergreen and fir trees. As well as many different animals and organisms. This location is essential to sustainability of the country because of the biodiversity it contributes to the country. With the different plants and animals, the forest has an increased protection over disease, natural disasters, and climate change. The trees also help with sustainability by taking in the carbon dioxide that humans produce. This is stored and released as oxygen. This cycle reduces the amount of carbon dioxide overall in the atmosphere.

Hamburg (Savannah Ha)

Hamburg has taken a number of steps to promote sustainability and lessen its carbon footprint because it recognizes how vital sustainability is to the city. The city of Hamburg is one of the top cities in Europe for its usage of wind power, and one of the major measures it has put in place to promote sustainability is the generation of renewable energy. To advance renewable energy and lessen its dependency on fossil fuels, the city has made investments in offshore wind farms and research institutes. Additionally, the city has established a target of consuming only renewable energy by 2035. The city of Hamburg has put in place a variety of initiatives to increase the energy efficiency of buildings around the city. Strict energy efficiency standards must be met by new construction, and the city provides incentives to people who convert their homes and flats with energy-saving features. Furthermore, the HafenCity neighborhood is a model of sustainable urban development that emphasizes building energy efficiency. Hamburg has made investments in its public transit system, enhanced bike-friendly infrastructure, and electric car programs to cut down on transportation-related emissions. To cut down on air pollution, the city is using more electric trains and buses. It has put in place a variety of initiatives for waste management to cut waste and boost recycling. Single-use plastic bags are no longer permitted in the city, and recycling rates are rising steadily. Also, Hamburg is dedicated to making sure that its growth is environmentally sound, socially just, and economically successful. This includes programs to preserve open space, foster neighborhood growth, and stop urban sprawl. Overall, Hamburg takes sustainability very seriously, and the city has implemented a variety of efforts to encourage sustainable growth and lessen its environmental effect.

"Duisburg Dunes", Duisburg (Olivia Hobbs)

A large, otherwise useless, area of land within Duisburg, Germany is being transformed into a climate-friendly suburb. The city of Duisburg hosted a competition for the public to create an idea of how to use this space to their advantage in lowering their carbon footprint. The chosen idea was named “Duisburg Dunes.” Duisburg Dunes will become a residential and business community in which green spaces are prioritized. The suburb will be completely walkable and will provide carpooling options to eliminate heavy traffic as well as harmful car emissions. There will also be the introduction of tree trenches within the suburbs that will have sensors which will track soil amounts and will alert the city when the greenery needs water. The rationale behind this approach is that there will be less water waste as well as less of a need for trucks to supply water when it is just being wasted unnecessarily. The result of this walkable city will decrease the amount of CO2 emissions spread by cars and trucks and will contain large amounts of green spaces to promote a healthier atmosphere.

Essen (Abby Jones)

Essen, located in the northwest, is the third-greenest city in Germany.  In this case, “greenest” is measured by the proportion of recreational green spaces. While it is only the third greenest, in 2017, Essen received the title of European Green Capital. This is because of the transformation the city underwent. It is in the Ruhr region of Germany, which was historically known for its hard coal mines. There are records of coal mining in Essen dating back as far as 1450, and the last mines did not officially close until 1993. After hundreds of years of heavy industry, the city managed to survive the toll of closing the coal mines and is even now known as the energy capital of Germany due to hosting the headquarters of two major energy providers, E. ON and RWE, both of which focus on renewables. In addition, Essen has taken the opportunity to turn many of their decommissioned industrial sites into cultural attractions and even green spaces. Overall, Essen is a perfect example of a place that used to heavily invest in non-sustainable practices fully embracing the Energiewende and successfully redefining itself into a green city.

Freiburg (Gabe McGough)

Freiburg is a city in the southwest of Germany that is often colloquially referred to as “the green city” by its residents and visitors. It is called this for a multitude of reasons; however, it is most often called this because of the city’s heightened emphasis on bike paths. The city proper boasts over 400 kilometers (about 248.55 mi) of bike paths. This allows residents and visitors to access the whole city without the need for gas-powered vehicles.

The city is also renowned for its multiple renewable energy initiatives such as their biomass/solar thermal/ geothermal powered heating systems, green roofs, and citywide implementation of solar panels and wind turbines. The city is so committed to renewable energy that the roof of the public library has been covered with solar panels. Overall, Freiburg is an extremely green city that other urban areas should look to for inspiration when improving upon their own urban green-development.

Tübingen (Dzejlana Mehmedovic)

Tübingen is a southwestern German city located between the Swabian Alps and Schönbuch. It is most known for its frugality and widespread veganism. Alok Damodaran is a South Indian food truck employee who works in the city, and in an interview with BBC, he stated, “Our vegetarian offering of the day gets sold out much quicker than the meat offering” (Chaudhary, 2022). One third of the city’s population are students who attend the University of Tübingen and are educated on environmental issues such as food waste and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, two students named Amelie Dietenberger and Kajetan Krott started a business during the pandemic that supplied vegan banana bread to local cafés via an electric car (Chaudhary, 2022). The city of Tübingen passed an order in February of 2022 prohibiting cars from driving on the city’s central street. This street is now reserved for buses, which students can use for free on weekends and after 19:00 in the evenings (Chaudhary, 2022).

Source:  https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220320-tbingen-europes-fiercely-vegan-fairy-tale-city 

Marco Polo Tower, Hamburg (Riley Robinson)

The Marco Polo Tower is a residential apartment building constructed in 2010 in Hamburg, Germany. The building is 17 floors tall (207 feet).  Concrete and steel are the main building materials utilized in its construction. Designed by architecture group Behnisch Architekten, Stuttgart, the Marco Polo Tower is famous for an innovative implementation of sustainable design through unique architectural and internal design features. The building produces natural shade by ngling each floor a few degrees from the one below.  This creates an axis that cools each room and reduces the need for air conditioning by redirecting sunlight away from its large windows. The building also includes vacuum cleaners on the roof that serve to turn heat into cooling for the rooms through the use of a heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is a system that transfers heat between two or more fluids/solids and fluids that are at different temperatures.  On a comfort level, the building features a sound insulated design that reduces noise pollution from outside through natural air ventilation. Located directly on the Elbe, the building features views of Hamburg and its harbor from all rooms available.  The Marco Polo Tower is an impressive architectural feat and will serve as a sustainable benchmark for luxury apartments in the future.

Sources:

 Green buildings around the world: 18 examples of sustainable architecture - CNN Style 

 Behnisch Architekten / Marco Polo Tower 

 Marco Polo Tower - The Skyscraper Center (skyscrapercentre.com) 

Passive house, Dresden (Josephine Rodriguez)

During our trip in Dresden, we visited a passive house that was built to provide its own energy. Between solar panels, geothermal energy, and strongly insulated windows and walls, the passive house conserves and produces its own energy. Any extra energy that is not being used by the house gets sold back into the grid. The passive house also has a large garden and outdoor area to adapt to local wildlife.

Niederwartha Pumped-storage Power Plant, Dresden (Noah Salsich)

This is a powerplant we visited in Dresden. It generates electricity through a gravity-based water turbine system. One reservoir is situated on a hill with enough of an incline that when the plant opens the pipes connecting it to another lower reservoir, the power flows down and powers turbines. The water is then pumped up to the higher one and the process repeats. Interestingly, this plant is scheduled to be closed in the coming years, due to weakened efficiency due to floods of a nearby river and because the ratio of distance and height between the two reservoirs is such that the cost of pumping the water back up is greater than optimal.

Vauban, Freiburg (Tony Shen)

Vauban is a district of the city of Freiburg in Germany that has been designed to be car-free and energy-efficient. It is designed to be a model for sustainable living. The district has a population of around 5,000 people and is home to a number of innovative features, including solar panels on every roof, a district heating system that uses wood chips as fuel, and a car-sharing scheme¹. The district was built on the site of a former French military base and was designed to be an eco-friendly community with a focus on sustainability. The town has been designed to be pedestrian-friendly with narrow streets and plenty of green spaces. The district's energy-efficient buildings are designed to use passive solar heating and cooling, which means that they are able to maintain comfortable temperatures without using any additional energy. The district also has a number of green spaces, including parks and gardens, which help to improve air quality and provide residents with access to nature. Vauban also has an extensive public transportation system that includes buses and trams, making it easy for residents to get around without needing a car. The district also has a car-sharing scheme that allows residents to rent cars by the hour or day.

Langenprozelten Pumped Storage Station, Gemünden am Main (Alex Spiegel)

The Langenprozelten pumped storage station is home to two of the world's most powerful single-phase hydropower motor generators that were installed in July 2016, and as well as in February 2018. Pumped storage stations are very similar to convention hydropower plants, except pumped storage stations are able to reuse their water. Pumped storage technology is currently not only the only way to store large amounts of energy effectively and permanently, but also the most environmentally friendly. The site uses the hilly terrain in the area by using the potential energy of water as it flows from the higher reservoir to the lower. This pumped storage station belongs to a larger group with four others, which are responsible for an average annual generation of about 1,300 GWh.

The German Alps (Katie Vassilakos)

Since the Alps are a main tourism attraction in Germany, it was a strong goal to be able to sustainably allow tourists but also protecting the German Environment.  This is done through making sure that there are eco-friendly bundle forms of transportation. While also making sure that the town surrounding the tourists' attractions can maintain functional and not form them straight into tourists' attractions.

Messel Pit Fossil Site (Lily Bedwell)

Messel Pit Fossil Site is an area in central Germany where we can learn about the Eocene period (49 million years ago) and its characteristics then versus now. Lignite coal and oil shale were mined here before finding the fossils and history. The space was going to be used as a landfill before UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, and now it serves as an educational and historical park full of extremely well-preserved fossils. Instead of a CO2 emissions hub or a methane producing landfill, the Messel Pit Fossil Site is now a cultural and educational monument. Government agreements preserve and protect the area. 

Hambach Forest (Ellen Boldt)

Hambach forest, which was featured in The Hidden Life of Trees, is located in the northern half of western Germany, between the cities of Cologne and Aachen.  The forest occupies over 1,000 acres of land, which is able to remove roughly 2.6 thousand tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.  Unlike many of the highly cultivated forests in Germany that more closely resemble timber farms, Hambach remains high in biodiversity and contains 142 native species that are important for conservation. 

Hambach is one of the last forests in Germany that resembles the original flora of the area, but the area is under threat.  90% of the original forest has already been cleared, and the rest is under siege by the neighboring mines.  In 2012, the lignite mining company planned to clear the forest to expand the strip mines, igniting massive protests and occupation of the forest.  In 2020, a law was signed to protect the forest from the encroaching mines; however, the energy crisis arising from Russia’s war against Ukraine is forcing Germany back towards reliance on lignite and putting the forest in danger once again. 

Hamburg Port (Zoe Broich

The Hamburg Port is located along the Elbe River, it is around 68 miles from the mouth of the river on the North Sea. The port was created in May of 1189 and is almost as old as Hamburg itself. During the period when the Americas were discovered and as transatlantic travel became more popular, the Hamburg Port quickly became Central Europe's main port. Since being created it has become Germanys largest port by volume and is known as Germany’s “Gateway to the World”.  With so much shipping and water travel there is a large amount of water and air pollution coming from this port. In order to combat some of this pollution there have been a few strategies put in place. This includes reducing the use of harmful fuels and switching to sulphur-free, providing incentives for eco-friendliness in the water, and making the port overall more efficient.  

Externsteine (Monica Cummings)

The Externsteine were initially natural sandstone formations that were laid down in the early cretaceous period on the outskirts of a paleolake. Sandstone is largely resistant to weathering, so the surrounding soil weathered away, displaying the lithic structures that stand there today. The area is of archaeological interest, as the rock pillars have been carved and modified throughout the ages, starting with upper paleolithic tools and excavations to make natural grottos wider, early Christian depictions of Christ and pagan alters, the remains of stairways and wooden structures, and an artificial pond dating to the 19th century. Starting in the 19th century and continuing today, the Externsteine are a major tourist attraction for nationalists and neo-paganist groups, resulting in large environmental control and ecological management to make the surrounding park more aesthetic and approachable for human usage. 

Berchtesgaden (Scarlett Davidovich

In 1978, Berchtesgaden was named a national park and was renamed in 1990s as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The park is located on the boarder of Austria and is famous for its unique mountainscape called Berchtesgaden Alps. Home to one the third largest mountains in Germany, Watzmann, and two out of the five glaciers in Germany. With the elevations differing immensely from 400m above sea level to 2,700m, it is home to a mosaic of many different animal and plant species, including 45-50 breeding pairs of golden eagles (UNESCO, 2018). This land is popular for its climbing and hiking trails, with six visitor centers located within its property. As it is a popular place to visit, not many people inhabit inside in the national park. It is an economically challenged area, but more recently there has a been a push for more establishments of farms and farmers markets.  Recently, post-pandemic there has been an influx in visitors, while good for the economy they have been known to leave their trace behind. They have integrated a push for respecting the park guidelines to keep the biodiverse nature of Berchtesgaden in good health. 

The Black Forest (Jacob Franciscus)

The Black Forest is located between the Rhine Valley and French Border of Germany’s state of Baden-Württemberg. The forest is known very well for its size and forests that are mostly comprised of evergreens. The region also consists of a large mountain range which is roughly 160km (90 miles) in length. Overall, the region is also located at a high elevation of close to 5000 feet and the area of the forest is roughly 2300 square miles. Apparently, the forest is well connected to the brothers Grimm fairy tales. Within the Black Forest is also a national park and used to be known well for the ore and mining industry before recently, where tourism has taken hold of the regional economy. 

Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park (Kiara Ganther)

The Wadden Sea is located in the southeastern part of the North Sea. The North Sea lies in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. The National Park, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer is in the Schleswig-Holstein area of the German Wadden Sea. The Wadden Sea ecosystem's natural conditions consist of mudflats, marsh lands, and sandbanks. As climate change and sea level rising continue these issues affect biodiversity and destroy crucial habitats. 

In response to human influence, German and Dutch Wadden Sea areas have become a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the unique intertidal ecosystem and biodiversity. The marine species rely on the national park for breeding and nurseries. Also, migratory bird species flock to Wadden Sea in the spring and fall for food. To protect this important ecosystem laws have been placed in order to enforce zones of protection with the aim of nature conservation.