Long term sustainable mobility & High energy efficiency in Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau, historic town in South-Western Germany, is known as an ecocity for its strong commitment to the environment. The city has nowadays reached high performances in cutting down the CO2 emissions, and today its solar, energy efficiency and transport programs are among the best in the world.
With reference to mobility policies, the municipality set long time ago consistent measures aiming at favouring means of transport other than cars, as making the old town centre car-free in 1973. Since 1991 there is a low cost “Environment ticket” for the regional bus service, and tramway lines were recently implemented. Pedestrians and cyclists have the primacy, car speeds is kept below 25 km/h and parking is possible away from the centres, or underground. There are over 500 km of bicycle paths and more than 5.000 bicycle parking spaces in the city, also at tram stops for commuters shifting from a means to another. As a consequence, motor vehicles’ use fell from 38% to 32% between 1982 and 1999, and around 30 – 35% of the residents have chosen to live without a car, while the trend in the other central European cities is opposite. Public transport use sees a 100% increase since 1980 and a third of all journeys are by bicycle.
Since the 80s Freiburg has developed a long-term and innovative vision on energy supply, seeking solutions to save energy, secure energy efficiency and develop renewable sources of energy. In particular following the resolution ‘Climate Protection Concept‘ passed in 1996, significative steps has been done to reduce CO2 emissions to 25% below the 1992 level by 2010.
Freiburg’s excellence is due to vanguard policy makers’ choices – a leading authority is Wulf Daseking, director of the city planning office who carried out relevant activities for the last twenty years – and also to a ‘bottom up’ approach, which involved the citizens’ participation through the large use of cooperatives in the design of communal spaces.
Other interesting initiatives in the field of energy include a Solar Institute, established in 1981, and a co-generation CHP steam and gas plant supplying almost 50% of the electricity. Concerning energy efficiency, since the 90s, municipal regulations request buildings to have a low energetic impact (in particular residential buildings are required to consume a third less than the standards set by German law). Housing is at relatively high densities, with mostly town houses & small shops, walkable neighbourhoods & high proportion of public space given over to nature.
As a result, over 10 years of CO2 emission have been reduced by more than 10% per capita. Furthermore, in 2003 34.1 million kWh p.a. of electricity from renewable sources replaced the same amount of climate-damaging electricity. Finally, with almost 700 people employed in the solar energy related activities, Freiburg is also at the forefront in shifting towards the ‘green economy’.
Related Links
- freiburg.de
- freiburg.de_GreenCity
- ecocity.wordpress.com
- messe-freiburg.de
- showcase.homesandcommunities.co.uk/case-study/ecotowns-freiburg-germany.html
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