Essen is the European Green Capital!
We congratulate the city and are delighted that it has won the European Green Capital Award. Essen thus joins the ranks of previous winners Stockholm (2010), Hamburg (2011), Vitoria-Gasteiz (2012), Nantes (2013), Copenhagen (2014), Bristol (2015) and Ljubljana (2016). Since 2010, the award has been presented annually by the European Commission to a city in Europe that has been particularly successful in combining environmental protection and economic growth to create an outstanding quality of life for its inhabitants.
The city of Essen has defined clear goals in the twelve areas of climate change, local transport, urban green spaces, biodiversity, air quality, acoustic environment, waste management, water management, wastewater management, eco-innovations, energy efficiency and environmental management and is providing the necessary resources to achieve them in the short to medium term. For example, CO2 emissions are to be reduced by 40% by 2020, the quality of life and leisure time is to be sustainably improved, drinking water quality is to be increased and wastewater management is to be made more efficient at the same time.
Essen receives its own project office for the European Green Capital
The specially established European Green Capital - Essen 2017 project office has convinced the European Commission's jury with its application: for the first time, a city in the coal and steel industry will bear the title of European Green Capital. A novelty that all citizens can be proud of.
The explanatory statement emphasized the exemplary role of the city of Essen for many cities in Europe in structural change, but also the role of the city of Essen within the Ruhr metropolis. The jury was impressed by the holistic approach of the application. In particular, the solutions for the future of a "liveable city", taking into account the effects of structural change from a coal and steel city "to the greenest city" in NRW, were highlighted. - Source: European Green Capital - Essen 2017
Essen is in fact the third greenest city in Germany; with the local recreation area at Lake Baldeney, the nationally renowned Grugapark at the trade fair center or the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein and over 700 green spaces, the city is already well positioned. Many larger and smaller projects are still being implemented. Citizens can even submit their own ideas and design proposals by October 17, 2016 and receive grants of EUR 1,000 per project.
We are delighted to be able to work in the European Green Capital - and now take the bike more often...
