Essen is the European Green Capital for 2017
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Essen is the European Green Capital!
Congratulations to the city – we’re delighted it has won the European Green Capital Award. Essen joins the list of previous winners: Stockholm (2010), Hamburg (2011), Vitoria-Gasteiz (2012), Nantes (2013), Copenhagen (2014), Bristol (2015) and Ljubljana (2016). Since 2010 the European Commission has given the award every year to a European city that has been particularly successful in combining environmental protection with economic growth to give its residents an excellent quality of life.
Essen has set clear goals for twelve areas – climate change, local transport, urban green spaces, biodiversity, air quality, acoustic environment, waste management, water management, wastewater management, eco-innovation, energy efficiency and environmental management – and is providing the resources to reach them in the short to medium term. For example, CO2 emissions are to fall by 40 % by 2020. Other goals include lasting improvements to quality of life and leisure, better drinking water quality and, at the same time, more efficient wastewater management.
Essen gets its own European Green Capital project office
The specially established project office, Grüne Hauptstadt Europas – Essen 2017, won over the European Commission’s jury with its bid: for the first time, a city built on mining and metallurgy will hold the title of European Green Capital. A first, and one every citizen can be proud of.
In explaining its decision, the jury highlighted Essen’s role as a model for many European cities going through structural change, as well as the city’s role within the Ruhr metropolitan region. The bid’s holistic approach impressed the jury. In particular, it highlighted the proposed solutions for creating a “liveable city” in the future, taking into account the effects of structural change from a coal and steel city “to the greenest city” in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Essen really is the third greenest city in Germany. Grugapark is known beyond the region. With the recreation area around Lake Baldeney, Grugapark next to the trade fair grounds, the UNESCO World Heritage site Zeche Zollverein and more than 700 green spaces, the city already has plenty going for it. Many projects, large and small, are still to come. Citizens can even submit their own ideas and design proposals until 17 October 2016 and receive a grant of EUR 1,000 per project.
We’re glad to work in the European Green Capital – and we’re now getting on our bikes a bit more often...
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