Good practice:

Frankfurt Green City

"Frankfurt Green City" bundles all activities in the field of sustainability of the city’s authorities. Citizens can obtain information on five main topics, which also lead to the responsible city administrative units. Here, the City of Frankfurt gives an account of the status, trends and interim results in the areas of "Business and Consumption", "Planning and Building", "Education", "Climate and Open Spaces" and "Mobility". Thus, possible solutions to the challenge of the growing city and climate change are presented. Topics will include redensification, new quarters and future land use, as well as adaptation strategies financially supported by the city. Frankfurt's high degree of compactness intensifies the prevailing conflicts of objectives. Frankfurt applied for the "European Green Capital Award" in 2014/2015 and was among the finalists. The background was the acceleration of Frankfurt's development into a more sustainable city in strategic, communicative terms. In the field of mobility, the site provides information on the urban mobility strategy, the expansion of local transport, the promotion of local mobility and an improvement in traffic safety and noise emissions. In addition to projects, citizens have the opportunity to find out about events, advisory services, funding and more sustainable lifestyles.

Personnel and financial resources must be taken into account here. The maintenance of all channels to be staffed. Furthermore, the homepage must be graphically designed and maintained. The provision of information from all responsible departments of the city is decisive.

Frankfurt has received numerous awards in recent years. The GreenBelt in Frankfurt has been awarded by UNESCO. With the "Frankfurt - 50% climate bonus" support programme, the city is one of the winners of the "Climate-active municipality 2019" competition. Frankfurt is also one of the most sustainable cities according to the Sustainable Cities Index. Frankfurt has applied for the title of "European Green Capital 2014" in 2011/2012 and, with Copenhagen and Bristol, made it to the final round.

At the beginning the main challenges were to establish the brand “Frankfurt Green City”, to define common goals and the level of awareness and visibility of the progress. Therefore it is necessary to build a versatile network with regular exchange opportunities the stakeholders.

The potential of the transfer exists. The financial and personnel costs could prove to be an obstacle. Not all municipalities have the resources to develop and maintain a comparable platform. There is learning potential in the area of direct contact with citizens. Forums in which citizens can express their ideas are a central element in sounding out the political acceptance of political decisions by the city. The opportunity to obtain comprehensive information about sustainability seems to be a positive effect in all regions.