Norderstedt

City of the Future Norderstedt

 

The young city of Norderstedt developed a holistic and sustainable Vision 2030+ as part of the City of the Future (Zukunftsstadt) -competition. The vision was created together with citizens, researchers and representatives from business and administration. Norderstedt is one of the 23 municipalities that were selected in July 2016 to continue to the second phase of the City of the Future competition, and to develop their visions into implementable concepts. With the slogan “Lead through sustainability” the city wants to remain livable for future generations.

 

Champion in Climate Protection

 

Norderstedt is the fifth largest municipality in Schleswig-Holstein and attractive for company settlements and new inhabitants. Climate protection is an important issue in the city - the municipality is a member of the climate alliance of European cities and has reduced the city government's CO2 emissions by 80 percent since 1990. The city promotes cycling and energy efficiency, and is actively designing the local energy transformation with the municipal utility company.

Steps to success in the City of the Future –competition

 

The city developed an integrated sustainability strategy for the city as part of the Vision 2030+. Norderstedt strives for a broad participation of all stakeholder groups. For instance, cross-generational interviews were made to collect ideas: young people discussed with people from older generations. In turn, senior citizens interviewed young people about their ideas for a sustainable future. With the format developed in Norderstedt: "A coffee for an idea exchange", future-oriented discussions were held in public places.

A photo competition as well as an innovation day targeting companies provided further inspiration for the vision workshops, in which the mission statement for sustainable urban development was concretized. This work has now led to success in the second phase of the City of the Future -competition. In 2018, Norderstedt will have the possibility of winning the chance to put their ideas and concepts into reality in the Phase III of the competition.

 

The competition of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is part of the flagship initiative "Zukunftsstadt" of the "Research for Sustainable Development" (FONA³).