"Citizens Initiate Sustainability"
Jury awards 40 top projects in nationwide competition

Berlin, 23 April 2009 The panel of experts judging the nationwide competition "Generational Dialogue in Practice – Citizens Initiate Sustainability" selected 40 winners out of a total of 336 entries. Over the coming days, the German Council for Sustainable Development will notify the 40 winners and, together with the German government, invite them to attend the awards ceremony on May 27, 2009 in Berlin. The Council and the German government will select 10 particularly outstanding initiatives from this group to be honored as "lighthouse projects."

The members of the 40 voluntary groups from across the country have demonstrated an exemplary level of commitment to cooperation between younger and older generations. Their intense personal involvement is helping the country prepare for a future with a larger proportion of older people in society, thereby paving the way for the coming demographic transition.

The 40 winning projects, which will receive a total of €100,000 in awards money, include educational sponsorships, residential projects that are intergenerational or tailored to the needs of people with disabilities, and community aid networks. Many of these initiatives are also environmentally advanced – for example, through energy-efficient buildings, through regional procurement, and through the use of renewable energy.

It is "impressive to see how committed and professional these voluntary groups tackle the social challenge of generational dialogue and how cleverly they combine this with other aspects of the sustainability principle," says the head of the jury, Hans Geisler, who is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development. "If every district in Germany had such an initiative, our country would be a lot closer to solving many problems," says Geisler.

"Generational Dialogue in Practice – Citizens Initiate Sustainability" is part of the national sustainability strategy launched by the German government, which organized the competition together with the German Council for Sustainable Development. The federal government is represented by the Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, and the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Development.

The panel of experts consists of veteran members of community umbrella organizations, the German Institute of Urban Affairs, the scientific community, the German Council for Sustainable Development, and experts on involvement in civil society and local sustainability.

Download:

Download this press release as a pdf file (PDF, 43KB)

Further Information:

German pages of the competition "Citizens initiate sustainability" on the Council´s website