The Alb-Donau district has once again been awarded the European Energy Award® (eea) as a climate-friendly municipality. Since 2014, the district office has undergone external certification a total of three times. This year, the district achieved 70.4 points (2014: 56.5 points, 2017: 66.8 points). From at least 50 points, a municipality receives the European Energy Award, from 75 points the certificate in gold.
“I am pleased that we have once again been awarded the European Energy Award for our broad commitment to climate protection,” says the deputy district administrator of the Alb-Donau district, Markus Möller. This is an incentive to continue on the path we have chosen. The focus is, among other things, on the expansion of local public transport, for example, one of five model projects in the state is being carried out in the Alb-Donau district on flexible forms of service. On-call buses are to be used to close the existing gaps in services in rural areas.
Broad commitment in many areas
Further focal points of the district and the district administration, which were honored with the re-certification, are the use of renewable energies, the expansion of the cycle path infrastructure, the reorientation of waste disposal, adaptation concepts for climate change as well as training courses for healthy and environmentally conscious nutrition. Likewise, the commitment of the Alb-Donau district as a model municipality “Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)” was highlighted, which aims to anchor the topic of sustainability in educational institutions.
“The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our time. That is why we are working to become climate-neutral as a district administration as quickly as possible,” Möller emphasizes. Already in 2018, the Alb-Donau district joined the climate protection pact of Baden-Württemberg, adopted the launch of the “Sustainability Strategy Alb-Donau District” in 2021 and most recently, in the district council meeting on July 18, 2022, the roadmap for achieving greenhouse gas neutrality by 2040.
Background:
The European Energy Award is an international quality management and certification tool for municipal climate protection and supports municipalities on their way to greenhouse gas neutrality. Through a systematic and structured approach, effective and efficient measures for energy saving and climate protection are individually developed and implemented. As the municipalities are expected to demonstrate their efforts in the long term, the external audit is repeated every four years. Further information at https://www.european-energy-award.de/
