Travel inspirations: Freiburg
Located in the foot of the gorgeous Black forest, ancient Freiburg is a name that many in the green/Eco/sustainability movement recognise. Often framed as 'the greenest city in Europe' (or at the very least, 'the greenest city in Germany') it goes above and beyond the typically high standard of many German cities with several advanced policies and projects that not only give it green kudos, but also help preserve the towns historical and picturesque heritage.
Let's be blunt to begin with, we were in Freiburg on holiday and at relative short notice, so whilst there are many projects we could have seen and many organisations and individuals we could have met, we didn't get the chance, this is barely scraping the surface of what lurks beneath freiburg's ancient exterior (see more).
One of the famous headline features of Freiburg is that it disallows cars into the city centre. We were initially shocked, as disembarking our coach, there were cars whizzing around everywhere. It seems that cars are just banned in the historic centre, which, being sceptical, with it's cobbled narrow streets and mediaeval buildings, is not only practical, it's doing the tourism industry a big favour. However, some thought does go into urban planning to ensure that most of the populations regular requirements are within a short (i.e. walking, cycling or public transport) distance of where they live and very expensive car parking spaces, with this planning leading to roughly 25% car use.
Energy and energy saving is another Freiburg highlight with high energy efficiency standards for new buildings, retrofit program and several combined heating and power plants around the city's outskirts that draw their power from natural gas, landfill gas, geothermal, woodchips and heating oil as well as fairly widespread small scale use of solar, wind and other smaller renewable sources.
It's Green economy policy is one of the more unique features of Freiburg, with Eco businesses and business practises actively encouraged and subsidised by local government.
Vauban is used a case study by many green minded urban planners as it manages to (successfully?) fuse social housing, energy efficiency, community development and efficient transport use. Most striking to us was the way the apartment blocks are all built around a central tram line, each with their own green space with Children's play area, social space and space for plants.
Being the last few days of our holiday, we treated ourselves with a slightly luxurious stay in the Great Western Victoria, which claims to be "The most environmentally friendly private-hotel in the world". Of course it's hard to know exactly what goes on behind the scenes, but in addition to the easy efficient light bulbs and shower heads, the hotel had it's own solar panel installation on it's top floor roof garden, stocked it's breakfasts full of local produce, had bikes for hire and much more… it was also very pleasant :-)
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