Chemnitz receives awards for sustainability and integrated urban development
Zeitzeiche(N)preis for environmental centre and Agenda 21 initiative - National prize for integrated urban development and building culture for Stadthalten-Chemnitz association
Two remarkable awards have been presented to initiatives and associations in the city of Chemnitz in recent days.
German Local Sustainability Award for City Chocolate and Chemnitz Coffee
Chemnitz Environmental Centre and Agenda 21 initiative are among the 2012 Zeitzeiche(N) award winners The German Local Sustainability Award Zeitzeiche(N), which is presented annually in six categories, was awarded at the sixth Netzwerk21 Congress held this year in Erfurt. At a festive event in the council chamber of Erfurt City Hall last Monday, the Chemnitz prizewinners, including Manfred Hastedt, Director of the Chemnitz Environmental Centre, were honoured with the 2012 Zeitzeiche(N) Award in the Initiatives category.
The German Local Sustainability Award Zeitzeiche(N) is presented in six categories: municipalities, youth, initiatives, companies and international partnerships. The award in the Initiatives category honours the Chemnitz Environmental Centre and the Agenda 21 initiative for their innovative and networked implementation of the topic of "fair trade / procurement", according to the laudation. According to the award citation, the important topic of fair trade and procurement has been successfully launched thanks to the commitment of Chemnitz's sustainability stakeholders under the umbrella of the Environmental Centre and has become a common concern of the municipality. "Cooperative campaigns such as fair-trade Chemnitz coffee or city chocolate have turned grey theory into tasty practice. The Chemnitz Environmental Centre has initiated and successfully shaped many things as part of the Agenda21 process." Manfred Hastedt is delighted with the supra-regional recognition and appreciation: "The award honours civic commitment at regional level, innovative approaches to solutions and new ideas on the subject of sustainability."
Contact for queries about the application and award: Manfred Hastedt, Environmental Centre of the City of Chemnitz, call 0371/488-6177
National prize for integrated urban development and building culture for commitment to Chemnitz Sonnenberg
The StadtHalten-Chemnitz e. V. association and the planart4 project office have been recognised as winners of the "Stadt bauen. Stadt leben." competition organised by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS). They received the National Prize for Integrated Urban Development and Building Culture in the "Common Good and Civil Society" category for the "Conserved Urban Neighbourhood" project on Chemnitz's Sonnenberg. Last Thursday, Eckhard Heumeyer, Chairman of the association, and Ines Senftleben from planart4 accepted the award from State Secretary Rainer Bomba in Berlin.
The jury's verdict was: "By specifically addressing the owners and activating them, entrenched attitudes are broken down and the broken thread of dialogue with the city administration is resumed. (...) The project is worthy of an award because it shows how persistent civic engagement can overcome even seemingly hopeless conditions in the city - civil society at its best!"
The StadtHalten-Chemnitz e. V. association has been campaigning for the preservation of listed buildings since 2009, in particular the preservation through utilisation of individual buildings, so-called guardians' houses and entire squares. The association pays particular attention to the southern Sonnenberg along Zietenstraße. Among other things, the street gallery and a first guardian's house on the Sonnenberg were built under the management of the association. The association supports the reading café project and has initiated the street theatre festival and a writing competition on the Sonnenberg. "We will continue to work for lively urban development under the motto "Keeping the city alive through new ideas!", promises Eckhard Heumeyer, Chairman of the association.
The National Prize for Integrated Urban Development and Building Culture was awarded for the second time by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development to honour projects and processes that make innovative contributions to a socially just urban society, ecologically sustainable and economically successful urban development and encourage further development from the pilot case to the standard case. Out of almost 200 competition entries, 30 projects were selected and honoured.