The city of Freiburg was honored for its special commitment yesterday, Tuesday, by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector as part of the “Leitstern Energy Efficiency” competition.
The competition is awarded every two years by the state government for special commitment in the field of energy efficiency. The aim of the competition is for the urban and rural districts to give each other impulses for more energy efficiency in the areas of electricity, heat and transport and to learn from one another.
Freiburg received a special award for its energy-efficient IT and also took third place in the overall ranking of all 31 participating urban and rural districts.
“Freiburg made it onto the podium from scratch. The award is a valuable recognition for the good work that is being done in the city for climate protection, especially in the area of energy efficiency. The fact that we were also recognized for the energy-saving ideas in IT shows that it pays to think digitalization and climate protection together, ”says Freiburg’s mayor for the environment, Christine Buchheit.
31 out of 44 urban and rural districts participated in 2020 with ideas and measures in the field of energy efficiency. Freiburg took part for the first time and immediately achieved third place. According to the jury, the very good performance is due in particular to the measurable successes in energy efficiency:
Compared to many other cities, Freiburg has particularly energy-efficient properties. In addition, many renovation schedules are issued in the city and at the same time funding programs are very popular, for example for energetic renovation and heating renewal. Many e-cargo bikes are also in demand and purchased by companies. At the level of political commitment, Freiburg scores above all with its climate protection concept. The city in Breisgau also scores well when it comes to acting as a role model.
The prizes were presented in Stuttgart on Tuesday. First place went to the Rottweil district, second place to Göppingen.
Green IT special price:
An independent jury justified the special award for Freiburg with the provision of “thin clients”. This means that the municipal IT supplies a large part of the standard workstations with energy-saving devices that save around 265 MWh per year. Since thin clients shift a certain proportion of their energy consumption from the workplace to the data center, the city of Freiburg uses innovative cooling in the data center in the town hall in Stühlinger to compensate, in the form of well cooling and by means of an intelligent air supply via the floor. The printer concept also saves energy. In administration, central multifunctional printers are used instead of individual printers at the workstation.
Background: the state award
The “Leitstern Energie Efficiency” has been awarded every two years since 2014. Due to the corona pandemic, the award ceremony for the Leitstern 2020 has been postponed to this year. In order to evaluate energy efficiency, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has developed an extensive catalog with 53 indicators. Among other things, criteria such as energy and climate protection concepts, monitoring and energy-saving measures are queried. On the other hand, the measurable successes in energy efficiency are analyzed. These include, for example, low energy consumption in the district’s own properties, efficiency activities by companies and households as well as developments and key figures in the transport sector.
–
Every author of a report (company, association, person …) also has HIS own “extra newspaper” at REGIOTRENDS! At the top click on the red name behind “More posts from”. You will already see ALL of his retrievable reports in our brand new internet newspaper.
