The Aalen example: the town as a place for sustainable education

Are you familiar with the ‘Local Agenda 21’? And do you know the city of Aalen? Visitors to the Wednesday Academy on the Kleve campus of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) were given a comprehensive insight into the sustainability endeavours of the city in the east of Baden-Württemberg. Prof. Dr Ulrich Holzbaur, a visiting fellow at the HSRW from 7 to 11 October, skilfully combined theory and practice in his lecture ‘The city as a place for sustainable education’ using vivid examples from the Swabian town of Aalen. He is actively involved in the ‘Local Agenda 21’ action programme there.

Fellow week at the HSRW

Our Competence Hub welcomed Prof. Dr Ulrich Holzbaur from Aalen University and the Steinbeis Transfer Centre Sustainability & Management as a Fellow of the TransRegINT project at HSRW in the week from 7 to 11 October 2024. In this role, he assists HSRW academics with further training in the field of sustainability in order to support the transformation towards more sustainability in teaching. In addition to teaching tandems with professors and lecturers, he also focussed on informing and involving the public as part of the Mittwochsakademie.

Definition of sustainability

Prof Dr Holzbaur began by defining the term sustainability. He referred to the so-called Brundtland definition, named after the Norwegian politician Gro Harlem Brundtland, from 1987: ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’

He presented the three pillars of sustainability – ecological, social and economic – as a pyramid, similar to Maslow’s pyramid of needs. His hierarchical organisation of human needs is based on the basic need of ecology, the overall social system and finally the economy as value creation.

Agenda 21

The action programme has its origins in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and aims to achieve sustainable development at global, national, regional and local level. In order to develop a local Agenda 21, cities and municipalities require the broad and motivated participation of as many stakeholders as possible. As Prof Dr Holzbaur illustrated using many examples, this has been particularly successful in Aalen. His presentation focussed on the cooperation between the city of Aalen and society with Aalen University.

Education for sustainable development

How was Aalen University involved in the cooperation? Prof. Dr Holzbaur has initiated many projects from within the university as accompanying measures to lectures, such as the ‘Aalen Barrier-free’ guide, the creation of an information banner at an Aalen viewpoint, or the first ‘Day of the Regions’, a day of action with many exhibitors of regionally produced products, objects and services in Aalen, as well as the creation of a handbook for subsequent years. These projects served as catalysts in each case: the students acted as the initial spark and documented the processes, while the actual projects were carried forward by politics, business and/or society. The advantage of this cooperation: the student teams developed concepts within a given period of time, which would otherwise fail due to a lack of time and the ‘one should do it all’ effect, according to Prof Dr Holzbaur. Ultimately, civil society benefits.

In addition, the students also benefit from these collaborations, as they have to deal with sustainability in reality instead of theory in the projects. Prof Dr Holzbaur explained that these very tangible experiences and the direct experience would be anchored in the minds of those involved in a completely different way.

The collaboration between the city, society and the university also serves as a real-life laboratory, he pointed out. Researchers are practically given a laboratory for observations. He also used the term ‘transformation lab’ in this context, as the researchers observe, intervene and initiate transformation.

Experience gained

The successful implementation of Local Agenda 21 requires the connection of stakeholders and dialogue. Sustainable change cannot be achieved without the involvement of civil society. However, civil society often finds it difficult to act on its own, as the experience is often that ‘people run into walls.’ Prof Dr Holzbaur warned: ‘’Volunteers can’t do everything! This is why the various stakeholders need to get involved in working together. ‘Our cooperation is bearing fruit. Everyone contributes what they have, be it space, manpower or knowledge,’ said Prof Dr Holzbaur. This creates synergy effects. ‘Trust comes through projects, not overnight,’ he said, advocating staying power. He, too, he recalled, had had to go to countless places.

It is important to create a management team of active people. In Aalen even an agenda parliament was appointed. The individual agenda groups should work autonomously and set goals. Prof. Dr Holzbaur emphasised that they should not only make demands, but also become active themselves and make a contribution.

At the end of his presentation, a lively discussion ensued in which comparisons were drawn between Kleve and Aalen and in some cases a supposed lack of interest among the Kleve population was noted. As an antidote, Prof Dr Holzbaur recommended a list of all groups that are committed to sustainability, from the church to beekeepers and sports clubs. ‘You will be surprised how much civic engagement can be found in Kleve,’ he concluded his presentation.