Karin Hunn took her last private flight in 2001. Her decision stemmed from environmental concerns, and, since then, she has relied on public transportation and her bike, only using a car when absolutely necessary. “I got rid of my car two years ago. I checked out the car-sharing option, which works perfectly, and I save money because it is so much cheaper,” she shared. A big reason Hunn felt that she could make this transition was because of the infrastructure of the city where she lives: “It’s a small city. You can bike within 40 minutes from one end to the other. And, if you don’t want a bike, you can rely on trams and buses.” The city Hunn describes is Freiburg im Breisgau, a picturesque city of 230,000 nestled in southwest Germany’s Black Forest.
Freiburg’s commitment to sustainability has a long history. A pivotal moment came in 1975 when citizens, including students, farmers, and diverse local groups, united to resist the construction of the Wyhl nuclear power plant in the Black Forest area. While nuclear energy is considered to be a sustainable energy today, there were, and are, concerns in Germany about the health risks of radioactive waste and the environmental impacts of a nuclear accident. The protest was successful, not only halting the nuclear project but also laying the foundation for Freiburg’s green movement. Freiburg’s citizens, having seen the tangible impact of their resistance, continue to push for progressive environmental policies in Freiburg.
Since then, sustainability has been part of Freiburg’s ethos. In 2010, Freiburg was named the Federal Capital for Climate Protection; in 2012, it received the German Sustainability Award; in 2018, it won multiple awards for sustainable building and other green initiatives. Freiburg’s environmentalist mission is apparent on every block, where a variety of policies—including transportation, green spaces, recycling, food waste, second-hand shopping, and green energy—work together to drive the city’s green transition.
Transportation
Freiburg is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. In fact, there are more bicycles than cars in the city. For Luisa Diesinger, a Freiburg university student, the city’s cycling culture was striking in comparison to her hometown: “I instantly felt how bike-friendly the city is. I love to bike in my hometown in Munich, but here, there are bike lanes everywhere. It makes a big difference to the environment and to ourselves—we get to move every day and we have fresh air.”
Freiburg’s strong bike culture is no accident—the city has made a significant effort to foster it. According to Sophie Schwer, the Elected Chairwoman of the Green Party in the Freiburg City Council, “Freiburg has a key responsibility to get people out of cars and onto bikes or trams, and that has always been our policy—it’s cheap, it keeps you healthy, and it is also good for our air quality.” She notes that Freiburg “has a lot of bike lanes that we try to maintain well, and we are trying to expand, not just within the city but also to the neighboring communities.” Hunn agrees, noting that when she first moved to the area, “there were not as many bike lanes, and those that did exist were small. Nowadays, the bike lanes are colored, broader, and much safer. You can see that the city has really made an effort.”
In other cities, biking can be dangerous, but Freiburg has taken steps to ensure the safety of cyclists on its roads. Diesinger noted Freiburg’s bike-tracking system in which citizens log their bike rides, providing the city with data on which bike lanes are used most and where bike lanes need improvement. Schulte added, “I think Freiburg was pretty good at how they built their bike lanes. The lane is really separate from the road so that you have a physical barrier, which encourages more people to ride. They also introduced a speed limit of 30 km/hr for cars in many parts of the city to make it safer for cyclists.” Schulte noted, however, that “bike lanes are low hanging fruit because they are one of the easiest paths you can take to be more sustainable. It is nice to see new bike lanes and people using them, but I think there is still a lot more to go.”
Other, less visible policies also encourage biking in Freiburg. For instance, “the traffic lights are set at the tempo for cars in other cities, but here they are set for the tempo of the bikers,” said Diesinger. This ensures a safe experience for cyclists, reinforcing Freiburg’s commitment to making the city both environmentally friendly and convenient for its citizens.
In 2023, Freiburg also launched a pilot program for solar-covered cycling paths. “If it is hot or rainy, people will not want to bike, so we are trying to put solar panels above more bike lanes to protect the bikers from the weather.” Creating parking space for bicycles has also been crucial. Simon Schulte, a PhD student at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, added, “The city has created a lot of places to lock bikes, making bike parking more accessible.”
The city also incentivizes its residents to be green in unconventional ways. Several apps help citizens track their bike trips and calculate the CO2 they save with each ride. Hunn appreciates this feature, noting that the calculation is “quite nice because it makes you very aware, not for your own interests, but for the public good and the good of the city.” The bike trackers that tally how many cyclists take a ride each day yield impressive numbers, according to Hunn. “When you just see large numbers of bikers [on the app], it really motivates you to care and consider improving the situation for other people.”
Freiburg is also highly walkable and has an excellent public transportation system. In fact, the Altstadt, the city’s historic old town, is largely car-free and designed to encourage walking.
“I walk everywhere, and I really like the way they designed the city to make it that way,” said Jonathan Albertson, who manages a second-hand store in Freiburg. He added that even though he lives outside Freiburg, the tram still makes owning a car unnecessary. “I walk six minutes to the tram and can get to the city in 15 minutes. It’s probably been a decade since I have used a car,” said Albertson.
Schwer emphasized that it’s important to actively construct cities with public transit, not cars, in mind. She noted that Vauban, a district in Freiburg, was designed with a focus on filtered permeability, a concept that favors bikers and walkers while “filtering” out cars by creating crescent-shaped streets and dead-ends. “If you consciously design districts in a way where it is quicker to go by foot from one point to the other, people would rather walk or bike than take a car,” she explained. Schwer called this one of the most effective “urban planning tools” to encourage walking and biking, describing it as part of “Freiburg’s fabric.”
Green Spaces
Another key aspect of Freiburg’s sustainability efforts is its focus on preserving green spaces. Within the city, there are several parks that provide large green areas with diverse animal habitats. Indeed, Freiburg is 82% green space. When compared to other cities such as Munich (50% green space) or Mannheim (44% green space), it is clear that Freiburg is well above the norm.
Creating these green spaces is a complex task. “Details as small as how you cut the grass really matter,” said Diesinger. “If you use a lawnmower, you take everything, but if you are more patient and clip the grass, the insects and different flowers can live, and you will have more diverse green places,” she said.
Because of these efforts, green spaces are very popular with Freiburg’s citizens, and as a result, the city is incentivized to maintain them regularly. This not only ensures continued enjoyment but also preserves environmental benefits, such as improving air quality and supporting biodiversity in the city. Schulte says that one of the main reasons he loves Freiburg is because of “its green parks and trees” and the fact that “from any point of the city, it is very easy to get out into the Black Forest.”
Waste Management
The less glamorous side of environmental policy is waste management. But throughout Germany, citizens take their duties seriously, as recycling and waste separation are considered the norm. Diesinger reflected, “Recycling and bottle deposits are so normal—we grew up with that.” Schulte agreed. “It is very common in Germany, and it was common when I was growing up,” he said.
While this is the norm in Germany, the standard in Freiburg is even higher, where failing to participate in environmentally-conscious waste management practices is considered taboo. There are three mandatory waste bins in Freiburg households: one for paper, one for organic waste, and one for non-recyclables. Failure to follow sorting rules can lead to fines or even eviction from homes. As Hunn puts it, “Separating waste, even if you do not think much about it, is more transparent because it shows you how much you are using and how much you are leaving behind.”
Despite these efforts, Hunn notes that plastic waste continues to accumulate, even as her family tries to reduce their garbage. She recalled shopping for sustainable, organic groceries but finding that “everything is still packed in plastic.” To combat this, she mentioned a local Freiburg store known as the Glaskiste, a zero-packaging supermarket in the center of the Altstadt where customers bring their own containers. Yet, even this has its challenges. “There is conflict about practicality. If you have a family to feed, it is not feasible to get quantity from that little shop.”
Schulte, who conducts environmental research in Freiburg, also voiced concerns about packaging and its role in increasing waste. “From a research perspective, it is interesting to think about how recycling is a burden on the consumers. Citizens have to deal with where they put their garbage and make sure it is in the right bin. But I think there is room for improvement on the producer side. The composition of the plastic packaging on products has changed a lot. Now we have multilayer plastics, which are much harder to recycle,” he explained. “So, I am often wondering about how I make an effort to separate all my waste, while the industry eventually just has to burn plastic as it is being produced because it cannot be recycled anymore.”
To further reduce waste, Freiburg has addressed the issue of takeout food packaging. In 2016, they introduced the Freiburg Cup to encourage less waste from to-go drinks and snacks, putting around 26,000 reusable cups into circulation. The system was widely successful, but the city saw room for improvement. Within months, Frieburg transitioned to the more common country-wide system, known as RECUP, a reusable packaging solution made from 100% recyclable polypropylene that is BPA and pollutant free. The system is simple: consumers borrow the reusable containers for a deposit from their favorite participating restaurants, and if it is returned to a partner in Germany, the customer gets their deposit back. Freiburg showed its commitment to RECUP by subsidizing the program and offering incentives to businesses that participated.
Addressing Food Waste
In addition to product and packaging waste, food waste has also been a major focus in Freiburg. The city’s waste management service, Abfallwirtschaft und Stadtreinigung, shared that it collects 32,000 tons of food and other biological waste annually across the region. To address this issue, the government has heavily prioritized food composting, being one of the first cities to introduce organic waste containers in 1977. The city converts its food waste into a renewable fuel, and that gas is then transformed into electricity.
Citizen initiatives also play a vital role in addressing food waste in Freiburg. Schulte highlighted the variety of “food sharing platforms where they collect leftovers from supermarkets and restaurants to distribute.” He noted that this concept is very popular in Freiburg, with “a whole community and many people engaged with it.” Julia Triebel, a student and Greenpeace member, agreed: “People participate in food-sharing a lot. It is a way for people to give back to their community while taking care of the environment.” The widespread nature of practices like food sharing in Freiburg demonstrate the city’s culture of reciprocity and ecological responsibility, where sustainable living is a shared value. Schulte also mentioned food cooperatives, where “different corporations get together to collect all types of shelf-stable food and buy it directly from producers.” Another proposal is a “community supported agriculture concept. The idea is you have a share of one project and crop and receive your share every week. Close to 400 people participate in it,” shared Schulte.
But perhaps the most important initiative in Freiburg is food waste education. The city hosts an annual agricultural fair aimed at connecting farmers with consumers. Diesinger explained that the festival is meant to “connect the farmers with the people who eat their food so that people are more aware of where their food comes from. The festival always has so many workshops where communities can come together to visit farms or to sit in on a lecture.”
Hunn agreed, emphasizing the importance of increasing consumer knowledge about food. “People argue that organic products are much more expensive. But if you calculate all the damages that you do not see to the environment, conventional food is more costly. The festival tries to raise awareness, showing how organic products are cheaper when you factor in environmental harm,” said Hunn.
Second-hand Shopping
Despite being a small city, Freiburg has no shortage of secondhand stores. These shops promote slow fashion, encouraging people to reduce their clothing consumption and consider the labor and carbon footprint behind the garments they choose. Many of these stores emphasize fair trade and organic production. Flea markets, held almost every weekend, are also common in the city, giving people a chance to find bargains and repurpose old items. Schwer highlighted one of her favorite initiatives: “There is a shop where you pay something like twenty-five euros per month and you can take four clothing pieces home at a time and change as much as you would like, and this model allows us to consume slower.”
Albertson, who manages one of these stores, PICKNWEIGHT, shared that in his store, “We reuse everything. I think it’s fantastic that we take something that someone thought was too old or just didn’t look good, and we’re giving it to someone else.” Even in his previous job in Freiburg, Albertson worked at a store that used recycled plastic bottles to make new products.
The appeal of secondhand shopping is multi-generational. Albertson pointed out that his store attracts a diverse range of customers, attributing this to a broader cultural mindset. He explained that “especially in Freiburg, people make a conscious decision to shop secondhand because of the environmental impact.” In his experience, customers will often inquire “where the products are from, where they are made, what the working conditions were, and how the leather was dyed.”
Albertson strikes at a deeper issue: the cultural difference in consumerism. “It’s very different from an American perspective, which is all about money and consumerism. Germans, especially in Freiburg, take a step back and think about what they are doing to the planet,” he observed.
Green Energy
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of Freiburg’s sustainability journey is its commitment to promoting green energy. Inside Freiburg’s city hall, which has been equipped with solar panels since 2004, city officials strive to make Freiburg climate neutral by 2050. Many commercial buildings in the city are already required to install solar panels. Nationally, Germany mandates that new houses must not waste more than 75 kWh/m² of energy annually, which is “roughly a quarter of the energy lost from a typical Victorian house in Britain.” In Freiburg, discussions are underway to lower that even further, to between 55 and 40 kWh/m². Even Freiburg’s iconic football stadium runs on solar power, featuring energy storage batteries and electric charging stations. The stadium was built to direct any excess solar energy collected back to the grid.
Schwer explained, “We try to build with very good ecological standards like Energy Plus houses or timber construction, which is much better for the environment.” The term “Energy Plus” is a term coined by German architect Rolf Disch that refers to buildings that generate more energy than they consume, allowing residents to sell surplus energy back to the city. This model not only benefits the environment but also helps reduce electricity costs. Schwer pointed to a broader shift: “Because of geopolitics, there has been a big push for renewable energy in the last few years. The biggest thing we are trying to do at the moment is transform the energy sector.”
Challenges
Freiburg’s sustainability efforts should be lauded, but the city isn’t a one-dimensional shade of green. A prime example of the challenges facing Freiburg is the new district of Dietenbach. This development aims to be carbon-neutral and provide 6,500 apartments for 15,000 residents, while also preserving green spaces for recreation. The city also intends to connect the district with accessible roads and public transport, ensuring it is well integrated with the rest of Freiburg.
However, this project raises concerns about the balance between sustainability and social issues. While the goal of climate neutrality is admirable, some citizens point out the environmental cost of building this new district. Triebel notes, “They say it is going to be great for our city, but we are concerned because they need to cut down the trees in this area, hurting the climate in the process.”
Schwer acknowledged the difficulty. “Of course, [the new district] is awful for the ecosystem. The reason why we do this is not only the social issue of affordable housing, which is the biggest issue in the city of Freiburg. Ironically, it is also for ecological reasons because if other smaller cities give out building licenses that will allow new homes to be built, those one-family homes have a much bigger environmental impact per capita. So, instead, the city offers housing on terms we can all agree on. We build one district, we sacrifice these forests and these ecosystems here for greater mobility for its citizens, and we have an energy concept there that is purely renewable.”
Schwer added that, while environmental NGOs argue against building Dietenbach, they don’t address the critical issue of overcrowding in small spaces. Nonetheless, she believes the project can meet its ambitious goals. “We sacrifice parts of the area, but we shape it in a way that would save so many people and the ecologically valuable area around the city. That is just the tradeoff we have to make,” Schwer said.
These decisions are not easy for politicians like Schwer, but they are necessary. Schwer admits that it is challenging to always push for changes in energy consumption, especially when political considerations come into play. “We need to listen to the research outcomes, even if it is not the most sexy politically. For example, if we put solar panels on the roof, people do not see that, but it is the most efficient use. However, if you put them on the wall, people can see and feel like they live in a green city, but it is a less efficient way to use that technology,” she said.
Community Engagement
While political decisions play a crucial role in moving policy forward, so too does community engagement, and this is where Freiburg thrives. The city is home to a chapter of the global movement Fridays for Future. “Since 2018, we have had the Fridays for Future Demonstrations, and we as the Green Party tried to make good use of that for our environmental policy,” said Schwer. In Freiburg, Fridays for Future regularly organizes strikes, influences local politicians, and hosts panels with leading scientists to discuss climate change issues.
One of the most popular events is the Climate Public School, organized by the Fridays for Future leaders and funded by the Green Party in Freiburg. Triebel, who participated in the Public Climate School series this summer, loved it because it showed her that other citizens were also interested in sustainability. The event spans an entire week, offering constant activities throughout the day. People can drop by to attend a workshop, listen to guest lecturers, or bring their kids to participate in eco-friendly activities.
Another example of community engagement is the Climate Protection Fund. Schwer explained, “We set up a 120 million euro Climate Protection Fund, and we put together an expert panel to start a competition within our city administration to participate and contribute their climate protection ideas. Then, the panel decides which idea would save the most CO2 per euro. It is a lot of money to spend on this, but it is cool because you can see how everyone has their own take on climate policy.”
The city is also home to a 24/7 encampment known as the Klimacamp. “There are always at least two people in those tents to protest the development of climate change. So, here in Freiburg, we have constant protests, which just shows you how much people care,” said Triebel.
Lessons Learned
Freiburg is not a perfect city, but it offers many lessons that can inspire new perspectives. Engaging people in climate action can be challenging. “One of the reasons why people do not want to interact with this issue of the climate is because if you take it seriously, you need to reduce your consumption, and that is something that does not really fit into how we see the world,” explained Schwer. Yet, a shift in mindset can be developed by adopting eco-friendly habits early in life, like learning to recycle and practicing mindful consumption. Transitioning to a more sustainable lifestyle is something that can be eased into gradually.
It is also crucial to spread climate knowledge beyond environmental organizations to reach everyday people who may not have access to the same knowledge. Triebel noted, “We are speaking about these things within a group of people who study the environment and who share the same motivations as us, but it doesn’t help if the knowledge never leaves the bubble. So, I think it would be nice to go to schools and reach out to new people.”
As much as the city prides itself on environmental consciousness, continuous effort is required to sustain it. “I think it is pretty common here to care for the environment. At the same time, we can talk about how we have a clean lifestyle and how much we love the environment, but if you dig deeper, there are always contradictions in the way we consume and our desire to be green. I can admit that I am also faced with those contradictions at times,” Schulte said.
The study of Freiburg extends beyond the city itself, reflecting a broader global trend in environmentalism, reminding us that challenges like excessive plastic waste and carbon footprints are universal. Yet, as Freiburg demonstrates, with collaborative efforts, meaningful solutions are within reach. Now, more than ever, this shift in mindset is urgent.
As Albertson shared, “We are destroying our environment, and I cannot even imagine what the younger generations are going to experience. It is really now or never—we are at the tipping point.”