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Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg is not only Germany’s second-largest city, with approximately 1.8 million inhabitants, but also one of the country’s greenest cities. It is home to 190 renewable energy companies and its many research facilities make it a European hub for sustainability research.
groups
City population
1,830,669
person
Member since
2019
Mayor
First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Mr Dr. Peter Tschentscher
Vision
Hamburg has continued to update its membership by working on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in 2019 to structurally anchor this focus to all educational areas. This resulted in the Hamburg ESD Master Plan. The plan names goals surrounding ESD across kindergartens, schools, vocational training centres, universities, extracurricular education providers, and the city districts, thus including lifelong learning in the lives of all inhabitants from toddlers to senior citizens.
Policies, plan and implementation
Sustainability and health
In 2017, Hamburg developed a strategy for the implementation of the 17 SDG goals, in which education, research, and science are centralised. The anchoring of ESD in all areas of education is named by the city as an essential feature of achieving its goals.
Equity and inclusion
Equity and inclusion are important aspects that play a role in all areas of education, from early childhood education onwards. Both themes have been anchored in Hamburg law for many years, and indispensable elements were also taken up in the city’s ESD master plan.
Decent work and entrepreneurship
Hamburg supports the approach of sustainable management within the framework of socio-ecological modernisation, and thus supports decent work and fair wages. The Hamburg administration has had an environmentally friendly and sustainable procurement guideline for several years.
Good practices
Hamburg Action Plan (HHAP)
During the UN Decade of ESD (2005-2014), Hamburg published an annual brochure with an overview of the city's most important ESD projects. An update was completed that has been available digitally since 2022 which makes it again possible to get an overview of the ESD development landscape and to search for specific ESD projects in the city.
NUN certification
The extracurricular ESD area is a particularly active and important driver for transformation in the city. The NUN certification is the most important instrument to bring about further training and quality development among freelance ESD actors.