One of the major reasons that Germany has been able to enact as much sustainable change nationwide as it has is the work of the Green Party in the German Parliament. Officially established in West Germany in the 1980s and in East Germany in 1990 and finally merged in 1993, it gained enough support by 1998 to form a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party, holding federal power until 2005. With the election of 2021, the Green Party of Germany is once again part of the coalition government currently leading Germany.

Its political power has allowed some of its agenda to come to fruition, most notably, the closing of all nuclear power plants in Germany. While nuclear energy is a big part of sustainable energy in many countries, as it does not produce fossil fuels, the issue of nuclear waste is a concerning problem in a country as relatively small and densely populated as Germany. The Green Party first gained popularity from its stance on nuclear energy following the fallout from the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine, and its continued campaign to ensure nuclear energy would not be a part of Germany’s energy transition was successful with Germany’s last nuclear power plant closing in April of 2023.

As a voting block, the Green Party has caused some of Germany’s sustainable policy choices, but perhaps even more significant has been their effect on the climate conversation as a whole. As they gained support relatively quickly, it became clear that the German public was concerned with the environmental issues they championed. In order to keep their voting base happy, other parties began to shift their agendas to allocate more resources towards sustainable policy, making the “Energiewende” (energy transition) a central topic in German government almost regardless of which party came to power.

The idea of a Green Party is not unique to Germany, and the United States does have its own version, but the structure of the U.S. government has not allowed it the same impact. Additionally, environmental policy has unfortunately become an extremely polarizing partisan issue in the United States. Although environmental concerns are prevalent, there is currently not much of a path for citizens to impose their will on the government, as there are really only two viable parties, so even if neither will advocate for the degree of change desired, neither will suffer any consequences. Without significant change to government procedure in the United States, a similar effect could not be achieved. The structure of the German government is situated to give citizens’ votes much more impact, allowing the Green Party to gain some power and its ideas to spread across the government, overall helping to create the German that is known as a leader in sustainable energy today.

References:

Conradt, D. P. (2023, April 23). Green Party of Germany. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Green-Party-of-Germany

Goossen, B. (2019, February 22). What the US can learn from Germany’s stunning environmental movement. Waging Nonviolence. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/11/us-can-learn-germanys-stunning-environmental-movement/

Uekotter, F. (2021, April 23). How the Greens went mainstream. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/23/how-the-greens-went-mainstream/

A fascinating idea that I both encountered while studying in this course along with traveling throughout Germany was the vast recycling program (Pfand) that the country applies across all of its retail areas. In 2002, it was estimated that up to 3 million bottles were disposed of in landfills across Germany. To help with combatting this incredibly large amount of waste, Germany adopted the bottle deposit system. Whenever someone uses a bottle for single-use purposes (like purchasing a Coke, beer, or other personal beverage), you can return the bottle at the place of purchase for a small refund. The system is applied across different regions of the world; however, in Germany, the return rate of bottles is almost 98% of all recyclable bottles in the country (DW 2021).

Interestingly enough, in Germany, part of the Pfand system also consists of a unique way for the homeless population to find a semi-safe way of income. Under the recycling bins on the street, it is acceptable for someone who is unable to drop a bottle at a retail location for their refund underneath the recycling bin. Then, homeless/unemployed individuals who need extra income come around in the evenings and collect the bottles to take to the store and receive the deposit return on the bottles. In the end, it helps with both keeping the environment clean, reducing carbon emissions of producing new bottles, and helping put some money in the pockets of others.

When thinking about the United States’ recycling system, its disappointing to think about how far behind our recycling initiatives are across the country compared to countries like Germany. Interestingly enough, there are some US states who have a sort of Pfand system where bottles can be returned for a 1-5 cent refund (states like Maine, West Virginia, and Hawaii). California is the only state at the time of this writing that allows for a full-refund of the bottle’s value which is similar to the Pfand system in Germany.

A label from a refundable bottle in the US, with all of the values that states will refund if its returned to a store. (Source).

I think that a notable difficulty that is displayed in the above image of the back of a bottle is the difficulty of states in the United States to collaborate with one another for a universal system. For example, there are 7 states that have 5 cent refunds, 2 states with a 10 cent refund, and one with a Credit Retail Value (CRV) refund. Under the federalist system within the United States and with polarized politics, I could imagine that establishing a federal CRV system would be quite difficult (if at all plausible) for the United States.

Ruiz, I. B., & Cwienk, J. (2021, November 24). A look at Germany’s bottle deposit scheme – DW – 11/17/2021. dw.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023, from https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-germanys-bottle-deposit-scheme-work/a-50923039

In 2009 a group of people from the district of Kreuzburg in Berlin, Germany came together to create a green space called Prinzenssinnengarten. The idea was originally to create mobile gardens that could be used across many rural lands. The founder of the project then realized a garden in the city would be much more beneficial. The garden took the place of a square in the town that had essentially became an urban wasteland. The community took it over, removed all of the trash, and created a communal garden. People who live there can go and plant things like vegetables or even just flowers. Since being created the community has added multiple beehives that help to pollinate all of the flowers and overall help to improve the biodiversity of the city.

This is such an important project because it positively effected the community in multiple ways. It creates a nice green space that people can go to spend time in. On top of that it is also a nice way for the community to come together while also benefiting from the food that is being planted there. There are really no negatives to creating urban agriculture like this because they only help to improve the quality of life in big and small cities.

More urban agriculture being introduced to big cities in the United States could be very beneficial to the status of climate change and the overall happiness of the community. Planting native plants will not only help to make cities more appealing but will also help to local ecosystem. Plants that are native will thrive better and make these garden much more beneficial. On top of that planting things like fruits and vegetables will help to benefit the communities as they will provide fresh produce that anyone who needs it can use.

To get something like this started in the United State communities need to come together to advocate. Working with local government can go a long way in helping with projects like this. With many people working together work can easily be done. Also, when people see projects like this thriving and benefiting the community they are more likely to also work to make these projects work in their own cities. Overall gardens like this in cities will help to improve biodiversity, a sense of community, and the environment overall in the United States.

The very first time I heard about the Pfand system was when I spent an extended summer in Berlin, Germany. Some other student I was with told me about a system to return bottles and receive a deposit back. While sometimes, we would return them ourselves, we would also purposely leave empty bottles out at parks for others to pick up and get the return deposit. This would typically be homeless who could return the bottles in exchange for money in grocery stores to purchase food and other essentials.

The German Pfand system is something that I am surprised more grocery stores have yet to adopt. Essentially, it works by attaching a bottle deposit price when customers purchase glass or plastic bottles. When the bottle is empty, customers return the bottle and receive their deposit back. Many grocery stores have a depository bin or can be returned to the cashier. In Germany, this can be up to $0.29 for bottles that can be re-used like glass and PET plastic bottles, which is set by the producer, or a set $0.29 by the government for single use bottles. When returned, the re-usable bottles are sent to their wholesaler warehouse to be sanitized and then refilled. The single use bottles are shredded, melted, and the turned into new plastic bottles or other materials. This system continues on and on to reduce the amount of plastic produced.

The Pfand system began in Germany where they have seen a bottle return rate as high as 98%. This means less raw materials, less energy, and less carbon emissions, all just by encouraging bottle returns. Traditional recycling is not as effective as the bottle recycling system because bottle are mixed with other recycling and get contaminated by other food products. The Pfand system is for bottles and only bottles, preventing the issues caused by traditional recycling programs.

Ideally, this system seems pretty straight forward to replicate. However, it requires a whole new system in factories to pick up, clean, and refill bottles. Replicating this in a country who consumers more, moves more, and is much larger could prove to be difficult. Beginning simply in cities with smaller grocery stores and a denser population may be the key to creating this system in the U.S.

However, it is not unlikely that the U.S could successfully replicate the system. With a growing amount of conscious consumers, stores are forced into more sustainable practices like reusable or paper bags instead of plastic bags. If the Pfand system begins in cities where trends grow, it has the chance to grow into a new sustainable movement in grocery stores.

Bibliography

Ruiz, I. B., & Cwienk, J. (2021, November 24). A look at Germany’s bottle deposit scheme – DW – 11/17/2021. dw.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023, from https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-germanys-bottle-deposit-scheme-work/a-50923039

Pedestrian zones, referred to as Fußgängerzone in German, are popular and significant elements of sustainable urban planning in many German cities. Fußgängerzone are sections of a town or city where vehicles are prohibited from driving so that pedestrians may use the space. Having areas of a city cut off from vehicle traffic has been linked to reductions in urban carbon emissions. It is thus becoming more popular for city governments that are concerned with sustainability to implement. While they are popular in many of the large urban centers in Germany, such as Marienplatz in Munich, pedestrian zones are yet to make a large-scale appearance in the United States outside of small towns.

City governments should consider many benefits of Pedestrian zones when undergoing new urban development programs. Not only do they reduce carbon emissions from traffic, but they also greatly benefit the residents of cities in other ways. According to the National League of Cities, “Large-scale implementation of pedestrian zones has the potential to reduce chronic air pollution, noise pollution, and the urban heat island effect” (NLC 2020, 14). While we are yet to see these effects at their full potential in the United States, several other nations have implemented pedestrian zones in their cities with great success.

Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is a prime example of a non-German city that has seen the benefits of pedestrian zones. Since their implementation, the pedestrian zones in the city have led to a significant decrease in the previously discussed pollutants as well as in general injury from cars (TOHE 2021). These benefits ought to be enough to convince city planners in the United States to at least consider the implementation of pedestrian zones; however, the benefits come with a cost. 

The most significant costs that pedestrian zones impose on cities are the fact that it cuts off a portion of the road for drivers to use, which might frustrate some residents, and that they can be relatively large urban projects for a city government to undertake. While these issues can be large though, like cutting off an important part of someone’s commute, they can be overcome. The issues can be overcome if the city governments also create a policy that improves public transport around the pedestrian zone and do what they can with the budget allotted for the project. A fantastic example of creating an efficient pedestrian zone on a small budget can be found in Cape May, New Jersey. Even though it is relatively small, it has become a staple of the community and a large tourist attraction.

Overall, pedestrian zones are a great project for cities in the United States to undertake. Not only do they increase the sustainability of urban areas, they also improve the quality of life for the majority of residents. In conclusion, the US ought to follow in the footsteps of Germany and implement more Fußgängerzone. 

Works Cited

Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J. (2021, December). New Urban Models for more sustainable, liveable and healthier cities post Covid19; reducing air pollution, noise and heat island effects and increasing green space and physical activity. Environment international. Retrieved May 5, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8457623/ 

Zetland, A. D. (2022, March 1). Amsterdam’s people-friendly streets. The onehanded economist. Retrieved May 5, 2023, from https://one-handed-economist.com/?p=3115#:~:text=Lower%20air%20pollution,risk%20of%20injury%20from%20cars

An idea and practice that we encountered during the research for the “Let’s Talk Climate” seminar during this course was the idea of food sustainability in Germany, and in turn energy conservation. More specifically, we were able to focus on the company HelloFresh. This company, now worldwide, was first created in Germany on October 4, 2011, by Jessica Nilsson Schultz, Thomas W. Griesel, and Dominik S. Richter. They have their main headquarters in Berlin; however, they also have locations around the world, including in the US.  

When this idea was first created, the practice was specific to Germany. This is because few other countries were as focused and invested in sustainability. The founders of HelloFresh were aiming to create a food delivery company that would adhere to these cultural norms of caring for the climate through food sustainability and energy conservation. The company was built with a sustainability team that had four main goals. These were to have “science-based decision making, authentic leadership, compassion-driven problem solving, and transparent communication.”  

With the overall delivery service, packaging, and obtaining the food, the company is able to reduce the consumer’s carbon footprint, as well as being carbon neutral. They obtain this by investing in a large amount of carbon offsets, as well as using renewable energy – wind energy — in their factories and other buildings. They are also able to accomplish this by having a reduced supply chain than grocery stores have. This is because they use local sources for the food they ship. In addition, they also minimize shipping materials and waste by limiting the boxes they ship. The food is also portioned into specific serving sizes so there is less wasted by the consumer.  

In the last 12 years, this company has been able to spread German ideas worldwide, specifically to the US. It has been successful in many aspects as the American market has been able to order the food right to their doorstep, meaning they can continue with their schedule without having to worry about going to the grocery store or figuring out what to cook. And they also have been able to embrace the overall sustainability aspect. This is because a large amount of the youth of America has become more concerned about their carbon footprint and protecting the Earth. And with this growing concern, the backbone of the company has been able to successfully adapt to American culture.

Source:

https://www.hellofresh.com/about/sustainability/reduce-your-carbon-footprint

https://img.hellofresh.com/f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/hellofresh_website/us/lp/about/841548616_HFEPOPS_Sustainability-WebAssetUpdate_2022-02_Desktop_Image1.png

In 1970, the New York Times titled an article donning the Rhine as the “sewer of Europe,” deriving from the Dutch phrase, “het riool van Europe” (Pace). The article attributes pollution as the culprit to the diminishing beauty of the historic and fabled river due to increases in detergents, pesticides, and other chemicals. In 2023, climate change exerts itself to the top of the list for factors in the decline. Because of the importance of sustaining the Rhine for shipping, transport, and preserving history, experts now question how we can mitigate, or even adapt, to climate change and pollution threatening the prosperity of such a vital feature of the German landscape.

The Rhine River experiences low water levels often and has for many years. Although, climate change exacerbates the extent of severity and duration of time the low levels occur, therefore also the economic impact. Increased evaporation and decreased precipitation caused by climate change reduce the amount of water in the Rhine as well as the famously shrinking Great Salt Lake in Utah, United States. Compounding the low water levels with ever-present pollutants, adaptation prevails necessary to continue utilizing the river’s and lake’s sustainably.

After a week’s long low period of the Rhine accompanied by a 0.3% economic loss in Germany in 2018, i.e., the  12 billion euros (Schuetze), a grand simulation project emerged to gather evidence on the feasibility of deepening the river. For hundreds of years the Rhine has been straightened and deepened – but the current project is taking too long, people are eager to see the project completed, and the present obstacles make it impossible for some industries to prosper with the fleeting river acting as their failing avenue for business.

In October 2022, the Great Salt Lake in Utah hit a record low level contributing to the rapid shrinking size. The lakebed of Great Salt Lake contains arsenic, silt, and clay particles small enough that when the lakebed is exposed, these chemical particles release into the air, and risk the health of 1.3 million residents of the surrounding areas (Howes). Although the Great Salt Lake does not support fish, it does house brine shrimp important to the diet of migrating birds (Van Tatenhove) and Utah’s economy. Brine shrimp act as important factors in Utah’s economy as farmers sell them as fish food to aquaculture businesses. As pollutant concentration in the Rhine increases as water levels decrease, salinity in the Great Salt Lake increases from the same cause, negatively affecting the brine shrimp population and therefore the economy.

The Great Salt Lake and the Rhine River face both ecological and economical changes. Although the consequences of each vary, they both suffer from human perpetuated issues that require human encouraged repairs.

Works Cited

Howes, Laura. “What Happens When the Water in Our Rivers and Lakes Reaches Record Lows?” C&N: Chemical and Engineering News, 29 Oct. 2022, https://cen.acs.org/environment/climate-change/happens-water-rivers-lakes-reaches/100/i38.

Schuetze, Christopher F., and Laetitia Vancon. “Can Germans Save Their Beloved Rhine?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Nov. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/world/europe/germany-climate-change-rhine-river.html.

Special, Eric Pace. “Countries That Touch the Fabled Rhine Take Steps to Clean up the ‘Sewer of Europe’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Mar. 1970, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/22/archives/countries-that-touch-the-fabled-rhine-take-steps-to-clean-up-the.html.

Van Tatenhove, Aimee. “Increasing Great Salt Lake Salinity Predicted to Impact Utah Brine Shrimp.” UPR Utah Public Radio, Utah Public Radio, 26 Sept. 2022, https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2022-09-28/increasing-great-salt-lake-salinity-predicted-to-impact-utah-brine-shrimp.