Fast-paced GREENESTO project finale with impulse, pitches and intensive discussions

Those who know contexts, backgrounds and effects make informed decisions. On the way to more sustainability, action is the decisive moment - and change takes shape through action. 

The GREENESTO project set itself the goal of creating more sustainability awareness among Stuttgart residents. ARENA2036, the Green Office of the University of Stuttgart and the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Science (ENI) joined forces for the one-year duration of the project. At the end of the project on 1 December, the partners presented project results in the ARENA2036 and discussed with almost 50 guests.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Brem (ENI) gave his opening keynote speech under the question "Do you act sustainably in your daily practice?" After a brief outline of the term sustainability, he presented the "4-S model", which modelled sustainability actions across the levels of the individual, the group, the organisation and large supra-regional groups. With handy examples from reusability to the regulation of mobility, he made it clear that small actions can generate significant impact through cumulative effects and that complex regulation has far-reaching visibility and enormous leverage, but also entails considerable effort for development, coordination and implementation. Conclusion: Every action in the right direction counts. At all levels!

Dr. Elif Köksoy, Head of the Green Office at the University of Stuttgart, then presented the workshops developed and conducted as part of GREENESTO. The aim of the approachable offers on "fair trade", "repair workshop" or "mindfulness" was to impart sustainability competence and perspectives for action to each individual. After campus events, the aim is to reach the rest of the Stuttgart area.

Dr. David Reicher, ARENA2036, took the audience on a Kintsuigi journey. Based on the Japanese method of giving new life to broken things, Design Factory Stuttgart had developed a workshop with an environmental focus for pupils. In combination with mobile furniture and an e-Sprinter, the team of student assistants conducted Kintsugi workshops in numerous Stuttgart schools. The combination of the haptic experience of breaking cups that are put back together and environmental topics that the children and young people dealt with led to exciting journeys of discovery.

Kintsuigi is suitable for modelling very different change processes and making them literally tangible. This was also confirmed by the participants of the Kinstugi demonstration workshop that the Design Factory offered to interested adults in the afternoon. 

Super fast-paced 3x3 minute pitches were then given by three impact start-ups from the Startup Campus 0711 ecosystem. Katrin Kreidel from Hydrop presented the AI-based idea of receiving feedback on personal water consumption via data analysis. The goal: to use water as a resource more efficiently. She was followed on stage by Nils Bachmann from Proservation, who presented alternative packaging made from grain husks. Both start-ups received the desirable EXIST funding from the federal government. Third in the bunch was Marie-Claire Becker, who presented Re:Vive, a platform for second-hand fashion that will also include style consultations in its functional scope. Re:Vive is still at the beginning of the start-up journey and, like Hydrop, emerged from ENI's AWAKE programme.

To close the event, moderator Kathrin Lichius (ENI) brought Dr. Elif Köksoy and Prof. Dr. Alexander Brem on stage once again. They were complemented by Sophie Mok, who, as representative of the Stuttgart Climate and Innovation Fund, both presented the fund's funding lines and called on other interested parties to apply for the still open grants. The fund is particularly looking for nature-based solutions for the state capital, which is particularly affected by increasing heavy rainfall and heat waves. In the discussion that followed, the stage guests agreed that adaptation strategies for the city are at least as important as ideas and innovations against climate change. 

The GREENESTO project was funded by the GreenOffice of the University of Stuttgart and the Stuttgart Climate and Innovation Fund.