Evaluation

Freiburg brands itself as Green City.  An assessment of the achievements emphasized under this branding effort indicates that Freiburg’s commitment to sustainability under it’s “green city” branding has had three primary implications: reduced per capita CO2 emissions, a regional competitive advantage, and community development. These outcomes are the substance behind Freiburg's Green City branding campaign, and are by extension, also how the City of Freiburg defines its commitment to sustainability.

A smaller carbon footprint
Freiburg’s annual per capita carbon footprint is just 8.5 metric tons; lower than the German average of 9.5 metric tons. This represents a substantial improvement since 1997 when, at 10.5 metric tons Freiburg’s per capita carbon footprint was on par with the German average. Many of Freiburg’s “green” efforts have been strategically targeted to reduce CO2 emissions into the long-term future. Freiburg has, for example, strategically targeted the building sector, which accounts for 30% of the city’s total CO2 footprint. Through passive home technologies, and solar installation, the total energy use of the building sector has been reduced by over 35%. Although nuclear power intrinsically has a low carbon footprint, a finite global supply of minable uranium renders nuclear power unsustainable in the long-term. Freiburg, which has fought to reduce its dependence on nuclear power through improvements in alternative energy sources such as solar, cogeneration capacity and geothermal installations, is on the road to securing a long-term sustainable energy supply for itself. C40 cities

Regional Competitive Advantage
Freiburg’s “green” branding has been successfully integrated into a thriving solar economy that is an integral component of Freiburg’s long-term economic strategy. Freiburg’s solar sector attracts top scientists and tourists. As one of the leading manufacturer of PV cells in Europe, Freiburg also has a secure niche in the steadily growing market for PV cells.

Community Development
Many of the actions Freiburg has taken under its “green Freiburg” campaign have had a substantial impact on community development. Freiburg was able to implement most of its initiatives through unusual collaboration between citizens, city government and business. The remarkable alignment of interests between these parties has helped unify politics and has facilitated planning efforts in Freiburg. These efforts are regularly driven by a unified vision between community, City, and private stakeholders. Moreover, in addition to reducing Freiburg’s per-capita environmental footprint, Freiburg’s compact planning efforts integrate public transportation options and support cycling and pedestrian traffic. Speed limits keep streets safe for children. These elements worth together to support a vibrant community in Freiburg.

Road to Success
No specific political decision, and no individual event made Freiburg the “green city” it is today. Instead, Freiburg’s achievements can be attributed to a culmination of events, as well as a variety of social factors that are more difficult to define. Consensus on sustainability across political parties as well as citizens, city government, and private industry groups has helped many of the current initiatives thrive. Freiburg’s citizens almost ubiquitously share a concern for the environment, and attract like-minded residents to the city who then perpetuate the culture of sustainability that exists in Freiburg; not only municipally, but also within their life styles.

Today, regulation and design incentives work with these stakeholders to meet increasingly ambitious goals for CO2 emissions and energy diversification in Freiburg, and to keep Freiburg at the forefront of a global race to be a European leader in sustainability. The interaction of policy initiatives with an unusually integrated culture of sustainability put Freiburg ahead of many other cities under any definition of the word, and have enabled Freiburg to achieve the initiatives it uses to support it’s branding as “green city”. 

Key factors driving success:

• Unique geography and history
• Economic sustainability of solar sector
• Freiburg's branding efforts and general reputation for sustainability stimulate the economy by attracting tourists, residents, and business.
• Combination of local and national Incentive structures for energy efficiency.
• Culture of environmentalism that is shared between residents, government and private business.

Replicability
Freiburg's primary achievements as green city, as well as the key enabling factors are described above. It is necessary to evaluate the replicability of Freiburg's achievements, because many cities look up to Freiburg as a role model for sustainability, and because cities are an integral component to the global challenge to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. Of the key factors identified as driving Freiburg's success, some are more easily replicated than others. Freiburg's example indicates the importance of incorporating economic incentives into a city's sustainability strategy, both by way of an economy driven by sustainable technologies as well as household incentives to make sustainable life style choices. Increasingly stringent local and federal laws feed into this equation as well; expediting change by replacing incentives with mandates. These are all actions that could be replicated in nearly any other European or North American city, and could lead to substantial benefits. However, many of these measures are already widely in place worldwide, if to lesser a degree. What truly makes Freiburg stand out is the complexity of action and interaction within multiple different sectors, compounded by cultural and political agreement. Because the origins of this system are rooted to a number of factors, such as Freiburg's unique history, it is difficult to fabricate a "blueprint" for a similar system elesewhere.

It is difficult to quantify how much of an effect Freiburg's Green City branding campaign has had on its successes. Nevertheless, Freiburg is an excellent testament to the value of identity in sustainability. Integrating sustainability into its identity has helped Freiburg attract the residents and businesses that have helped it thrive and have helped Freiburg sustain the unique environmentalist culture that is the key to many of its sucesses. It therefore appears that one valuable step for any emerging "green city" would be to promote an identity of itself as sustainable city in order to attract and perpetuate the cultural and political values that have been so beneficial in Freiburg.

Green City Freiburg- Final assessment

Freiburg has certainly achieved success on various fronts; Freiburg has successfully reduced its CO2 footprint, and is implementing a number of admirable initiatives in planning, energy conservation, transportation and in conserving regional biodiversity. Above all, Freiburg's successes are rooted in its ability to make progress on multiple fronts simultaneously, and be a world leader in the solar sector. However, with a (albeit slowly declining) per capita carbon footprint of 8.5 metric tons per year, higher still than many Western European countries, Freiburg is still far away from making a substantial contribution to mitigating climate change. Freiburg, a city where the majority of the population understands and values energy efficient living, will have to work a lot harder still before it can be truly considered a city whose model will help combat climate change. It is true that GreenCity Freiburg makes no claims of being such a city. Yet, this may be an appropriate time to declare that while action is better than inaction, the bar for what constitutes sustainable living needs to be raised. Not just in Freiburg, but across the globe.