Meeting the Berlin Sustainability Scene

Yesterday evening I visited a campy meeting of the young, Berlin sustainability scene, which showed again how dynamic the new green movement is at the moment. The crowd, a mix of a young activists and green entrepreneurs, was stuffed on old couches and empty beer crates, drinking almost unanimously Bionade and meanwhile brainstorming on sustainable dance clubs or chatting about their blogs.

A diverse pallet of initiatives presented themselves, among them: the NGOrillas of the nachhaltigkeitsguerilla who make funny short films and actions to promote sustainability, Art Ecology Education who promote a strong ecological paradigm shift, Nachhaltexter, a blog on sustainable development, Klimaneutraler Bundestag, a project to make the German parliament climate neutral, a workshop on Co2 reduction projects in Germany, the Sustainable Fashion Agency by Grass Routes that supports young designers to go green, the Socialbar in the Tazcafe, which brings together creative webnerds, entrepreneurs and activists, a research at the Technical University on how people change to a more sustainable consume, the newly opened Sustainable Design Forum connected to the International Design Centre Berlin, the Experiment days, a market for urban sustainable living and building initiatives by the Institute for Creative Sustainability, the Glocalist Media, magazin for business ethics, and the Self Hub, an open workspace for social entrepreneurs.

The event took place in downtown Berlin Neukölln at the screen print cafe SDW connected to the brand Rütli Wear. The brand, of which the prints are designed by scholars, transformed the name of their school from a ghetto-school to something cool and edgy, and in that way also lifted up the circumstances at that school.

Organized by Paula Hildebrandt as a cooperation of the sustainability networks 3plusX, Fairdo, Thinktank30 (Club of Rome) and the Initiative für Nachhaltige Entwicklung, the meeting had a bit of a meta-network character. As Berlin is a fastchanging city, the event still has to prove if it is sustainable itself.

My overall impression is that Berlin has a huge potential in boosting the new green movement, if the scene succeeds to strengthen it’s network and get the resources it needs.

Image by Rütli Wear