Youth Camp in Spain

Seven young people each from Germany, Romania and Spain responded to the call of our ‘Green Cities of YOUth’ project and came together for the second Youth Camp in Miguelturra, south of Madrid, Spain. And the location – a hostel with a surrounding animal enclosure and adventure farm – offered just the right atmosphere for the vision of the week-long workshop: getting active for local sustainability and raising awareness for sustainable urban development.
And the hosts, who are experienced in youth work, had prepared the perfect program: young shrubs and trees were planted in a landscaped park in collaboration with the Miguelturra municipal administration, and the appropriate explanatory panels were designed and set up at the same time. The same park is now also the new address for the self-made insect hotels, which provide a breeding ground for wild bees and other pollinators of perennials.
To draw attention to the actions and encourage passers-by to think about sustainability and possible courses of action, we recently threw stencils and legally marked the entrances to the park with graffiti. The Mayor of the Environment, who came to visit the park on the final day of action, was definitely impressed; we hope that the actions will also be well received by the rest of the population.
The supporting program, which was primarily dedicated to getting to know each other and cultural exchange, was of course very well received by the Youth Camp participants – with a tour of the farm, various games and sports activities, an excursion to Ciudad Real and a city rally in Miguelturra, etc. The absolute highlight was the ‘Cultural Nights’, which were organized by the young participants themselves to present their country of origin to the others – there were no limits to their creativity. And the feedback was clear: active sustainability in practice can be really fun, especially in a community…

US students are discovering the Green City Freiburg

The students from the IES Abroad spring term are highly motivated to understand how environmental friendly building, renewable energy, reliable and safe public transportation, community engagement, cooperative forms of housing, waste management, sustainable forest management as well as green and social business concepts can all come together in one place – while also having a lot of fun!

Green Cities of YOUth – Youth Meeting in Romania

As part of our ERASMUS + project Green Cities of YOUth, we offer the opportunity to participate in an international work camp with young people between 18 and 30 years of age from Germany, Spain and Romania.

We want to explore with you the question of how our cities and municipalities can reduce their ecological footprint and how they can become more involved in climate protection. Your opinion is needed! Which projects should be implemented? And how can you get involved?

Join us and meet young people from Spain and Romania and learn together how you can work for a sustainable future in your city!

An exciting programme of lectures and interactive exercises awaits you, and you can get creative yourself. Of course, there will also be plenty of time for getting to know each other, for fun and culture in the lively metropolis of Bucharest.

The event will take place from 13-17 July in Bucharest. Arrival is planned for 12 July, departure for 18 July.

Travel and accommodation will be organised by us and the costs will be covered by the European ERASMUS+ programme.

More information and registration contact ecoculture@aiforia.eu

Sustainable Mobility Tour

A lovely sunny February day welcomed the two representatives of Tampere climate and environmental policy department (Finland), who came to Freiburg to analyze in a deeper way the sustainable mobility plan of the city and observe some of its best practices.

After an introduction of the city policies and decisions that earned Freiburg the reputation of Green City of Europe, we moved to the city center to discover first-hand some of the measures applied: the major redevelopment plans in Platz der alten Synagoge, the modification of the east side of the inner city ring initiated by a local association, pop-up urbanism projects in which public space is given back to citizens, the effects of a  pedestrianised city centre, are just a few examples.
The morning ended with a visit to the famous eco-district of Vauban, where we talked about Spielstraßen (play streets), democratic mobility and the choices that led to the outcome of 17 car ownership per 100 inhabitants.
In the afternoon the two guests had a bicycle tour to experience the city cycling infrastructures – among the other the FR1 and FR2 cycle highways – while visiting the new town hall Rathaus im Stühlinger, the spot where the future district Dietenbach Nord is getting built and Rieselfeld, the second eco-district of Freiburg.
Aiforia organises tours on this and other topics related to sustainable urban development for administrations, schools, universities and professional associations.

Green Cities of Youth

How to transform small communities into green and sustainable communities? And how can young people be part of this transformation process? These are the guiding questions of the new ERASMUS + project “Green Cities of Youth” that is implemented by aiforia – ecoculture e.V. together with a youth organisation from central Spain and one from Romania.

To identify first ideas the Romanian and the Spanish team together with some youngsters visited Freiburg in July and had the opportunity to speak with respresentatives of several organisations (e.g. zusammen leben e.V., Bike Bridge, Solare Zukunft e.V., Über den Tellerrand kochen) and even take part in activities of current projects in Freiburg such as Forschungsraumwochen (a joint project of the Municipality of Freiburg together with local organisations such as Kommunikation und Medien e.V.).

Meanwhile the youngsters had to envision their ideal green municipality and develop a survey which is now conducted in their home countries to better understand their needs and integrate them in to our guidebook.

We are looking forward to our youth exchange event which will take place in July 2023 in Romania!

NABI – Coordination meeting in Florence

The consortium of the NABI project (Nature based Innovations for Urban Forest and Rainwater Management) met in Florence last week. During the third face-to-face meeting, the partners discussed the activities still open in this last phase of the project. The dissemination of the two guides produced in the past months was certainly one of the central points.
The focus of the two works is the circulation of good practices, already implemented in the different project countries, that have been able to use natural solutions to respond to the effects of climate change. The guides are addressed to administrations, as well as to all those stakeholders currently called upon to design more resilient cities. (You can find the first inventory here).

 

Thanks to Cospe, the Italian host partner, meetings with Italian entities working with NBS were also organised during the two days, bringing new perspectives in this field to the consortium.
Finally, the group had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Florence with a local expert, who explained the ancient relationship between the city and the Arno River and showed some interesting projects that reconciled nature and the urban environment.
 
 

Future Fashion Days 2022

Fast Fashion ist allgegenwärtig, auch in Freiburg, und die Alternativen erfahren immer noch zu wenig Beachtung. Das wollen wir ändern, mit der großen Vision eines Textilkollektivs für Freiburg und vielen kleinen Schritten in diese Richtung. Unter dem Titel „Future Fashion Days“ wollen wir von Mai bis September 2022 aufmerksam machen auf Möglichkeiten, Mode und Textilien zukunftsfähig zu produzieren und konsumieren. Mehr Infos dazu hier.

Pitch your business idea!

Emerging entrepreneurs, in particular those with an intercultural background, are warmly invited to join this webinar organised by INTERREG project SEE ME IN. Maurizio La Cava, Startup Pitch Strategist at Polihub, will coach you to successfully master the art of persuading an audience of investors.

The free webinar is held in 2 parts – we recommend to not miss either of them:

Pitching Strategy Webinar

16March
 16.00 pm – 18.00 pm (CET)

1to1 Interactive Pitch Coaching

31March 
11.00 pm – 13.00 pm (CET)

All you need to do is register for free at

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AyJ9D8fqQa6vOy0wE2hokw

and make sure you are online at the given times.   

Our handbook “INVENTORY OF NATURE-BASED INNOVATIONS” is finally here!

Our handbook “INVENTORY OF NATURE-BASED INNOVATIONS” is finally here!
As part of the NABI project, together with our international partners, we collected exemplary practices from municipalities that applied innovative solutions in the area of green space and rainwater in this online publication. The nature-based solutions presented focus on good examples of green space management, urban forests, rainwater collection, biodiversity enhancement, as well as blue and green infrastructure schemes and other examples from all over Europe.

NABI – Nature-based Innovations for Urban Green and Stormwater Management is an Erasmus + Project in cooperation with the partners: Reflex Environmental Association (Hungary), Cospe – Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti Onlus (Italy), Klimabündnis Österreich Gemeinnützige Förderungs- und Beratungs GmbH (Austria), FocusEco Center (Romania), Istarska Razvojna Agencija (Croatia).

Here you can find the handbook.

Let´s make it happen!

Let´s make it happen! – Facciamo in modo che accaba! Questo slogan del marketing nazionale lussemburghese ha caratterizzato anche il secondo scambio internazionale di formazione nel nostro progetto ERASMUS + “Identities – Much More than Cards” dal 19 al 23 marzo 2018: dopo 14 mesi di studio intensivo di metodi e materiali sull’Intercultura e l’integrazione dei rifugiati, più di venti insegnanti, tutor e volontari a tempo pieno si sono riuniti nella città di Lussemburgo per sperimentare il programma di formazione sviluppato. Sia che si tratti di lezioni, esercizi di gruppo, interazioni culturali o giochi di carte, il nostro gruppo di progetto internazionale si è rivelato un campo di prova ideale per verificare la comprensibilità e l’utilità dei singoli elementi. Questi sono rivolti a rifugiati e migranti (così come ad altre persone interessate) e sono organizzati in 6 moduli: lingua, comunicazione interculturale, Unione Europea, forza lavoro, imprenditorialità e impegno sociale. Particolare attenzione è rivolta alla promozione dell’imprenditorialità.

Fino a luglio 2018, le persone interessate hanno la possibilità di partecipare alla fase pilota locale del programma di apprendimento “Identità” in Italia, Lettonia, Lussemburgo, Portogallo, Turchia (e Germania), prima della pubblicazione finale dei moduli – attraverso corsi individuali offerti dai partner e una piattaforma comune di e-learning in 6 lingue.

Per la migliore rilevanza pratica possibile, aiforia organizza i contenuti dell’avvio di un’impresa e del green business nell’ambito del progetto EST “Regional Potato instead Couch Potato” e collabora con un agricoltore professionista, un cuoco, un esperto di sementi e un’associazione interculturale.

Let´s make it happen! Maggiori informazioni e possibilità di registrazione sul sito info@aiforia.eu.

Tirocinio per Study Visit Friburgo

Stiamo cercando un(a) giovane laureato/a di madrelingua italiana, per affiancare i nostri esperti nell’organizzazione e realizzazione di visite tecniche alla città di Friburgo (Study Visit Friburgo), ed eventualmente per l’assistenza in progetti internazionali.
La durata del tirocinio è di 8 mesi, da ottobre 2017 a maggio 2018, il luogo di lavoro è Freiburg im Breisgau.

Requisiti richiesti

  • Laurea in scienze ambientali o simili, con focus su politiche ambientali
  • Ottima conoscenza di inglese e tedesco
  • Conoscenza della cultura politica e sociale della Germania di oggi
  • Capacità comunicative e didattiche (soprattutto nei confronti di giovani), conoscenza di tecniche interattive di workshop
  • La conoscenza della città o l’aver effettuato periodi di studio a Friburgo rappresenta un valore aggiunto

Condizioni del contratto
Si offre un contratto a tempo determinato per 8 mesi, su una base settimanale di ca. 20 – 25 ore, con uno stipendio lordo di ca. 770 – 960 € mensili, 2,5 giorni di ferie al mese. Si offre inoltre formazione specifica.

Si prega di inviare CV e espressione di interesse ad aiforia, scrivendo a a.burzacchini@aiforia.eu entro il 15 luglio 2017.

What we are up to a.k.a. new projects

The last few months have been rather busy but thoroughly enjoyable at our offices: two new projects have kicked off, there have been several groups for study visits, we have been in collaborative sessions for future projects, and many other activities (including developing our IT skills).

Thus, we are a little behind with the news of our new projects, although, if you have followed us on Facebook, you are already aware of the Interreg project meeting in Prague. But we have also been to Dobele, Latvia.

Local Renewables Conference 2016

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                                        Historical Merchants’ Hall

Last week took place the seventh Local Renewables Conference in Freiburg. Organized by ICLEI and cities of Freiburg and Basel, the three-day program included plenaries, workshops, speeches, guided tours, cross-border travelling and the most delicious chocolate brownies.

The conference started off with a post-Fukushima theme where it became clear that Japan is transitioning towards locally produced renewable energies. Even though the renewable share in the national power supply is still rather low, the interest and commitment is possibly higher than in Europe. Especially fascinating was the energy and community concept of Miyama.

REPORT THE WATER ISSUES ONLINE

IMG_3647.4We are happy to announce that the online reporting tool SeeClickFix is fully operational at our Aquapath’s project page! Whoop!

In case you joined us at the Water Festival on the 4th of June, you may already have had a glimpse of it. During the Festival, we had games and discussions on water topics that had a largely global perspective. But the water at the local level is just as important, especially as