Transforming Wiesbaden into a sustainable municipality

We want to promote the sustainability efforts of our city more strongly as a location factor. They are an economic factor, underline the tourist attraction of Wiesbaden and are the guarantee that you can still live well in our big city between Taunus and Rhine in the future.

The new land use plan assesses climate resilience as an overriding public interest. Locations for renewable energies and the infrastructure for heat, electricity, mobility and digitalisation must be provided for and implemented in further planning. We want the city of Wiesbaden to identify and use areas for the use of wind power (high root), photovoltaics, geothermal and solar thermal energy and waste heat utilization. This also applies to the necessary infrastructure for heating and electricity grids and distribution and storage facilities. This opportunity for a cost-effective, economical and socially just energy industry secures Wiesbaden as a location for a sustainable economy and environmental conditions for employees.

In view of the unrestrained consumption of resources and the many millions of financial resources that the city invests and spends on goods and services, it must be guided by social and environmental criteria. The city's spending must accompany the socio-ecological transformation process, including by favouring local but sustainable actors in urban procurement and procurement. The cost assessment should therefore be based on the life cycle concept. The societal added value of a strong, creative local economy and secure jobs should also be taken into account in line with the EU's Sustainable Finance Strategy.

At all levels of municipal activities, we want the implementation of the 17 SDGs to be a priority. To this end, we want to develop and implement an action programme with concrete responsibilities and the necessary resources from the SDG inventory adopted by the city. This includes, among other things, taking into account systematic sustainability criteria such as life cycle costs, resource conservation and adherence to tariffs.

Through improved, coordinated management, we want to optimise the costs and benefits of the measures on the way to climate neutrality. As an example, the management of city-wide self-generation with photovoltaics can significantly reduce the costs of external electricity procurement for the city budget. Additional personnel costs are more than covered by the savings. In addition, as with water and environmental management, it implements legal requirements and avoids EU environmental taxes.

We want to increase the visibility and motivation for balcony power plants and other sustainable energy sources, for green partnerships and urban gardening as well as other locally sustainable actions. Through targeted communication and advice, the city of Wiesbaden can also reach people who have so far had little access to these citizen-related topics, such as older and restricted persons and young people. This makes it easier to participate.

We want to strengthen communication and synergies between offices. In this way, resources can be freed up for the ecological and climate protection conversion of the city. Environmental and sustainability assessment needs to be prioritised in administrative decisions and environmental assessments should be mandatory. That is why we want to strengthen quality management in urban decisions, also with regard to sustainable issues.

For us, the city of short distances means lively quarters with good local supplies. These include local shops, weekly markets and community projects such as urban gardening. In urban planning, we focus on a mix of uses instead of separating living, working and leisure time. This reduces traffic and strengthens social cohesion in the districts. All Wiesbaden residents should be able to reach a green area within five minutes. We want existing parks and green spaces to be upgraded and designed close to nature.

We want to expand the already decided funding management and thus ensure that the city of Wiesbaden systematically calls up existing funding pots for climate protection and sustainability and uses them in our municipality. The primary goal is also the creation of a digital platform and the removal of administrative obstacles to the financial implementation of the climate and heat plan and other sustainability goals. By means of digitization and the establishment of a competence center, we want to make funding opportunities more transparent and easier to access. It is also intended to provide advice to potential applicants outside the city administration – in particular local businesses, medium-sized companies, start-ups – including application support and network funding.

The city's sustainability reporting should be expanded and include information on financial assets. All projects with significant impacts on the city's climate balance must be presented and evaluated in the meeting templates on the basis of environmental impact or damage costs and a life-cycle greenhouse gas balance. It requires, among other things, sector-specific, financially assessed CO2 budgets for which clear responsibilities are allocated. These must also include the short-term adoption of measures in the event of non-achievement of the objectives.
That is why we are committed to the introduction of a "climate traffic light" for urban projects, which should provide political decision-makers and citizens with transparency about the extent to which a project has a climate-positive, climate-neutral or climate-damaging effect. With the Climate Traffic Light, we are creating a binding basis for climate-conscious decisions in our municipality. In the case of equivalent alternatives, preference should always be given to the more climate-friendly option.

The city administration is accountable through a track record of climate protection and energy, which is also made public. The strategic KLIMA_PLAN has been adopted, the associated heat planning is in the works, the citizens are included in the interim results and the result is presented in 2026. The environmental, climate and energy management system in urban facilities or properties will be extended. The concept of sustainable construction and associated guidelines have been adopted and are being implemented, PV systems are to be installed on suitable urban roofs, and a geothermal settlement is planned. Among other things, the city administration has committed itself to sustainability through its code of participation. The further development of the SDG strategy is being pursued.

The Court Street, Mauergasse and Nerostraße and Wellritzstraße were transformed into traffic-calmed and lively places of encounter and prosperous shops. Traffic calming also improves air quality and significantly reduces traffic noise. The refurbishment of Sedanplatz or Bülowplatz are examples of improved local quality of stay and climate improvement, as well as Alsace Square as part of the experimental rooms for sustainable urban development. The city is in the process of fundamentally reshaping and unsealing this square. Instead of a stone desert, a green oasis with water storage is created, which can absorb the water in heavy rain and whose trees offer heat protection. The new multi-storey car park with PV system and over 400 charging stations offers a sustainable replacement for the cars of local residents.

Mobility has demonstrably improved for all people in our city. Environmental tracks make bus traffic easier to get through, safe and consistent bike paths have catapulted Wiesbaden from last place in the cycling climate index to midfield and those who walk will find more barrier-free sidewalks. But motorized private transport also has more space: The ease of switching to buses and bicycles, as well as measures to relocate through traffic from the city, contribute to this.

In addition, speed 30/40 in the city center ensures better air, less noise and more safety on the roads. This is especially beneficial for the youngest, who can travel more independently and run to school more safely. In the suburbs, too, the trend towards speed reduction continues to prevail thanks to cross-party local advisory board decisions. The electrification of the bus fleet and a massive expansion of e-charging facilities also contribute to compliance with air pollutant and noise limits. It looks green!

With the development of a soil management concept, the city of Wiesbaden has an effective tool to protect, sustainably develop and manage land. Green areas and climate protection areas will be preserved. Optimized land use and recycling is the guarantee for the net-0 land consumption defined at federal level by 2050 at the latest. After reaching net 0, the city enters a land-use circular economy. The use of open spaces and valuable soils is reduced by a proactive, active soil policy.

Sustainability is also indispensable in tourism and the event industry. As a congress and conference location, Wiesbaden advertises sustainability in a targeted manner: The city's own congress center RMCC has committed itself to sustainability goals in its operations, and the joint tourism destination Wiesbaden-Rheingau has also completed the TourCert initial certification on the way to becoming a sustainable destination. The result is impressive and is reflected in the increasing number of visitors and overnight stays overall (link).

We have made sure that the Urban Investment Directive has been recast, strengthening not only safety requirements, but also sustainability as an investment objective. Investments by the state capital, its own businesses and legally dependent foundations of the city must therefore not only meet the economic goals of security, profitability and liquidity, but also ecological and social (minimum) standards.