The fifth project meeting of IB-Green took project partners to the region of Lake Constance in Singen (Hohentwiel), with the municipality of Singen (Hohentwiel) as hosting partner, supported by Bonn Science Shop.
One of the highlights of the meeting included a site visit in Singen via
bus through one of the city’s business parks.
During this tour, Alena Hayer and Johanna Volz from the municipality of Singen, as well as a colleague from the city’s planning department, explained the different measures planned by the municipality as part of the IB-Green project – including the setbacks experience and challenges faced in the process, as these plans had to be given up or revised on more than one occasion.
The experiences from the municipality of Singen illustrate very clearly how challenging it is to implement adaptation measures and green-blue infrastructure especially in existing business parks: Even when a suitable area or place is found, there can still be unexpected surprises, like extensive underground infrastructure with safety buffers that prevent the implementation of certain activities, or companies that don’t see the benefits of the planned measures.
In addition to the municipality of Singen, the Dutch municipality of
Arnhem also presented the status quo of their activities around consulting
entrepreneurs and encouraging them to take measures.
In Arnhem, three industrial and business parks are in focus for IB-Green: Gelderse Port, Ijsseloord I and Rijkerswoerd/Overmaat. In Arnhem, there’s even particularly financing possibilities for companies for green-blue infrastructure: For the analysis and preparation of these measures, 75% of the costs for analysis and planning can be covered. Even for the implementation, 50% of costs for greening by companies can be covered by the municipality.
Nonetheless, an issue that Arnhem is facing is that, even though analyses and plans for possible measures have been made for 20 companies only three have accepted or want to actually implement adaptation measures. Other partners from IB-Green suggested for instance using sustainability managers in (bigger) companies as contact points. Another suggestion included avoiding the term „climate adaptation“ and rather speaking of “greening” as well as on the advantage of creating a more comfortable environment for employees.
Further, the project meeting’s agenda also included sessions on materials to be produced within the project, such as the IB-Green Toolbox and the IB-Green Strategy which has already been completed. Through an external speaker, the partners also gained new perspectives from environmental psychology and particularly on effective climate communication.
Finally, project partners also had the chance to – almost – literally dive into the Lake Constance region with a paddling activity on the lake, followed by a lake-side dinner in a restaurant nearby. Discussing the progress of green-blue infrastructure in business parks never had such a good view – and good company.
A big thanks to Alena and Johanna from Singen, Meike, Bernd and Franziska from Bonn Science Shop, and as always, Peter, Anna and Florian from INFRASTRUKTUR & UMWELT for making this very coherent and active project meeting happen!
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