Bad Schussenried is awarded EEA certification on 25.11.2009
European Energy AwardBad Schussenried achieves top results
As part of a joint awards ceremony held by the Baden Württemberg Ministry of the Environment and the Ravensburg Energy Agency, Bad Schussenried and six other towns and communities from Baden-Württemberg were presented with the European Energy Award (eea), aka the "Energy Trophy".
"To use a football analogy, Bad Schussenried is now playing in the Bundesliga", said Walter Göppel, Managing Director of the Ravensburg Energy Agency, explaining the significance of this award. Bad Schussenried is presently in fourth place in the Baden Württemberg rankings and, alongside Wangen, both scoring 67 %, achieved the best results of all the award-winning communities. Mayor Georg Beetz and his energy team proudly accepted the award as the result of their collective efforts. "We have not only been forward-looking in our approach but also rigorous in our actions, and so will fulfill our responsibility for climate protection", said a convinced mayor, adding "We have set off early on a forward-looking course for sustainable urban development".
Bad Schussenried does not have to fear comparison in terms of energy conservation and climate protection. Emissions data shows that the air in Bad Schussenried is especially clean. Bad Schussenried is the only town in the whole of Upper Swabia which has succeeded in reducing its CO2 emissions by no less than 17.5 percent compared to 1995. There is money to be made in biogas – every year, 250,000 KWh of power is generated by a combined heat and power plant. This is enough to meet the power needs of around 70 households. In the most recent project, Bad Schussenried's citizens have been involved in the so-called Citizens' Energy Co-operative, which has already begun producing its first kilowatt hours of "green" power, having mounted on the roof of the local high school an array of solar panels with a capacity of about 30 KWp.
The eea comprises the quality management system and the certification process, which is used to record, evaluate, plan, control and routinely monitor municipal climate protection activities in order to identify and utilise the potential for sustainable climate protection.
The awards ceremony was held in the historic Humpis district in Ravensburg after the international annual conference of energy efficient communities. The award was presented to seven towns and communities, namely Bad Schussenried, Dürmentingen, Kornwestheim, Sigmaringen, Vogt, Wangen and Weissach im Tal. Bernhard Bauer, Director General of the Baden Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Armand Dietz, Managing Director of the BSU Berlin, and Dr. Volker Kienzlen, Managing Director of the Baden-Württemberg Climate Protection and Energy Agency, came to present the award. In his opening address, Dr. Volker Kienzlen explained to guests the importance of community participation in the eea and talked about the impacts of climate change. "We have to drastically reduce CO2 emissions as quickly as possible. The cost of the climatic impacts is inestimable", Kienzlen said. "What I am hoping for is that these signals will be seen and heard today at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen", said Walter Göppel, Managing Director of the Ravensburg Energy Agency.