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City Of Hannover, Germany Project Description

Jobs Through Sustainability - Hannover’s Project in the International Network

Project Description

1. Overall strategy
In 1996 the City of Hannover started an open dialogue with its citizens to promote the Local Agenda 21 process which is an integral dialogue of various population groups on the future topics of living, work, leisure time and consuming patterns. Important topics in the Local Agenda 21 Process in Hannover are among others the creation of sustainable job opportunities linked with the aspects of climate protection by sustain-able production and consumption of energy as well as waste avoidance and recy-cling.

2. Problem Situation
This forms the background of our project Auntie Josephine is not aware of. Two years ago she came from the eastern part of Russia to Germany and settled in Hannover. She's of German origin but born in Russia, a so-called Russian-German who are allowed to migrate to Germany. Like many others who are of the same origin she found a home in a low income area which was constructed in the 60's.

Auntie Josephine is 67 years old, the German she is speaking sounds antiquated to Germans because she learned it from the Bible. Her two daughters and her grandchildren didn't speak German when they came to Hannover. That's not their only handicap: they were living in a rural setting without the amenities they have to deal with in their 7th floor apartment in Hannover: a heating system, waste-differentiation, a WC etc, just to mention a few.

Since Auntie Jo's area is densely populated with German-Russians a subculture has developed which is reproducing behaviour patterns acquired in Russia: for example regulating the inside temperature by opening the windows and not by using the thermostat, the Lingua Franca is still Russian etc.

This situation is matched in an area called Linden where a lot of Turkish migrants found their homes. There, the situation is comparable with the one in the area Auntie Jo is putting up a Turkish subculture emerged which is a constraint to the communication flow. Information are escaping migrants because they are not speaking German and are of a different cultural background which is determining the use of energy or the treatment of waste, for example.

Another dimension of our project idea is represented by Mr. Schmidt. He is owing an old house in the area of Linden. When these houses were constructed in the last century the building material was compared to today's energy saving standards poor. Mr. Schmidt is interested in getting good rates from his tenants and therefor he's investing regularly. Sometimes he feels that his efforts are not met by the use of the new techniques by his tenants who are simply not aware of them. But he himself is also not aware of all options and needs his house still offers to be improved by modern energy saving standards. Therefore he's looking for a consultation which is explaining the best possible fittings in regards of energy saving techniques to his situation.

Back to Auntie Jo. Her daughters husband, called Konstantin, is a trained engineer, but due to different levels in training he's not able to find a job in Germany and so he's jobless since he came to Hannover. Like German jobless persons he needs some additional training to be up dated on modern energy saving techniques to be prepared for the German labour market like young persons who just passed their training, are.

So far we've identified three project components: Auntie Jo is representing a target group of migrants which should be educated in energy saving techniques and waste management. For this purpose native speakers should be trained to educate migrants in their mother tongue. Mr. Schmidt is the person representing house owners who need to be aware of saving techniques whose implantation is creating job opportunities. And Konstantin is representing a third target group of jobless people who need vocational training offered to them to be ready for the labour market.

3. Project

• Objectives
  Employment creation impulses will come from:
  • Creating a local market for energy saving techniques by promoting ener-getic redevelopment of houses and sustainable uses of energy
    In comparison with today's standard, apartment houses built in the past have an extremely high energy consumption. The City of Hannover together with its power supplier (public utility), the chamber of handicrafts and other stakeholders co-operate in promoting efficient solutions for energetic redevelopment of houses under technical and economical aspects. Owners of apartment houses often are not interested in energetic redevelopment because their tenants will profit by saving energy and not the house owners. Therefore profitable conditions for energy saving investitions and a broad acquisition and acceptance campaign are necessary to create a sustainable market for energy saving techniques.

    Firstly the City of Hannover, the power supplier and Hannover's neighbour cities connected to its supply system finance a fund "proKlima" which provides grants for non-profitable measures to reduce CO2-emissions, in particular for heat insulation, modern heating systems, solar collectors and photovoltaic installations.

    Secondly the City of Hannover and the power supplier will start a campaign "Energetic Passport" with computer based technical checks of existing energetic state of houses, recommendations for redevelopment measures and economical advice how to finance the investment.

    Thirdly the City of Hannover will start an acquisition and acceptance campaign involving all stakeholders in the real estate market and building trade like union of house-owners and landed propriators, realtors, banks, architects, builders and contractors, etc.

  • Educating migrants to save energy in their languages by persons who are native speakers
    Technical measures to reduce energy consumption and training of tenants in right using of the technical equipment must go hand in hand. Usual information and education programs for German people are escaping migrants because of language problems and different socio-ecological backgrounds. That's why the City of Hannover initiated special education programs for Turkish and Russian speaking migrants (the most spoken languages of migrants in Hannover) which will be worked out by Turkish and Russian professionals and carried out by native speakers who are either jobless or on welfare.

  • Qualifying long-term jobless persons in energy saving techniques to make them fit for the employment market
    Fitting of heat insulation, heating systems with new technologies, solar collectors or photovoltaic installations need new workmanship of craftsmen. So the City of Hannover initiated in a first and second step qualifying courses for handicraft enterprises to impart necessary know-how to their craftsmen and in a third step for long-term jobless people to make them fit for the employment market.

• Framework conditions
  The City of Hannover together with private project Partners will plan, develop and implement in corporate ownership (of ideas) job opportunities by training people in a sustainable use of energy.

• Decision-making / commitment
  Representatives of the private sector will be part of the project as well as the com-mitment of politicians is desired during all stages of the project. Internally, the Direc-torate of Organisation and Personnel, and the Directorate of Environmental Services will implement the project as leads in co-operation with other involved departments.

3.1 Summary of our project

• Our project is based on the ideas of Local Agenda 21. Therefor it is a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable project which means that its effects is/should be longterm oriented. This is reflected by the multiple dimensions our project shows: it is related to social issues not only because it should reintegrate jobless persons to the labour market. Especially through its approach which is including migrants who are given the chance to be educated in waste treatment and energy use.

• according to the ideas of the Local Agenda 21 the project has an added value which is 'Act Local - Think Global'. Local efforts in climate protection are met by the world-wide need for it. Consequently our project is not only serving the reemployment issue but is also dedicated to this field of work which is undoubtedly of world-wide importance.

• All in all, following the philosophy of the Local Agenda 21 our projects is not one which is of isolated project components but forms in itself an integrated process. It is basically interdisciplinary which is demonstrated by the fact that a project on 'work, climate and waste' is not limited to technical issues and/or the number of working places offered through this project. Instead the project is very much concerned of social, cultural and economic implications it already has or may develop through 'ordinary' project work on our given topic.

• The City of Hannover is interested in driving forward sustainable employment policies and linking them with Local Agenda topics to further a new understanding of energy consumption as a local contribution to climate protection.

  In the early 1990's the Federal Republic of Germany sponsored locally reintegration projects to the labour market for longterm jobless persons. Those programmes were mainly focusing on the areas of health and construction.

  With our project in the International Network the City of Hannover is leaving old fields of reemployment schemes by melting two experienced traditions to one: This implicates to our project that we are still funding it (with city owned money) but will align our project to a longterm benefit of our target groups. The central aspect of the project will be the idea to further employment through the creation of a demand on the energy-saving sector.

These mentioned points are not interesting for Auntie Josephine, Mr. Schmidt and Konstantin. Their main interest is met by giving them a chance to work and to feel integrated and concerning Mr. Schmidt to get the best service available.

So already we are talking about the learning points this projects is offering the City of Hannover and how their feedback to the overall reorganisation process taking place throughout the organisation of Hannover .

4. What we hope and intend to get - Learning Points
Since our project is related to the Local Agenda Process as well as it is related to the process of the overall and general reorganisation process of the City of Hannovers administration.

Culture Change
On the level of Strategic Management the City of Hannover will benefit mostly from the "Culture Change". Since the Local Agenda 21 Process is a truly Bottom-Up-Proc-ess and is involving citizens' perspectives in all stages of a given project it will be a good learning example. Since the AGENDA work is based on the philosophy of a Bottom-Up-Process the needs of the selected target groups, the character of the decision-making will be very open for shifts and new ideas throughout the proj-ect, an idea which is closely related to the issue of Strategic Management like it is designed in the Facilitators' Paper.

Coordination
The internal 'co-ordination' work between different Directorates by ignoring hierarchies will be an organisational change as well as the co-ordination of internal and external bodies, stakeholders and politicians will prepare and strengthen the understanding of strategic management in the future.

Links of this project to the overall reorganisation process of the City of Hannover. This project is not only deeply rooted with the Agenda Process but is very much intermeshed with the overall reorganisation process the City of Hannover started in the early 90's. This is following our philosophy that the reorganisation process should be a joint and integrated one with crossreferences to each other. We want to link the project to ongoing projects for example to the so called 'Bürgerämter' (citizens offices). They offer normally centralised services locally and when needed with a special support, for example old person get help to fill forms etc) there. The Bürgeramt offers lots of options to approach residents of the area in a more personal and informal way. It is an interface between local neighbourhoods and the City therefor it has to apply strategies and activities dependent on the area the needs people have there. So we have to research how we can get the Bürgeramt involved in our international project activities.

Still, all mentioned stages of our project are not directly of first interest to our target groups. But they form the added value this project is offering to us, the organisation of the City of Hannover.

Our target groups will benefit indirectly from the learning points we've identified for us. Directly they benefit from the added value when they are offered a better service to their needs by our organisation which is taking over the role of a guarantor by this project: giving an input of ideas.

We try to support this process by creating proper frame conditions to our target groups. The frame conditions we are responsible for will enable our target groups to expect as well as to given a better service and better opportunities.

Concerning the migrants project we are offering job opportunities which wouldn't be offered by the ordinary labour market. Through this tool we are offering a type of integration through NGO's which is brandnew in our system and opening peoples' minds to integration problems our minorities have.

Evaluation
Concerning the evaluation of our project success we intend to do it on a qualitative basis. Since the success of a project which doesn't intent to develop a certain number of jobs but which aims at a culture change (in the use of energy) that will create local markets and through this will generate more (new!) jobs we've to focus on how widespread our idea has become and how many applications for the energetic passport we got. Since our project is a typical example for a 'trickle down' approach, accurate data will be difficult to get.

Nevertheless we can focus on getting 'soft data' about the culture change that might (is intended to!) take place as a result of our project and how it is reflected in the public.

It seems to be a fruitful idea to find cross-references to already existing hard data to evaluate the project, for example: how much money is spent for young migrants to keep them off the streets compared to our efforts to give them a chance in training their folks? This refers more or less to a 'selling strategy' which should be based on the following principle: what are the costs if we don't invest in migrants? What are the costs if we don't invest in a culture change that serves the global issue of saving energy? What are the costs if we miss the chance developing a new culture and consumption patterns linked to the 'hard data' topic of creating job opportunities?