Sustainability Report
How sustainable is Aachen today? What is already going well? And what are the next steps? The City of Aachen’s first citywide sustainability report provides answers to these questions: For the first time, it brings together the city’s diverse activities, structures, and developments related to sustainability and lays the groundwork for the city’s continued sustainable development.
Sustainability is understood here as a cross-cutting issue that integrates ecological, social, and economic aspects. The report highlights the city’s wide-ranging activities, examining both strategic foundations and specific projects, partnerships, and developments.
The report is based on the “Sustainable Municipality” reporting framework (BNK 2.0) and is organized into eight management criteria and eleven areas of action. The management criteria include, among other things, strategy and goals, monitoring and evaluation, communication and participation, organization and personnel, procurement and contracting, as well as digitalization, innovation, and research.
The eleven areas of action range from climate protection and climate adaptation, the circular economy, biodiversity and environmental protection, and sustainable mobility, through housing and neighborhood development, social justice, education and culture, and health, to sustainable economic management and global cooperation.
The sustainability report was developed through a cross-departmental process and is based not only on the BNK 2.0 but also on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. It provides an overview of the status of the municipality’s sustainability activities through the end of 2025.
The report was prepared as part of the “BNK Bundesweit 2025” project carried out by the Service Agency for “Communities in One World” (SKEW) of Engagement Global on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The participating municipalities received technical support from the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Agenda 21 NRW e. V. (LAG 21 NRW).
The report is intended to encourage people to learn about the wide range of activities in Aachen, to highlight what has been achieved, and to work together to shape the next steps toward a livable and sustainable city.