Local Governments play an important role in implementing the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the local level. Cities, towns, counties and provinces everywhere – not just in Germany – are essential to breathing life into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After all, the issues relevant to sustainable development are manifest on the ground – that is, in the local contexts in which people live. Municipalities across Germany are thus facing up to their duty to make a significant contribution to achieving the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda. They are meeting the high expectations that have been placed on them.We see a growing number of local governments embedding sustainability objectives into their development strategies and mission statements. We should therefore also see an increase in the need for field-tested instruments to be used by local adminis-tration authorities in impact-oriented sustainability management. Those municipalities at the beginning of their path towards sustainability in particular need such instruments because they face – often for the first time – the task of adapting centralized tools such as sustainability strategies or reports to their specific needs. This publication describes how local authorities can get such processes underway without having to reinvent the wheel.
Authors:
Stefan Kuhn, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability,
Oliver Haubner, Bertelsmann Stiftung
Language: German. English abstract available