时间：2022-10-18 07:19:14
With a population less than 200,000 at the southwest border of Germany, Freiburg, whose German meaning is "a free castle", is known as Germany's Eco-Capital. Moreover, it is considered as the warmest, sunniest city, and one of the most ancient and charming cities in the country.
Thanks to its far-sighted environmental policies and extensive involvement of its citizens with high environmental awareness, Freiburg earned the name of the world's “Green City”. It is common saying in Freiburg that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who live in Freiburg, and those who want to live in Freiburg, which speaks full volume of the confidence and pride of the local people.
90 minutes’ limit of parking time
To limit the use of private cars, cars are not allowed to park in many places in Freiburg, and all the parking lots charge exorbitant parking fee, 2 Euros per hour. The parking time is also sharply limited; any car parking over 90 minutes is considered violating the regulations. Some undergraduates have to forsake the idea of driving cars to school which necessitate many trips to find new parking lots for their cars after every lecture. Besides, trams are the only vehicles which can travel through the city center, which substantially control the car flow. Its restraint on private car using is also reflected in its higher gasoline price than other cities in Germany.
Impressive view of bicycle parking lots
The space in front of the Freiburg train station is fully packed with hundreds of bicycles. The roads have designated cycle paths and people who come fresh out of the train station usually go directly to the cycle parking lot. Since the highways for private cars are around the city while the cycle paths directly connect to the city center, cycling to downtown is even faster than driving.
1/3 of Freiburg people commute to work by bicycle, 1/3 walk to work and the remaining 1/3 drive. The proportion of cyclists is even higher among teachers, since as part of the academia, they can hardly win students' respect without an awareness of environmental protection.
Solar Capital
Freiburg is the sunniest area in Germany as well as a utopian ancient city powered by solar energy. Therefore, solar energy has become the “specialty” of Freiburg. It has the largest private-funded solar energy residence in Germany. Solar cells are ubiquitous in Freiburg. 2000 sq meters solar cells are installed on the roofs of Freiburg. Wineries and football stadiums there are also illuminated by solar energy. The name of “Solar Capital” is well earned. It also has a sunflower eco-residence which has large windows on one side and rotates twice per year to follow the sun.
Advanced waste control
A grave challenge facing modern cities is the increasing life waste, which once also preyed the “Green City”―Freiburg. Decades of efforts including continuous amending of pertaining laws and effective measures enabled Freiburg to form a systematic “waste control economy”. It has achieved the goal of “minimization of waste, recycling of resources, cyclic utilization and final safe disposal”.
This plan has three principles: The first one is to avoid or reduce the producing of waste by giving incentives like reducing the charge fee of disposing waste to the residents who throw less waste. The second one is to adopt classified recollection. At the front of every house in Freiburg, there are waste cans with different colored labels, which respectively recollect used newspaper and books, bio-waste, light-weight package, waste glass bottles, etc. 80% of the paper in the city are produced from the recycled used paper. The third one is to dispose the remaining waste in a nuisanceless way. All of the residual waste, including the life waste water, is disposed this way .
Freiburg has very stringent regulations on waste control, including over 55 laws and regulations, which are based on practice, pertinent and complete. Taking waste water as an example, according to the law, all industrial wastewater after two treatments should reach the level that it does not cause any pollution to land or rivers any more.
Advantageous geography, mild climate, opulent sunshine and cozy lifestyle make Freiburg an exemplary city which combines ecological protection with economic growth. As the Eco-Capital of German, its success told people that, only by starting from families and supported by policy priorities can green eco-cities be built truly and successfully.