Public participation in the resource efficiency program

The German Resource Efficiency Program was updated; in 2016, the second “edition” of the National Resource Efficiency Program (ProgRess II) was adopted by the German government. The aim of the project was to develop and implement a citizen participation concept for the national resource efficiency program for the first time in order to identify both suitable formats for citizen participation and suitable thematic approaches for this program. The existing resource efficiency programs – such as BilRess or PolRess – were supplemented by the “everyday world view” of the topic; the results of the citizen dialogue were directly incorporated into the update of Progress II. The main target group was interested and committed citizens: the views, opinions and ideas of and with citizens were discussed at five citizens “workshops held across Germany in early summer 2015 and a parallel online dialog at www.gespraechstoff-ressourcen.de. The results of both formats were clearly presented in the form of a ‘citizens’ proposal” and presented to those responsible for ProgRess II via citizen ambassadors at an event in the fall of 2015. The results of the project were thus able to generate direct and concrete ideas and tips for the ongoing ProgRess II process and provide further impetus for follow-up processes such as ProgRess III. In addition, insights were gained into the general opportunities and limitations of citizen participation in environmental policy program processes.

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Photos: Jörg Farys, Die Projektoren, Berlin