Recognising and honouring local environmental and sustainability initiatives are essential means of promoting sustainable transformations. The ‘SynergisteN’ project is further developing the German Local Sustainability Award ‘ZeitzeicheN’ and optimising its format. It focusses on ‘working together instead of against each other’ and on transformative action. Targeted measures are intended to help the initiatives to implement their projects and expand their organisational and technical expertise. Instead of a competition-orientated culture of recognition that encourages a competitive mindset and pressure to succeed, a cooperative approach is proposed that aims for long-term exchange and mutual learning.
The nexus Institute is realising the practical test for this new model and supporting the pilot process. The aim is to create the basis for establishing ‘Die SynergisteN’ in the long term and thereby strengthen cooperation and collegial self-organisation for systemic transformation, the ‘transformation fitness’. In the first step, the current state of research on sustainability awards and cooperation approaches will be reviewed and, together with the results of exploratory interviews, incorporated into three co-creative workshops in which central questions on the organisation, implementation and perpetuation of the SynergisteN format will be clarified.
These workshops are intended to bring together various social actors from administration, science, business and civil society to discuss their respective needs and challenges with regard to networking and cooperation. The methodology of the design thinking format is adapted for this purpose in order to develop creative ideas and proposed solutions. The selection of scouting teams that identify and approach potential synergists in order to facilitate low-threshold access is a central component of the project and includes a structured matching process, the identification and approach of scouts and the validation of access procedures and selection criteria.
The selected synergists receive ongoing advice and support both at meetings and in individual counselling sessions and via a community engagement platform. The new format will be continuously optimised through an accompanying validation and summary evaluation of the pilot implementation in order to prepare for its long-term establishment.
Duration: 07/2024-12/2026
Client: Umweltbundesamt
Team: Christiane Dienel (Project management), Uta Zetek, Maria Jacob
Project partner: Dr. Raban Fuhrmann
Graphics: UBA/Deep Forward