Let’s keep moving! - by our project partner Vejle, Denmark

The past year has been a different year than usual – in Vejle as well as in all of Denmark and Europe. For the most part of the year the staff of the municipality, who are not taking care of crucial tasks, has been working from home, not being able to meet face to face for seminars, workshops and meetings.

However, this has not stopped them from focusing on the issues at hand. During this period, the work on the climate plan for the municipality until 2050 continued and it was agreed upon by the city council on December 9th 2020.

The ambitious plan has as its goal to be climate neutral in 2050 and a step in that direction is to reduce the CO2 emission by 2030 with 70%.

The plan also gives 5 principles to consider, when deciding on new projects. These principles are:

-        We aim for the long term solutions

-        Partnerships and local jobs drives the green transition

-        We make it easy to make the sustainable decision

-        The sustainable transition must benefit as many as possible

-        Prevention and adaption must go hand in hand.

With this plan, the municipality has a long-term strategy. And, while this is already a great help, the municipality is currently developing its Municipal plan for 2021-2033. A key interest here is to ensure smart and sustainable growth for the municipality in the future.

The city council decided in March 2021 to make public a draft for this Municipal plan for a consultation with the citizens, to get their opinions. A way of getting this feedback is through 2 virtual citizens meetings over the coming period. During these meetings, the plan will be presented and there will be a chance to discuss the draft in groups according to local geographical areas on how to realise the plan in practice. These meetings are open to all citizens.

Alongside all these strategies, the new Resource Centre in Vejle is entering its final phase of planning. Before long, they will start the building process of this new centre, which is replacing the old waste and recycling station in the city. This new Resource Centre will be built upon a foundation of SDGs: SDG 7 – affordable and clean energy, SDG 12 – responsible consumption and production and SDG 13 – Climate action. These are obvious goals for a waste handling facility, but there is also an ambition to work on e.g. SDG 1 – no poverty and SDG 4 – quality education.

And how does that work, you may ask? One way is through a 1000 m2 recycling hall and an area with resources from construction. With at greater focus on recycling, both citizens and volunteer organisations will have better opportunity to collect and trade materials. There will also be a “communication bridge”, where visitors, school classes, etc. can see behind the scene and learn about resource handling and circular materials.

So in conclusion – change and progress does not stop because of COVID-19.