A Reflection on Berlin
As we come to the last stop of our trip in Germany, we’ve yet again embarked on an intellectual journey to explore and examine the core topics of our course: Good Governance and Economics, Environmental Sustainability, and Social Sustainability. During our time in Berlin, we visited the Bundestag, which is the German governing parliament, to learn about the power of governance on future development. We then toured the office of Ubitricity to grasp the environmental sustainability landscape in Germany. Last but not least, we went to the Housing and Social Sustainability Department to learn about creating social sustainability through housing policies. Overall, our time in Berlin has provided us with a comprehensive view of the core topics, and their interconnectedness paints a picture of German society.
On our second day in Berlin, we visited the Bundestag. First, we sat in on a debate presented on the parliament floor about the war in Ukraine. Throughout the debate, various party representatives from the FDP, SPD, CDU, AfD, Die Linke, and the Greens presented their arguments. Prior to this experience, we had only done classroom studies on these political parties, but seeing how they interact with each other in person was an insightful experience. Although my German wasn’t good enough to understand what the politicians were saying, the atmosphere they created said more than enough. In one instance, while the AfD was giving their argument, many representatives began heckling and shouting words to interrupt the speech. I later learned through Professor Wong that the AfD was protesting the support of Ukraine, but it was safe to say that various parties have different opinions on how Germany should be governed. Seeing these political disagreements allowed me to draw a comparison to U.S. politics and how it may make the public more polarized and hinder certain political developments, such as sustainability, for the interest of our class.
However, despite the disagreements regarding certain political topics, the Bundestag has overall made a significant contribution to its sustainablility development. After the debate, our group spoke with Bundestag member Thomas Lutze from SPD, who is also a member of the Committee on Transport. We asked about his thoughts on Stuttgart 21, the 11 billion-euro-train project, as well as the 9 Euro Ticket, both of which are policies that aim to create sustainablility. Lutze chuckled when asked about Stuttgart 21, but he said that the 9 Euro Ticket has made a positive contribution in leading more people to take public transportation and reducing emissions. Lutze said that he hoped Germany could one day adopt the Luxemburg model, where buses, trains, and trams are free of charge. With this ambitious goal in mind, I’ve come to learn that a country can only reach good governance that helps sustainability if it has ambitious leaders who are unafraid of using unconventional approaches. Therefore, it is safe to say that sustainable development is heavily influenced by good governance.
Other than learning about Good Governance and Economics through the Bundestag, our team also visited Ubitricity, a lamppost EV charging start-up bought by Shell, to learn about environmental sustainability. Through Nicole Anhoff, the Head of Marketing and Communications, and Paul Schönewald, the Senior Political Affairs Manager, we learned that building a separate EV charging station like Tesla’s is not sustainable for the environment and that it also has some compliance issues in Germany. Therefore, Ubitricity invented a way for EV charging stations to be mounted on lampposts so that the developers don’t have to build a new electrical grid. Not only did this clever method allow more materials to be saved in the construction process, but it also increased access for electrical vehicle owners, which, all in all, encouraged a greener future for Germany. During the conversation, Schönewald also mentioned that the local government has helped select the locations of the charging stations by using data such as EV ownership and population within an area to gauge demand. This means that the government has significantly helped Ubitricity in making sure that they don’t make a bad investment by installing the station in a bad location. Hence, this signifies that institutions like the local government have paved the way for interest groups like Ubitricity to lead renewable energy development, which is a great model to stimulate innovation. Similar to Germany, the U.S. has also implemented renewable energy investment approaches such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides tax equity incentives to stimulate investments in renewable energy.
Last but not least, in addition to engaging in the government and environmental spheres, our group also learned about social sustainability through our tour of Berlin’s Housing and Social Sustainability Department. During the tour, our speaker, André Moschke, who is the policy officer to the governing mayor of Berlin, gave us a detailed run-down of the housing situation of Berlin, which stems from it being the largest city by population in the E.U. Moschke also talked about various housing policies that would help combat the housing crises, such as social and low-income housing, which focuses on promoting social equality and the right to live. Specifically, Moschke mentioned the social housing stock, which aims to build up and appropriate a stockpile of apartments for low-income individuals based on their income, which is an interesting approach to solving such as complex problem. Such policy will help bring equality to Berliners and bridge the economic gaps between the wealthy and the economically disadvantaged and attract more talent to the city. What’s better is that the social housing stock will be self-sustainable, given that people’s rent will help pay back the cost of building the infrastructure. Through our tour of the Housing and Social Sustainability Department, Moschke has taught us that a successful government should confront societal disparities with bold, creative, and self-sustainable solutions that seek to bridge the gap between the disparities.
Overall, our visit to Berlin showed us that good governance, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability help create a just, innovative, and forward-thinking society. The interconnectedness of these characteristics helps create a better tomorrow.
