2016 - News - Detail Page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Not least the devastating flood disasters, forest fires covering enormous areas and increasing water shortages made it abundantly clear this year that man-made climate change is making itself felt. Numerous international and national cultural institutions have set out in recent years to make their contribution to climate protection. Recently, employees of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation have also launched various initiatives to determine and improve the Foundation's climate footprint. A foundation-wide task force has developed the vision of an SPK that operates sustainably in ecological, social and economic terms. The first goal of this process is to achieve climate neutrality at SPK before 2035.

"SPK is tackling the issue of sustainability on many levels. Over the past year, we have initiated a participatory process in which employees are developing projects, for example for sustainable greenery in our facilities, resource-conserving work, recycling, sustainable work and green mobility. Our aim is to set our very own example for the Green New Deal, and I am delighted that so many colleagues are actively involved," says SPK President Hermann Parzinger .

From 1 October, a dedicated position will also be responsible for developing and gradually implementing a foundation-wide sustainability strategy in cooperation with the existing initiatives. This position has been filled by Nina Schallenberg, currently Curator of the Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin, and Daniel Naumann, who works in the Building Planning Department of the Directorate General of the National Museums in Berlin. With their different, but very wide-ranging expertise in their respective fields, they will share the position as a team and report directly to the Vice President as a staff unit.

"We see it as a great benefit that we are acting in an interdisciplinary and participatory manner right from the start in this subject area, which is so important for the foundation and its institutions," say the two new sustainability officers Schallenberg and Naumann.

As one of the largest scientific and cultural institutions in Germany, the SPK has a great responsibility to society as a whole and immense potential to use its climate protection measures to make its own activities sustainable on the one hand and to have an impact in many areas at national and international level on the other. The current reform process offers a unique opportunity to implement sustainability as a cross-cutting issue in all SPK institutions and across hierarchies through new collegial governance and participation structures.