A large number of interesting model projects show that local authorities and their stakeholders are taking extremely innovative approaches to ensure greater sustainability in their communities. However, it is often difficult to realise these projects just as successfully in other contexts and to spread them more widely. The aim of the research project "From model project to municipal practice" was to develop a practical guide to support sustainability stakeholders in the implementation of transfer projects. The brochure has been available since autumn 2009, in the run-up to the 3rd Netzwerk21 Congress in Cologne.

The guiding principle of sustainable development and its implementation is the central challenge facing our society in the transition to the 21st century. In order to realise sustainable development goals such as climate protection, minimisation of land use, preservation of biodiversity or the conservation of finite resources on a broad scale, concrete state control instruments such as reporting and legislation as well as concrete practical examples are needed to illustrate what sustainable development means in individual fields of action and how it can be implemented and communicated by the respective local actors. A common approach here is the initiation of "model projects" or "pilot projects". A large number of interesting pilot projects show that local authorities and their stakeholders are taking extremely innovative approaches to the implementation of pilot projects. However, it is often difficult to realise these projects just as successfully in other municipalities and contexts and to spread these ideas more widely.

The research project "From model project to municipal practice" therefore investigated the overarching question of how exemplary ideas and model projects could be implemented on a broad scale in terms of sustainable development and which factors and framework conditions were decisive for their success. The aim of the project was to develop a practice-orientated guideline that presents success factors and obstacles in the transfer of model projects into broad implementation and should therefore support sustainability stakeholders in the implementation of transfer projects.

The research project was realised by the IZT in cooperation with the State Working Group Agenda21 NRW and funded by the UBA - Federal Environment Agency as part of the Environmental Research Plan 2009 (UFOPLAN 2009) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

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