Sustainability and the cultural and creative sectors

Can businesses in and initiatives by the cultural and creative sectors provide impetus for a sustainable economy and society? Creatives and experts from government, industry and academia addressed this question on Friday, 15 June 2012 at a conference entitled "Eleven Ideas for Tomorrow." This one-day forum with roughly 80 attendees concluded with a stimulating round of conversational networking. The conference was jointly organised by IBA (International Building Exhibition) Hamburg and the Hamburg regional office of the Federal Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Sectors.
Held 15 June 2012, the event focused on the textile, design, event management, music and media industries. Representatives of intriguing and unconventional projects from Hamburg and all over Germany were invited, including TEXTILE WERKHOF, an association of training and qualification providers and designers involved in the IBA project "Art Makes Work," the NEMONA project for a fashion and sewing network in Berlin, and the energy-producing project THE ELECTRIC HOTEL underway in Kassel, about mobile phone charging. The latter project was among those designated a 'National Creative and Cultural Driver 2011' by the German government.Speakers and panellists at the conference held at the IBA DOCK included IBA director Uli Hellweg, Dr. Nicholas Hill, State Councillor of the Department of Culture, Dr. Babette Peters, Design Tsar for the City of Hamburg, Dr. Dieter Läpple, Professor Emeritus at HafenCity University, Frank Otto of Hamburg Hoch 11 and Frank Lemloh, regional representative of the Federal Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Sectors.

Hamburg, 15 June 2012 - "The ideas coming from the cultural and creative sectors are of vital importance for the society of tomorrow. Creative and innovative concepts directly help achieve and maintain social and environmental sustainability," said IBA director Uli Hellweg from the podium.
Representatives of unconventional and sustainable creative projects underway in Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany convened to address the issue of sustainability in all its various facets. The creatives and experts from business, academia and government attending the conference explored ideas for creative projects designed to further sustainability for the economy, society and the environment. It was seen however that the goal of sustainability can be pursued in a playful and easygoing way that is fun. In focus that day were textile, fashion and product design, event management, music and media industries.

"For the cultural and creative industries, sustainability has been much more than a sideline issue for quite some time now. Scarce resources, global inter-networking and high efficiency are the challenges being tackled by players in these sectors, and impressive solutions are being found. Thinking and acting locally with entrepreneurial creativity is thus a part of global responsibility," said Frank Lemloh of the regional office of the Federal Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Sectors.

THE ELECTRIC HOTEL project underway in the city of Kassel, managed by media artist Sebastian Fleiter, is addressing environmental concerns by devising a way to produce energy to charge mobile phones or other devices at festivals. Ines Schönemann and Andrea Franke of Hamburg's TEXTILE WERKHOF rely on the combined expertise of different training and certification providers to address the local industry's lack of intermediate producers, and to enhance creativity in Hamburg's design landscape in a contemporary, sustainable way.
Benny Adrion of Hamburg is behind the higher-profile VIVA CON AQUA project for improving the supply of vital drinking water in developing countries. The ökoRAUSCH festival in Cologne on the other hand is all about gaining more public exposure for environmentally friendly designs and products in the interest of sustainability.These and other unconventional solutions for a sustainable economy and society were presented at the conference. The creative minds behind these projects outlined and discussed their ideas within the thematic frameworks of "Social Sustainability: The Creative Sector and Local Economies" and "Unconventional Solutions for the Society of Tomorrow".

For further information please contact:

IBA Hamburg GmbH, Kristina Hödl, Director of Media Relations,
kristina.hoedl@iba-hamburg.de, Tel.: +49 (0)40 / 226 227 335, or Anna Vietinghoff, Media Relations, anna.vietinghoff@iba-hamburg.de, Tel: +49 (0)40 / 226 227-331 or send an email to presse@iba-hamburg.de

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and

Federal Centre of Excellence for the Cultural and Creative Sectors (Kompetenzzentrum Kultur- & Kreativwirtschaft des Bundes)

Frank Lemloh
Regional Representative for Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein

RKW Nord GmbH, Lerchenstrasse 28, 22767 Hamburg
Landline: +49 (0)40-5577529-23
Mobile: +49 (0)151-264 672 83
Email: lemloh@rkw-kreativ.de

The federal government cultural and creative sectors programme online:
www.kultur-kreativ-wirtschaft.de