Gmund - Gmund wants to establish the concept of the economy for the common good at Tegernsee.
This will bring various developments in the area in the future.
The community councils in Gmund recently decided unanimously that the community should continue to develop on the basis of the concept of the Economy for the Common Good (GWÖ).
This was already formulated as a goal at a closed meeting in March 2021.
Municipalities have an important function when it comes to living sustainability, the administration says, because municipalities and cities would significantly develop the future of their place within the diverse areas of responsibility for which they are responsible.
For this to be successful, municipalities would have to take into account not only economic but also ecological and social challenges such as climate change, growing inequalities or demographics.
Economic reformer Christian Felber
Since taking office, Mayor Alfons Besel has been committed to developing Gmund sustainably. "For me, sustainable means fair, generational, resource-saving and participatory action - or, to put it simply: to decide and act in such a way that the results will continue to be good for our place, our citizens and the common good in the future," he says.
In order to evaluate what is good in the long term, however, you need well thought-out tools.
In Gmund, a method is to be used in future that has already proven itself in various commercial enterprises, organizations and, in some cases, municipalities: the Economy for the Common Good (GWÖ).
The concept, which goes back to the Austrian economic reformer Christian Felber, is based on the assumption that the wellbeing of people and the environment must be the top priority of economic activity.
Compass, tool and management tool
In concrete terms, the GWÖ contains a matrix that can be used as an aid for decisions and on the basis of which one's own actions can be assessed.
It thus serves as a compass, tool and management tool for grandchildren-friendly economics.
More and more companies are aligning their actions with the GWÖ and the concept is also an ideal instrument for municipalities to holistically measure and evaluate the success of their own municipality development and organization, explains the administration.
Kirchanschöring as a model
In Gmund, too, a public welfare report could be added to the budget in the future, as is already the case, for example, in the GWÖ municipality of Kirchanschöring in the Traunstein district.
How the GWÖ is to be implemented, however, has to be set up individually for each organization, taking existing structures and circumstances into account.
According to the experience and recommendation of already existing GWÖ communities, external advice is necessary so that the concept can be established in a sustainable and impact-oriented manner.
First step at the end of 2021
In a first step, a funding application for external support for the project should therefore be submitted in Gmund by the end of 2021.
This is followed by an orientation phase with an inventory of previous sustainability activities of the municipality, kick-off workshops and public participation in the form of a future workshop.
“We already carry out a large number of projects with sustainable benefits - be it our path to becoming a bicycle-friendly municipality, the creation of an energy use plan or our activities in the field of building culture, which are all about sustainable, i.e. socially, economically and ecologically sensible ones Alignment of construction projects ”, explains Alfons Besel. "With the establishment of the GWÖ, the focus on sustainability will continue to gain in importance in the future and the activities, projects and decisions in the administration and municipal council will be embedded in a strategic framework."