Sustainability 💚 re:publica

Statement

Handlungsfelder

City & Area

Mobility

Energy

Catering

Access

Materials

Architecture

Waste

Programme

Analysis

Statement

re:publica is a place for engagement, emancipation and empathy in (digital) society. As a major event, we are aware of our special responsibility and want to make our contribution to sustainable development - in our program and production.

In the program, we discuss how people can take social and planetary boundaries to heart and work within them. We show options for action to live more sustainably, to shape digitalization socially and ecologically and to use technology to advance sustainable goals. We present projects that enable better coexistence and combat exclusion. In production, we have been implementing recycling and upcycling concepts for many years, working with experts and our partners on measures to enable participation and access for all, and on strategies for energy efficiency and waste prevention. From short distances to recyclable trade fair construction and equipment items and gender balance on the stages to rental furniture and vegan and vegetarian catering - we are on the right track in many areas. But there is still a lot to do.

We see sustainability as a holistic concept that encompasses all dimensions of sustainability: social, cultural, digital, ecological and economic. To this end, we have developed a catalog of measures that continues to grow with every event. We evaluate the success of the measures and develop new solutions in all teams. We are constantly learning new things and would therefore like to share our successes with you, as well as our failures, the challenges and hurdles we sometimes face. On this page and on our social media channels, we document our sustainable measures and share our thoughts, ideas and insights with you.

We can only achieve our goal of implementing sustainability comprehensively at re:publica Berlin together with you. We would therefore like to thank you for sharing your ideas with us and supporting us in creating a sustainable festival experience.

City & Area

re:publica is an event from and for Berlin. After two years on the grounds of Arena Berlin and Festsaal Kreuzberg, our festival is returning to STATION Berlin - a venue with which we have a long history. We're staying in the heart of the city, but swapping the Spree and the Badeschiff for the Park am Gleisdreieck and the neighborhood of the German Museum of Technology.

re:publica Berlin took place at STATION Berlin for the first time in 2012. Over the course of seven years, we experimented with the STATION Berlin team and tested how we could produce our festival in a more environmentally friendly, accessible and inclusive way. We are building on this cooperation and are looking forward to creating blueprints for other events in the best-case scenario.
We work with local service providers and owner-operated companies to produce our event. Many have been with us for several years, some even since the first event.
Berlin players and institutions have a permanent place in the program, as do Berlin city topics.

Mobility

re:publica thrives on encounters - both planned and accidental. For example, re:publica 23 brought together 1117 speakers from 79 countries and we counted a total of 25,000 visitors over the three days of the conference. We want to maintain and further expand this internationality and diversity of perspectives. And yet: mobility is the biggest factor in the CO2 emissions of an event, including ours. That is why we have been recording our CO2 emissions in the area of mobility in detail since 2022 and examining where we can still improve. Our surveys and analyses for rp23 showed that the majority of participants and speakers traveled by train, with around 61% using local transport and 17% using long-distance transport. The majority of the team and trades traveled to the site by bike, public transport or carpooling. There is therefore little scope to reduce emissions even further. The biggest emitters are currently the air travel of the speakers and the transportation around the event. While the latter can only be partially optimized, we have developed a travel concept that defines even stricter criteria for speaker travel, especially for air travel.

Our current mobility concept currently includes the following measures:

We recommend that our participants travel by public transport. STATION Berlin is easily and conveniently accessible by public transport.
We are not creating any new or additional parking spaces.
The majority of speakers and participants come from Berlin or the surrounding area.
The majority of speakers travel within Germany and ideally also within Europe by train.
We cooperate with other festivals and institutions to facilitate longer stays in Germany and Europe for international speakers, especially if they have to travel long distances.
We are looking for new formats and solutions to connect speakers live to a session and thus reduce international travel.
Hotels for crew and speakers are well connected to the re:publica location by public transport, some of them are within walking distance.
To keep transportation distances as short as possible, we work with service providers from Berlin and the surrounding area.
Our warehouse is located near the festival site to ensure short journeys.
For rp23, the Crowd Impact team supported us with their survey app to record the travel routes and means of transportation of our participants. The app automatically calculates the resulting carbon footprint and, with its evaluations, provides a data basis for developing a more sustainable mobility concept as well as a basis for negotiations with countries, municipalities and transport companies. By taking part in the survey, visitors are also made aware of the issue and receive tips at the end of the survey on how they can travel more sustainably next time.

Energy

Events are energy-intensive. That's why a central goal of the sustainability measures for re:publica Berlin is to reduce energy consumption even further each year. Our measures include:

STATION Berlin uses green electricity from the provider Polarstern.
We host our website with Mittwald, which uses electricity from renewable sources.
Lighting is a major factor in energy consumption at an event. That is why we are continuing to expand the use of LED technology. This is very cost-intensive and can only be done gradually.
We work with daylight as much as possible to save energy.
We borrow technical equipment that is used in the production of re:publica. We make sure that they have a high level of energy efficiency.
In order to record our energy consumption even more precisely, we are currently looking for scientists to help us record and analyze the data. We are also happy to work with student groups to do this.

Catering

We only offer vegan and vegetarian catering at re:publica - both for participants and for the crew. While we can already largely fulfill sustainable criteria such as seasonality and regionality in the selection of products, there is a greater challenge in dealing with catering waste. We are in contact with experts and zero-waste initiatives and have also received recommendations from our participants. Thank you very much for that!

Our service providers primarily use fresh, seasonal products from the region and organic produce wherever possible. Coffee and tea come from fair trade and organic cultivation.
At re:publica, participants can bring bottles and fill them with drinking water. However, good water quality is not always available at every venue and not every location is suitable. That's why Berliner Wasserbetriebe provided us with water stations for rp23 and will do so again at rp24.
We rely on reusable materials for crew catering.
From #rp24 onwards, we will be offering a standardized reusable system for participant catering. Whether coffee cup, chips bowl or bowl - this time you will receive drinks and food in reusable plastic tableware (mainly made of polypropylene), which makes it easier to return it to the recycling cycle. The only exception: food that is served by hand. You will receive these in paper. There will be two central collection points where you can return your deposit. The dishes will be collected from there and cleaned off-site. A big thank you to GLS Bank for supporting us in introducing the reusable system at re:publica 24.
Our cutlery is made of wood fiber. Alternatively, you can bring your own festival/camping cutlery, e.g. a spork. This will help us to produce even less catering waste.
Avoidance of food waste: The calculation of our caterers is based on the fact that offered food could well run out and therefore be sold out.
Challenge: We would like to donate food and meals. However, this is not possible due to the current hygiene guidelines.

Access

re:publica stands for diversity, openness and free access to knowledge for all. That's why we are constantly working to make re:publica as an event and as an organization more diverse, less accessible and more inclusive.

Everyone is welcome at re:publica. No one should be discriminated against on the basis of age, gender, appearance, sexual orientation, physical, mental or psychological impairment, skin color, origin or religion. We ask all participants to live this with us and to take our Code of Conduct to heart.
Our Awareness Team is there for you: If a person experiences discrimination or racism at re:publica or experiences a situation in which their personal boundaries are crossed, they can contact the Awareness Team. The team will be out and about on the festival grounds on all days of the event, wearing white vests with the word “Awareness” on them. They can also be contacted by telephone or via the information stand. The focus of the awareness work is on awareness support for the person concerned.
All visitors who require the support of an accompanying person can bring them to the event free of charge - in exceptional cases, more than one person or different accompanying persons on different days. To do this, select the “Reduced with accompanying person” category in our ticket store. Further information can be found here.
Guide dogs for the blind and assistance dogs have access.
Accessibility on the premises: At STATION Berlin, we use the architecture of an old post station. The event areas are largely barrier-free and accessible for people with limited mobility and wheelchair users. However, there are still some challenges for which we would like to develop even more accessible solutions together with the venue operators and experts. For example, Hall 5, where Stage 7 is located, is only accessible via a staircase or a freight elevator, which must be supervised and operated by a person. Hall 8 is not barrier-free, nor is the transition to the Deutsches Technikmuseum park. We are currently working on a low-barrier solution for the transition to the DTM.
There are several wheelchair-accessible sanitary facilities on the grounds. They are marked on the site plan for the event.
Parking spaces for people with disabilities are available on the re:publica grounds. There are additional parking spaces a short distance away
For 2024, we have set ourselves the goal of making everything around our stages more accessible - especially our Stage 1: access to the stage is provided with a ramp and we have set up better seating areas for people with wheelchairs and walking disabilities. All program content on stage 1 will be translated into German sign language on all event days. After the event, we will make all recordings of the sessions with sign language interpretation available on YouTube.
The program on stages 1 and 2 will be simultaneously translated into German and English.
There will be a live transcription of the presentations and discussions on Stage 1. This means that the content can also be read.
The sessions on stage 1 will be streamed live.
We record as many program contributions as possible - even from smaller stages. The videos can be accessed on YouTube after the event.
We also offer three versions of the Stage 1 sessions: Original, language interpretation and sign language interpretation.
re:publica for kids: We have created places for parents, children and caregivers to play and relax together across the festival grounds. One central location is the Kids & Baby Space, which is particularly suitable for taking a short break and breastfeeding, for example. Bobby cars and a sandpit await our youngest participants in the DTM Park.
For participants aged 13 and over, we recommend a visit to TINCON, which will take place on all three days between 9.30 am and 2.30 pm in parallel to re:publica at STATION.
The entrance fee for re:publica should not be an obstacle for those with limited financial means. That's why we have staggered ticket prices.
As a volunteer, it is possible to help out for one day during the conference. In return, volunteers receive meals on the day of their assignment and access to re:publica for the remaining days. You can find more information here.

Equipment & Materials

We reduce and avoid the purchase of new materials and the production of event-specific items wherever and whenever possible. In purchasing and production, we focus on sustainable standards and in particular on recycled and recyclable materials.

After each event, we critically evaluate which new purchases we still need and/or have produced.
For #rp22, we decided not to produce new lanyards but asked participants to bring their own. That worked really well, which is why we always do it this way now.
We don't produce or sell any merchandise. Instead, we upcycled T-shirts on site at #rp23 and had them printed.
Recycled paper is used for printed materials and printed on both sides.
We ask our partners not to bring giveaways and flyers. This does not always work. And there are exceptions: Materials can be displayed if they have an explicit added value for the participants, are sustainable and were not produced solely for the event.
Current interest: We are looking for and testing products that take into account the principles of the circular economy
A re:publica program app has been available since 2022.

Architecture & Spatial design

re:publica reinvents itself every year. Rethought - but not newly produced. By renting, reusing and upcycling, we are able to avoid producing new items for one-off use. Reusable parts are stored and residual materials are recycled.

Rent: For re:publica Berlin, we rent furniture, plants, plant beds, decorative objects and technical equipment, among other things. For all rental objects, we attach great importance to fiber-containing materials and try to avoid plastic.
Reuse: In the event area, we use reusable, simple stand architecture made of FSC-certified wood. These wooden modules will be used for the eighth time at #rp24. Every year, colorful Monobloc chairs are used as the basic elements of our “look & feel”. They have been a style-defining element of re:publica since 2012 and are cleaned and stored after each event.
Upcycling: For several years now, we have been passing on materials and furniture to friendly festivals and initiatives that we cannot reuse or store after a re:publica in order to use them for their event - e.g. off-cuts of wood, used Molton, screws or Forex panels. Examples: The “Immergut Festival” built a bar out of wood and screen printing plates from the re:publica. The “Hedonists” used Molton and cardboard. Mirrors that were used at #rpTEN were reused at Fusion, the MELT Festival and Tech Open Air. We also receive material from other players and events: for #rp19, Adidas gave us green carpets for our meadow landscape in the so-called “Community Garden”, among other things.

Waste

Our aim is to avoid waste and recycle materials. With the change of venue, we will revise and adapt our waste concept once again. To this end, we are in contact with STATION Berlin, waste management experts and zero-waste experts.

re:publica ensures separate waste collection and disposal.
Our long-standing partner and event outfitter expofair has developed separate waste garbage cans for us, which were used for the first time at #rp23 in the event area and are now being rented out by expofair.
Challenge: Commercial waste is incinerated in Berlin. This is where we want to start with the new waste concept in the future and discover and develop new solutions.
All service providers and partners are encouraged to recycle or avoid their packaging.
We use 80% regenerated film for packaging material for rental objects and re:publica's own pallet goods

Programme

re:publica is the festival for the digital society. At the heart of the programme are debates and exchanges about the ever-accelerating pace of digitalization, its impact on the transformation of society(ies) and the shift in political dynamics. We ask ourselves: What kind of digital world do we want to live in? Sustainable questions run through our sessions as well as our off-stage program. Since 2018, we have repeatedly focused on sustainability topics in the program and invited experts from various disciplines to draw attention to key challenges of sustainable development and present solutions. However, our sustainability goals not only include individual program sessions, but also the general program design:

In the re:publica program, we want to offer space to all those perspectives that value and consciously promote human diversity as a social potential.
Diversity and gender balance on and off our stages are essential for an inclusive community and are a matter of course for us - they represent our attitude as organizers. We explicitly include people who do not feel they belong to the binary gender paradigm.
We look forward to diverse topics, attitudes and opinions from the entire (democratic!) spectrum. Anyone can submit ideas to the Call for Participation. We curate two thirds of the program from these submissions.
The program addresses issues of sustainable development, raises awareness of the challenges of climate change and provides information about possible solutions.
The conference for digital youth culture TINCON takes place as part of re:publica and offers an extensive program for young participants aged 13 to 25. The program is free of charge for young people.

Impact: Analysis und Documentation

For every re:publica, we revise our sustainability measures and set ourselves new goals. We analyze and document as much as possible so that we can track the effectiveness of our ideas and their implementation.

CO2 balance: We have been measuring our CO2 emissions since re:publica 22. At the Sart Balance with the support of the Institute for Future Culture. When we return to STATION Berlin in 2024, we will adapt our analysis once again and set it up again.
Mobility data: With the Crowd Impact app, we can request the relevant information on mobility for our carbon footprint and record how our participants traveled and the distance they covered.
Participant survey: An important element in measuring the impact of our measures and receiving feedback is our participant survey. You can access the link to the online questionnaire for the event from May 27 and take part in the survey.
And: We are currently still looking for scientific collaborations to help us analyze and document the effectiveness of our activities in more detail.