Our educational mission statement

Education in terms of nature, environment, climate and sustainability contributes to understanding nature in its ecological contexts, to respecting and protecting biodiversity, and to recognizing and reflecting on its function in the overall social and urban context. This understanding helps to promoteg people's actions to support urban nature.

Even in a city, you can experience sustainability and connect with nature.

Education for a green and sustainable Berlin has a firm place in society. It takes into account the different living conditions and everyday realities of children, young people and adults and offers needs-oriented and target-group-specific programs for families, seniors, people with a migration background, refugees, people with disabilities and people from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.

No matter what age, origin or living conditions, everyone can take advantage of these offers.

Education for a green and sustainable Berlin offers comprehensive opportunities for participation and involvement, both analog and digital. It motivates people to take an in-depth look at issues of nature and environmental protection, the transformation of the economy and society, and climate protection and adaptation to climate change. All educational activities follow the pedagogical principles of creative, explorative, experiential and action-oriented learning. Moreover, they strengthen the individual as well as the collective ability of people, companies and institutions in Berlin to reflect, innovate and think about the future.

The concepts and formats of the campaign are as extensive as nature itself. There is something for everyone in some way.

Thus, in Berlin's educational fields, proven experts and strong public and civil society institutions are helping to shape a green and sustainable future for Berlin. Those can be people with expertise from the civil society sector, from committed companies and from the private sector. Children, young people, senior citizens and others can also be effective as competent mediators of educational content in the field of nature, environment, climate and sustainability based on their expertise, experience or special access to their peer groups.

Anyone and everyone can become a provider of offers.

We intend to secure the existing places of learning and experience in the long term and to continuously develop new ones. We see the importance of urban development that upgrades green and open spaces, sustainably designs urban nature and makes them usable as educational content and places of learning. Their comprehensive and substantial integration into educational processes is promoted by the provision of temporal, spatial and financial resources. Already dense and urbanized space, including front yards, courtyards and rooftops, is also recognized and developed as an important potential for education for a green and sustainable Berlin.

In perspective, this will create a space of coordinated, coherent and dynamic urban nature. People, flora and fauna alike will use it as a habitat Moreover, it will serve as a model for green and sustainable urban development as well as for green and sustainable education policy.

Nature can prevail everywhere, whether in the park or in backyards. And you can learn from it.

This also opens up a space for the development of new designs for action, contributes significantly to successful relationships between humans and nature and thus increases the prosperity and quality of life of all Berliners. The most important fields of action here are the preservation of biodiversity, the conversion of our dietary and consumption habits, and a sustainable cultural change in questions of mobility and production, digitalization, construction and housing, energy and resource consumption.

We want to draw attention to current discussions in society and politics. We want to inspire people to make their own contribution.

Another quality component of education for a green and sustainable Berlin is formed by people with special training in nature and environmental education, as well as a large number of professionally qualified people with a special connection to nature, the environment, climate and sustainability. Their cooperation and networking is promoted and strengthened by the recognized educational institutions and the district coordination offices. For this purpose, all contributors have access to extensive professional and methodological training opportunities as well as continuous reflection and exchange forums.

Methods and processes are regularly updated on the basis of concrete evaluations and ensure the continuous development of the decentralized and inclusive quality assurance instruments.

The diversely trained contributors and volunteers provide quality education.

The different roles of the district offices, the district coordination offices with their associated educational partners and the senate administrations are just as clearly defined as the corresponding areas of activity and responsibility. They are made comprehensible through transparent communication. Interdistrict service points support the development of needs-based services and the networking of the contributors involved.

By establishing continuous interdepartmental cooperation between the senate administrations, the state of Berlin ensures that educational work in the sense of this mission statement will continue in the medium and long term. In addition, it creates a reliable commitment for Berlin's educational contributors by stabilizing the framework conditions and providing sufficient earmarked financial resources.

The state provides the districts with the resources they need and the districts distribute them further.

The educational landscape thrives on vital, open communication between the various educational sectors, which takes up new topics and developments and evaluates and classifies them according to jointly agreed procedures. To this end, information about goals and measures, about the institutions and educational providers involved, and about the competencies available are prepared transparently and are openly accessible at all times.

All the contributors shape a network all over Berlin in order to achieve a good implementation of the tasks assigned to them.