City of Rottenburg am Neckar

City of Rottenburg am Neckar

Voluntary Local Review of the City of Rottenburg am Neckar 2023: Implementing the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level

Insights of the Report

Support for sustainable development has a long tradition in Rottenburg am Neckar. Local Agenda 21 – an open citizens’ platform for implementing sustainability activities – was established at the end of the 1990s. In 2010, Rottenburg became Baden-Württemberg’s first Fairtrade Town. A multistakeholder partnership – comprising representatives from administration, the scientific community, education and civil society – the Initiative N! was established in 2016. At the same time, Rottenburg am Neckar was one of the first German municipalities to sign the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Building Sustainability at the Local Level of the Association of German Cities and the German Association of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). The creation of a VLR is the logical consequence on the path to sustainable municipal development. The first Rottenburg VLR 2023 addresses the five focus SDGs of the HLPF from the same year. A total of 29 qualitative aspects and 48 quantitative indicators reflect Rottenburg's actions to implement the 2030 Agenda in relation to SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11 and 17.

City Profile

Rottenburg am Neckar is a German administrative unit known as a Große Kreisstadt or district town, with almost 44,000 inhabitants. The town consists of a core area and 17 villages that are well networked and work together to jointly drive development.

Rottenburg is surrounded by natural landscapes of great beauty. The Neckar river shapes the city area over a length of 14 kilometres from west to east. The narrow upper Neckar valley opens up into the wide floodplain. The landscape includes wide areas of orchards as well as vineyards on sunny slopes. The large southern forest area of the Rammert, a local recreation area, stretches from east to west. Furthermore, Rottenburg am Neckar has a large number of business parks, all of which are characterised by important advantages: a central location in the heart of Baden-Württemberg between the Swabian Alb and the Black Forest, optimal infrastructure, and exemplary business development.

Rottenburg has an active civil society. The municipality offers a wide range of funding opportunities for civil society activities and benefits from this cooperation and the diverse social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts. Over a period of ten years, for example, EUR 2.24 million has flowed into volunteer projects through the Citizens’ Basic Income, an allowance paid by the Municipal Administration.

The Rottenburg 2030 Municipal Masterplan adopted by the Municipal Council in 2020, which also integrates the SDGs, provides the framework for the development of the municipality of Rottenburg am Neckar over the next two decades.

The Report and more

The VLR report is available here:
Voluntary Local Review of the City of Rottenburg am Neckar 2023: Implementing the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level