Craftsmanship for the future - quality, durability and competence for a lively neighbourhood

In order to save greenhouse gases, we are focusing on local businesses in our project, especially on the crafts in the pilot district. Why? A large proportion of greenhouse gases are produced by the consumption of goods and services, 75% of which are produced abroad and imported into Switzerland. Sustainability therefore also means keeping high-quality goods in circulation for a long time, including through repair, so that they can be used longer and passed on. In the long term, we support such a strategy and also a culture of "moderation", of sufficiency. It doesn't always have to be new - we maintain the existing and promote ecology and economy in the neighbourhood. The strategy of sufficiency aims to minimize harmful environmental impacts of the use of raw materials and energy, including through changes in consumption and production. These include, for example: Measures such as the longer use of existing infrastructure or goods (renovating instead of demolishing, repairing instead of buying new) as well as joint use. And this is where trade and crafts come into play: because the skilled trades are a previously underestimated "player" of net zero and sustainability. For the pilot project, we would like to investigate and demonstrate the sufficiency potential of local trade, especially the skilled trades. For the neighbourhood, we want to develop climate-neutral and sensible offers from the point of view of the skilled trades. For the residents, we want to increase transparency and understanding: transparency about which trades seem particularly important for a net-zero strategy in the neighborhood, and understanding about how craftsmen work, where they source their materials, what skills are necessary for this and how pricing is created. The aim of the project is also to support the development of transparency and appreciation. Our project is intended to develop new potential for local crafts from an economic, social and ecological point of view from a sufficiency perspective. The skilled trades have structural characteristics of sustainability that could be important for the future of a sustainable district: The skilled trades have the potential to defuse the conflict between "economy and ecology" because they tend to produce long-lasting goods through high-quality products that can remain in the cycle for longer. In addition, craft businesses can repair products and goods, which increases the life cycle of the goods and thus reduces the purchase of new goods. In the skilled trades, knowledge and employment, business success, small-scale business culture and ecology are combined to form an important component of a net-zero strategy. Buzzwords such as "repair instead of throwing away" or "mass production instead of mass production" characterize this potential. The project consists of the following work phases: A_Die Creation of a "crafts map" in the pilot district: Which companies are in which sectors? In what size? Which ones are particularly relevant for sufficiency and net zero (along a grid of criteria)? B_Durchführung of interviews with craftsmen: They address their craft, describe the importance and possibility of quality and durability, the importance of the environment and sustainability, as well as wishes and needs in order to be able to practice the craft in the neighborhood better or continue to do so in the future. C_Die evaluation of the interviews reveals an actual state of affairs with regard to sufficiency and crafts in the neighbourhood as well as ideas for future development from the point of view of the skilled trades. D_Aus the analysis of the interviews, we develop future scenarios for the further development of the skilled trades in the pilot district for sufficiency as a central component of net zero. Among other things, the shape of the relationship between crafts and the repair café scene would be a question, or the question of how residents would like to shape the relationship with "their" neighbourhood crafts. E_Für the long-term implementation, it would be conceivable to form a sponsorship in the neighbourhood that would continue to shape the future of the skilled trades, including the question of how the future can be further shaped in the face of high commercial rents. Finally, it is also our concern to meet the role of the skilled trades for sustainable development in the university landscape in order to place it as an object for research and teaching.

There are networks that take the sufficiency potential for the skilled trades further. See, for example, the "Horizont Handwerk" initiative, an initiative of the Chambers of Crafts in Baden-Württemberg based in Stuttgart, which show how important sustainability and climate protection are for the competitiveness of a company and offer advice and exchange of experience for companies. https://horizont-handwerk.de/suffizienz-effizienz-konsistenz/ In our project, we would like to develop this potential from the perspective of sufficiency for the local level using the example of the pilot district. Possible results could be, for example, that we increase the awareness and attractiveness of the crafts in the neighbourhood, develop a dialogue format for residents with the craft businesses or contribute to the development of competence for sufficiency in the skilled trades.

We are an organization (e.g. association, foundation, educational institution, NGO)

Zurich Knowledge Center for Sustainable Deelopment (ZKSD), Sufficiency Programme (www.zksd.ch), in cooperation with Education and Learning for Sustainable Development (RCE, www.rce-zurich.ch)

I/we implement the idea independently

At the locations of the crafts in the pilot district and at central locations of the neighbourhood community in the pilot district (dialogue, networking)