Distinctions

The ASA Programme was been awarded with the "Werkstatt N" quality seal by the German Council for Sustainable Development in January 2015. It stands for excellent initiatives for sustainability. In 2015, the German Council for Sustainable Development, which awards the "Werkstatt N" quality seal annually, honoured 100 sustainable projects and forward-looking initiatives throughout Germany that creatively combine economic, ecological and social aspects.

For the ASA Programme, it is the first award of the Sustainability Council as an overall programme. The ASApreneurs sub-programme, which focuses on sustainability in the economy, was already awarded with the quality seal in 2012 and 2013. The range of approaches to promoting sustainable development that the Council sees is increasing from year to year.

"I am delighted that we have received so many entries for our competition and above all that we have never had so high quality," says Marlehn Thieme, Chairwoman of the Sustainability Council. "All Workshop N Award Winners 2015 have one thing in common: with their creative ideas and their implementation, they link all three dimensions of sustainable action, from the human to the economic to the environmental. The participants come from the heart of our society and are role models and impulses for sustainable lifestyles for all of us".

For those awarded, the seal of quality is a recognition of their work. The seal of the Sustainability Council improves awareness by politicians, the media and the public. At the same time, the Werkstatt N network offers opportunities to exchange ideas more easily and to create synergies.

The ASA Programme has been honoured by the German UNESCO Commission as "Official Activity of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)". The award was presented in Wolfsburg on 30 April 2014.

The United Nations has declared the years 2005 to 2014 the World Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Its aim: to anchor the model of sustainable development in all areas of education. ESD thus stands for "an education that enables people to think and act in a sustainable way" (definition of the German UNESCO Commission). The member states of the United Nations have committed themselves to special efforts in the implementation of the education initiative.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Communication Organization, coordinates the implementation of the Decade at international level. The German UNESCO Commission, in turn, is responsible for the German activities.

With this award, the German UNESCO Commission honours organisations and activities from politics and civil society that implement the goals of the World Decade of ESD. "Especially now, at the end of the UN Decade, it is important that solid foundations are laid for the period after 2014," says Gerhard de Haan, Chairman of the German National Committee for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.