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Since 2008 retail company dm-drogerie markt and the German Commission for UNESCO have been working together to implement the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, which the United Nations declared for the period from 2005 to 2014. Together, they have implemented two competitions aiming at supporting and encouraging initiatives in the field of sustainable development.

Projects could be submitted by any individual or group of people working towards a more sustainable lifestyle. "Ideen Initiative Zukunft" (Ideas Initiative Future), the second competition that started 2010, received more than 4.500 entries. At the end of the project phase, a jury selected 2.800 projects that were put to a customer vote in about 1.000 dm branches. This process assured easy access for the general public to the subject of Education for Sustainable Development and to the goals of the UN-Decade. The selected projects received 1.000 euros while all remaining initiatives received 250 euros. Altogether, dm provided 1.5 million euros for the competition.

In June 2011, a special prize was awarded to three winners of an online poll: "Netzwerk der Schulen für Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung" (School network for education for sustainable development) from Grevenbroich, "WERDE WeltFAIRänderer!" (Change the world fairly!) from Mainz and "Nachhaltige Entwicklung für alle" (Sustainable development for all) from Bamberg. The award included a trip to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, where the certificates were handed out to the winners. Janis Karklins, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information and the German Ambassador to UNESCO, Martina Nibbeling-Wrießnig attended the event and lauded the cooperation between the German National Commission for UNESCO and dm-drogerie markt as an exemplary initiative.

The cooperation will be carried on until 2013 and will focus on the qualitative development of the selected projects.

Ideas Initiative Future