The sustainable example of the city of Güssing

Güssing is a village with 4.000 inhabitants, located in the border with Hungary, in the poorest region of Austria. In 1995 the mayor decided to reduce the costs and he developed a plan, together with his colleague, an engineer specialised in energy, to supply the public buildings of the village with bioenergy and other sustainable energy sources accessible in town.

From that moment to present, the green hose emissions have been cut by 95% and this is increasing the quality of life of the citizens of Güssing. Moreover, this situation has created hundreds of qualified jobs and attract thousand of tourists every year concerned by ecology. In Güssing have been constructed in the last years a number of renewable facilities, mainly biomass facilities, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics, as well as biodiesel production facilities. Other sustainable projects are foreseen for the near future in order to achieve the nearly energy-autosufficiency by 2015.

Transformation started during the crisis over the 90´s when the population emigrated due to lack of work. The sustainable energy society became possible by using the local energy sources available, which were basically biomass, sun, forestry, water and wind. Also the energy efficiency was one of the pillars of the change of energy model. The town council was promoting the transition first only for the public buildings and later on for all type of buildings, and businesses, from private owners, retailers, industrial activities and SME.

Nowadays, Güssing covers more than 60% of all the energy demand by using its own sustainable energy sources. The cost of the energy in Güssing is 30% cheaper than in the rest of the country. The city promotes the establishment of technological companies that uses green energy, in this way these companies create green jobs in the city and a sustainable economy. Also the ecotourism is a growing industry for Güssing, visited for thousands of people every year just to see from first hand how a sustainable economy based in renewable energies is possible.