What interests young people?
At the ‘betterLÄND’ youth forum, randomly selected young people from the German state of Baden-Württemberg developed ideas and suggestions on how the Ministry of the Environment can better involve and represent young people. The final report was published on 7 May 2025.
At the centre of betterLÄND was the question: How do you communicate environmental and climate protection in a way that reaches young people? Co-organiser Anna Buntzel from Stuttgart-based communications agency Ulmer describes the results in her article ‘Chance brings diversity’: ‘The answers were clear: authenticity beats gloss. You need content that is fun, not instructive - reels, memes, short videos. Personal, humorous, with rough edges. And: the connection to everyday life is crucial. Sustainability should not only be morally charged, but should also show how it can help in a very practical way - for example, to save money. But the quality must also be right: Good sound and image quality, understandable language, credible sources. Trust is created when it is clear who is speaking - and why.’
‘It has to be fun’
Not everything has to be digital. Swap events, rubbish collection campaigns or posters with provocative slogans - there are also plenty of opportunities to reach young people in real life. ‘The important thing is that it has to be fun, a bit surprising - and it can be imperfect at times. The main thing is that it surprises, gets people talking and is not preachy,’ says Buntzel.
For the expert in participation and education for sustainable development, a key factor in the success of betterLÄND was the way in which it was approached. ‘No long lectures, no ready-made answers - just listening, thinking and shaping. This was also taken seriously by the ministry.’ Many of the young people's ideas are now being channelled into the further development of environmental communication. The personal atmosphere was also important: The regular dialogue with the minister, the employees' willingness to be asked questions and the open feedback culture created trust - and a desire for more.
10,000 young people invited
To ensure that many different perspectives came together, about 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 were randomly selected and invited by post. By 9 October 2024, 649 interested parties (6.5 per cent) had responded. From all the responses, 39 young people were selected according to various characteristics (sex, age, educational background and migration background) so that a group as diverse as possible came together.
The young participants met five times in total. The venues were Sinsheim on 8 November, Stuttgart on 23 November and 30 January. The Youth Forum ended in Stuttgart. Two online sessions took place in between.
Participants could take time off from school, training or work. Since the journey to the event locations in Sinsheim and Stuttgart was long for some, shuttles were organised or, in addition to train costs, travel costs by car were also covered. The members of the youth forum had the opportunity to stay in a youth hostel and have breakfast at the expense of the organisers on all three on-site dates. The young people also received an expense allowance of €200 for their participation.
Proposals go to environment ministry
In order to increase the connectivity of the betterLÄND results, direct talks were held with Environment Minister Thekla Walker on two occasions. The first of these meetings was primarily about getting to know the issue and the people involved. At the final meeting, some of the results were presented to the Minister. At the end, the random participants also exchanged ideas with members of the Ministry's social media team. The participants answered the social media team's questions directly. The results were recorded on a pinboard.
The betterLÄND results were presented to Environment Minister Thekla Walker. In addition to the participants and employees of the Ministry of the Environment, multipliers from youth work, education for sustainable development and non-governmental organisations in particular will be informed about the results. This is done by sending out the report, social media contributions, presentations and dialogue at events or through direct contact.