News & events

Best practices of local sustainable development in St. Gilgen, Austria

At the beginning of December 2024, the ENSEMBLE project’s consortium members gathered once again for another event. This time, delegations met in St. Gilgen (Austria), on the wonderful Wolfgangsee.

The topic to be discussed – by partners together with citizens – was local sustainable development.

A public conference was organised on Saturday, November 30th, 2025, whose goal was to decline sustainability in its several dimensions: sustainability of traditions, sustainable tourism and governance, sustainability in education – in cooperation with St. Gilgen International School – and infrastructure sustainability.

Common challenges were identified on the one hand, for instance the fact that rural areas are often left behind in terms of funding and, on the other hand, virtuous examples were analysed in-depth, such as young people’s empowerment by involving them in sustainability and ecology discussions,  the World`s first cable car autonomously powered by solar panels (Zwölferhornseilbahn), and the use of alternatives forms of diesel to make boats move around the lake (Wolfgangseeschifffahrt),

Feedback from citizens and delegations was collected. Citizens stated that the event was a great opportunity to know the progress of the ENSEMBLE project and to raise awareness about sustainability in their region.

The next day, December 1st, 2024, a trip by boat to St. Wolfgang was organized in order to observe boats powered by the Finnish eco diesel. Then, the new station of the Schafbergbahn was presented by the Managing Director of Salzburg AG Tourismus GmbH.

On the last day, December 2nd, 2024, there was another field trip tto take the cable car up to the Zwölferhorn and see the new photovoltaic plant.

This event was another success story related to ENSEMBLE. The fact that in St. Gilgen many projects in high-quality sustainability are realized and can be shown has been an example for the other consortium partners, who came back home full of ideas for the future of their regions.