SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
A FOCUS ON DOING GOOD
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Each year, the Alexander Otto Sports Foundation awards the Werner Otto Prize to projects that contribute to inclusion of, or support for, disabled people in sport. The 2024 winner was the Hamburg and Niederelbe section of the German Alpine Club.
SUPPORTING WOMEN IN ORGANIZED SPORT
The Alexander Otto Sports Foundation has launched a pilot project aimed at increasing the proportion of women in senior roles in organized sport: It provided the Hamburg Handball Association with funding for a series of workshops to develop a strategy to attract more women. The foundation documented the process and, based on the results, produced a guide for other clubs and associations.
ENERGY AUDIT FOR SPORTS CLUBS
The sharp rise in energy costs poses an existential threat to many sports clubs. The Alexander Otto Sports Foundation funded energy audits for three Hamburg sports clubs to identify ways to save energy and cut costs. The analysis focused on insulation, lighting and heating systems, hot water use, and renewable energy. It is hoped that other clubs will be able to learn from the audits too.
STUDY ON MOBILITY BEHAVIOR
o provide an objective basis for policy discussions about parking spaces, the Lebendige Stadt foundation and Hamburger Hochbahn commissioned TU Hamburg to develop a formula for calculating the number of parking spaces needed for a given area. A second study of four new developments in Hamburg, Munich, Münster, and Vienna has now analyzed how people’s mobility behaviors change when they move to well-connected neighborhoods with low or no minimum parking space requirements. The foundation has produced a handout based on the two studies’ findings.
RENOVATION OF STAATLICHES MUSEUM SCHWERIN
The Dorit & Alexander Otto Foundation is supporting the renovation of Staatliches Museum Schwerin. An ECE team, which previously worked on the renovation of Hamburger Kunsthalle, is advising the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania on the planning and managing the construction work, which has already begun. After the museum reopens in summer 2025, the foundation will be funding free admission for two years.
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The Dorit & Alexander Otto Foundation is supporting the modernization of the State Museum in Schwerin.
As a corporate citizen, ECE has close ties to foundations that make a valuable contribution to society and to addressing social challenges, both as project sponsors and through their own initiatives. These foundations benefit from ECE’s expertise and the support of Alexander Otto.
ENVIRONMENTAL PILOT PROJECT IN COLOGNE
ECE’s company foundation Lebendige Stadt teamed up with the company Schüco and the City of Cologne to launch a joint pilot project aimed at improving air quality in the city. At Cologne Adult Education College (VHS Köln) in the city center, a specially designed fabric facade was installed to filter nitrogen from the air, which can have damaging effects on people’s health and the environment, and convert it into harmless substances. It also protects the inside of the building from sunlight and overheating, which significantly reduces the energy needed for air conditioning. The results of the pilot project will be analyzed by the research center Forschungszentrum Jülich. The test is intended to pave the way for similar projects in other cities too.
ALEXANDER OTTO AWARDED ORDER OF MERIT
The entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexander Otto has been awarded the Order of Merit (First Class) by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in recognition of his services to society over many years. The award was presented by Hamburg’s Senator for Social Affairs, Melanie Schlotzhau.
KNOW-HOW EXCHANGE IN BERLIN
THE IMMIGRATION CITY: INTEGRATION AS A KEY
This year’s Lebendige Stadt conference, titled “The Immigration City: Integration as a Key,” was held in the venue of the Alexander Otto House at the new Jewish Campus in Berlin (a project funded by the foundation). The conference focused on how cities can successfully integrate people with an immigration background in terms of housing, education, and work. The speakers included former German President Christian Wulff, Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, migration researcher Gerald Knaus, Vonovia CEO Rolf Buch and the mayors of Aachen and Cologne, Sibylle Keupen and Henriette Reker. //
