In Das Prinzip Verantwortung (The Imperative of Responsibility, 1979), the philosopher Hans Jonas proposed a new rule for an age of powerful technology: Handle so, dass die Wirkungen deiner Handlung verträglich sind mit der Permanenz echten menschlichen Lebens auf Erden. (Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life on earth.) Where the risks are uncertain, he asked for a Heuristik der Furcht, a heuristic of fear. That means to die schlechtere Prognose der besseren vorzuziehen, to give the worse forecast priority over the better one.
environment
The Residents of Grünheide
In 2024, Tesla wanted to expand its car plant in Grünheide near Berlin with a freight station, warehouses and a daycare center for employees. More than 100 hectares of forest were to be cleared. The municipality asked its residents. On 20 February 2024, it announced the result: 3,499 against and 1,882 in favor, with a turnout of over 70 percent. The vote was not binding. The state’s economy minister said it showed dass die Bedenken und Befürchtungen der Menschen deutlich überwiegen, that people’s concerns and fears clearly outweigh the rest. Tesla cut its plan. Instead of 100 hectares, 50 were to be cleared, and the planned logistics areas and the daycare center were dropped. On 16 May 2024, the municipal council approved the smaller plan.
Long-livedness
Long-livedness. A German product virtue with a noun of its own, appearing in ecolabel criteria, consumer testing and advertising copy. The lifespan is a stated specification rather than an accident of build quality.
The right to repair
European right-to-repair legislation, strongly supported in Germany, requires manufacturers to make spare parts, tools and repair information available to independent repairers for specified periods. Repairability became a legal property of the product.
The waste hierarchy
German waste law establishes a hierarchy: avoidance first, then reuse, then recycling, then energy recovery, then disposal. Disposal is the last of five options, and the law names the order.
The precautionary principle
The precautionary principle is a German export. It arose as the Vorsorgeprinzip in German environmental law in the early 1970s and was written into the Federal Emission Protection Act of 15 March 1974.
It reached international law in 1987 at the North Sea conference, and was entrenched in 1992 as Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, from where it passed into most international environmental conventions.
The principle holds that where serious or irreversible harm is possible, the absence of full scientific certainty is not a reason to wait.
Germany did not adopt an international norm about prevention. It wrote one and the world took it.
Energy Star
The American efficiency label, launched by the EPA in 1992, is voluntary and works by identifying the best performers rather than by setting a floor. The approach is to reward the efficient product rather than to prohibit the inefficient one.
Nothing is thrown away twice
German waste law runs on a hierarchy written into statute: avoidance first, then preparation for reuse, then recycling, then other recovery including energy, and disposal last.
Disposal is the fifth of five options, and the order is the law rather than guidance. A German organisation deciding what to do with anything starts at the top of that list.
Waste separation
Die Mülltrennung. A German household separates paper, glass by colour, packaging, organic waste and residual waste, into separate bins with separate collection schedules. The system assumes materials retain value after use, and asks every household to preserve it.
The deposit system
Das Pfandsystem. German drinks containers carry a deposit, refunded on return, with reusable bottles cycling through the system many times before being retired. The bottle is not packaging. It is an asset in circulation, and the deposit is what keeps it moving.