Beautiful and unique the blue sphere appears in the middle of the vast black space, but at the same time it looks small and fragile. When the image of the Earth in space is contrasted with that of a tiny boat in the vast ocean, Marcel Fortuin's message at the Fireside Chat organized by the TUM Campus Heilbronn is particularly powerful: "What we are doing to our planet is like sitting in a rubber boat and trying to slit it open with a knife," said the Team Leader Innovation & Digital Transformation at the PreZero Foundation to the TUM students at the Heilbronn Insel-Hotel at the end of November.
PreZero, headquartered in Neckarsulm, is an environmental service provider that operates internationally in waste and recycling management. The PreZero Group currently employs around 30,000 people at 485 locations in various European countries and the USA.
Pilot city for sustainable mobility
Our excessive consumption and the associated environmental destruction are to blame for the endangered state of the world, Fortuin continued during the Fireside Chat. "For me, there is no alternative: we have to change," he says, "and we have to work together to do so."
But where should the journey take us? That's exactly what Fortuin wants to find out this evening: "How do you imagine your future in ten years?" he asks the students. Not without presenting his own vision: "I want to live in a room in the city. We need to ban cars from the city." With its short distances and good train connections, Heilbronn could become a pilot city for sustainable mobility.
The students share the view that cars are clogging up the streets and that not everyone will need their own vehicle in the future. And they have many suggestions for solutions: There should be more car-sharing and more cabs. Everyone should be entitled to a bicycle for which they don't have to pay insurance. Public transport should be further expanded.
Desire for a simple life
But is a future without cars really possible? Other students have their doubts. "People don't just buy cars because it's convenient," says one of them, adding that cars are still also status symbols. Another student talks about the German economy's dependence on the automotive industry, which employs around 800,000 people nationwide.
A particularly optimistic student bridges the gap: she is convinced that technological progress will solve many problems. She herself prefers a simple life: "I nearly always use public transportation. And walking is really good exercise."
PreZero, headquartered in Neckarsulm, is an environmental service provider that operates internationally in waste and recycling management. The PreZero Group currently employs around 30,000 people at 485 locations in various European countries and the USA.
Pilot city for sustainable mobility
Our excessive consumption and the associated environmental destruction are to blame for the endangered state of the world, Fortuin continued during the Fireside Chat. "For me, there is no alternative: we have to change," he says, "and we have to work together to do so."
But where should the journey take us? That's exactly what Fortuin wants to find out this evening: "How do you imagine your future in ten years?" he asks the students. Not without presenting his own vision: "I want to live in a room in the city. We need to ban cars from the city." With its short distances and good train connections, Heilbronn could become a pilot city for sustainable mobility.
The students share the view that cars are clogging up the streets and that not everyone will need their own vehicle in the future. And they have many suggestions for solutions: There should be more car-sharing and more cabs. Everyone should be entitled to a bicycle for which they don't have to pay insurance. Public transport should be further expanded.
Desire for a simple life
But is a future without cars really possible? Other students have their doubts. "People don't just buy cars because it's convenient," says one of them, adding that cars are still also status symbols. Another student talks about the German economy's dependence on the automotive industry, which employs around 800,000 people nationwide.
A particularly optimistic student bridges the gap: she is convinced that technological progress will solve many problems. She herself prefers a simple life: "I nearly always use public transportation. And walking is really good exercise."
