Rebecca Freitag is a visionary, future architect and expert for sustainability and a sustainable life on our planet. She is tirelessly committed to this. “To successfully initiate transformation, you have to awaken inner motivation. When you ask people how they see tomorrow and what they can contribute, they become active themselves. Because: “Sustainability is a compass, a new perspective to approach things,” says Rebecca Freitag in her stirring talks and on her Instagram channel. She wants to reach as many (young) people as possible with her message.<\/p>\n
In doing so, she asks questions that we all ask ourselves, but often don’t take the time and leisure to actually answer for ourselves. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that the answers require unsparing honesty, which, as we all know, is sometimes uncomfortable and can hurt. Rebecca Freitag asks simply: Why are we here? What is our purpose on this planet? She says, “I want to inspire those around me to be part of the transformation, I want to spread my positive visions for healthy people and the planet, for global justice and intergenerational equity.”<\/p>\n
Her own journey has taken her from a local bicycle activist to a global UN sustainability lobbyist. Today, she “gives voice to the future,” as she says herself. For her, the future can only be one thing: sustainable.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Rebecca Freitag particularly wants to get the youth on board. From 2017 to 2019, she championed the interests of her generation as the German UN Youth Delegate for Sustainable Development at the United Nations. Through her position, she met many young people across Germany and around the world. She says, “Throughout the year, I reported on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in school classes, scout camps, at events and in lecture halls.”<\/p>\n
Those 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are, by the way: no poverty, no hunger, health and well-being, quality education and gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and economic growth, less inequality, sustainable cities and communities, sustainable consumption and production, climate action, life under water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions, partnerships and achieving the goals.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Freitag talked to young people about how “only together can we achieve the change described by 17 goals in the 2030 Agenda.” She then collected wishes, criticisms, questions and actions already implemented and shared them with the UN. She says, “There I was able to show that we young people are already implementing change in small ways. For big, structural changes, however, she is convinced that courageous decisions are needed from the politicians in office.<\/p>\n
She has turned her current topics into hashtags on her website and Instagram account: #Youth, #17Goals, #FutureVisions, #UnitedNations, #LocalSolutions, #Climate Activism, #UrbanTransformation, #IndigenousPerspectives, #RightsforFutureGenerations, #SustainableDevelopmentGoals, #MotivationforSustainableActions, #EducationforSustainableDevelopment.<\/p>\n
Even though there are “many small changes we can all implement, like riding a bike, eating a plant-based diet, consuming less, sharing more, and so on…” one would still quickly run into limits in everyday life. That’s why today she’s advocating for major structural changes to be initiated at the political (and economic) level. She thinks of, for example, an infrastructure for sustainable mobility for all, higher penalties for polluting our environment, the integration of a circular thinking in business enterprises, instead of GDP rather measure a contribution to the well-being for society and planet.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Freitag is a visionary who at the same time gives structure to her vision. She is a visionary who rolls up her sleeves, gets involved and, above all, has the gift of pulling others along with her.<\/p>\n