ABSTRACT
The German Protestant Church Festival offers an insight into how, during its big, bi-annual event attracting more than 100,000 visitors, it attempts to put into practice the standards that it set itself in its very own programme. The ‘Kirchentag’ as an EMAS certified ‘big event on the move’ tries to reduce, in the respective host city and region, its ecological footprint in terms of energy, catering, mobility, procurement and waste as well as encourage co-workers, helpers and visitors to do the same, acting as a kind of ‘living lab’ of sustainable development for the host city and beyond. The authors describe in a critical practical reflection what the DEKT has implemented in the practice of its administration or not. The intention is to demonstrate in an exemplary and motivating way how the global challenges can be met within the framework of the human and financial resources of the institution.
