When the study "Greening the North" was published in 1996 by Friends of the earth Germany (BUND) and the Catholic development organisation MISEREOR this caused a big stir.
During the first two years alone 35,000 copies were sold and the study was translated into English ("Greening the North - A Post-Industrial Blueprint for Ecology and Equity") and Italian. The key aspects were featured in an abbreviated version, of which 120,000 copies were sold and which was translated into English, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese. Follow-on studies were issued on local and regional level, for instance "Zukunftsfähiges Rheinland-Pfalz" ("Sustainable Rhineland-Palatinate"), "Blickwende Rhein-Neckar", "Zukunftsfähiges Bayern" or "Zukunftsfähiges Stuttgart".
In 1996 alone 1.000 public meetings took place, many of them triggering local Agenda 21 programmes. Newspapers, broadcasting and television stations took up the issues; the influential German magazine Der Spiegel called it the "Green Bible for the 21st century" and the scientific discourse turned into a public debate. The study and the ensuing passionate discussion were vital in triggering the implementation of sustainable development in Germany.
