When Iron & Eart's Executive Director Luisa Da Silva talked with freelance broadcaster Don Hill, she was in Essen, Germany, once the heart of coal mining and steel production in the country.

Now it is home to one of the largest renewable energy producers in Germany, and in 2017 was named the European Green Capital. More that 13,000 workers are employed in the city's resource efficiency sector and Essen-based companies supply energy to more than 14,000,000 customers in Germany.

It is a city that recognized early on that the shift to energy diversification led by renewable energy, was a global movement and not one that was bound by geo-political boundaries. The German transition kept quality of life, fairness to all workers, cross-generational responsibility, and transparency at the forefront of its mission.

Luisa Da Silva was invited to Germany by the German Foreign Office as part of a trip on “Structural Change in Germany”, together with representatives from various countries such as the United Kingdom, Ivory Coast, Bulgaria and the United States.

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Independent podcaster Ron Hill interviewed both Consul General Marc Eichhorn and Luisa Da Silva about structural change in Germany and Canada. Listen to the podcasts here:

Interview with Consul General Marc Eichhorn

Interview with Luisa Da Silva, Executive Director, Iron & Earth