The first United Nations Conference on the Environment took place in 1972 in Stockholm. This conference marked the birth of the concept of sustainable development which soon spread around the globe. In Austria, citizens successfully fought against the start of the country’s own nuclear energy programme. Naturefriends actively participated in numerous demonstrations; in 1978, these demonstrations ultimately resulted in a referendum about the already competed nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf. The opposition won, gaining 50.5 % of the votes, which is why the power plant never went into service. This debate was one of the hours of birth of the Austrian ecological movement, in which Naturefriends are intensively involved.