Reading of the Schuman declaration – Photo: © MAEE

The 9th of May is Europe’s Day. It celebrates the famous historical declaration on the 9th of May 1950 by Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister at the time, in which he proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community. In this discourse, he foreseaw a larger Union: “It may be the leaven from which may grow a wider and deeper community between countries long opposed to one another by sanguinary divisions.”

Today the celebrations take various forms and cities have been planning activities to bring Europe to the fore for one day and stimulate encounters of their inhabitants with the European Ideals, Cultures, actors and institutions.

The city where I live, Paris, invests every year in a two days celebration on the Paris Town Hall inviting passers-by to ‘Make Europe’ (Faites l’Europe).

Pasteis de nata, wikimedia commons

Musicians and theatre actors invest an open air stage and two big tents offer the opportunity to meet up either with the European Institutions, to learn a bit about the countries holding the next presidencies of the European Council (and taste some delicacies such as this year the famous Portuguese pastry “pasteis de nata”)

This raised my interest… and I wondered what other European cities had planned and more specifically what URBACT cities had planned.

Barcelona: Lights and invitations citizens to discuss with their representatives at the European Parliament

Agbar Tower, wikimedia commons

The city of Barcelona changes programme every year according to URBACT National Dissemination Point in Spain, Ecosistema Urbano.

Among the activities this year: A very European Lighting of one of its emblematic high rise building (by Jean Nouvel) the Agbar Tower (Here is the Lighting in picture and video).

There were also meetings with Members of the European Parliament to discuss democracy, representation and participation in Europe.

 
Barcelona is the lead partner of the URBACT Markets project but I have not seen anything about food in the Europe Day celebration programme ( in Catalan).

Bologna: Celebrations of other cultures and Languages

Bologna, Neptune square, wikimedia commons

The city of Bologna – member of the URBACT Project Creative Spin on the links between cultural and creative industries makes of Europe’s Day a cultural celebration.

For instance, it invites the inhabitants on the beautiful Neptune Square to see exhibitions about Marseille, the European Capital of Culture 2013 (together with Kosice in Slovakia) and to language tandems. Also in the programme concerts and a big scrabble game.

Nantes : on the 15th of May!

Nantes

The city of Nantes, lead partner of the URBACT project PREVENT focused on early school leaving, has celebrated Europe Day… yesterday!

On the 15th of May it proposed a full programme (in French) including art exhibition dance and installations to better fight against discriminations.

There are many more examples to investigate… I hope our readers will help us to discover them!

Ségolène Pruvot

How can conflicts in public space be turned into opportunities for change and urban renewal?  This question was at the heart of the debate at the Kick Off meeting of the URBACT USER project . Several inspiring cases were presented by the host city Copenhagen and a placemaking expert from London.

‘Welcome In My Back Yard’ in Copenhagen

watering plants

The seminar was hosted by Sundholm District Urban Renewal Team  in Copenhagen who led the group on a study visit of their neighbourhood.

Historically the area was a labour camp for undesirables, set up in 1908 as a place for the city of Copenhagen to send its destitutes, vagrants and beggars to live on a self-sufficient farm. This was the city planning solution for marginalised groups in the start of the 20^th century.

Over the years the area in Amager West has become more integrated with the city. A social housing estate was built along with schools, public transport connections and cycle tracks .

In 2004 an Improvement Plan was created with the message of WIMBY- ‘Welcome in My Back Yard’ (as opposed to the better known NIMBY  ‘Not in My Back Yard’).

The idea is to better connect Sundholm to the rest of the city, to encourage more Copenhagen residents to live in or visit the area. Sundholm’s history was to lock the problems in, away from the city. Now it is trying to make bridges and open windows between these worlds.Building on its farming history and Copenhagen’s culture of urban gardening a new field has been created with raised boxes inviting all locals to come and plant flowers and food and tend animals

urban shelter

One of the innovations is a bee keeping enterprise involving local schoolchildren and homeless people. As local government representative Andre Just Vedgren commented: “Take alcoholics, take bees, take children. What could possibly go wrong? But nothing went wrong, because somebody dared to try it.”

Another innovation that has attracted national media coverage and video media coverage is the construction of shelters alongside urban gardens in the streets for the homeless people to use.

Urban Forest, Urban Orchard and New Temporary Uses of Public Spaces in London

Other inputs to the seminar came from Peter Williams of Better Bankside Business Improvement District in London. He gave examples of a partnership model with the private sector, which has helped to fund both large and small projects such as a pedestrian footbridge, an urban forest, and an urban orchard. Better Bankside has also pioneered temporary uses of public space, such as platforms for performance and making books about local history.

Creating Flexible Urban Public Spaces: A New Solution? 

Camilla van Deurs from Gehl Architects cautioned on what measures are used for public space. Cities collect data on traffic not pedestrians. Gehl studies people’s behaviour and needs and now has 50 years of data on walking and stationery activity in Copenhagen. She encouraged cities to create flexible spaces as this is often where the magic happens, for instance in Copenhagen when the canal freezes and citizens come out to play curling together.

The nine city project USER, led by Grenoble Alpes Métropole, will exchange experience over the next two years on new solutions for designing and managing public spaces. Each USER partner city has identified a target area to develop or improve, working together with local residents and users, within a shared framework. The project has now entered a new phase and will look for integrated urban development solutions. The next thematic seminar will take place in Riga to be followed by peer review visits of smaller groups of cities evaluating common challenges. Keep looking at news on this blog and on the URBACT website!

Sally Kneeshaw (Linkedin Profile)
Thematic Pole Manager

Since its establishment in 1990 Energy Cities provides advice to cities on how to improve their energy profile, at the same time making pressure at national and European level for coherent and stringent policy framework. This year the Annual rendez-vous focussed on ‘Building the Energy Transition‘.

The event was co-organised with the City of Växjö and the association of Swedish municipalities, counties and regions actively working to reduce CO2 emissions (Klimatkommunerna) in collaboration with Linnaeus University.

I was invited to bring the findings of the URBACT projects dealing with energy efficiency and those of the workstream Building energy efficiency in European cities to the Annual rendez-vous, which took place in Växjö, Sweden on the 24th-26th of April.

Now that all presentations, photos and even videos of the conference are online, I would like to summarize a few messages from the conference and the key points of my interventions.

A Few Days in Växjö: One of the Greenest Cities in Europe

Växjö has taken very seriously the article published in 2007 in the British newspaper Independent, in which it was defined as “Europe’s greenest city” where “even its power plant smells more like a sauna” . In fact the municipality of the 85.000 inhabitants city in the southern Swedish region of Småland started already in the early 90es its sustainability path, that brought to the adoption of the Agenda 21 strategy in 1999. That document was then replaced in 2006 by the Environmental Programme for City of Växjö, reviewed and re-confirmed in 2010.

In 2011 the city announced to have reduced CO2 emission per inhabitant by 41% from 1993. The next step is to reach a reduction of 55% by 2015 and ultimately to become fossil fuel free by 2030. For this reason Växjö was the ideal location for the annual meeting of the members of Energy Cities, the European association of local authorities inventing their energy future or, since a few days, the European Association for local authorities in energy transition.

How Can Cities Promote Energy Efficiency in the built environment?
On the first day of the conference, right after the opening, I took part to the roundtable dedicated to EU priority number one: energy efficiency of buildings together with Caroline Simpson (Renovate Europe Campaign), Stephan Brandligt (City of Delft) and Ralf Schüle (Wuppertal Institute). The roundtable was moderated by Maria Wetterstrand, a very young but already very experienced Swedish politician.

As it happens when conferences are well organised I received a paper with the key points to be discussed a couple of weeks in advance so that I could prepare the contribution on time. However the tight framework and lively debate has made necessary to focus on just a few aspects.

Is energy efficiency priority number one for European cities?

Since its inception URBACT advocates for integrated approaches to urban policies. In fact, when dealing with energy efficiency at the last annual conference in Copenhagen we organised four parallel sessions dedicated to the key aspects of promoting energy efficiency in the built environment, which are:

• Stimulating demand and qualifying offer, providing orientation in the market;
• Tackling fuel poverty reducing the energy bill;
• Providing sustainable finance to bridge the gap between initial investment and future return
• Solving the conflict between heritage and energy efficiency with high quality design tools.

How can cities implement the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive from the European Commission?

It is well known that many countries face great difficulties with the implementation of the Energy performance of buildings Directive (EPBD). Working intensively with more than 500 cities, URBACT has the possibility to monitor their needs and potentials, channel them to the European policy making level and try to improve vertical governance processes. The experience within the LINKS project (Future-proof historic centres) has shown that prescription of severe energy performance standards has worked well to reduce consumption of new buildings. But now that the focus has shifted to the retrofitting of the existing stock a more flexible and open approach is needed.

What is your position as regards to the energy renovation rate of “3% buildings owned and occupied by central governments” included in the recently approved Energy Efficiency Directive?

This topic is a little away from the scope of work of URBACT cities so I expressed my view as architect, urban policy advisor and… European citizen. In my opinion this is a rather unclear prescription: how many buildings will be involved in each country? Which impact will this measure have? In which timeframe? It sounds like a compromise at the lowest possible level, produced by the common prejudice that getting energy efficient is a kind of punishment, and not something we should naturally strive for. Energy efficiency is not a deprivation but a smart adaptation to improve our lives! And the public sector should lead by example!

What are the results of the European regulations on Energy efficiency?
A good balance should be found between binding measures (the stick) and voluntary approaches (the carrot). The URBACT experience shows that it is key to promote voluntary approaches, such as the Covenant on Mayors, and to provide incentives and support to the municipalities on their own way towards energy transition. Binding measures should provide the right framework at European and national level, but experience shows that they will not be sufficient if local authorities are not willing to embrace the energy transition.

How can we guarantee reasonable a payback time for those who invest in energy efficiency?

Also this question is very complex and need a specific financial expertise, but there is something that should be made clear. When calculating the payback time we cannot only consider the short term economic benefit provided by the energy savings. A deep energy renovation of a building (or even better of a whole neighbourhood) provides a broad range of benefits that need to be taken into account. It increases the value of the asset prolonging its life span; it brings health benefits to the occupiers; it provides benefits to the neighbourhood improving its image and promoting healthier lifestyles; it contributes to reduction of CO2 emissions bringing benefit to the whole community; it creates local jobs and activates the local supply chain; it stimulates technological and social innovation and so on. Of course all these benefits are difficult to be quantified, but they need to be considered in the when financing a retrofitting scheme.

Cities of Tomorrow: Action Today!

As Maria Wetterstrand has underlined in her conclusions, cities and citizens should not wait for the politicians at national or European level to start transition to a low carbon economy. Decisions at the highest level are often just a compromise, the “lowest common denominator”.
The success of the city of Växjö, whose green economy is rapidly growing, attracting new enterprises and inhabitants, show that cities of tomorrow need action today!

by Antonio Borghi, URBACT expert and workstream coordinator, http://buildingenergyefficiency.wordpress.com

The first session of the URBACT pilot training scheme for elected representatives is now behind us. This training is a beautiful and ambitious project and I thought I would be nice to exchange first reactions with you on it!

30 elected representatives from URBACT cities learning about integrated urban development

Mayors, Deputy mayors and councillors from cities that are currently running an URBACT project have been invited to apply for a training scheme on integrated urban development organised around three seminars. URBACT received about 70 applications and the best candidates were selected. Specific attention has been made to creating a nice and very diverse group, in which each participant brings a specific experience!

Learning methods and tools to develop integrated and sustainable urban policies

Each of the elected representatives made time in his or her busy agendas to come to Brussels, but what did they do?

The seminars mix theoretical presentations, practical exercises around tools one can use to do collaborative integrated urban planning and peer reviews. The session is prolonged by a site visit of regeneration projects. A few keywords can sum up the approach of the training: exchange concept, theories and inspiring cases, gain new skills, in particular tools method for urban management, network through exchange and peer reviews and get inspired through site visits!

Active Learning

This first session was certainly not a restful time for the participants! The programme was full from morning to evening and everyone had to be very active all along!

Nice ice-breaking activities helped the participants to know each other. For instance, everyone had to draw one’s own ‘coat of arms’ to present one’s work, family situation, hobbies and involvement in URBACT.

But one also learns from participative activities. The practical exercise around the use of the problem tree was very informative. It is a role game in which different stakeholders identify the roots of a specific problem (in this case a high level of unemployment in a deprived neighbourhood) and they collaboratively draw a tree: A good way of fostering collaboration, which also triggers debates and discussions during the exercise.

Thanks to the translation in 6 languages, everyone was able to participate in a language they felt confident in! It always makes my day when I see that people are ready to bare a small level of difficulty to work together and learn from each other, despite language and cultural differences or even diverging political views.

The next seminars are in September and December 2013. The first one will be on the participative approach and the involvement of stakeholders, the second about sustainability and change.

There is much more to say about this past session and the ones coming. We will continue to post more on this project in the coming days and weeks so keep an eye on URBACT website and blog!

If you are on twitter do follow @URBACT to get all the updates and you can find some of the participants there too and we’ve been using #urbelect for the discussion!

Ségolène Pruvot

We had already written here on what we could expect URBACT to bring at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) LEED (Local Economic and Employment Development) conference on jobs and growth, which took place in Ireland on the 26th and 27th of March 2013.

Here is a report by Mike Campbell, URBACT thematic expert on the workshop on how employment and training agencies can help put in place more and better jobs.

Dublin and Kilkenny were the excellent locations for this near global event for almost 200 people, policy folk and practitioners, on how to implement change at the local level in order to secure jobs and growth. A wide ranging (some might say disparate) forum of ideas, practices and innovations, the 9th in this important annual series organised by the OECD’s LEED programme.

I was one of the speakers in the workshop on how local employment and training agencies can secure a more joined up approach to jobs and growth. An ideal opportunity then for me to explain something about the Urbact Capitalisation programme in general, and the ‘more jobs better cities’ theme in particular, which focuses on just this issue. Melody Houk from Urbact was also in the workshop, along with the LEED programme Director Sylvain Giguere. Other presenters were an economist from Northern Ireland, a policy analyst from the USA and an employment services manager from Australia. Around 30 people were there, with those contributing to the discussion coming from, inter alia, Italy, France, Ireland, Australia and Russia.
Most of the contributions focused in reality, not so much on creating jobs and encouraging growth than on how to bring the unemployed more successfully into work: vitally important, but on it’s own wholly insufficient to the task of economic recovery and creating more jobs for the unemployed to actually fill!

A strong theme was the importance of ‘metrics’: to measure performance, what has been achieved, and ultimately, success. If these can also be made ‘common’ across the multiple agencies involved ,or at least, be agreed for the locality as a whole, then this ‘mutual accountability’ would be a powerful incentive to, and mechanism for, more coherent and better aligned actions by different stakeholders. To achieve this, however, means securing that agreement, creating ownership of it and embedding these within a coherent strategy: a much more difficult task. Some were of the view that this is all better achieved in a competitive environment, where agencies are held to account for their performance and where outcome based payment by results drives improved outcomes( eg in Australia), a different view from that in some European countries.
Other ways of encouraging a more joined up approach that were touché upon, included public funding used as a fiscal incentive; understanding ‘what works’ and encouraging it’s adoption eg through networks; and thinking about governance structures too. Melody reminded us of the importance of ‘external’ drivers in kick starting action where/when it was stalled, using an outsider to encourage dialogue and early collaboration, which can then be built upon internally. Other issues to arise included: the importance of ‘skill matching’, in both meeting employers’ needs and those of individuals; the impact of migration on jobs and who gets them; and how labour policy more generally needs to connect to economic development policy.

My own initial contribution was to draw attention to URBACT and it’s capitalisation programme and to sketch out the key components of our ‘city action on jobs’ framework, which aims to provide a coherent, comprehensive, ‘whole system’ approach to jobs and growth, creating an integrated way of ‘ thinking and doing’ policy at the local level. This is designed to achieve better outcomes through policy and delivery alignment by addressing three inter-related sets of issues: jobs and the economy; people and the labour market; and the connections between them. The framework can be used as a ‘reflection’ tool to review existing local approaches, stimulating new thinking for the new times our economies, labour markets and governance structures are in, not least fiscal austerity and, in most of Europe at least, low growth and a shortage of jobs. It should prove valuable to participants at this event and to cities around Europe as they seek to adapt to these new times through innovation in their policies and practices.

We did perhaps not see enough of such new thinking and new experiences in the workshop, if we are to succeed in helping to create the new jobs and economic growth we need to secure future prosperity for our citizens in the future. This requires,in my view, a greater focus than in the past on productivity and competiveness, on business success, a commitment to more ‘job rich’ growth, better quality jobs, as well as cost effective ways of bringing the unemployed ‘back in’ to the labour market and connecting them to job opportunities. And it needs a cross cutting focus on building ‘connections’ within localities between all the stakeholders; between the localities and the ‘outside world’; and in the governance arrangements between them, if we are to succeed better in the future than in the past. All this is perhaps common sense. But ,as Voltaire once rightly said ‘ Common sense is not so common’. It is surely the task of URBACT, and the LEED programme, to make it so.

Mike Campbell, URBACT Thematic Expert

Interested to read more? You can find the presentations from this workshop on the conference website.

How can cities boost their economies and improve the health of their population? By investing in innovation and the knowledge economy in the health field!

Investigating this area is of the main objectives of the 4D Cities URBACT project, which first transnational meeting took place in Igualada (Spain) on the 18th and 19 th of March.

Peter Ramsden, who follows the production of URBACT projects in the area of economic growth and job creation, here shares with us a first glimpse into the way cities can access funding by promoting and support innovative ideas in the health sector:

The kick off meeting of the 4D Cities project opened a prospect of patient centred health services.  For the participating cities this future could bring new opportunities in the shape of new jobs and new enterprises.

The meeting itself was chaired by Angels Chacon, an elected councillor of the Igualada municipality. The councillors have already started to position their city as a leading player in the simulation of team situations and succeeded in gaining European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF) funding for a €1 million facility in which teams can train in simulated settings.

Igualada Hospital is part of the innovation team. Surgeon Enric Macarulla is leading the teaching and research department in the health consortium of the Igualada hospital. Enric’s view is that advances in health will largely come from better team work and a more patient centred approach, alongside improvements in technologies. Teams that can communicate will have lower error rates and be better for their patients. This new paradigm is challenging for the elitist culture of surgery. Putting the patient at the centre of their care will require still greater changes.

The Four dimensions of a 4D city are similar to those in the quadruple helix, as 4D cities baseline study mentions. They are: the citizen and civil society, the competitiveness of the business sector, the health sector and the knowledge sector. Local authorities are in a unique position to bring these actors together and to develop relationships between them.

Finding this new way forward could be critical for the partner cities to provide better services to citizens and develop the opportunities health can provide.

by Peter Ramsden, URBACT thematic Pole Manager

The partner of the project are Eindhoven (NL), Baia Sprie (RO), Tartu (EE), Plunge (LT), Novara (IT), Leeds (UK) and Jena (DE)

URBACT Local Support Group (ULSG) is paying off handsomely for Torino. Thanks to active ULSG measures, the Chamber of Commerce of Torino has announced it will fund a 100,000 € investment to create a web platform that will promote local markets and test innovative new market services.

Engaging the different stakeholders involved in URBACT projects, whatever their nature, is a key success factor to successful implementation and buy-in from interested parties. That’s one of the guiding principles in the URBACT way.

Torino, one of the partners in the URBACT Markets Project which aims to harness the power of markets to regenerate city centres, create employment and leverage local supply chains, is obviously perfecting the art of inclusion to its maximum with a process they call the Torino Method.

The Torino Method

Firstly, URBACT project leaders identify the people and organizations with an interest in the issue at hand, those that have a role in markets, or people with ideas for the particular aspect of market management at issue. The result is a stakeholder meeting for between 5 and 8 people, with 2 to 3 of these usually facilitators.
Stakeholders range from the Chamber of Commerce, shoppers, local administration’s service providers, residents, regional commerce representatives and market traders, amongst others.

The stakeholder meeting follows a set process: facilitators use a flipchart to note down concrete ideas as they develop throughout the meeting, with the first point at hand giving an overview of the particular topic being discussed as it was in the past. The stakeholders move on to talk about the present, paying special attention to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of the situation and how important these might be. Again, these are all documented on a flip chart as they crop up. The next step is usually the most creative as stakeholders brainstorm the future of the issue, generating ideas that could help improve the situation.

Above all, the process aims for simplicity and buy-in on central issues. These are summed up in a short document highlighting the date and time of the meeting, the participants, an analysis of the current situation with strengths and weaknesses, and ideas for the future.  These minutes are being collected by Torino’s URBACT External Expert and they will be presented at a plenary meetings stakeholders during the course of the URBACT Project, with the participation of politicians responsible for commerce, trade and markets and also members of the press.

Read more:

• URBACT Markets – website

Steven Guest
URBACT Markets Communication Officer

The URBACT OPtion for ACTion (OP-ACT) project focussed on the strategic positionning of small and medium size cities. For three years 10 cities from Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Latvia, Norway, Austria and Italy worked together.

Here is a short word by Mr. Hanns-uve Schwedler, OP-ACT Lead expert, published in the project Newsletter, we thought it’d be nice to share it with you.

We already wrote a few times on the issue of shrinking cities ( in particular on Polish Cities and on Romanian Cities). OP-ACT project results propose some solutions this daunting challenge. The necessity to develop a cross-sector approach stands out as one of the keys for success!

Hanns-Uve Schwedler

‘Population figures in most European countries will come down – in some cases, massively – in the next number of years. Apart from a very few exceptions, major cities will not be affected by this. It is primarily rural areas, and small and medium-sized cities which will be exposed to this development.

The impacts of shrinking can already be perceived in many european cities: vacant dwellings, derelict land, deserted inner cities, dilapidated neighbourhoods – these are only the striking results. Less obvious, but just as significant, are lower revenues in municipal budgets. This means local public services will be cut back – whether this occurs in social and educational fields or also in technical infrastructure provision. the quality of life and purchasing power in the respective cities diminish, the city‘s ability to compete falls.

In spite of these developments cities are able to do quite a lot to improve and to stabilise their situation. This has been shown by the work of our ten partner cities. What steps and measures in detail were involved depends of course on the situation in the city in question. However, in every case their Action plans came into being with participation of many sectors of the population.

This is probably one of the most obvious and most relevant results of the OP-ACT project: cross-cutting problem causes, as it is the case in shrinking cities, can not be met by traditional, i.e. sectoral policy making and administrative action. These challenges require integrated, interdisciplinary approaches and the involvement of citizens. integrated urban governance is the key.

This, however, requires new thinking, too. Urban planning and decision making has been – and very often still is – steered by the paradigm of continuous growth. This view is of course challenged in shrinking cities. It took some time of mutual discussions and exchange of views amongst partner cities to overcome the perception, that present shrinking processes are of temporary nature and that growth is only hidden behind the horizon. This opened the view to the fact, that ‘shrinking’ and ‘demographic change’ do not have to carry only negative connotations. They can be seen as opportunity to break down traditional structures and to adapt them to actual demand. The op-Act partner cities are certainly on their way to do this.’

Interested in OP-ACT results? Check out their output page on URBACT website or their final report and recommendations.

Ségolène Pruvot, on the basis of OP-ACT Newsletter.

The URBACT CASH ( Cities Action for Sustainable Housing) project was focussing on sustainable renovation of social and affordable housing. During the course of the project one of the main elements of success for any regeneration scheme identified was the involvement of citizens, as well as the involvement of the larger region.

Here, representatives of two cities of the project Echirolles in France and Sonderborg in Denmark give their point of view on how to ensure success of Energy Efficient renovation schemes.

Echirolles, France

Echirolles

Alain Fayen, Head of Property and Legal Department, Société Dauphinoise pour l’Habitat SDH (Social landlord)

The success of a social housing Energy Efficient (EE) renovation operation is fundamental since it requires major investments and, often, important public financing. The success of the operation is conditioned by the adhesion of tenants and necessitates a process of tenants’ participation before-during and after the renovation.  Furthermore, it is essential to involve inhabitants in the choices affecting the future of their home. However, with respect to the choice of the EE renovation type and systems, this is made difficult since social landlords are restricted in the nature of the work by the funders. Tenants should be involved wherever there is a space / some flexibility accorded to the social landlords by the fi nancing entities, as well as, regarding the management of the equipment and the performance monitoring.

Carole Simard, Deputy Mayor of Echirolles

Elected officers, who are responsible for the City’s budget and orientations in the Energy Efficient renovation process, are in favor of citizens’ involvement at the earliest possible stage. In Echirolles’ Village 2 District, elected officers and social landlords worked upstream in the process with tenants, tenants being at the heart of the operation.
This continuous work with the inhabitant is key, as is the consideration of the inhabitant time scale different from the ones of elected officers or of social landlords, tenants expecting changes in the short term. Despite this participative approach, the constraints linked to the funding sources inhibit the move towards a co-conception of the EE renovation.

Sonderborg, Project Zero, Denmark

URBACT CASH Project participants visit Project Zero in Sonderborg

Christian Eriksen, Project Zero Coordinator

To the question “What is the importance of the involvement of the region in a strategic energy planning?” we can answer that the difficulty in starting a strategic energy plan is the economic aspect. More than 1 Million Euros is needed to start the project.

The region can help obtaining this starting fund and remove the political barriers. The region’s involvement also help providing a common vision to the different stakeholders – from pubic organizations and citizens to industry partners.

Do you want to know more on Energy Efficiency (EE) renovation tools?

The partner cities of the project have prepared a short guide ‘Cities Advice for Sustainable Housing’.  It does not describe the latest technologies available for Energy Efficient renovation, but rather covers all the other often overlooked aspects, which are critical for fighting fuel poverty, such as Energy Efficient renovation allowing the low income tenants to stay and low income owners to invest, cost reduction and optimization of the work through the association of stakeholders during the critical phases of the process creating synergies, building efficiency secured through the appropriate behavior resulting from empowerment.

The guide has mostly been designed for cities and gives, for each topic, the state-of-the-art, key issues – in particular barriers, gaps and solutions – and provides a set of successful examples from partners cities and it presents CASH project’s recommendations in the form of a declaration or resolution to industry partners.

Ségolène Pruvot, on the basis of CASH Newsletter, with the authorisation of Sophie Moreau, coordinator of CASH, Echirolles.