CrAFt Cities Session 7: Check you are on track to meet your targets

CrAFt Cities Session 7 “CHECK you are on track to meet your targets”, focused on measuring progress and impact of climate-neutral initiatives. The CHECK stage of the Smart City Guidance Package enables continuous assessment of city projects’ progress and provides clues for improvement where needed. 

In this session, as part of CrAFt’s task to develop a new methodology for urban transitions according to New European Bauhaus (NEB) principles, we discussed how we could include the NEB principles of inclusiveness, aesthetics, and sustainability when measuring progress and impact.

The first presentation of the session was Kozani, Greece — Promoting Good Practices and Setting Strategic Priorities towards Climate Neutrality by 2030. Ellie Mavroudi, project manager at the Municipality of Kozani, introduced some of the city’s strategies and initiatives to become climate neutral by 2030. Kozani adopted its first Circular Economy Action Plan in October 2021 by building a local network of more than 50 partners and stakeholders. Following this plan, Kozani was the first Greek city to sign a climate contract. 

As a NEB Lighthouse city, Kozani is strongly influenced by the New European Bauhaus values. For instance, the town actively involves artists in its initiatives to re-beautifying certain urban areas. And it addresses inclusiveness in several of its projects, such as the Climate Neutral Week and the EU project Greenovate.

Some of Kozani’s actions to achieve climate neutrality include:

• Citizen engagement with a focus on children, who are approached and educated to become outstanding “future citizens” of their community. 
• Co-design activities to involve citizens, who are treated as equal collaborators in the design process.
• Knowledge exchange through constant meetings, events, workshops, and citizen interaction.
• A local network of changemakers and organisations able to drive a transformation process in the city

In the second CrAFt City presentation, Ingerid Heggelund, project developer, and Ole Sannes Riiser, spatial planner at the City of Larvik, Norway, presented some of the city’s urban development projects involving co-creation processes.

Among the projects presented, there was the AKANTUS project, the city’s centrepiece urban development project, to highlight and strengthen Larvik’s history as a national attraction in which co-creation has been a central approach.

Among projects such as Brobygger and the Christmas market, Igerid and Ole presented an inspiring project: Parcade, in which the city developed a completely new gaming universe for young gamers. The game takes place in an outdoor area in Larvik and its digital replica. The aim was to create an inclusive outdoor meeting place that prevented loneliness among young people and, at the same time, encouraged physical activity and interaction.

Finally, Larvik’s citizen assembly has proven to be a very efficient way to engage citizens in providing input for urbanists and architects to plan and design urban projects.