United for the Climate

Project

292784

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS: existing completed examples

Project title

United for the Climate

Full project title

Description

Local governments team up with their associations for achieving local climate objectives. Thanks to their large membership range, local associations are important partners in local climate actions. There is a lot of potential for reducing energy consumption and making operations more sustainable through better insights and well-considered action, often without major investments. In addition, this project also reaches out to the members of the associations, their families and friends.

What was the geographical scope of your project?

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Has your project won an EU prize?

Your project is fully completed?

When was your project implemented?

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes ?

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?

Please provide a summary of your project

During ‘Unified for the Climate’, local associations in the fields of sports, culture or youthwork team up with their local government to take action and reduce their carbon footprint, and help the fight to reach climate neutrality. Associations are an important partner in achieving local climate objectives, as there is a lot of potential for reducing energy consumption and making operations and activities more sustainable through better insight and well-considered action, often without major investments.

The format exists out of 3 Fases:

Fase 1: Call for associations of the village/city. A Kickoff session is organized with practical hands-on tips on how to be a climate-friendly association and an energy monitoring workshop. After the Kickoff the associations have insight in their own consumption, and they are aware of the multiple ways they have an impact on the climate.

Fase 2: Every association participates in (1) an organisation scan (a tool with questions about their policy, mobility, events, catering, purchasing habits and waste management) and (2) a scan of their buildings, giving both short and long term recommendations to make the buildings of the association more healthy, energy-saving and less dependant on fossil fuels. These two scans are combined into a customized action plan for every association. This plan gives them an overview of possible actions to take in their buildings and activities, prioritized by the biggest CO²-reduction.

Fase 3: After receiving the action plan, the associations choose at least 3 actions in the action plan to work on immediately. The associations work together and share tips, knowledge and good examples. They inspire and motivate each other to carry out the actions. A final meeting is organized to celebrate their shared progress, discuss obstacles to overcome, and a workshop on different ways to fund renovations or renewable energy installations, trough for example federal or local subsidies or crowdfunding.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability (including circularity) and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

• The associations that take part in the format receive a custom made action plan with recommendations. Now the associations can take well-considered and efficiënt action by tackling the challenges with the biggest impact first.
• The associations are coached to get started immediately with the recommendations in the action plan: a sustainability expert helps them on the way.
• The action plan gives associations an overview of the different aspects of their carbon footprint: policy, mobility, events, catering, purchasing habits and waste management.
• The format has a big focus on renewable energy and on reducing energy consumption of the associations.
• The format has a big focus on reducing waste and using reusable packaging.
• Multiple of the recommendations in the action plan are measurable, associations can start calculating their reduction in energy consumption.
• The format also educates members of the associations on how to reduce energy consumption and waste, and on how renewable energy works.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

• The members and leaders of the associations become more aware of the buildings they use and the spaces they occupy. This format provides them with a real prioritized action plan, but also with leverage to take action: to go to the local government (often the owner of their infrastructure) or to find the right financing to renovate their buildings and invest in sustainable technologies for theating, cooling and electricity.
• The project also aims to combine aesthetics with education: for example installing a green roof that cools down the building, a green façade that provides shade and cooling.
• Working on making the association and their buildings more sustainable evokes a sense of pride in the members. The members take home what they learned, and often use this knowledge to make their own households and homes more sustainable.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (equal opportunities, public participation, citizen engagement, co-design, universal design, accessibility, affordability, etc.) and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

'Unified for the Climate' starts with a call for associations to participate in the format together with the local government. (public participation). Together the members of the different associations take on the challenge to reduce their energy consumption, invest in renewable energy and technologies and make the functioning of their activities more sustainable (citizen engagement). They do this as a group, sharing tips and knowledge, and in close collaboration with the local government.

The members of the associations participate in rethinking and designing their environment in a more sustainable way (co-design), by choosing what actions to take on first, in the fields of energy, policy, mobility, events, catering, purchasing habits and waste management.

The associations are also coached from a finance point of view, trough a workshop that teaches them how to finance the recommendations in the action plan, for example subsidies from the local goverment, crowdfunding, ... (affordability)

Please explain how these three dimensions have been combined in your project.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary

'Unified for the Climate' combines a sense of belonging (as a member of an association and citizen of a village) with the motivation of working together on the biggest challenge of our times: climate change. By creating impact locally (making associations more sustainable trough reducing energy consumption, installing renewable technologies, reducing waste by choosing for reusable packaging, choosing vegetarian alternatives to meat, communicating about these actions taken, ..) the members of the associations together with the local government create an dynamic with a positive narrative: everyone is on board and fights climate change, while also improving the comfort of the members during the activities and reduce fossil fuel dependence on a local level.

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

In every city or village where 'Unified for the Climate' took place, associations and the local government worked together to improve the comfort of the members during the activities and reduce fossil fuel dependence on a local level, while also coming together on a local level to fight climate change and reduce the impact of the associations on the climate. 4 associations formed a group and shared and exchanged knowledge and tips, and all of the members feel part of the local and global community. Everyone included in the project gets ownership and creates real impact.

Please explain how citizens and civil society were involved in the in the design and/or implementation of the project.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.

'Unified for the Climate' starts with a call for associations and their members to participate in the format together with the local government. (public participation). Together the members of the different associations take on the challenge to reduce their energy consumption, invest in renewable energy and technologies and make the functioning of their activities more sustainable (citizen engagement). They do this as a group, sharing tips and knowledge, and in close collaboration with the local government.

The members of the associations participate in rethinking and designing their environment in a more sustainable way (co-design), by choosing what actions to take on first, in the fields of energy, policy, mobility, events, catering, purchasing habits and waste management. This results in very engaged members, and a higher chance that the recommendations will be executed. The citizens and members of the associations will also feel pride and ownership of the actions taken.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addressed by providing local solutions

'Unified for the Climate' combines a sense of belonging (as a member of an association and citizen of a village) with the motivation of working together on the biggest challenge of our times: climate change. By making associations more sustainable (trough reducing energy consumption, installing renewable technologies, reducing waste by choosing for reusable packaging, choosing vegetarian alternatives to meat, communicating about these actions taken, ..) the associations help the local government to create a positive narrative around achieving climate neutrality: everyone is on board and fights climate change trough reducting energy consumption, fossil fuel dependence and make the activities of the associations more sustainable on a local level.

Please highlight the innovative character of the project as compared to mainstream practices in the field of the project.

Mainstream practices provide scans of the associations and give them an action plan with recommendations on how to improve either their mobility, building, catering or other topics. 'Unified for the Climate' aims to combine all these different topics, to give an association a broad overview on the different fiels to take action in order to become a sustainable organisation. The format uses the local government as the 'glue' to group 4 associations from one village or city together. This creates a group that is motivated to help each other. Seeing other associations do the same work and effort also motivates them to level up, which results in a bigger impact.

Please explain to the potential of transferring the projects’ results or learnings to other interested parties and contexts.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.

The format has been succesfully repeated multiple times, reaching over 30 associations in 7 different cities or villages in Flanders, Belgium, and is easily repeatable in similar contexts.

The strength of the project lies in the combination of knowledge (an action plan with recommended actions to become more sustainable), the formation of a group of 4 associations (which motivates people to work better and together) and the coaching format that lets members of the association take direct action within the timeframe of the trajectory. This combination has proven to be very succesful and removes obstacles that stand in the way of real progress and results.

 

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