News from our cities and networks

Energy communities

Europe has 3500+ ‘Energy Communities’ – mostly cooperatives of citizens, promoting alternatives to fossil fuels. Find out how they work, including links with public and private sectors, thanks to this VILAWATT talk with the president of the European Federation of Citizen Energy Cooperatives (RESCoop).

Sustainable Urban Mobility Campaign trial

Community air pollution sensors, a Zero Carbon Bike tour, “intelligent mobility” games, promotional street art, road safety training for students… just a few of the actions tested out by Zero Carbon Cities network partner Bistrita (RO). Look out for the analysis of these actions in 2022!

Meaningful participation and co-creation

A social centre that strengthens public-civil partnerships; a Youth Council established as an advisory body to the City Council… Ozalj (HR) shares its experiences at the Global Goals for Cities network meeting during which towns and cities explored good practice in community participation.

House of Skills

Braga (PT) – partner city in the ROOF network – tests an innovative ‘transitional housing solution’ with training and mentoring for homeless people who are in temporary accommodation centres. The new collaborative employability programme will involve public and private organisations.

Green festivals

“Green event management is not our future, it is our present and could be the goal of every event organiser!” Tartu, Estonian city in the FOOD CORRIDORS network, trials a Green Festival programme supporting event organisers in cutting their environmental impact.
Meanwhile, the Coimbra Region (PT) – the network’s Lead Partner and European Region of Gastronomy 2021-2022 – launches a challenge to find “the most sustainable savoury dish in Europe”.

Network in progress

A glimpse into the workings of an URBACT network: IoTXchange towns and cities meet online to share updates on their Small Scale Actions and peer-review each other’s draft Integrated Action Plans for digitalisation based on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

Read our publication for stories from cities understanding, adapting and re-using URBACT Good Practices: Good Practice Transfer – Why not in my City?

We hope you enjoy this URBACT city news round-up. If you have any news to share from URBACT cities, or ideas for more stories on sustainable urban development, get in touch!

URBACT promotes sustainable, integrated urban development, supporting exchange and learning between EU towns and cities. Since its launch URBACT III has enabled the creation of 83 networks involving 454 cities from 28 countries. Almost half of these cities have populations of under 100 000. Ongoing projects include Action Planning Networks, Transfer Networks, and National Practice Transfer Initiatives. Meanwhile five networks are transferring urban solutions from UIA projects, and another is localising the Sustainable Development Goals.