Spaces to reconnect citizens with cities
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
Project for the definition of standards and implementation of a Toolkit to create and replicate systemic events with reduced environmental impact. A pilot event will be realised in Barcelona in collaboration with the Posidonia Green Festival, focusing on promoting local culture and products through an immersive and educational experience around responsible consumption and good practices of daily living.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Project for the definition of standards and the implementation of a Toolkit to create and replicate systemic events with reduced environmental impact. This approach will be tested in a pilot event focused on promoting local culture and products through an immersive and educational experience on responsible consumption and good practices of daily living. The pilot event will consist of a fair alongside the Posidonia Green Festival, an event on Art, Environment and Sustainable Development that takes place in Barcelona and is organised by Posidonia Green Project, an NGO that promotes ecological culture. Why Barcelona? The city is the seat of the Barcelona Convention, symbol of the fight against pollution in the Mediterranean basin. It is also a sensitive city to participatory issues which is redesigning the maritime promenade for scientific and educational activities, focusing on artistic co-creation for environmental protection, through an agreement between national and municipal institutions.
The project has 4 goals:
- Design a Toolkit for zero-impact systemic events to improve the sustainability and urban resilience of the Barcelona area
- Run a communication campaign to raise awareness on environmental impact and to promote the city's first systemic zero-impact event
- Conduct a research on low environmental impact events to collect best practices for the Toolkit
- Create a Systemic zero impact pilot event
To support cities in innovating local governance, as the European Green Deal advocates, the project aims to offer a useful Toolkit to achieve the climate neutral goal. The approach and Toolkit will be spread to further events through a consultancy service programme. The organisers who join the project will sign a voluntary agreement and will be followed during the process based on an audit system. The aim is to prove that through this approach it is possible to create a model of event making and culture promotion, which is itself a model of sustainability.
Key objectives for sustainability
According to the European Green Deal, to achieve the 2050 objectives, a circular economy must be promoted. In line with the 2030 Agenda, the project responds to Goal 11 "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable" on reducing the environmental impact of cities and supporting economic, social and environmental linkages between urban, peri-urban and rural areas. The project also responds to Goal 12 “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”, for the efficient use of natural resources, waste reduction, raising awareness of lifestyles in harmony with nature and Goal 13 “Climate action” for integrating climate change measures into strategies and planning. To combat climate change, Barcelona has drafted the “Pla Clima 2018-2030”, with which the project aligns itself, in particular with Goal 12: Virtuous Circle to develop a green and circular economy.
Barcelona is a city animated by many events that often have an impact on the environment, both in terms of resource and energy use, waste production, greenhouse gas emissions and much more. The Toolkit will explore strategies to reduce environmental impact and resource use, waste production and harmful emissions. Targeted action will be taken on mobility, product and service providers and equipment. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of the incoming resources (material and energy) and the waste produced for their valorisation and reintroduction into the local system: materials, tools, resources. The Toolkit will provide the basis for the replicability of the project, also in other Mediterranean cities. Its potential lies in the statement of criteria, strategies and solutions for a homogeneous area, creating a decalogue with instructions for use. These will be tested, after a study, in a systemic and zero impact event dedicated to responsible consumption, linked to the Posidonia Green Festival in Barcelona.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The project involves a new logical construction process focused on innovation and sustainability at 360 degrees. The solutions employed aim at replicability and reducing the impacts of construction, management and waste disposal by considering the entire LCA of the materials. Formal expressiveness and functionality will be achieved through the use of simple, easily available, affordable, efficient and suitable elements. The energy supply will be purchased from stakeholders that guarantee the renewable energy sourcing and energy-efficient equipment will be used, both for lighting and appliances. If necessary, mobile biofuel generators will be selected. Furthermore, the project will involve innovation hubs and start-ups to promote the use of innovative and experimental energies (bicycle generator, energy floor, etc.) and to involve participants in energy production.
All the actors involved in the process, from the organisers to the stakeholders and the citizens who join the event, will contribute to the co-creation of the Toolkit as a useful tool for green transition in the event industry. In addition, the project will involve several targets with a particular attention to different needs, with an inclusion on 3 levels:
- interactive: activities, workshops and demonstrations will involve multiple languages to enable universal participation and understanding;
- communicative: the information provided will consider the deficits and needs of all participants;
- architectural/spatial: the spaces will be designed for easy and barrier-free mobility to allow everyone moving fluidly within the event area.
Three meeting points will be created during the pilot event: net corner, green hub and zero waste to promote the development of collaborative networks around a circular economy model. These interconnections will make it possible to create new cooperation activities in the area and strengthen existing ones.
Key objectives for inclusion
Our project will be the ideal place to exchange experiences and learn from each other while testing and implementing solutions, connecting people and expertises and creating new networks, crucial to move closer to climate neutrality.
In line with the 4 project goals, the participatory involvement of the people in the project will take place in three stages. Firstly, a programme of at least 5 meetings (workshops) will be organised together with at least 10 other event organisers, in order to collect inputs and suggestions. The aim is to sign together a Protocol to be used as a brand for future events, which will respect the criteria decided together: systemic zero impact events (goal 1).
In a second step, for the realisation of the pilot event on responsible consumption, the project will involve the stakeholders to create a virtuous network. In goal 4 a specific action will link a series of stakeholders to build a system of material and energy flows, in which exchanges of inputs and outputs become an advantage for all, optimising the sourcing of raw materials and on waste disposal. In this goal, a careful analysis of incoming resources and outgoing waste will be carried out, with a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the event to provide information on the environmental impact: basic logic adopted, documentation of the various strategies used, data reporting, with the gradual planning of other future experiments. It will be a real example of small-scale industrial symbiosis. Finally, citizens will also have the possibility to express their opinion by leaving feedback on the systemic zero-impact experimental event through several channels. Because for an event organiser it is important to assess the degree of appreciation and perception of real environmental sustainability by citizens, understanding whether expectations have been fully met and whether there is room for improvement.
Innovative character
The innovative character of the project lies in the holistic approach to event design and implementation. The Toolkit will summarise and explain the processes and methods of building a systemic zero-impact event and provide the basis for its replicability. Its potential is to set out criteria, strategies and solutions that can guide event organisers through the creation and management of a sustainable event in the Barcelona area, but not only. As a step-by-step and progressive process based on an audit system, the Toolkit is a tool for the progressive implementation of strategies for the sustainability of an event in relation to the objectives and scale of intervention.
A tool to replicate, adapt and reshape the pilot event, based on understanding the dynamics, adapting to local needs and implementing solutions. The Toolkit also provides the methodology to create a partnership network that increases its potential by including actors and stakeholders needed to pursue the objectives. The innovative intent is to provide both a theoretical (toolkit, report, guidelines) and practical (the pilot event itself) framework/example to provide the city with a new system of event making that allows it to replicate the format tested with the pilot event.
The project has four levels:
- the "product" (with a set-up, based on reuse and low impact, built ad hoc that responds to the needs of the context and different targets, taking care of accessibility and social inclusion);
- the "process" (with the will to make it systemic, replicable and expandable);
- the economic model (with the promotion of a circular and local/territorial economy);
- the networking mechanisms (by which the concept of "waste" is eliminated and business-to-business processes are activated between producers and/or service providers).
