In line with the city’s overall climate policy, the city of Mannheim developed and implemented a city lab ("living lab" approach) as part of the EU Horizon project SONNET. The city lab aimed at mobilising citizens for the development of the neighbourhood Neckarstadt-West, a neighbourhood with many residents with migration background, where language barriers posed a challenge to the city to engage with citizens for energy transition efforts. Whereas the Covid-19 crisis posed significant barriers to the original idea and scope of actions, the city still managed to implement diverse actions. The city lab entailed mobile participation/planning containers, gamification with apps, and explored measures for the neighbourhood such as energy role model flats, a neighbourhood fund (crowdfunding) for energy efficiency measures, and more. Towards the end of the project, additional funding from the German development bank KfW was acquired for a neighbourhood renovation management, which enabled a certain level of continuation of the activities. The overall impact lies in the social dialogue and processes that were strengthened and shaped, rather than measureable emmission recutions.
Title
Brief description
In line with the city’s overall climate policy, the city of Mannheim developed and implemented a city lab ("living lab" approach) as part of the EU Horizon project SONNET. The city lab aimed at mobilising citizens for the development of the neighbourhood Neckarstadt-West, a neighbourhood with many residents with migration background, where language barriers posed a challenge to the city to engage with citizens for energy transition efforts. Whereas the Covid-19 crisis posed significant barriers to the original idea and scope of actions, the city still managed to implement diverse actions. The city lab entailed mobile participation/planning containers, gamification with apps, and explored measures for the neighbourhood such as energy role model flats, a neighbourhood fund (crowdfunding) for energy efficiency measures, and more. Towards the end of the project, additional funding from the German development bank KfW was acquired for a neighbourhood renovation management, which enabled a certain level of continuation of the activities. The overall impact lies in the social dialogue and processes that were strengthened and shaped, rather than measureable emmission recutions.
Keywords
Social Innovation, energy efficiency, behaviour change, citizen engagement, vulnerable groups
City/Country
Time period
From 12/2019 to 10/2021
Lever(s)
Methodologies
Design thinking workshops with key stakeholders
Mobile green room (a “planning container” in public space to attract bywalkers and used for targeted interventions to get input from citizens)
Gamification (KLIMAthon App)
World Region
Scale(s) of the case analysed
Target audience and dimension
Domain(s) of application
Context addressed
Solution applied
Challenge addressed/ Problem-led approach
Barriers addressed
Main Practices
Impact
Co benefits
Engagement Journey
Impact to climate neutrality
Whereas concrete GHG-emission saving are not recorded, the activities under the SONNET city lab sought the following impacts:
Climate narrative and communication
Carbon-Neutral Infrastructure & Lifestyle
Democratised Decision-making & Distributed Agency
Behaviour Change
New forms of financing climate action
The city lab needs to be seen in context with the broader climate protection measures of the city: prior to the city lab a neighbourhood development concept was finalised and received state-funding for implementation. The city lab was intended to support integrating and further developing social innovations in energy transition in the neighbourhood.
Context & Public policy of reference
They were aligned with the city’s political goal of local CO2-emission reductions by 40% by 2020 (“MANNHEIM AUF KLIMAKURS”) and the climate policy continuation of reaching the national climate reduction goals by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050 (against 1990 baseline i.e. 65% by 2030; 88% by 2045; 100% by 2050) (“Klimaschutz-Aktionsplan”). Mannheim also successfully applied to become one of the 100 cities in the Climate-neutral Cities Mission.
Innovative approach(es) addressed
Three smaller design thinking workshops have taken place with selected local stakeholders and policy makers, gathering initial ideas for a larger event. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Mannheim City Lab had to come up with alternative ways for citizens to participate – and not only virtually. This included, for example, a pop-up event in public spaces in fall 2020. Here, ideas that had already been developed could be discussed and new aspects were sought after to bring them into the SONNET city lab.
To ensure citizen participation despite the pandemic, Mannheim used a so-called “Mobile Green Room®”: a half-opened container designed with vertical and roof greening that provides a room for information material and is aimed at attracting people’s curiosity as well as inviting them to spend time around it, thus creating a public space. Over a period of three months the Mobile Green Room was placed in different locations in the Neckarstadt-West neighbourhood to provide information and the opportunity to exchange ideas for the neighbourhood’s energy transition in public space.
Initiator
Climate protection agency, City of Mannheim
Stakeholder networks and organisational model
The city lab was managed and implemented by the Climate protection agency, with 2-3 staff primarily involved. In the design thinking workshops, there was a mix of professional and public organisations. About a third of participants came from different departments of the city such as the neighbourhood management, the climate protection agency, the social work and educational departments. Between 20 and 30 participants took place. Actors close to the city administration were the public energy utility, the public housing company, the consumer protection agency, and a handful of city councillors. Then there were a few citizen associations and NGOs such as a nature protection association (BUND), a bicycle association (ADFC), a local sports and a cultural association. Finally, a few local private consultants / small enterprises participated, such as a communication expert, a local trade association, a car sharing platform, and social care providers.
Democratic Purpose
Participant Recruitment
nteraction between participants
Resources
Key enablers
Key enabling factors were the politically supportive framework, strong political will of the mayor, and the governance structures of the climate protection agency being in place to coordinate actions on the ground.
Key inhibiting factors
The strongest inhibiting factor has been the Covid-19 crisis, which disrupted the originally planned actions and inhibited the direct interaction and contact establishment with the neighbourhood inhabitants. In response, the type of activities and the scope of measures had to be adapted to online formats (the climathon app, online meetings with professionals) and measures in situ but with respect to distancing-rules and dispersed interaction (the mobile green room).
Drawbacks/pros/cons of the solutions (after implementation)
Scalability
The multi-stakeholder approach to a design thinking workshop, the mobile room and the use of apps for behaviour change can be transferred in principle to any other context.
The city lab and the preceding development of the neighbourhood development concept both showed that the networks and citizen engagements have to be implemented long-term in order to help the district to become climate neutral. The KfW development bank funding allowed the recruiting of an employee to manage the process and offer consultation in the neighbourhood. Thus, local social innovation processes can be supported through the creation of intermediating/moderating paid staff positions. This creation of neighbourhood level agency is well replicable where funds are mobilised
Key lessons
“Lessons learnt:
1. plan more time resources for establishing new relations
2. reduce the number of activities but calculate time to plan and prepare them well
3. embed and frame activities target group specific
4. reflect on strategic further actors to involve in the process
5. integrate experiments in a long-term process, if possible”
(SONNET D4.2: Report on the Mannheim City Lab, p. 53)
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