5 new members, one shared ambition – building a sustainable and fair future

In the past few months, Energy Cities has welcomed five new members. Their initiatives paint a picture of their ambition, which is to build a fair, sustainable society working alongside citizens and local players.

Ivry takes action for the climate!

In 2021, the city of Ivry-sur-Seine, faced with the ecological challenge, launched a citizen initiative to build a collective action plan and to tackle climate change at the level of its territory.

This initiative is supported by the municipality and is being built by and for local citizens, associations, and the city’s cultural, economic and institutional players.

One of its objectives is to encourage citizens to get involved with climate issues by hosting gatherings for dialogue and debate and by creating collective synergies that will yield future projects within neighbourhoods and the city as a whole.

Several themes have emerged from the dozens of workshops held over 2021: biodiversity, mobility, nutrition, solidarity with migrants, and reuse.

Edremit designs the future with its citizens

The municipality of Edremit is working alongside the consumer rights association in a project with a budget of 55k Euros, aiming to change the power and energy consumption habits of the families in Edremit.

To this end, it will provide training on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and raise awareness of environmental issues and on protecting the natural landscapes of the city.

The project includes information and incentive training in order to set up renewable energy cooperatives. The municipality will support its citizens in the creation of a renewable energy cooperative in Edremit based on the roof-mounted solar energy generation system of Güre marketplace.

As Municipality, Edremit will endeavor to fulfill its responsibilities regarding climate change and the environment, will continue to work towards producing clean energy with local resources rather than relying on imports, and will continue its efforts towards conscious consumption.

A municipal energy community in Kalamata

The Municipality of Kalamata has set up a Municipal Energy Community to attract funding and increase its operational capabilities related to energy production and distribution projects. Kalamata anticipates a dramatic increase in its ability to produce renewable energy. The municipality also expects new energy distribution options to open up, which should contribute to addressing energy poverty, a major target of this action.

The municipality has planned many new climate change-related projects for the immediate future and has applied for relevant funding. These projects include energy upgrades of all municipal buildings, installation of PV systems and integrated systems for energy and water consumption monitoring, systems for real-time monitoring of environmental parameters, extensions to the bicycle path network, and urban regeneration plans.

The municipality, a signatory of the Covenant of Mayors, has also been involved in the BEACON project.

Fourmies focuses on training

In 2016, the city of Fourmies got involved in the third Industrial Revolution. It has since continually endeavoured to develop an ambitious, collective, volunteer-based approach to a more sustainable, more socially conscious economy and to develop renewable energies.

The city has worked alongside department heads to develop a training programme to offer rapid solutions to decrease consumption at each site.

• Presentation of the energy context, impact on the city budget and the sobriety measures decided using, for instance, the e-SHERPA tool.
• Nomination of a ‘Sobriety’ leader for each floor or building, in charge of passing on the information and best practices.
• Training of maintenance agents and technicians to ensure the measures are applied correctly and to answer any questions they may have.

All of these initiatives aim to make Fourmies a low-carbon, energy-independent city by 2050.

Local, sustainable food supply in Schaerbeek

In 2019, the city declared a climate state of emergency and set the goal of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. It then defined an action plan based on the sources of emissions within its territory.

Its action plan touches on all aspects: climate, energy, sustainable food, mobility, waste management, green spaces, and more.

The city of Schaerbeek has been tackling the issue of sustainable food head-on. It is especially driven in this area, as its territory boasts many partners who are willing to invest directly, as demonstrated in existing initiatives: a community fridge, shared vegetable gardens, collective composting facilities, and several restaurants with the ‘GoodFood’ label.

In 2022, the city realigned its goal with the new European target: a decrease of 55% by 2030.