#Kekava4CSR – The greenest city in North Europe in 2030

Kekava Context

Kekava County, located near the capital of Latvia, is significant part of Riga metropolitan area with population about 25 000. Total area of Kekava: 275,16km² from which 56% are forests. Kekava County is crossed by two important arterial roads of Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) that facilitates successful development of production and logistics companies, sale and different service providers.

Kekava is a new municipality in URBACT -, and one of the most economically active settlements in Latvia. More than 2300 companies are registered in Kekava with different sizes and profiles. The municipality is ranked as the 2nd in Latvia regarding foreign investment in companies. Economic development of the county is formed by balanced development of logistics, agricultural, production and tourism services areas.

Kekava and CSR

Overall, the CSR-Approach has been rather implicit in nature. The knowledge and understanding about CSR and sustainability were insufficient among most of stakeholders, including municipality itself. Several existing initiatives relevant to the policy challenge being tackled are noteworthy, for example:

✓ Days of Entrepreneurs – where among other activities the most distinctive companies are publicly honoured;

✓ Iedvesma (Inspiration) - joint grant program by SEB bank/several Riga suburb municipalities.

Several local companies are actively involving in local community by charity and sponsorship activities, e.g. children and youth sports are actively supported by local businesses. Some are having more strategic approach to CSR.

In order to improve understanding and approach to CSR and sustainability in year 2020 Kekava municipality participated in Sustainability Index being one of the first municipalities ever participating in this assessment and reached bronze category.

Kekava ULG dynamics and local activities

A number of considerations were taken into account when setting up the local action group. In order to identify persons who would themselves be interested in active participation the survey was conducted where people could indicate whether and how they would like to get involved in the activities of the county.

Today the core of ULG consists of four company representatives, representative of NGO, four specialists from the municipality, the Head of Riga Planning region, and the head of local community organization. The ULG is coordinated by the leading expert in CSR – the CEO of the Institute for Corporate Sustainability and responsibility. 

The work of ULG is planned according to the process of the project “Cities4CSR” ensuring the fulfilment of relevant tasks and achievement of goals.

All the decisions are made by coordinating them in a ULG during virtual meetings and, when, necessary, involving different external experts. So, a special meeting was organized with a representative of the State Audit Office to discuss opportunities and restrictions regarding partnership between municipality and private sector.

 

There have been held couple of meetings with other local municipalities having great experience in the issues relevant for Ķekava. After range of different planning activities Ķekava is on the way to its first hackathon on green and safe mobility “Idea runway” which will take place on 6-7 August. The hackathon will be part of a small-scale action to involve the population in the development of solutions that will be tested and implemented later within the project’s small-scale action and with support of the municipality and local entrepreneurs.