Blue Growth Piraeus is an initiative to support start-ups and sustainable entrepreneurship on the maritime economy.

In 2014, the city of Piraeus (EL) put in place Blue Growth Piraeus, a first-established at EU level innovation competition for the maritime economy (Blue Economy), with the objective to strengthen traditional economic activities with innovative business ideas. Through a call for proposals, Blue Growth Piraeus aims to inspire and help young entrepreneurs realise innovative concepts and develop jobs and services related to marine resources. Blue Growth Piraeus includes 5 stages, from proposals submission and evaluation to award ceremony and an incubation programme. 

The first step of Blue Growth Piraeus team was to establish the Marinescape, a human ecosystem (partners, sponsors, advisors, academia) around Blue Economy. The successful cooperation among Marinescape stakeholders is a key asset that provides the opportunity to create an accelerator and job creator in the city. In the incubation stage, mentors from the Marinescape provide advise and courses to all trainees on scientific knowledge, market needs and business opportunities. Since 2019, the incubation and training is hosted by the Blue Lab, the municipal center of entrepreneurship and innovation for blue growth. Community networking events take place constantly, aiming at the identification of business ideas, the promotion of Blue Growth, the attraction of sponsors and other stakeholders. The aim of the municipality is to expand the target group of the Blue Growth Piraeus to children, students, as well as adults interested in life-long education and learning programmes.
 

Blue Growth Piraeus promotes socially and economically the city and helps to encourage entrepreneurship, offering:

• Innovation and business strategies regarding Blue Economy.
• Facilitation and acceleration of knowledge transfer to companies and start-ups turning them into healthy companies with positive economic impact.
• Experimentation and access to new production and technological processes and practices.
• A continuous innovation mechanism in blue and green economy.
• Strengthening of cooperation in the fields of research, education and practice.
• Creating channels for exchanging knowledge and creating synergies in common fields.
• Improvement of skills and knowledge especially of young people in Blue Economy.
• Integration of Triple Bottom Line as a basis for a continuous social dialogue regarding the sustainable economic activity.

It is a core approach of the Europe 2020 strategy that European cities should act as the motors for regional growth, innovation and employment creation.
Economic development can only be sustainable when it is accompanied by measures designed to reduce poverty, social exclusion and environmental problems. The new economy needs to be more circular, inclusive and just. Moreover it is crucial for cities to improve the quality of citizens’ life and to reduce their environmental footprint.
Providing that and taking into consideration the 12 priority themes of the Urban Agenda for the EU, Blue Growth Piraeus is by definition an integrated approach good practice, due to the fact that it blends in practice two influential frameworks: the “Quadruple helix” (4H: government, academia, industry and citizens collaborate together to drive structural changes) and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). The 4H helps to establish a dynamic learning network towards innovation as an interaction between several stakeholders and TBL helps the network to achieve positive impacts and ROIs in all three bottom lines (business, people, and the planet).
Blue Growth Piraeus realises that intermediation and facilitation towards new economic models is significant, by forms of risk taking and market correction, to allow opportunities to reach and be sensed by wider audiences.
Blue Growth Piraeus is a good practice of regional development by fostering an entrepreneurial mentality, connecting industries, universities and startups and providing crucial support for young entrepreneurs in the early stages.

The established Marinescape, which is one of the greatest assets of Blue Growth Piraeus, consists of an extensive network of stakeholders (businesses, universities, chambers, etc) promoting a constant dialogue regarding Blue Economy issues, while aiming at the expansion of the network with additional stakeholders that can contribute to Blue Growth objectives.

A great number of stakeholders participate in all stages of Blue Growth Piraeus planning and implementation. It started as a partnership of the public (Municipality of Piraeus) and private sectors (Aephoria.net), while currently it is run by the Municipality in collaboration with the University of Piraeus, the University of West Attica, the Blue Lab of Piraeus, and soon also in collaboration with the recently opened Business Support Center of the Municipality, among various other stakeholders from the private sector. This is the foremost proof of different stakeholders’ participation in the planning of the initiative as well as in their commitment to support its implementation. It should also be noted that Blue Growth Piraeus is implemented under the auspices of various Ministries of Greece.

The Blue Growth Piraeus advisory board consists of members from industry, academia and governance achieving in that way the establishment of communication channels among them, the promotion of constant stakeholder dialogue and their involvement in the development of Blue Growth Piraeus. In the incubation stage there is input of mentors from the whole Marinescape providing thus to all trainees an integrated mentoring based on scientific knowledge, market needs and business opportunities. Community networking events are constantly undertaken, aiming at the identification of business ideas, the promotion of Blue Growth, the attraction of sponsors and other stakeholders for their participation in the initiative.

The impact of Blue Growth Piraeus is identified in the economic and social aspects of Piraeus city since it promotes urban sustainable development and reinforcement of social inclusion. Blue Growth Piraeus has contributed in the creation of new jobs and businesses, dealing in that way with the problem of unemployment which is a common challenge faced by all cities, especially in Greece that has been in a constant economic crisis during the last years. Blue Growth Piraeus has encouraged the entrepreneurship and promoted innovative business concepts related to the maritime economy and the values of sustainable entrepreneurship contributing thus to the improvement of entrepreneurial mentality with socio-economic benefits and the enhancement of business activity. Also, Blue Growth Piraeus has established and leads the Marinescape, a human ecosystem (partners, sponsors, advisors, academia) around Blue Economy, which constitutes a vital organisation working effectively towards the achievement of Blue Growth Piraeus’s goals.

Along the years, Piraeus has further improved and expanded its Multi-agency governance structure Marinescape, while it is now more deeply connected to the Municipality, also thanks to the ULG methodology. In addition, there are currently discussions to provide the most important and “loyal” ULG members with a certification announcing them as Blue Growth Ambassadors of Piraeus, to recognize their support, effort and dedication. It will most probably be realized very soon. The roles of sponsors, trainers and advisory board, including responsibilities and benefits have been detailed at local level.
Collaboration and networking with the ULGs of BluAct cities has been reinforced via the hybrid Final Event where 7 simultaneous ULG gatherings at the partner cities were connected online and the creation of the BluAct Forum - which aims to function as a pan-European, online ULG that could extend even beyond the BluAct phase 2 partnership.

The whole process has now been operationalised and documented. the advisory board was very strict with the selection and the questions asked live (streaming) to the competition finalists. A new system also allowed all viewers to vote from home, so apart from the advisory board more people could indicate their preference. The incubation (or “acceleration”) was run through the fresh Blue Lab of Piraeus, albeit mostly online. It was the first time and during the pandemic so next versions will be much better. This will also lead to the new Business Support Center of Piraeus will advance this stage importantly. The successful cooperation among the ecosystem’s bodies is a key asset of BG that provides the opportunity to create an accelerator and job creator in the city.

Results achieved until now:

• Collaboration with 6 universities in Greece, Egypt, China, Cyprus and ability to approach thousands of university students.
• At least 2 new competitions related to the Blue Economy have been established from other organizations
• Establishment of more than 15 start-ups
• Acceleration of 7 start-ups in the Blue Lab (Municipal Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Blue Growth) -in 2020.
• Creation of approximately 60 jobs
• Implementation of more than 50 community networking events, also in the context on several European projects
• 1 start-ups has been funded by HORIZON 2020
• 2 start-ups incubated by Blue Growth Initiative went to Port XL Rotterdam, a mentorship-driven open innovation program on port-related industries (start-ups, spinouts, SMEs, multinationals) for acceleration process.

Piraeus led the BluAct Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 6 other cities: Burgas (Bulgaria), Galati (Romania), Matosinhos (Portugal), Mataro (Spain), Ostend (Belgium) and Salerno (Italy). You can, in particular, check Mataro’s Good practice here. The approach was based on the 5 stages of the Blue Growth Piraeus Competition: Establishment of a strong multi-agency structure for overseeing the leadership, Management and delivery of the initiative, Competition Preparation Competition Delivery Incubation Programme and Ongoing celebration and promotion. BluAct has also created a PLATFORM/TOOLKIT/FORUM that can be found here. BluAct was also reloaed with another Transfer Network in 2021-2022.

The Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV) is a stable participatory governance structure that helps coordinate the activities of volunteers, creating synergies among them and enhancing the capacities to reach out groups of the population which need additional support beyond the existing public welfare and social system. The MCV is intergenerational, it is open to everyone in the city and it is a powerful approach to maximise social support especially in small and medium size cities.

Since 1974, with the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus, Athienou has a special status with its urban area being within the buffer zone ( 80% of its rural area occupied by the Turkish army,) and thus being isolated from other urban center in the Cyprus Island. At that time, many people were in need to restart their lives after the occupation and volunteerism was one of the main tools to rebuild social ties. Athienou today still suffers from isolation and constantly see a resource in the volunteering collaboration between its citizens. Today, voluntarism is well rooted in the social life of the city, institutionalised in 2012 with the creation of a Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV). Chaired by the Mayor, the MCV counts 48 members elected by the community (local organizations, political parties, parents associations, church and sponsors) . The duty of the MCV is to understand, and offer support, to social problems affecting the inhabitants of the Athienou, especially those most vulnerable. Its work covers different thematic areas such as elderly support, care, life long learning, nursery, energy efficiency, climate change et al. The MCV is currently organised around 4 main projects: 1 the Kleanthios Elderly Home, 2. The Konstanileneion Center for Adults with initiatives related with occupational activities for isolated people and day care activities. In close collaboration with the welfare committee, services are offered with little or no cost to individuals in need, such as food preparing, home-care, and healthcare.3. the Municipal Nursery Center which has a capacity to offer high quality nursery services to 100 babies and infants. Approximately 20 percent of the families that benefit from these services are monitored and receive help by the Municipal Welfare Committee and 4, the Social Welfare Committee. This latter, chaired by the Mayor and with a close collaboration with the Social Welfare Office and the Ministry of Education. Funding comes from individuals, private companies, organised groups and local and/or national authorities.

A key sustainability factor of the MCV initiatives is the intergenerational approach. Children participate in volunteering activities, and this investment at a early age makes them familiarise with a culture of volunteering which will be carried out from generation to generation. For instance, Children in Athnienou pay regular visits to the elderly home in order to attend joint entertainment activities. At the same time, volunteers visit regularly schools engaging kids in storytelling initiatives while encouraging the volunteering engagement.

Vertical integration begins with the volunteers working for MCV, in close collaboration with the municipal authorities. The MCV is under the District Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, which is under the National Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, the National Welfare Office and the Ministry of Labour. With regards to territorial integration, the MCV of Athienou covers the Athienou Municipality and is part of a national network of Volunteering Councils. These efforts also include activities towards environmental sustainability. The MCV members are highly aware of environmental issues and have set a strategy that includes renewable energy sources.

The MCV architecture is based on the active participation of organised groups within the community. Any citizen can be a member and/or volunteer and the MCV offers a frame for people to assume an active role in support of others depending on the volunteer attitude, skills, professional expertise and time availability. Although, volunteers take the decisions, the committee operates under strict standards, it reports for its actions and it is audited by the legal authorities. The MCV also employs certified staff, dedicated to providing professional support and training of the volunteers. The total number of volunteers exceeds 200 at any given time. The Municipal Council of Volunteerism is composed of 48 members from local organisations and approved by the volunteers. There is a close collaboration with the Welfare Office of the Ministry of Labour, where a budget and sustainability report is submitted annually for additional governmental funding. The president of the Council is the mayor of Athienou. Every programme has an 11-member Coordinating Committee. The president of the Committee is also a member of the Council. Many of the volunteers provide their expertise for the programmes.

Despite its long standing tradition of volunteerism in the city, the main barrier today is the low engagement of volunteers in the age group between 25 - 45 years old, and to further address the challenge to reach out the whole population especially people most in needs. The main concern of the improvement plan of the city of Atheniou was therefore to update the work of the MCV with actions involving the youths and specific target groups such as people with disabilities, youth and young professional, and parents of toddlers and school age children. As result from the improvement plan adopted in the Volunteering cities network, the municipality adopted the MunicipalYouth Board, which promotes the ownership of actions by the younger population. Social media have been an important tool for improving this action, as much as the collaboration with school teachers, family of students providing manuals and resources on how to engage in volunteering activities. Another important step was to create stronger linkages with the private sector trough social corporate responsibility achieved by branding the good practice of volunteering.

Athienou has greatly invested in transferring its methodology of organising volunteering activities at municipal level. The transferability study highlighted 5 elements of transfer in the governance model,intergenerationality, involvement of young volunteers and corporate citizenship. The overall strategy of the transfer plan is to enhance the volunteerism sustainability cycle as described in the Transfer Network proposal and the Transferability Study:

1. Volunteerism greatly contributes to the increase of the quality of life and the progress of the community.
2. The intergenerational interaction within the volunteering activities guarantees the sustainability of this volunteerism tradition in the communities
3. Bigger engagement and participation of stakeholders increases the effectiveness of the actions and programs that sustain the quality of life and the social evolution.

The methodology has been shared through a guide for transfer resulting from the networks partner cities activities. All cities in the network adopted the Athnieou approach and have been able to launch small scale practices in the lifetime of the network.

Through Enterprising Barnsley, the city of Barnsley (UK) delivers a focused programme of business support across inward investment, growth businesses, startups and business incubation centres. Delivered by a team of business development and project managers with specialist, private sector experience and knowledge, the programme puts the customers (businesses) at the heart of the process, building strong client relationships and delivering bespoke, relevant support.
The main physical asset of the Digital Media Centre (DMC) is connected with support programmes and activities, adopting an open-door policy and co-locating the startup support service here. The DMC is a town centre hub of creative and digital businesses, which hosts regular networks and events and has recently expanded into DMC 02
The DMC works hard to grow the digital and creative economy through clustering and community building, and also to drive demand for digital products, skills and services. It collides traditional and digital industry expertise. Enterprising Barnsley has delivered thousands of new jobs into Barnsley over recent years, and has transformed the DMC into an award-winning hub as well as attracting investment into DMC 02 and it is now developing The Seam, Barnsley’s Digital Campus which surrounds the DMCs .

Enterprising Barnsley has built on a successful business support programme and integrated this expertise into a physical hub for high growth creative and digital businesses. The Digital Media Centre tech hubs (DMCs) are landmark hubs for creative and digital business, as well as a base for a startup programme open to any new entrepreneur. Bringing together the “soft” Enterprising Barnsley support with “hard” DMC facilities presents Barnsley as a destination for business growth.
The solutions include:

• Adopting an ‘open door’ policy: availability for any growing business, putting customers at the heart of the work;
• Make space available at no or low cost to those who want to deliver activities for other businesses, or digital sector events (e.g. hack days);
• A varied and changing programme of events, from casual meetups to networking and ‘dives’ into new tech;
• Use digital platforms to collaborate with the digital community, generate feedback and ideas, as well as informal conversation;
• Delivering a regular programme of free events - a monthly breakfast club and workshops for startups based on Lean Canvas;
• Free-to-access bespoke business support for growing companies;
• Developing own programmes using sponsorship funding, to collide digital experts with traditional businesses to drive innovation/disruption;
• Flexible and entrepreneurial working style – going the extra mile to respond to business needs;
• Staying connected with the cutting edge of tech, and establishing high-level networks including with academia to benefit clients.

Enterprising Barnsley and the DMC are born of seeking to improve the social and economic wellbeing of Barnsley and its citizens through the creation of more and better jobs and businesses. Additionally, by focusing on digital and knowledge-based industries at the DMC, the future direction of travel of industry is recognised, by trying to ensure that citizens have the skills and opportunities to access higher value jobs. The DMC 01 itself is a BREEAM Excellent building, which was sensitively designed by architects as a landmark hub with environmental credentials.
There is clear horizontal integration demonstrated by combining the DMC with our Enterprising Barnsley support programme. This is set within a vertical integration of cooperation between the municipality, other public sector agencies, education and private sectors via TechTown, our digital economy action planning network, and the relationship with our local Economic Partnership. Our current support programmes are part of a city region approach to business support which has been influenced by our existing practice.

Enterprising Barnsley emerged from collaboration between the city, businesses and the local chamber of commerce. Working with stakeholders has been a key element of the programme's success and good relationships are a foundation for our work. This approach was used to consider how best to integrate the DMC when direct management of the building was taken on. Taking on an existing space & clients necessitated building relationships, and ensuring they have a voice in how things would develop. External experts facilitated workshops using SWOT analysis and ideation techniques to identify things to address, and future needs.
As the lead partner of the URBACT TechTown network, Barnsley developed alocal group of digital economy stakeholders, working collaboratively to develop and deliver an integrated action plan for future development of the digital sector. This includes extensive work with education, private and public sector partners on a local/regional level, with difficult conversations and facilitated workshopping of new ideas. This work carries on in the Tech Revolution Transfer Network and we actively contribute to regional policy and invest in participatory actions with tech ecosystem stakeholders such as a recent project linked to Sheffield City Region’s MIT REAP work on entrepreneurial ecosystems.
We use a range of platforms to link across businesses and support networks. These are useful tools to foster open, honest discussion/ideation. The community 'owns' actions and can connect them with strategic city level policy/planning.
As a team, an open door policy is central to our ethos, and work outside of office hours is possible when customers need help.

Since 2010, Enterprising Barnsley has supported the creation of over 1000 jobs per year. This is a gross total across ERDF-funded programmes and direct investment by BMBC. The creative and digital economy has grown from 540 businesses to 679, as indicated by mapping reports commission in 2010 and 2015 respectively.
The Digital Media Centre has seen an increase in occupancy from 54% in April 2015 to 96% at March 2017, with an approximately 25% increase in turnover. Whilst occupancy has been impacted by Covid, it is now growing again. Significantly, digital companies in the DMC have grown in terms of job numbers, turnover and space rented. Highlights include a DMC company who forecast first year turnover of £90k/€105k and actually achieved £250k/€294. This company went on to achieve even greater growth and now is a team of 17 with turnover of £1m.

Projects run through the DMC have attracted a range of funding for delivery from public and private sector sources.

By intrinsically linking the TechTown Action Planning Network with the DMC, significant reach and recognition for the approach to growing the digital sector has been achieved. Working is carried out closely with partners on a regional as well as local level, and well connected into national and overseas digital sector networks. Being at the heart of a web of valuable connections makes the DMC and its projects more relevant and meaningful for the support of companies and people, as well as ensuring awareness of sector trends and developments.

The Action Plan that emerged from the TechTown project has formed the basis for ‘The Seam, Barnsley’s Digital Campus’ which is an ambitious regeneration programme centred on the DMCs that will see a new district of the town centre be developed over the next 10 years. Already, DMC 02 has emerged from this plan as well as Barnsley College’s SciTech Hub for digital education, and funding is secured for active and electric vehicle travel hubs. Additionally a new ‘internet of things’ network is being installed across the town centre to support DMC and Seam activity, and Barnsley is now a testbed for a range of technologies supporting sustainable place making. We have secured ERDF investment to deliver two innovative programmes to grow the tech ecosystem (in partnership with Capital Enterprise) and drive the adoption of digital technology (in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University). We also now work closely with the University of Sheffield on entrepreneurship and Internet of Things technologies and are leading an IoT pre accelerator programme with a large network provider to support new business ideas. We have completed three IoT Tribe programmes with the most recent programme seeing ten new smart city technologies piloted in Barnsley as well as new companies locating in the DMCs.

Over 2.5 years, Barnsley has led the TechRevolution network, transferring its practice to 6 other cities: Bacau (Romania), Piraeus (Greece), Schiedam (Netherlands), Nyíregyháza (Hungary), Pardubice (Czech Republic), Vilanova i la Geltru (Spain). You can, in particular, check Piraeus’s Good practice here. The approach was based on the 3 elements of the Barnsley’s Good Practice, adaptable to each city’s reality: Enterprising Barnsley, Digital Media Centre and Spin-off. In Barnsley, TechRevolution has helped to continue stakeholder engagement and to develop and deliver significant improvements and expansions to our local, regional and national tech sector support and policy. The final outputs are all available on the URBACT website. TechRevolution might also be reloaed with a new Transfer Network starting from June 2021.

Mouans-Sartoux is a city of 10,000 inhabitants located on the French Riviera. Since 1998, the city has been connecting food, health and environmental issues. To overcome the lack of a local organic food offer, a municipal farm was created, and two farmers hired to grow vegetables for school canteens, thus meeting 85% of the needs of the three local schools (1,000 meals per day). Public procurement rules were changed so that local producers could answer calls for bids.
Since then, the city has been serving daily meals in its schools that are 100% local and organic. Developing this approach, Mouans-Sartoux is now working on local agri-food systems and education to extend the initiative at national, European and international levels.

This initiative offers multiple benefits:

• 100% organic meals, by a progressive increase of organic sourcing (adaptation of the public procurement policy) with no extra costs;
• Dramatic reduction of food waste by a set of simple solutions. The economic savings made it possible to offer 100% organic food, served in the canteens at a constant cost. Public procurement rules were reoriented towards local products, using a set of criteria focusing on food quality, environment preservation and cost;
• Creation of a municipal farm to deliver local organic vegetables to the canteens;
• Employment protection: two municipal farmers collaborate with cooks, a nutritionist, managerial staff and elected representatives. Short supply chains and local consumption have increased employment;
• Shift to a healthy diet: food quality, nutritional standards (PNNS), providing fresh, seasonal and balanced non-industrial products, local and organic, cooked on-site from raw products. An effort is put into vegetable proteins in the diet, a savings that enables the purchase of better quality meat;
• The MEAD (House for Sustainable Food and Education) aims at developing a set of projects related to municipal agri-food policy;
• Behavioural change: an Observatory of Sustainable Food was created to follow up on actions and families’ food and consumption habits and evolution of their practices;
• Sustainable land use: to deal with urban sprawl, the local urban planning strategy protected 112 ha. of agricultural land, thus tripling the area dedicated to farming.

Horizontal integration: by supporting smart land use, organic production and local agri-food systems development, the project has a strong environmental dimension. It also has an economic dimension through the creation of jobs (2 jobs at the municipal farm, 2 jobs at the local grocery store), and a social dimension by supporting a "Jardin de Cocagne" as part of a national network: an organic farm that employs 50 people offering social integration through economic activity.
The other social aspect is the access to sustainable food in the canteens for every pupil, who pays a price adapted to his or her parents’ income. Shifting to 100% organic with no price increase can also be considered as sustainable. Moreover, educating children in nutrition, health, food origin and products, fair trade, etc., is a core action of the project.
Territorial integration: the project is well integrated in the overall strategy of the city since it manages its own public services (water supply, canteens, farming, etc.), giving autonomy in decision making.
The project adopts a transversal approach and shared governance through the collaboration of many internal services such as youth and education (through animation, school catering, health, prevention and sustainable development sectors), environmental services (managing the municipal farm), the city urban planning office (especially for the agricultural land area project aiming to install new farmers), with crucial cooperation among all stakeholders.

The project triggers empowerment. Many citizen initiatives have emerged, like local grocery stores (Boomerang: unpacked-food shop, MCE: Fair-trade NGO), community gardens, local groups working on sustainable development actions (Collectif Mouansemble), Incredible Edible, etc. People are particularly involved in the city's activities, and there are many project leaders.
Multi-level governance: through the MEAD and the Observatory for Sustainable School Catering steering committees, the project associates a wide range of actors in the field of agriculture, health, environment and sustainable development who take part in the governance of the whole good practice: consular chambers (Chambre d’Agriculture), NGOs and national networks of the organic sector (Agribio06, Un Plus Bio), public health NGOs (CODES, CRES: regional and local health committees), decentralised state services (DRAAF: Ministry of Agriculture Regional Service), universities and research institutes (INRA Avignon: agronomy, Côte d’Azur university, LASCAUX: research on food access and food laws, ITAB: organic farming research institute, etc.).
Being part of the AGRI-URBAN project, local stakeholders are associated as members and partners of the URBACT Local Group (AGRI-URBAN): citizens, parents’ associations, private sector (cooperatives, NGOs, farmers), multi-scaled administrative and educational institutions, etc. By changing their eating behaviour, parents as well as the local population are significant stakeholders of the project.

As a result of this initiative, a circular economy approach was developed. Projects were born thanks to the change of mentalities (i.e. direct marketing of food goods such as AMAP (Community Supported Agriculture), and small local grocery stores like Boomerang). Jobs linked to local agri-food systems were created (production, retail, sales, organisation). The demand for quality local products is high.
Other results involve:

• Environmental protection: zero pesticides, increase of biodiversity by organic crop production and use of melliferous plants that attract pollinators, short low carbon supply chain;
• Agriculture: the Local Urban Plan Strategy has tripled the agricultural area, allowing the installation of an organic farmer who sells his production locally. In 2016, the municipal farm produced 24 tons of organic vegetables for schools, covering 85% of the requirements;
• Food waste: 80% decrease in canteens, 30g/meal are now wasted instead of 150g (national average);
• The observatory: public health and food diets have evolved. Surveys done in 2013 and 2016 revealed that the proportion of families in Mouans-Sartoux who eat 100% organic food has increased from 6% to 13% (in France, less than 2% eat 100% organic, BVA survey 2014). In 2016, 85% of the sample declared that their food practices, behaviour and way of consumption had changed. 31% of parents buy at the producer’s once a week (vs. 19% at national level), 20% weekly at the farmers’ market, and 99% of parents are satisfied with the city’s food policy.

Mouans-Sartoux has also improved its own practice on the following objectives identified in the city’s improvement plan at the beginning of BioCanteens Transfer Network, further involving citizens and local stakeholders in the city’s food project "Citizen feeding the town" (Citoyen Nourrit la Ville) in 2020. In this project, citizens are invited to carry out a participatory mapping of unused public and private lands with the view to turn them into family plots self-managed by small groups of participants, who commit to redistribute a share of their yields to the city’s social grocery. More importantly, a group of citizens was gathered to ensure smooth project steering, and to progressively raise their awareness on a wide diversity of food-related policy topics (ex. Food sovereignty, preservation of agricultural lands, food poverty etc.) beyond the issue of market gardening. This group will become the first basis and test-bed of Mouans-Sartoux’s future local food policy council. Taking stock of the relative failure of Mouans-Sartoux ‘s ULG (progressive disengagement of participants because of an overt-intellectual approach), the MEAD team opted to support people’s mobilisation into the city’s food governance through a progressive, flexible and concrete manner. A study to better understand the eating and purchase habits of the social grocery’s beneficiaries was carried out enabling to better adapt the service delivered by the city’s centre for social action (upcoming organisation of workshops of sustainable food, better (more attractive) presentation of vegetables on food stalls, partnerships with local organic suppliers to improve the quality of food distributed...) Increasing action-research activities and partnerships with academia, research centres and relevant practitioners.

(Pending approval in June 2021): Application to a call for project at national level (Programme National pour l’Alimentation) to carry out an action-research project on how to ensure the coordination of different local authorities’ food project at different governance levels (city, group of cities/metropolitan areas, département). The project’s hypothesis to be verified through 4 case-studies (City of Marseille/Métropole Aix-Marseille- Provence/Bouches du Rhône, Mouans-Sartoux/Alpes Maritimes, Plouguerneau, Epinal) is to show that a food project needs to be developed at each level of local governance, that there is not one better level to coordinate them than the others, but that coordination is needed to build a common narrative and objectives, despite possible different actions.

(Approved in June 2021) : A research project will be launched in the second half of 2021 for 2 years in collaboration with the University Hospital of Nice to measure the impact of the sustainable canteens project onto children health (epigenetics study).

(Also relevant for the point below) Greater dissemination of the city’s food project and know-how at regional, national and international levels

Over 2.5 years, Mouans-Sartoux has led the BIOCANTEENS network, transferring its practice to 6 other cities: LAG Pays des Condruses (Belgium), Vaslui (Romania), Trikala (Greece), Rosignano Marittimo (Italy), Torres Vedras (Portugal) and Troyan (Bulgaria). You can, in particular, check Troyan’s Good practice here. The approach was based on 8 modules which adaptable to each city’s reality: a municipal farm platform, kitchen micro good practices, organic demand and offer, food governance, food sovereignty vision, open dialogues and outreach, working with public procurement, and food education micro good practices The modules are all available as handbook on the URBACT website. Mouans-Sartoux also shared its practice more widely:

• At national level:
  • via the Cantines durables – Territoires Engagés, French transfer of the practice of Mouans-Sartoux, making it a French BIOCANTEENS network;
  • via a training programme called Management of Sustainable Food Projects for Territorial Communities, in order to adapt and develop projects according to each city's individual situation, together with the University of Côte d’Azur; and,
  • as a significant stakeholder of the national community network Un Plus Bio.
• at European/international level:
  • as a potential leader of a follow-up URBACT BICOANTEENS network;
  • as a founding member of European Club Organic Food territories, European follow-up of Un Plus Bio
  • as a member of the International Organic Food System Programme network; and,
  • as a signatory of the Glasgow food declaration

The City of Rome developed a participatory urban gardening project. The aim of the project is two-fold: it fights social exclusion and poverty and allows brownfield recovery.
Working with NGOs, citizens, disadvantaged people and minorities, the city uses the urban and suburban agriculture as a means to improve governance processes. Alongside employment policy, social and intercultural dialogue has a pre-eminent role to play. The importance of other factors such as housing, health, culture and communication should also be acknowledged.

The good practice contributes to the improvement of the governance processes by connecting different competencies and municipal offices such as social, environment, urban planning and innovation departments. UPA is an innovative practice that could provide a governance model for sustainable development, environmental protection, brownfield recovery and reuse, social cohesion and poverty fighting (i.e. immigrants, elderly, disabled people, AIDS and Alzheimer’s patients, prisoners, etc.).

Rome (IT) has the widest urban agriculture area in Europe. Its agricultural landscape is immersed in a network of archaeological sites, monuments, villas and farmhouses. Green areas are about 86,000 hectares, 67% of its entire territory. While most green areas are located outside the urban perimeter, several agricultural corridors connect the periphery with the city centre of Rome. This unique feature distinguishes Rome from other European cities that are characterised by a division between urban and rural areas. Rome thus offers a unique potential for further development: citizens are now developing permaculture systems and producing healthier organic food for self-consumption. The aforementioned projects' approach to tackling urban challenges is the result of a territorial cooperation process, involving different partners of the Mediterranean Basin under ENPI CBC MED Programme: the Royal Botanic Garden and the National Department for Forests and Agriculture (Jordan), the city of Mahdia (Tunisia), the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the City of Rome.

Participatory mechanisms for communities and citizens in the new UPA policies/actions allow the former groups a greater capacity for action and decision making on Urban Governance: Urban Agriculture management strategies herein are oriented towards participatory citizenship. Stakeholder like local NGOs and horticulture associations did contribute to the set-up of the Regulation of urban gardens (City Council Resolution, July 2015) activating local representatives of such communities in a process of social and intercultural integration. Socialisation among different communities is the core of this activity.

The previous experience allowed the City of Rome to experiment the application of the Regulations of urban gardens of Rome approved in 2015, through 3 pilot projects assigned to different non-profit, multipurpose associations in charge of needy and disadvantaged people. At present, approx. 300 people are direct beneficiaries of the parcels. Dozens of associations and thousands of citizens are involved in the pilot projects, and awareness was raised among municipal officers and citizens. The Regulation of the Urban gardens of Rome (City Resolution of July 2015 or “Regolamento degli orti urbani”) is to be considered an extremely important outcome as a governance tool. According to the “Regolamento”, the use of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and GMO seeds are prohibited. The sustainability of the UPA pilot project is ensured by the commitment of the City of Rome (i.e. the “Regolamento”), the Districts, the associations as "managers" of the pilots, the thousands of citizens involved, and by the coordination with a network of urban gardens and other local and national organisations.

Rome led the RU:RBAN Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 6 other cities: Vilnius (Lithuania), Caen (France), Krakow (Poland), Thessaloniki (Greece), Loures (Portugal), and Coruna (Spain). You can, in particular, check Vilnius’s Good practice here. The approach was based on the three components/elements of the Good practice: capacity building in organizing urban gardens, Inspiring and training people to manage urban gardens (Gardeners) and Urban gardens governance & regulations. The network’s outputs can be found on the URBACT website. RU:RBAN was also reloaded with a new Transfer Network in 2021-2022.

The city of Guimarães (PT) has created a strategic plan which protects and promotes biodiversity in urban areas. The plan emphasizes the importance of indigenous species and their added value. The main objective is to sensitize and educate citizens and local stakeholders through strong leadership.
The P2GREeN good practice comprises two main steps. Each step includes three different but integrated actions that can be implemented in any city in order to promote and valorise biodiversity:
1) Diagnostic/Characterisation: Alien Species Plan Control; Environmental Education and Reforestation (indigenous species); Creation of a Biodiversity Database;
2) Valorisation of natural routes; Promotion of species observation; Improvement of Nature Tourism.

The P2GREeN good practice (holistic approach) comprises different but integrated actions, which can be implemented by other cities, envisaging to protect/promote biodiversity:

1. Diagnostic/Characterization
   1. Invasive Alien Species Plan Control An initiative laying in characterising, combating and monitoring invasive plant species was implemented.
   2. Environmental Education – (Re)forestation (autochthones species) An Educational/Environmental Awareness Program was developed in which children are invited to plant trees and protect them during all its growth stages. Private companies wanted to be a part of the project buying trees to be planted.
   3. Creation of Biodiversity Database A mobile app - “Biodiversity GO” - was created aiming to increase the capacity to create a biodiversity database of the city also promoting nature tourism.
2. Valorise
   1. Natural Routes: Biodiversity routes were created for enjoying the biodiversity of the region, promoting natural heritage, involving school community.
   2. Promote species observation The Guimarães Ornithological Observation Centre was created with the purpose of educating and raising awareness of the community to the importance of protecting biodiversity.
   3. Improvement Nature Tourism Potential areas become more attractive for locals/tourists. Foster the number of sports events and new activities can lead to the creation of new and sustainable jobs. Promote touristic nature-related activities relating nature and cultural events.

The P2GREeN good practice is fully aligned with the URBACT values as it provides a sustainable and integrated approach that tackles urban challenges. P2GREeN integrated actions are in line with “Green City” momentum as they propose a series of strategic objectives defined for the protection of potential urban areas as defined by Europe’s biodiversity strategy 2020, fully implement birds and habitats directives, maintain and restore ecosystems and their services, increasing the biodiversity and combat invasive alien species. New European Strategy for Biodiversity establishes the need for local actions contributing to averting global biodiversity loss. The strategy recognises the importance to take into account economic and social benefits deriving from nature's contribution, emphasising the importance of multidisciplinary projects to promote/preserve biodiversity and, consequently, to encourage employment and to promote tourism. In this context, P2GREeN is also an integrated/participative approach by promoting a horizontal integration combining physical, economic, social and environmental dimensions. In 2014, an environmental assessment of the city allowed to develop and define a program to engage and raise awareness among the citizens towards a sustainable territory. Educating local stakeholders and scholar community through a strong leadership was achieved by promoting the cooperation between all levels of government and local players (promoting a vertical integration).

All actions developed and implemented under P2GREeN are based on a participatory approach, promoting public/private interactions, recognizing the importance of citizens’ science concepts and community engagement. The PEGADAS environmental program unites more than 30 partners from different fields, contributing to the P2GReEN holistic approach. The PEGADAS partners have the responsibility of organising actions in a school context aiming to educate students on sustainable behaviours. The mobile app Biodiversity GO! was made under the citizens’ science concept, where people were invited to create the municipal biodiversity database. The reforestation program is per se a participatory process comprising two interrelated levels, from education to private engagement. It is a program aiming at sensitising the community to the importance of native species. Technical information about indigenous species was produced by technicians from City Hall. The information comprised procedures about seed identification and collection, growing and plantation. Students were invited to collect seeds from the schools’ neighbours. Afterwards, at school they planted and took care of their own tree. Later City Hall launched a campaign for individuals so that they also could participate in planting trees. Finally, the promotion process including the biodiversity routes or the species observations are also participatory, as citizens and students are encouraged to participate.

The environmental program PEGADAS comprises more than a hundred activities involving more than three dozen partners reaching all schools in the country. In the first year of implementation PEGADAS took the environmental debate to all students of Guimarães. The forestation program allowed the planting of more than 15,000 trees in Guimarães. Also, other initiatives generated from PEGADAS – such as Youth EcoParliament – allow students to propose solutions for biodiversity improvement. The mobile application Biodiversity GO! also allows the creation of a database of species found in Guimarães. Natural routes were already identified and integrated in the city routes system. The routes were tested with citizens’ participation, and to achieve that, several events were developed. Taken together, these results contributed to the promotion of biodiversity in Guimarães.

The importance of promoting and preserving urban biodiversity is being highly discussed by the international conservation community. Researchers working in this field confirm that urban areas are often places of great species richness and can be centres of local and regional biodiversity. In this context, it has been highlighted not only the importance of conservation of rare species and habitats but also the importance of managing the range of habitats in and around where people live, work, and play. Thus, it is our firm belief that P2GREeN good practice is of great interest to other EU cities, in particular, those wishing to develop an integrated Urban Biodiversity Plan to protect and promote the biodiversity of their urban green areas. The implementation of P2GREeN Good Practice can help cities to shape the pattern and distribution of urban biodiversity, contributing also to specific social goals, such as community-based management, sustainable development and poverty reduction in cities. The Good Practice is divided into a hierarchy of planning phases. Strategic planning is conducted to make decisions about sustainable harvest levels, plantation of local species while taking into account legislation and policy issues (reference). In addition, it also comprises a series of actions to foster nature-based tourism and promotes participation of the citizen.

#genera_azioni is a good practice in a rural area of Montichiari (IT) that has been deeply affected by the economic crisis and characterised by a diffused vulnerability. #genera_azioni focuses on families as the principal victims of crisis. It tackles poverty (economic difficulty, lack of relationships, unemployment, social vulnerability) with a generative, community-based model of welfare.
#genera_azioni enables the community to deal with people’s difficulties. It connects people, stories and experiences to develop integrated solutions. Being composed of four pillars that support each community – housing, work, community bonds and youth – it enables the community members to take care of themselves by combining their forces and sharing their know-how.

#genera_azioni acts on the community by focusing on the four nerve centres of many communities: home, work, the future of young people and the development of a strong sense of community and ideas launched by citizens. The hinge of the whole activities is the “community point”. Community points are places for people to meet, relate and take part in improving activities. They rise in strategic places to attract the members of the community and are driven by a facilitator, whose task is to promote mutual aid among citizens, families, workers, and to connect the people with enterprises and personal services. Around these places the different actions and programs develop. In particular: experiences of co-housing and housing-sharing with fragile families and social guardianship, the creation of a corporate network and of employability support measures, promotion of experiences of school-work through a local catalogue of proposals (to date more than 60 available positions) and extracurricular activities for young people, a Start-Up Plan developing ideas of citizens. All these actions follow an integrated approach to promote inclusion.

#genera_azioni fits with sustainable development because it promotes a new kind of welfare and a different idea of “improved quality of life”, based on the importance of relationships and sharing resources, information and time. The project contributes to reduce inequality and social exclusion, creating new opportunities for people who normally can’t participate in the normal activities of the community and promoting meeting to become aware about their rights, abilities and possibilities. Our good practice also favours an integrated and participative approach to tackle social frailty: the project’s actions are implemented thanks to a network composed of institutions, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, volunteers and citizens. So the main actor that faces the challenge is the community itself, and it benefits from the added value of the network: to give complex answers to complex problems. Such actions don’t create new services for people to help, but enable and urge the recipients to take action, promoting a model of welfare based on mutual aid.

The project is characterised by a mixed governance system, comprising both public entities and locally involved non-profits organizations; this makes the stakeholders have a relevant role in the project development, as well as in its implementation. Furthermore, it treats a community-opened system that welcomes and supports the ideas and the participation of unconventional subjects and citizens. More than 50 entities take part in the welfare design process. Look at our governance on “Studio di fattibilità” attached.

#genera_azioni is a three-year project, now in its second year of activity. Currently, six Community Points have been opened in the district of implementation (District 9 in the Province of Brescia), reaching 530 individuals and 104 organisations (institutes, associations, cooperatives, parishes, informal groups) and developing 15 laboratories.

Referring to the integrated plan about home, in 2016 the first social condominium experience was started, and the work of the facilitators has determined the subscription of 14 leases and three paths of cohabitation for frail families. Concerning work, three thematic laboratories have been implemented, and the activity of connection between supply and demand of labour produced six apprenticeships and 100 cognitive interviews.

The project also achieved good results in actions directed toward young people: the youth involved around the project have been enabled to develop four laboratories for other young people, and took part in nine events co-projected on the territory. The students of the district’s high schools also gained access to a catalogue of 60 offers for work-study experiences with qualified enterprises. Thanks to the call for ideas #genera_idee, six ideas for innovative projects for community purposed by citizen were financed with a contribution of €9,500

This good practice would be interesting for other cities around Europe, and especially for the small ones in rural areas: social frailty is a very diffused situation in Europe, whose population was hit hard by the economic crisis, and whose traditional welfare measures are now in trouble.

This uneasiness is stronger and stronger in the rural areas, where the proposal of services is narrower than big cities, and where community bonds are weak. The good practice purposed by #genera_azioni addresses the problem with a simple but innovative strategy, supporting the development of a more sensitive community, in which people don’t passively rely on the welfare state for the management of social challenges, but perform preventive actions. Strengthening social bonds with a view to preventing fragility and exclusion, as well as mutual aid within the community, sets the stage for a significant improvement in the quality of life in that community.

SPAZIO13 is the conversion of a former disused school into a creative hub in a suburb of Libertà (IT). It is a community experience of social innovation and reuse of a decommissioned public building, having triggered the involvement of residents and stakeholders in the transformation process affecting the neighbourhood. This urban regeneration process includes an extensive network of 15 youth associations.
In addition to the public multicultural nursery school set up by the city, the property of 1,000 square metres is composed of three areas:

1. Informal Education (architectural/engineering design, photography, startup businesses, digital communication);
2. Making (fabLab 3D printing, carpentry, audio/video production, recording music, photo printing); and
3. Events and social spaces (co-working, public library, public events and conversations).

SPAZIO13 offers a virtuous and subsidiary solution of community conversion of an abandoned public space strongly integrated with urban regeneration through social innovation levers and the leadership of a local youth network. A good practice of conversion, participation and innovation focused on communities, residents and local economies. SPAZIO13 is a learning space and its concept was started by a collective research action conducted on the neighbourhood identity by 15 associations of young architects, urban planners, designers, photographers, communication experts and European policies experts with residents, families and young residents. Through its participatory methodology approach to conversion of public space, SPAZIO13 is an antidote to gentrification in city suburbs. Its cultural offering, stratified into different sections (education, production and collaboration), provides interdisciplinary and multi-target methods for dialogue with the neighbourhood, highly integrated with the local networks and strongly oriented objectives of economic rebirth.

SPAZIO13 fully complies with the URBACT principles and challenges both in the sustainable development dimension and integration. SPAZIO13 is a community experience of reuse and conversion that seeks the social inclusion of vulnerable groups in the processes of regeneration, activating education courses, participation, social innovation, promoting new opportunities and job skills. As reuse experience stands in contrast with the soil consumption policies, the prominence of 15 NGOs ensures a very broad urban partnership. SPAZIO13 also responds effectively to the horizontal integration and vertical principles promoted by URBACT. In terms of horizontal integration SPAZIO13 is characterized by being simultaneously a physical redevelopment of a public space, a social experience of shared management, a cultural laboratory of participation and an enabler of local economies in the neighbourhood, promoting new skills and collaborative networks. In terms of vertical integration, SPAZIO13 is a virtuous experience of PPP between the city of Bari and civil society. SPAZIO13 was inspired by the will of the city to convert the former school in the target neighbourhood of its regeneration strategy. A local group was selected after a national tender. Governance involves the municipality of Bari, neighbourhoods, civil society, local economy representatives, university and residents.

SPAZIO13 is a collaborative project that is based on the participation of civil society and local networks preliminarily involved in the co-design phase of conversion. The city of Bari established a partnership with the local group. Subsequently, the partnership involved the local university, representatives of the local economy, cultural stakeholders and residents' associations to define the best proposal. The start of the conversion has been marked by two important experiences: a photo contest opened to all residents to attest to the school’s identity before the change with a hashtag on Instagram (#nontiscordardimelo) and Huffington Post as a media partner, an experience of collective self-building to adapt the spaces at the new functions. The space was furnished through an open call to residents to donate disused furniture and fittings in exchange for participation in the courses. Neighbourhood focus groups were held to define priorities and activities.

Some results of SPAZIO13 have already been achieved, and other objectives are being realized. The results achieved and expected are:

1. promote the conversion of the former school through a collective self-build path and co-design workshops with associations and residents,
2. activate an urban laboratory of education, production and social innovation serving communities,
3. promote a collaborative network at the neighbourhood level composed by associations, professionals, institutional, economic and research that can play an active role in the regeneration process. 

Regarding the first, SPAZIO13 has involved 15 NGOs and 80 young people (16-35 age group) in the co-design of 1 000 square metres and same path was made on branding that has been marked by a visual identity defined in a participatory way. On the second result SPAZIO13 is involving 630 young people in informal educational courses and trainings and hosts five start-ups in co-working.

On the third objective, SPAZIO13 has managed the involvement of 1 110 people, including residents and local stakeholders (universities, schools, local economy representations, cooperatives, youth associations etc.) in public events and discussions. In terms of social impact, SPAZIO13 proposes an overall increase of awareness on participatory planning (+25%), an empowerment of new skills (+ 15%), an increase of knowledge about the neighbourhood regeneration plan involving 10 000 inhabitants, other 25 NGOs and more than 10 local schools.

SPAZIO13 is part of a holistic approach to urban regeneration and enhancement of young people that Bari started three years ago in compliance with the regional political framework that has represented a vanguard on the European scale for urban creativity issues (European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2012, Regiostar 2015). The city has led a regeneration focused on the reuse of public properties and the redevelopment of open spaces through the levers of culture, leisure, theatre, contemporary arts and commerce, with a strong focus on youth capabilities.

An urban programme that includes: the conversion of a large former barracks (20,000 square metres) into an extensive urban park with a public library and the new Academy of Fine Arts; the conversion of a former theatre into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (10,000 square metres), an old parking garage into a theatre research centre (2,000 square metres), the conversion of a tobacco factory (40,000 square metres) into a huge campus of scientific research and technological innovation.

Knowledge from Bari on reuse, urban regeneration and social innovation has already been shared at URBACT level. SPAZIO13 may be interesting to all European cities that are involved in regeneration processes because it demonstrates how social innovation models and creative hubs can play a key role in activating and involving people in deprived neighbourhoods.

Grand Genève is a metropolis around Geneva (CH). The agglomeration has common issues (housing, transports, environment, social cohesion) spread over two countries. This includes two distinct legislative models, three territories (Geneva Canton, Nyon District, the French Regional Cooperation Assembly - ARC), as well as a number of partners (Geneva City, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes French Region, two French departments etc.).
As this situation makes it hard to develop common policies, the Local Association for Cross-Border Cooperation (GLCT) has been created. It involves politicians and civil society representatives in order to develop pragmatic projects at local scale. After professional teams had presented a vision for these territories, discussions held at the local level within the "perimeters of coordinated urban planning" (PACA) led to a number of mobility, urban or environmental projects.

The PACA seemed the proper scale to involve all our partners. Three teams presented their different visions for the territory, and then everybody gathered in roundtables to discuss and improve these ideas. The roundtables were the best solution we found to build pragmatic projects for urban planning. The brainstorming was very productive. Thanks to that method, we have developed projects such as buses crossing the border, with priority lanes, urban projects near the railway stations, a nature project along our rivers, etc. This is a good practice which can be developed by every city.

This practice makes it possible to mix every scope with themes of sustainable development by bringing very different actors together: politicians, environmentalists, architects, engineers, members of associations, industry representatives etc. The visions of the teams had to mix environment, urban and mobility themes, with the objective of building a sustainable future.

The participatory approach is key to the project. Bringing together professionals, politicians and representatives of civil society not only fosters good brainstorming sessions, but also makes it easier to find solutions that are supported by everyone, with all the participants seeking to realise those solutions using their own skills.

The project has created a helpful tool for dialogue between politicians, civil society and urban planning professionals. Also, an appropriate scale has been found between the Grand Genève as a whole and individual municipalities. The result has been intellectual emulation and better understanding between Swiss and French actors of the territory, along with projects for sustainable urban living, mixing social, environmental and economic themes.

This practice can be useful for each city wanting to develop a real emulation around its urban planning and which wants to involve many partners.

Heerlen (NL) is marked by a number of degenerated areas due to the collapse of the mining industry in the Limburg region. To foster social and urban regeneration in these areas the municipality uses community art as a tool to engage with communities and improve the image of depressed neighbourhoods. By capturing the potentials of a bottom-up mural art movement being developed in Heerlen over the last few years, the city facilitates its further development. All murals have been created through community engagement, in which citizens, entrepreneurs and artists co-created and took co-ownership in the works. This builds long-lasting and reciprocal social engagement. Moreover, the movement contributes to Heerlen’s positive city image both inside and outside: The city is now able to attract more and more visitors.

Heerlen Murals is a community art form that is based on the creation of mural artworks in the city through community involvement to counter social and urban degradation. Heerlen Murals’ success is in line with and based on the spreading urban trend of place making. People care about public places they use when they are emotionally connected to them, and this can contribute to sustainable use of public spaces. Community art, especially murals, is a strong and effective tool to inject life into abandoned public spaces. Artists create the murals on raw walls and derelict buildings selected with their owners. The murals reflect on local contexts of people, neighbourhoods and the city’s history. Murals are created in cooperation with citizens, local businesses and schools, as well as community organisations through a process of co-creation. By doing so, the local identity is increased, leading to an improved sense of well-being. The mural street art movement nurtured by the city of Heerlen serves as a spark for additional activities such as workshops, community events, as well as projects about green development. Moreover, the Street Art Foundation, which is an important link between mural arts and urban redevelopment, develops mural walking routes for tourist. By attracting tourists and increasing local attractiveness, Heerlen is also able to increase its economic performance.

It is well known that when culture is used for urban development, social issues are being touched upon automatically, as culture makes dynamic use of the internal energies of communities that automatically evokes social dialogues and linkages. Boosting creativity in a city can lead to leapfrogging in terms of social and economic development in small and mid-size towns. As each mural is created following a bottom-up initiative and through a co-creation process, by bringing local entrepreneurs, citizens, schools and community organisations together to co-create, the Heerlen Murals ultimately aim to create stronger local communities. By doing so they contribute to the social integration. Underlined by various bottom-up spin-offs, such as local events and workshops, community building is indeed characterised by sustainability. By increasing the attractiveness and liveability of neighbourhoods, Heerlen Murals have a positive influence on businesses as well. Visitors are attracted by the development of mural walking tours that increase the potentials of the tourism industry. Murals are also used in the process of redesigning public spaces and add to their economic value by attracting new businesses. Environmental integration is backed by experiments with the re-use of materials and the creation of murals that use green patches, this leads to an increased environmental consciousness.

All murals are created through local participation. Several examples can be mentioned: citizens and school children provide city stories and names to the murals, local businesses provide financial contributions. Several housing corporations and businesses started to provide space for murals on their properties and financially support the creation of these murals, as well as cooperating with their tenants and the Street Art Foundation. Moreover, the national trade union FNV donated a mural dedicated to the mining history of the city, inviting former miners to related ceremonies to build cohesion between citizens and Heerlen’s history. A number of murals have been realised along with the refurbishment of public areas to increase livability. The Street Art Foundation cooperates closely with the Tourist Information Centre in the creation of mural walking routes and maps for visitors. A number of murals have been realised through community financing. The cardiology department at the local hospital worked on the creation of a mural in the hospital, with the aim of strengthening its connection with the city. Weller, a local housing corporation, donated one of its properties to create an urban gallery of mural. For the mural “Heerlen Herlon”, an initiative by several creative entrepreneurs, a separate crowd-funding campaign has raised 13 000 euros in a few weeks’ time.

The Heerlen Murals project has led to the development of a total number of 67 artworks spread out over Heerlen, all co-created by artists, local citizens and businesses. It has also led to a significant increase in public and private engagement in Heerlen, as well as an increased sense of well-being.

Moreover, Heerlen Murals clearly increased the attractiveness and image of the city. In 2016, the city won the Dutch Street Art Award, confirming it the “mural capital” of the Netherlands, creating the image of an innovative cultural city also on international level, known for its street art scene. Therefore, the city is developing its reputation as an internationally recognised laboratory for the development of a street art genre.

Also, the Parkstad Region won the Tourist Tomorrow Award in 2016, in which Heerlen Murals played an important part. These all result in an increase of visitors coming to Heerlen. Based on estimates of the Tourist Information Centre in Heerlen, it amounts to a few thousand more visitors in 2016 compared to 2013.

Public figures from the liveability statistics provided by ABF research for the city of Heerlen for 2012-2014 show that the local perception of the physical surroundings in Heerlen turned more positive in the majority of the city’s districts. Although there are no later statistics available, it shows a sign of an increased positive perception of liveability in the city. Heerlen Murals contributed to the process.

Many European cities have recently started mural-painting activities (e.g. Belgrade, Kaunas, Gdansk, Antwerp, Ostend, Bristol, Malmo, Reykjavik, Budapest, Waterford). One of the most important motivations of these cities is to make neighbourhoods more attractive. Many of these cities also deal with problems of deprivation in neighbourhoods often characterised by high-rise apartment blocks, or open spaces and raw walls in between historical buildings. However, to connect and engage local communities, to inject life into depressed neighbourhoods and to foster social and urban renewal, so to maximise the potential impact community art-based mural paintings can generate is often missing. Also, in the majority of cases, a clear city-wide effort to facilitate the process is missing. Moreover, Heerlen is engaging with other cities in the Euregio, such as Liège. These cities are highly interested in the manner by which Heerlen was able to rapidly use street art to formulate answers to issues of social and urban deprivation. It is also worth mentioning that hundreds of cities in former Communist countries are painting high-rise blocks in the frame of isolating projects, but without any concepts behind colouring and targeting community engagement. This could create great interest for Heerlen’s good practice.