Project description
The overall objective of GREENCIT was to demonstrate how environmental policy can be interpreted and implemented into concrete citizen-oriented actions, which motivate and help citizens to change their behavior. These included tests for Individual apartments in residential areas; jointly used waste management areas in residential blocks and the intra-city-region mobility system.
UBC EnvCom took care of the dissemination and outreach of activities, showcasing and linking the regional activities in Sweden to the rest of the Baltic Sea Region as well as involving the UBC member cities in the two major conferences in Turku 2011 and Umeå 2013.
Results
The project contributed to national and EU policy goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improved public health by reducing noise and improving air quality. In Umeå, it helped to create a more attractive urban environment with less traffic congestion in the city. A total of around a quarter of all of Umeå residents changed their behaviour because of "Be Green Umeå", a brand launched during the project, activities.
The main innovations of the project:
- interactive demonstration technology for sustainable travel and energy-efficiency in households
- the combination of communication methods and interactive technology for solving urban environmental challenges, in terms of optimum cost-benefits, using focus groups and extensive environmental effect measurements
- the involvement of academic and business expertise in the field of interaction design methodology, which was used for the first time for promoting and enabling environmentally-friendly behavioural change.
Funding
LIFE+