The IT-tools produced by the CIDEA project

(Citizen Driven Environmental Action)

Presentation at DeIC ConferenceSeminar on Digital Methods in Social Science Research

University of Copenhagen, 19 November 2014

Jens Hoff, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (jh@ifs.ku.dk)

What is the CIDEA project?(www.cidea.dk)

• The CIDEA project is a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research project funded by the Danish Council for Strategic Research with approximately 1.5 mill. Euro (10.9 mill. D.kr.).

• It is a 4 year project (2010 – 2014) involving 5 senior researchers, 1 Post.Doc., 5 PhD. students, 5 MA students & 7 Danish municipalities.

• The project has helped municipalities in carrying out a number of concrete, citizen-driven climate change mitigation projects such as low energy villages, car free schools, and energy renovation clusters.

• The main operational goal of the project is to develop a toolbox for climate workers in local government helping them to initiate, carry out and evaluate climate change mitigation projects.

• The toolbox, delivered on an IT-platform, will include organizational models and procedures for collaborative projects that has been proven to work in practice.

• The toolbox will be rolled out to all Danish municipalities by Local Government Denmark, and will be free to use.

Fundamental research question: How is it possible to engage and motivate citizens to do an effort to reduce their carbon footprint?

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Focus of research:

• ‘Collaborative arrangements’ concerning climate change mitigation

(Healey, 2006 (1997))

• ‘Co-creation’ of local climate change policies

(Joiner & Josephs 2007) • ‘Citizen driven innovation’ in climate

change policies (Bason 2010)

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The field of possible collaborative arrangements concerning climate change mitigation:

Initiation of intervention:

Government agents, local authorityKlimabevidst

Citizen visits School campaign

Computer games Transport game Green day care

‘Climate families’ MyClimatePlan ‘Climate ambassadors*

Person Family Schools/institutions Housing cooperatives Villages

Surveys in 3 municipalities AB Søpassagen

Climate village

Sdr. Bjert

Civil society, citizen driven

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Low-energy communities MOTIVATION, TARGET GROUP, IMPACT AND SWOT ANALYSIS

DESCRIPTION: People living together in a geographical community that has collective institutions usually share a common interest, and are susceptible to act together to reach common goals. Working with communities can thus enlarge the scale of environmental action and speed up goal attainment. Collective environmental action makes sense when a certain project can only be performed with the support of a majority of members. But collective environmental action can also make sense as a means to drag sceptical persons into environmentally friendly investments or behavior change.Collective action and peer pressure is a promising avenue to change the behavior of persons who are not front-runners.

WHO? Communities (villages, apartment blocks, neighborhoods, etc.)

AREA OF ACTION? Renovation of buildings. Establishing renewable energy sources.

IMPACT? Large-scale investments in insulation of buildings. Large-scale investments in renewable energy. Reinforcement of collective identities.

STRENGTH AND OPPORTUNITIES? • Reaches people who are not front- runners• Larger impact than action targeting individuals• Speeds up renovation by forcing people to move at the same pace• Allows for economy-of-scale and price reductions when renovating• Reinforces the collective identity of a community

WEAKNESS AND THREATS?• Requires strong, legitimate and efficient local leadership/front-runners

• The coordination of group dynamics to reach consensus requires many time- consuming meetings

•The scale and complexity of projects require strong support from municipalities

Low-energy communities RESSOURCES

RESOURCES BEFORE:

1) Projects start with front-runners. a) either front-runners take the initiative

(ideal situation)b) or front-runners are identified by the

municipality, and are convinced to take environmental action.

2) Front-runners contact community members and organize a meeting (with the participation of local government agents, if necessary ) in which participants agree on a collective goal.

a) Either the front-runners share their idea (or the municipal idea) with community members, and try to convince them

b) Or the discussion is open, and all suggestions are welcome.

3) Once a collective goal is defined, the front-runners receives a clear mandate to work in the name of the community to reach the collective goal.

4) Front-runners communicate regularly with the community through existing communication channels (village newspaper, briefs, homepage, social media, meetings, etc.)

RESOURCES DURING:

Depending on the goal defined during the meeting, front-runners organize different activities in collaboration with local government agents if necessary (ex: energy trade show, climate friendly collective meals, cleaning of public areas, investment in collective environmental infrastructure, meetings with district heating company, provision of an electric car to be used by the community, etc.)

In many cases the collaboration between front-runners and municipal agents is crucial for the implementation of projects.

RESOURCES AFTER:

Depending on the type of activities, it might be important to secure the continuation and maintenance of what has already been achieved.

A renewing of leaders/front-runners might be necessary to ensure that the goals and strategies to reach them remain a collective project (and not just the project of those who first took the initiative).

Low-energy communities INSPIRATION

STORIES:The housing co-operative AB Søpassagen: This housing co-operative is the first CO2-neutral housing co-operative in Denmark. It is located in central Copenhagen and consists of 90 apartments with a mix of students, families with children, singles, and couples with a long history in the co-operative. There are three elements in its model: 1) prioritizing an involvement of all dwellers so that they make a personal effort and take ownership of the project. 2) technical ”fixes”, among these solar panels on the roof, new toilets, new water taps, etc., 3) buying of CO2-quotas. This has been necessary to offset remaining CO2-emission.

The village of Sdr. Bjert: This village in the municipality of Kolding, Denmark has approx. 900 inhabitants and has decided to become a ”low-energy village”. The preconditions in terms of local resources and engagement are very good, and the project has been started locally. The first priority of the village is to be 100% covered by the CO2-neutral district heating system. Local front-runners (”expert activists”) are in charge of the project, and municipal agents are in a facilitating role only. As the projects presents a good match between local demands and municipal priorities it is already becoming a success. With this foundations front-runners are already considering new areas for actions that will mitigate climate change.

”Klimakonsulenten”With the help of a webdesign company (1508) and a small software firm (Title) we developed the IT-platform ”Klimakonsulenten”.

The platform is meant as a tool for municipal employees initiating climate change mitigation project in municipalities, but can also be used by others; i.e. housing cooperatives, villages, NGO’s, social entrepreneurs, etc.

In order to ensure dissemination and use of the platform we convinced Local Government Denmark (KL) to insert the platform on their website. We made a contract with them ensuring that they will maintain the platform untill 2 years after the termination of the CIDEA project, and that it will be free to use for all interested.

http://wp11147492.server-he.de

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borger.klimabevidst.dk

• In collaboration with the municipalities of Skanderborg, Ålborg and Herning the CIDEA projects has developed the existing website www.klimabevidst.dk to the website borger.klimabevidst.dk

• Together with the small software company ”Ingen CO2” CIDEA established a project in connection with the Central Jutland Region (Region Midtjylland) and the EU Commission’s initiative ’Genvej til Ny Viden’.

• The purpose of the EU/Region Midtjylland was to increase the number of SME’s in the Central Jutland Region, who collaborates with knowledge institutions on innovation, and who thereby realize a documented positive effect on their business development.

• Together with ”Ingen CO2” CIDEA received 430,000 DKR from the EU/Region Midtjylland project for strategic cooperation.

• The purpose of the cooperation has been to continue the action research in web applications, and to further develop www.klimabevidst.dk among other things as a tool for the CIDEA toolbox ”Klimakonsulenten”.

www.klimabevidst.dkwww.borger.klimabevidst.dk

These websites are developed to help Danish citizens and companies, who want to reduce their carbon footprint, but who lack knowledge about the existence of different possibilities, what effect different actions have, and how to get started.

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Both versions of klimabevidst.dk are build up around 12 categories, each representing a different area of action concerning climate change mitigation (lighting, transport, heating, etc.) . All guides are written in everyday language and demand no prior knowledge of the field.

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