UrbanWINS launches its online agoras, a virtual space for debate

UrbanWINS has launched its “UrbanWINS agoras”, a participative virtual community to share knowledge and discuss ideas on the topics of waste, resources and innovation. The UrbanWINS agoras facilitate citizen and other stakeholder feedback into the project, as well as encourage and promote brainstorming among participants, co-creation of the solutions, and a shift towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns. The UrbanWINS agoras are accessible through the project website: https://www.urbanwins.eu/online-agora/

In addition to citizens’ involvement, participants in the online “UrbanWINS Agoras” will include governments, organisations, waste management solution providers, research institutes and educational centres. The online platform will inform about international activities and ideas and also connect to face-to-face workshops and local actions organised in the eight pilot cities across Europe.

The recommendations and tools co-developed with the involvement of citizens will be replicable to other cities. One of the final outcomes of the project will be a toolkit for participatory and science-based decision-making and planning for waste prevention and management that can be applied in any public authority across Europe.

The UrbanWINS website – www.urbanwins.eu -, hosting the agoras, has been live for three months and it provides a wealth of information on the project, its goals and approach. Each of the pilot cities has its own webpage, providing detailed date on its waste management and prevention strategies and figures. The project has also developed a “Sector Watch”, a highly targeted source of information for public procurers working on the waste sector, where developments are monitored and shared that can be accessed from the website.

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Bringing Urban Waste Management to the next level – Jointly through the UrbanWins project

UrbanWins, a new European project funded by the Research and Innovation Program Horizon 2020,  will study how cities consume resources and products, and how they eliminate the waste produced, in order to develop and test innovative plans and solutions aimed at improving waste prevention and management. These strategic plans will be tested in eight pilot cities within six European countries – Austria, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Spain.

 

Launched this June 2016, the project will analyze current strategies for waste prevention and management in a total of 24 cities and assess how they contribute towards resilience and resource efficiency. The project will follow the urban metabolism approach, in which cities are considered living organisms that use natural resources and create a flow of materials and energies. The results will be used to define objectives and indicators of the Strategic Plans for Waste Prevention and Management in the eight pilot cities: Cremona, Torino and two cities within the Metropolitan City of Rome (Italy), Bucharest (Romania), Leiria (Portugal), and Manresa and Sabadell (Spain).

Active participation from citizens, governments, organisations, suppliers, research institutes and educational centres is foreseen through physical and online agoras in the eight pilot cities, where participants will share opinions, discuss ideas and plan solutions.

The participatory approach is an added value of UrbanWINS, as the vision of all relevant players for waste production and management at urban level will be taken into account to co-develop new strategies and co-test innovative solutions.  Recommendations and tools will be transferable to other urban contexts. The final outcome of the project will be a toolkit for participatory and science-based decision-making and planning for waste management that can be applied in any public authority across Europe.

UrbanWINS pursues to shift to more sustainable consumption and production patters and to enhance better management of waste to improve urban quality and citizens’ welfare.

The three year project is coordinated by the Municipality of Cremona, Italy in partnership with 26 partners including cities, NGOs and companies.   In Romania, the partnership includes the Municipality of Bucharest, Romania Green Building Council (RoGBC),  ECOTECA Association, ECOTIC, Global Innovation Solution, and ENVIRON Association.

RoGBC’s specific role in the project includes providing expertise on tools to engage the construction industry to reduce waste and create circular economy solutions.  In addition, RoGBC will facilitate the launch and development of “online agoras” to engage the target audience in the participative process, increase participant commitment and involvement in decisions and actions, and to communicate the results to all stakeholders.

 

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Click here to watch the video presentation of the project.

The UrbanWINS Toolkit

Various resources will be developed during the course of UrbanWINS to assist stakeholders in achieving a better understanding of waste prevention and management strategies in their cities.

One of the final outcomes of the project is the UrbanWINS Toolkit: A guide on urban metabolism and participatory processes for more efficient urban waste policies. In this consultation process, the UrbanWINS toolkit is divided in different parts so that you can have an easy access to the information that you consider of interest or relevant. Also, we have designed a short survey that aims to be a mechanism for you to evaluate the utility and usability of the Toolkit.

The toolkit gathers all the relevant technical and political approaches and tools that have been used throughout the project, and values the heterogeneous experiences of the partners in order to inspire innovative urban waste prevention and management strategies able to contribute to the shift to more sustainable and circular urban economies.

UrbanWINS Toolkit addresses various audiences that can find in the current document sources of inspiration and action to act on the improvement of the sustainability of their cities from an innovative perspective and interpretation of waste issues and policies. In order to inspire the action, the toolkit story tells UrbanWINS experiences in an easy to understand manner, explaining both the theoretical considerations behind the activities and the practical ones – the deployment side. Moreover, the toolkit includes various testimonials, case studies, resources and sectorial/thematic focus that are relevant for the understanding and replication of the approaches, as well as to get to know the people and actors behind the UrbanWINS approach.

You are encouraged to participate in the Consultation process in the parts/contents that you are an expert on and/or have interest in. The different parts of the toolkit are available here.

If interested, please read the different parts and give us your feedback!

If you know any person or any organisation that could have an interest in the theme/project/process, please forward the information/materials or send their contact to our email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Your expertise is very important for developing the final version of the toolkit! Thank you for your contribution in UrbanWINS!

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Click here to watch the pilot cities' actions to prevent and manage waste/resources.

 

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690047. The sole responsibility for any errors or omissions made lies with the editor. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission. The European Commission is also not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.