What will be delivered?

There are two crucially important areas of delivery. One is a hard, tangible product. The other is soft, mindset, opinion forming.

Our belief is that there is significant value in delivering a Reference Framework (RF) that provides an overarching structure within which the products of the project can be made meaningful and coherent. Meaningful, importantly, to multiple diverse stakeholders that need to make aligned decisions. The Reference Framework will be composed of:

• A ‘Policy Paper’ that discusses vision, goals, ambitions and scope for European sustainable cities. It will present the Reference Framework.
• The common Core Operational Model that translates the goals of the Leipzig Charter down to actionable objectives; that can be inspected through different lenses (the Leipzig Charter goals and strategies for action – plus maybe further axes such as for example fighting against climate change, preserving nature in the city, preserving natural resources; the three ‘pillars’ of sustainability; and professionally through different themes); that includes good governance as integral part; and that models the interdependencies between these objectives. Something that, although built around the necessary complexity of a city, can be inspected at different levels of detail so that it can be used simply and effectively. This is the interwoven fabric that sits at the core of the project. It provides a common framework that enables different professions and different cities to be situated and learn. From a solid basis the detail will emerge with time and use.
• An Assessment Tool that is consistent with the above model, and can be used relatively quickly and painlessly by city leaders and managers to baseline and monitor progress over time towards sustainability. As well as a tool that can be used to assess options, and explore the impact of a new development or set of policies.
• Suggested Performance Indicators (monitoring tool) that are consistent with the model (and the assessment tool) that can be used to develop quantifiable targets for a specific city, and offer measureable and meaningful comparisons – both over time, and with other cities.
• A living repository of Research; Good Practices; Tools and the like. Made available through web technologies.

These are the hard deliverables. They will work only if we address the soft ones too. Specifically:

• To find “Champions” that have used the framework and tools, that will evangelise them, and that can demonstrate the value that they bring
• To Engage ‘sufficient’ national and city stakeholders such that we create a movement that will endure. A movement that will not stop at these stakeholders: it will extend to engage the end customers of a city – their residents, businesses and visitors.

All this must be made to work whilst recognising the natural differences that exist between cities, for all good reasons. And the specific and situational priorities, strategies and plans that city leaders put in place.

So core principles of flexibility and adaptability are key. So too the recognition that this is a non-binding charter. So the tools must be appealing. More appealing and more value adding than continuing to use the approaches we know already exist in multiple cities. The materials must be equally relevant for the smaller urban areas where sufficient capacity may not be in place, and where complexity is undesirable. And of course, it must suit deprived areas by taking into account their specific needs, approaches and challenges.
Our goal is to deliver a coherent set of products in the short term that creates the ‘stickiness’ to attract cities to join the process and make it a living system in the longer term. This will not occur without some continued support.

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