introduction
Over the past decade we have witnessed a remarkable turn from the global to the local scale in sustainable development. There has been an explosion of sustainable urban development initiatives focussing on local, circular and renewable production of food, energy and water. There has also been much progress in methodologies to develop locally-robust solutions in Urban Living Labs (ULL).
ULL represent a promising mechanism for adaptive, sustainable governance of the urban Food-Water-Energy (FWE) nexus. However, attention for the impacts of these local solutions at the global level is lacking. The next step is to translate these local innovations to higher levels in order to see how the local flows influence the global performance and vice versa.
aims | objectives
The GLOCULL project aims:
» To develop an extended co-creative Urban Living Lab approach for locally and globally sustainable innovations in the FWE nexus.
» To support the implementation of this approach, through co-creation processes in 7 Urban Living Labs, in cities both in the Global South and the Global North.
approaches | methods
A novel Urban Living Lab methodology will be developed through a combination of:
expected results & impacts
» ULL methodology for globally and locally-sustainable Food-Water-Energy Innovations
» Implementation guidelines
» A participatory tool kit to assess ULL FWE innovations
» Supporting co-creation processes
» Insights in potential of ULL as an adaptive governance mechanism for the FWE nexus
GLOCULL FWE nexus Innovation toolkit
The GLOCULL project partners developed the Food-Water-Energy Nexus Innovation Toolkit. Its aim is to support actors working on urban innovations, allowing them to test their envisioned FWE innovations. The toolkit consists of three modules:
- Module 1 ‚Awareness and Opportunities‘ aims to introduce users to the possibilities of FWE as an integrated system, and to discover possible opportunities.
- Module 2 ‚System overview‘ aims to provide users with insight into the extent to which innovations can have beneficial social, ecological and economic effects, as well as beyond-local effects.
- Module 3 ‘Quantitative assessment’ aims to allow users to compare the current situation with an innovation scenario in a quantitative and visualized way.
Click here to open the tool kit
funding
SUGI (Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative provides a unique collaboration framework between JPI Urban Europe and the Belmont Forum, supported by the European Commission. 15 projects within this initiative will be developed, always focusing on innovative and sustainable approaches within the urban ecosystem and the Food-Water-Energy nexus. GLOCULL is one of these 15 projects around the globe, including 7 project partners.
