An international planning competition and a participative approach, these are the main characteristics of the Greater Helsinki Vision 2050. The project aims to create a shared vision for the region's fourteen municipalities. In 2007, the municipalities, the Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish Association of Architects held an international planning competition. The prized entries gave new and unprejudiced solutions for the development of the region's living, land use and traffic challenges. The prized entries are now available for commenting and re-development, and will form the vision for future Helsinki region, merging the views of experts and residents about the future of the metropolitan area.

'Online until the end of 2008, the Helsinki region 2050 website will introduce the fruits of the competition and the re-developed vision work of the region. Also residents of the region have an unique opporturnity to contribute to the development of their own living areas, by commenting and re-developing the prized entries. The comments of the residents will be included in the process, in which a new vision for Helsinki region is created. Therefore, this is an unique opportunity to affect on how you will be living in 2050.'

The competition entries and the comments gathered from the residents, will form the base for the vision work, giving an videa of the needs and demands for the future Helsinki.

More information on the Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 website.

"Improved energy efficiency and sparing use of natural resources leads to a fall in greenhouse gas emissions in the region and to improved competitiveness." This is the main vision for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030 that YTV, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council, came up with through its study "Climate Strategy for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area 2030". This document was prepared by the YTV, together with experts from the city of Helsinki, which newly became member of the board of directors of Energie-Cites, and the neighbouring cities Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa.

Interesting for the IMAGINE initiative is the long term period the strategy focuses on, as well as the transversal approach of climate change issues within local policies. As stated, 'In order to achieve the aim of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change must become a crucial element in all planning and policy making by the cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area'.

More particularly, the strategy is supported by transversal visions focusing on 'electricity', 'construction and buildings', 'procurement, consumption and waste', 'energy generation', 'land use' and 'transport'. Though focusing on the work of local authorities, the strategy is seen within the local governance process. 'Local authority public information services will help the region’s residents to appreciate their own capacity to control climate change. New methods will be devised for improving interaction with the enterprises and stakeholders that are most important for the climate strategy.'

What does the future of mobility look like? This is a relevant question to ask to the automobile industry and indeed, many constructors have engaged actively in this direction.

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Sustainable villages, sustainable transportation, water footprint, zero carbon, etc.

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Press review including an online video game, the proceedings of the Changing the Change event and more urban sustainability.

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Hi Everybody - This is my first time on the IMAGINE blog. I would like to share some news concerning the IMAGINE Campaign project proposal that was submitted in mid January to INTERREG IVC. Please note that this is a proposal and we will only know in June this year if it will be accepted or not.

Below is a summary of the proposed project - Please if anyone has any questions concerning the project do not hesitate to blog!

Today, it is acknowledged that climate change and energy issues are a major source of concern. Local Authorities (LAs) have a strategic role to play as a significant gap remains between current trends of urban development and the desired sustainable energy future. This is due to 2 territorial tendencies:

1. Schizophreny - LAs are aware what direction they have to take (reduce energy use and increase RES), but the majority are not active enough.
2. Sporadic initiatives - Some initiatives are showing us the way forward. However, these examples are still isolated and to change the current trend, it is crucial that thousands of LAs be involved!

These are the very foundations of IMAGINE.
The objective is to reduce the gap between current trends of urban development and the desired territorial energy future by a bottom-up process where local stakeholders co-imagine an attractive and sustainable future, co-designing IMAGINE-orientated integrated territorial development visions and plans.
Partnership
The IMAGINE project consists of a powerful combination of:

• 12 pilot local authorities (PLAs)
• 3 key European networks with their combined 2,000 LA members promote sustainable energy policies and practices in local authorities across Europe (Energie-Cités, Eurocities, Climate Alliance)
• 1 academic partner (TU Delft) with a strong track record in applied research and advice in the area of energy policy and transnational learning.

Thus the IMAGINE project benefits from:

• extensive geographical coverage of PLAs in Europe: Scandinavia (Odense-DK), New Member States (Koszalin-PL, Presov-SK, Varna-BG), Southern Europe (Modena-IT, San Sebastian-ES), Western Europe (Echirolles-FR, Heidelberg-DE, Leicester-UK, Lyon-FR, Munich-DE, Sutton-UK)
• a broad mix of experienced and less advanced (Lisbon Agenda) partners, but all highly motivated
• proven experience in European communication and dissemination

The main activities include:

• Exposing PLAs to relevant existing tools and methods to achieve a new energy paradigm and create attractive, secure and sustainable living and working environments (via an extensive and interactive exchange process)
• Supporting and coaching these PLAs to test, adapt and create tools (if necessary) that work for them and thus allow them to take ambitious steps to achieve their sustainable energy futures

Cheers Ian

I would like to draw your attention on 2 very interesting initiatives that I discovered recently and that are in close relation with "changing" and territories.

The first one is a new topic section on Planum website (the European journal of urban planning : http://www.planum.net), dedicated to "Transformations around the world". As it is said in the december 2007 issue of the Planum Newsletter, this section is devoted "to collect material that describe how the territory is changing, the multiplication of the physical forms and lifestyles, the presence of contrasting landscape. Changes that cross urban agglomerations, but can also concern urban countryside, or natural landscape, manufacturing and work landscapes...". So far, 6 territories are presented there: Alger, Bologna, Cape Town, Dubai, Lipetsk and Tirana.
http://www.planum.net/topics/transformations.html

The second one is an initiative called "Transition towns [...] for use by all the communities that have adopted the Transition Model for responding to the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change".
http://www.transitiontowns.org will lead you to a wiki, a blog and a forum that I haven't totally explored yet! But to start with it, I would suggest that you visit:

• the 12 Key Steps to embarking on your transition journey
• and also the 7 Buts (barriers that stand in the way of a Transition Initiative)

Fortunately, there are 5 "Buts" less than "Steps" towards successful and sustainable changing!!