From model projects to mainstream

European Towns and Cities Campaign, Enviplan, Aalborg Commitments, Covenant of Mayors, Green Capital, CHAMP... many initatives with the aim to motivate and support local authorities on their way towards sustainable development.

Rather often we hear from local authorities that there are too much initiatives and not enough coordination and continuity. This is what the Integrated Management for Sustainability is standing for: Coordination and continuity - not only on local level by supporting local and regional authorities to implement this integrated management approach, but also on European level by establishing the European Partnership.

All these initiatives are useful and they need a management system to be implemented as well as guidance and training programmes. The European Partnership will offer right this:
* A management system which proofs to be logical and practical and at the same time flexible to allow the integration of existing management tools
* Guidelines which are meaningful and profound and at the same time adaptable to the circumsdances of all European countries
* A training structure which combines the European state of the art and national peculiarities and is able to support local and regional authorities by solving their individual challanges
* The European Partnership will further develop a standard for IMS and assure the quality of the management system itself but also of the IMS trainers and training. And it will lobby for mainstreaming IMS and for establishing tangible benefits and advantages for local and regional authorities with an IMS implemented.

The European Partnership has been established with the spirit to include and not to exclude and with the objective to joint forces and use synergies. The CHAMP project team as well as the new IMS National Training Hubs are looking forward to new partners and to work together with initiatives with the same objectives as we have.

A peaceful and relaxing Christmas time and very best wishes for the New Year,

Marion Hammerl and the CHAMP Team

IMS Romanian Training Hub

Romania has more than 3200 local authorities, 9% of them are small and 4 % municipalities with approx. 3.000.000 inhabitants. Local Authorities are facing servere "basic" problems such as water supply and waste water management, energy efficiency and renewable energies, qualification and jobs - specially for young people and hopefully in Green Economy, how to plan and implement "sustainable" infrastructures...

The concept of sustainable development is known in Rumania since the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The first management tool proposed to the local communities was the Local Agenda 21. In 2008, the National Strategy for Sustainable Development coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests was approved. In the first "Romanian National Report" from 2008, measures and first results have been published.

Since 2003, a scientific consortium formed by INCE- Romanian Academy, the University Lucian Blaga Sibiu, and CRFCAPL Sibiu, has realized various projects focusing on local communities and sustainable development with the objective to elaborate a model for local authorities.

These strategies are based on the results of sociological investigations and the main objectives are:
- Rational use of natural resources at local level
- Environmental protection
- Protecting and developing cultural heritage
- Sustainable development of economy and increase employment jobs
- Development of sustainable tourism

The methodology is transferable to the majority of local authorities in Rumania. In most of the cases it is still too early to evaluate the implementation and the results obtained. Sibiu and the Association Drumbrava Narciselor are included as positive examples in this brochure.

Fundatia de Perfectionare Profesionala in Administratia Publica uses the results and lessons learned from the strategies in training courses for staff of public administrations and has been able – thanks to ICLEI - to enrich the experience in Rumania with knowledge from other countries.

But there is still a big need for training of politicians and technicians in local authorities. So far, local administrations are not used to a management approach which considers economic, ecological and socio-cultural aspects in an integrated manner. Rumanian communities need more to exchange experiences and to learn from the few but positive examples in the country and also from experiences in other European member states. Furthermore, integrated sustainability management will increase transparency and contribute to a better implementation of programmes and projects.

These are aspects of high importance for European and international funding institutions. IMS will therefore increase the possibilities for Romanian Local Authorities to obtain funding which they need urgently to solve important environmental and social problems. Last not least it is of high importance that Rumanian local authorities become an ethical ideal (Vorbild) regarding sustainable planning and acting and start to live the principles of participatory democracy and the spirit of tolerance. Only then they can request the support of stakeholders and citizens and motivate them to change behavior.

Fundatia de Perfectionare Profesionala in Administratia Publica believes that the Integrated Management System is a valid instrument to enable Rumanian local authorities to face global and local challenges and to contribute to improvement of quality of life for the citizens in our country.

Cooperation is municipal therapy – Notions from the Live Stream session

Ms. Georgi from EEA reminded us that joint actions and cooperation needs something tangible for basis. The tangible basis can be built through different initiatives that activates cities. Cities are the basic unit of governance, the level in which practical actions often are taken. So, what happens in cities, matters for Europe.

The IUME process is one initiative that is building tangible basis and possibilities for cities to learn from each others. As Mr. AtKisson said in yesterday’s panel discussion “If you cannot measure sustainable development, it will remain just a nice word”

Ms. Mühlmann from ICLEI reminded that integration and cooperation are the key to success and that there is also a key set of indicators in the Capacity Development Package on www.localmanagement.eu which functions as e-platform for the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management.

Ms. Maliszewska from the Sendzimir Foundation emphasized the need for continuous capacity development on two levels: individual and institutional. She also saw that IMS can have a role as being practical tool in developing good governance.

Several comment speeches noted that good governance and sustainability management are challenging goals for cities but the networks have important role as supporters in the process. Mr. Hooli from UBC summarized the experiences from implementing IMS by referring to a civil servant who had stated in IMS workshop that “Cooperation is municipal therapy”.

Photo: Lauri Hooli from UBC.

Implementing sustainable development in Polish cities

The polish cities need urgently a shift in the attitude towards climate change, both in terms of adaptation and mitigation actions, states Karolina Maliszewska, Board member of Sendzimir Foundation- I personally think that IMS is a real innovative process that the polish cities should take into account for becoming more sustainable.

Ms. Maliszewska also recognizes that implementing sustainable development is a very important thing but at the same time is a very complex issue that should be dealt with the right tools. That's why the Sendzimir Foundation has decided to be part of the CHAMP European Partnership: cities gain support and a stimulus from being part of a network.

The Capacity Development Package set up in CHAMP may address perfectly the complexity of the topic: its practicality is a support for Polish cities and bring strong benefits.

The challenge of climate change can only be solved with cooperation

In her interview, Birgit Georgi from the European Environment Agency emphasized the role of cities in achieving the goals of the EU 2020 strategy. However, she also stated that climate change is a problem we cannot solve on one level of government. The local level neither the European level can not solve this challenge alone but all levels of government are needed.

After this, Pamela Mühlmann from ICLEI introduced the European Partnership for Integrated Sustainability Management, which is working to mainstream integrated management to build more sustainable cities and regions. The European Partnership aims to form a bridge between European policies and local authorities. It focuses in increasing the capacities of local authorities

At the moment the European Partnership is still an open network, so if your organisation is interested, please contact us! You can find more information on the in the Introducing the European Partnership section.

Why participate in European projects, such as CHAMP?

Why is cooperation needed? Because working with other European cities is a big stimulus, it provides the possibility to get in touch with different and several experiences brings certainly new ways of thinking and acting - this is what Daniela Luise, the new Italian Local Agenda 21 Association Director, reckons.

CHAMP gathers many European networks working on sustainability and IMS, and very experienced ones as well, and they can support cities providing best practices and trainings.

In this sense, cooperation at international level between networks and therefore their cities is key for a sustainable growth in our countries: this is also a key issue that is being discussed now in the second day of the CHAMP online conference. Please take a look at the live conference on line and don't hesitate to ask questions, the speakers are there to give you ideas and to answer your questions!

You can find more information in the section European Cooperation.

The importance of cooperation

'Good ideas walk with human legs', this is what Emanuele Burgin, President of the Italian Local Agenda 21 Association, thinks of the importance of cooperation between different municipal departments. The Integrated Management System in a municipality gives the opportunity to have an internal 'think-tank', that could successfully set up and implement efficient processes, through a continuous share of updated information.
An added value is the opportunity coming from CHAMP on an european partnership of cities, with training hubs becoming points of reference for training on IMS, providing tools that would enable cities to stand up alone and to use the most of their internal capacities.

Watch the video of Emanuele Burgin at the section Why is European Cooperation needed?

Transnational networks helping cities in climate change response

The second key note paper of the European Climate Champions conference is written by Dr. Kristine Kern, a researcher on environmental policy issues. In her paper, Dr. Kern writes: When cities develop their own initiatives and try to influence international decisions directly, they change from being policy-takers to policy-makers.

It's true that transnational city networks such as ICLEI, UBC, Energy Cities and Climate Alliance etc. working with climate issues can be of great help to their member cities. They can either use direct lobbying, financial incentives or direct consultation and collaborative efforts in an international setting.

In the CHAMP training series we have seen that peer support and capacity building offered by these networks is really of great value to the cities. What ways do you think this kind of city networks can help cities?

Read the keynote paper by Kristine Kern here and feel free to discuss it in the comment section of this post!