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Smart City – Class A Municipalities – the videos telling the story of the project

Image on the theme of smart cities 
02.02.2016
The project "Smart City – Class A Municipalities" by the Region of Sardinia has come to an end: its aim was to help to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and to green manufacturing and business processes.

The project, coordinated initially by the General Directorate of the Presidency of the Region, and then by the Energy Directorate of the Region’s Department of Industry, was managed by a multidisciplinary team comprising Sardegna Ricerche, which supplied staff resources and 20 project tutors engaged in outreach activities, SFIRS (the Region’s Financial Company), BIC (Business Innovation Centre) Sardegna and two scientific coordinators.

The project team supported 31 pioneer communities, comprising in total 102 municipalities, in drawing up their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). SEAPs are one of the tools provided for by the "Covenant of Mayors", an initiative promoted by the European Commission to involve municipalities from all over Europe in implementing the "20.20.20 Strategy", which targets a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The Smart City project pursued four main objectives:
- equip the municipalities with updated, flexible energy planning tools, able to generate positive impacts on medium and long-term local development
- provide municipalities with the information they need to reduce energy consumption
- improve the know-how of the technical staff of the municipalities concerned
- facilitate access to available funding sources.

The project has been ranked as an example of best practices at EU level, also thanks to the use of financial engineering tool JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas). JESSICA is an EU initiative targeting sustainable urban development, in particular the regeneration of run-down areas and energy efficiency. The funding granted by the JESSICA scheme has allowed implementation of part of the actions included in the SEAPs of some of the participating pioneer communities.

Besides providing technical support and facilitating access to financing, the project has also included an extensive education campaign on environmental sustainability, targeting especially the young. This activity included a calendar of outreach meetings entitled Circulating Energies. This series of nine events was held from June to October 2015.

To tell the experience of the Smart City project two videos have been made, one shorter, one more detailed, describing the unfolding of the project and the results it achieved. The videos are in a playlist and can be accessed from this page or on Sardegna Ricerche’s YouTube channel.

Playlist on Sardegna Ricerche’s YouTube channel