D6.10 Report on management of +CityxChange replication in Võru

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The deliverable D6.10 Report on management of +CityxChange replication in Võru was submitted by Võru municipality in October 2023. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable is at the end for download:

“The report on management of +CityxChange replication in Võru is intended to give a holistic narrative on how the various workflows and demonstration projects were implemented, tested, and piloted in Võru. It also intends to demonstrate how the replication activities lead to follow-up activities and projects that assist in accelerating the transition to a more energy efficient, smarter, and cleaner urban environment. The replication of the demonstration projects relied heavily on the interaction between the lighthouse cities and the fellow cities in the +CityxChange project framework in the form of seminars, e-mail exchanges, experience sharing sessions and more formal events that took place throughout the project. This relationship proved to be particularly valuable in establishing realistic targets throughout the project and allowed Võru as a fellow city to learn from pitfalls experienced in either the lighthouse cities or by fellow cities that had made early progress in their respective activities.

The replication journey in Võru started with the development of the Bold City Vision (BCV), which is aimed at improving the triple helix of personal, business, and natural environments. Methods of ensuring the BCV is in line with the SDGs were adapted from the lighthouse cities and fitted for the local conditions. The Climathon format was tested virtually due to Covid-19 situation, and it changed the way stakeholder participation could be carried out – a virtual format was more successful than expected and it allowed for more diverse participation than a real-life event would have gathered. The innovation playground journey of observation, sense-making, co-design, and prototyping was deemed exceptionally useful in the process of replication throughout the demonstration projects.

In the technical aspects a Positive Energy Block (PEB) was established in the beginning of the project. The feasibility studies were carried out along the guidance provided in the +CityxChange framework and in parallel funding sources were searched to carry out the investments. The eventual PEB could be considered as practically realised, since the net balance of emissions could be viewed positively due to the use of local biomass and installation of rooftop photovoltaic generation.

All in all, the whole replication management process raised the organisational capacity and confidence of specialists from Võru municipality considerably. So far so that follow up projects have been initiated that look in further detail into the barriers experienced and not fully overcome in the +CityxChange project: speeding up the renovation wave in apartment buildings via a co-creation platform, looking at standardising renovation in heritage buildings, and developing a method for district/block-based renovation strategies in cities.

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