As climate change develops, with most of the world population living in urban areas, decarbonisation of cities is among the greatest challenges of the coming decades. In the framework of the EU City-zen project, a number of so-called Roadshows has been organised in ten cities within and outside Europe in order to plan and kick-off their transition towards an energy- and climate-neutral economy. During the Roadshows, a group of experts is engaged to perform co-working activities and participative labs involving local stakeholders. These activities support cities in identifying their own decarbonisation pathways, mainly by combining three mutual processes, i.e. energy design, urban design and carbon accounting. The latter, in particular, has been used to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of cities and neighbourhoods and to estimate the mitigation effect of a combination of measures towards the desirable condition of carbon neutrality. This exploratory and proactive design process has been successfully demonstrated through intensive workshops and can be potentially replicated in other cities. This paper provides a schematic overview of the main results achieved in the Belgian town of Roeselare, but more significantly it describes the techniques needed to make that cooperative process understandable, impactful and implementable. It is likely that 2050 European goals will drastically change urban environments and socio-economic dynamics in cities, due to the fragmentation of energy sources. Hence, from this standpoint there is a vital need for integrated technologies and infrastructures, a circular economy and community-based processes such as food production, sharing of facilities and valorisation of ecosystem services.

The City-zen Roeselare Roadshow brought over 300 stakeholders into the process of re-imagining and visualising their 2050 future city with these solutions. Stakeholders, with no particular expertise in carbon accounting or sustainability, would now have the capability of understanding and applying these solutions in a combined effort to meet the zero-carbon challenge. The approach is generally replicable elsewhere being highly visual, impactful, transferable, and multi-stakeholder friendly. Given that data are made locally available, the combination of this general approach, site-specific assessments and the involvement of both experts and local stakeholders (i.e. policy makers, citizens, etc) allow the transition to start by referring to any real city or neighbourhood. ... Read more

The natural ecotone between people, community and carbon reduction is the zero-carbon community. Over recent decades, the design of zero-carbon communities has focussed too greatly on carbon emissions and not enough on building communities. Anthropogenic climate change is a human problem, yet people are seldom placed at the centre of design solutions. The City-zen Roadshow is an intensive co-creational approach to creating zero-carbon communities, which places stakeholders at the very centre of the design process. The methodology uses an ‘urban-first’ approach and champions urban design as the main driver to deliver change. Carbon accounting and energy analysis sit in adjacency with the urban design proposals to deliver interventions that are net zero-carbon, low energy, low waste, socially rich, ecologically diverse, economically robust, resilient, fit for purpose and engaging. The paper describes this novel approach using one roadshow as a case study to illustrate the urban interventions proposed. Living in zero-carbon communities is not just about photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. It is, instead, about thinking differently about the way in which people live and the decisions they make, to provide people with alternative ways of living that are more desirable than those currently available. ... Read more

To create energy-neutral cities, we need to fundamentally change how we live in our cities. The City-zen Roadshow helps to understand that it is necessary to look at sustainability from both a technological and a societal perspective. The tenth Roadshow, organised in Amersfoort, once again shows how the project creates awareness by connecting citizens, legislators, and market players with students and experts. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. The overall aim of the Roadshow team is to work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and citizens. The Roadshow normally spends 5 days in each hosting city (in Amersfoort they were a compressed 3 days) to deliver energy and urban design fun-shops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes, outcomes that will allow the cities resources, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their
neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’.

The following report will describe the activities and outcomes of the City-zen Amersfoort Roadshow that took place in the Netherlands from the 16th to the 18th of October 2019. ... Read more

Back in 2012, a group of enthusiasts submitted a project proposal to the EU. Many talks, partner proposals, and city explorations later, City-zen was granted EU-funding “to develop and demonstrate energy efficient cities and to build a methodology and tools for cities, industries and citizens to reach the 20-20-20 targets”. The program, rooted in Amsterdam (NL) and Grenoble (FR), had its first official kick-off in March 2014.

In the past five years, no less than 28 partners have been working on 20 pilot projects, aiming for an annual saving of an impressive 59,000 tonnes of CO2. Academics, industries and residents have been brought together to face the cities’ challenges. An integrated methodology has been developed, as have roadmaps to sustainability for Grenoble and Amsterdam.

City-zen did not shield its learning from other urban environments, either. A vehicle aptly named the ‘Roadshow’ sent a group of experts in the fields of sustainability, energy, and urban design to various European cities to ideate with local governments, knowledge institutions, entrepreneurs and residents. Based on the results of workshops, field visits and serious games, municipalities have been shown feasible avenues towards sustainability. Next to Amsterdam and Grenoble, the following European cities were visited: Belfast, Izmir, Dubrovnik, Menorca, Sevilla, Roeselare, Preston, Nicosia (north and south), and Amersfoort.

This interactive book, entitled 'A TALE OF TWO CITIES' documents all City-zen activities since 2012, including those of the Roadshow in the section "Proof of the Pudding' (pp.40-43). The book has been fully translated in English and French, highlighting its international reach and collaborative network. Included in the Roadshow section are quotations of support from two key city decision makers, Mayor Declercq of Roeselare (Belgium) and Mayor Bolsius of Amersfoort (The Netherlands). Both City Mayors worked with the Roadshow when the project visited their cities in April 2018 and October 2019 respectively. ... Read more

Purpose: City-zen is an EU-funded interdisciplinary project that aims to develop and demonstrate energy-efficient cities and to build methods and tools for cities, industries and citizens to achieve ambitious sustainability targets. As part of the project, an Urban Energy Transition Methodology is developed, elaborated and used to create Roadmaps, which indicate the interventions needed to get from the current situation to the desired sustainable future state of a city. For one of the partner cities, Amsterdam, such a Roadmap was developed. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: This paper discusses the approach and methodology behind the City-zen Urban Energy Transition Methodology, with its six steps from the initial energy analysis to the roadmap towards a desired future state. The paper will illustrate this by results from the Amsterdam Roadmap study, in numbers and figures. Findings: The Roadmap study of Amsterdam revealed that the city can become energy neutral in its heat demand, but not in the production of sufficient electricity from renewables. Research limitations/implications: Although as yet only applied to the City of Amsterdam, the methodology behind the roadmap can be applied by cities across the world. Practical implications: An enormous effort is required in order to transform, renovate and adapt parts of the city. It was calculated, for instance, how many energy renovation projects, district heating pipes and photovoltaic panels will be annually needed in order to timely become carbon neutral, energy neutral and “fossil free”. Social implications: The technical-spatial content of the Roadmap was presented to stakeholders of the Dutch capital city, such as politicians, energy companies, commercial enterprises, and not least citizens themselves. Although informed by scientific work, the Roadmap appealed too many, demonstrated by the extensive media coverage. Originality/value: The City-zen Methodology builds upon earlier urban energy approaches such as REAP (Tillie et al., 2009), LES (Dobbelsteen et al., 2011) and Energy Potential Mapping (Broersma et al., 2013), but creates a stepped approach that has not been presented and applied to a city as a whole yet. As far as the authors know, so far, an energy transition roadmap has never been developed for an entire city. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. The Roadshow visited 9 cities in total over a 5-year period who sort expert guidance on how to become more sustainable and wish to move towards energy neutrality. The overall aim of the Roadshow team was to work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and citizens. In Nicosia, the Roadshow spent 8 days delivering energy and urban design fun-shops to local stakeholders in order to encourage city participation and to take ownership of the final outcomes. Outcomes that will allow the cities resources, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’. The following report describes the activities and outcomes of the City-zen Nicosia Roadshow that took place in Cyprus between the 8th to 15th of May 2019. ... Read more

The Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. The overall aim of the Roadshow team is towork closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architects, professionals, academics, students and citizens. The Roadshow spends 5 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design fun-shops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes, outcomes that will allow the cities resources, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’.The following report describes the activities and outcomes of the City-zen Preston Roadshow that took place in Lancashire (United Kingdom) between the 12th & 16th of November 2018. ... Read more

IIn the challenge for a sustainable society, carbon-neutrality is a critical objective for all cities in the coming decades. In the EU City-zen project, academic partners collaborate to develop an urban energy transition methodology, which supports cities in making the energy transition to sustainable lifestyles and carbon neutrality. As part of the project, so-called Roadshows are organised in cities that wish to take the first step toward zero-energy living. Each Roadshow is methodologically composed to allow sustainability experts from across Europe to co-create designs, strategies and timelines with local stakeholders in order to reach this vital goal. Following a precursory investigative student workshop (the SWAT Studio), Dubrovnik was the third city to host the Roadshow in November 2016. During these events the characteristics of Dubrovnik, and the district of Gruž in particular, were systematically analysed, leading to useful insights into the current problems and potentials of the city. In close collaboration with local stakeholders, the team proposed a series of interventions, validated by the calculation of carbon emission, to help make Gruž, and in its wake the whole city of Dubrovnik, net zero energy and zero carbon. The vision presented to the inhabitants and its key city decision makers encompassed a path towards an attainable sustainable future. The strategies and solutions proposed for the Dubrovnik district of Gruž were able to reduce the current carbon sequestration compensation of 1200 hectares of forestland to only 67 hectares, an area achievable by urban reforestation projects. This paper presents the City-zen methodology of urban energy transition and that of the City-zen Roadshow, the analysis of the city of Dubrovnik, proposed interventions and the carbon impact, as calculated by means of the carbon accounting method discussed in the paper. ... Read more

Many cities across the world have the ambition of becoming carbon neutral, but exact figures of progress toward that goal are limited. Regarding Europe’s not overly ambitious 2020 carbon emission targets, many countries still have a long way to go (see Fig. 1), with cities as the prime objects for improvement. It is fair to say that the energy transition is lagging behind, for which several reasons can be given.
One assumption, based on experience with projects with various European cities, is that cities—their administrations and other stakeholders—generally have insufficient understanding of how to gain and maintain control over the complex process of the energy transition with its multiple actors and diverse objectives and responsibilities.
Another suggested reason is the lack of appropriate approaches, strategies, and methods to guide the energy transition in formulating clear targets and intermediate steps of mainly technical and spatial interventions. These, however are currently under development, and are being tested in cities across the continent—such as in Gothenburg, London, Rotterdam, Cologne, and Genova within the EU project Celsius (www.celsiuscity.eu), and in Amsterdam and Grenoble, for the EU project City-zen (www.cityzen-smartcity.eu)—with promising results so far.
The main research question underlying this chapter is: How can cities be supported in their energy transition toward carbon neutrality?
We will describe the development of approaches, strategies, and methods for the urban energy transition, their background and theoretical basis, and present urban case studies where they were applied. Finally, an outlook will be given for methodological developments in the near future. ... Read more

A method of greenhouse gas inventory has been developed for evaluating the environmental implications of civilian life, in terms of carbon emission, according to citizens' behaviour and to the condition of buildings, local infrastructures and services. The assessment focuses on energy use for housing, mobility, impacts of waste and water management. All factors refer to different spatial scales, ranging from the regional, urban neighbourhood, right through to the single-family household. Based on site-specific data, carbon accounting has been performed in Seville, firstly focussing on the provincial scale, then on the urban neighbourhood of Barrio Tiro de Línea. Both quantitative information and a uniquely citizen-centred method of visual result representation have been provided and taken as a starting point for planning an energy transition and decarbonisation scenario. The graphical outcomes allow the selection of a series of carbon footprint mitigating measures to be potentially accomplished in the medium-long term. The procedure was tested during the City-Zen Roadshow, as part of the European Union FP7 City-Zen Project, and demonstrated a powerfully communicative and easily implementable method to inform policy makers and citizens, to raise awareness on real energy transition potentials and to address choices for decarbonisation. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. It will visit 9 cities in total over a 5-year period who are seeking expert guidance on how to become more sustainable and wish to move towards energy neutrality. The overall aim of the Roadshow team is to work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and citizens. The Roadshow spends 5 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design fun-shops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes. Outcomes that will allow the cities recourses, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’. 
The following report will describe the activities and outcomes of the Roeselare Roadshow that took place in Roeselare (Belgium), between the 23rd & 27th of April 2018. ... Read more

Several strategies are presented to teach university students and professionals in the sector how to reduce the environmental impact of our cities. First, the European City-zen project is summarized and its application to the city of Seville, more specifically to Tiro de Linea, a working class neighborhood, is described; the viability and functionality of the neighborhood are analyzed and improvements are proposed so that it becomes an area that attains zero emissions. Second, HEREVEA project is presented, which developed a software for the feasibility analysis and proposals to improve neighborhoods. Its usefulness is presented in a case study in the same neighborhood. Finally, the experience of how to transmit all this knowledge through university teaching is presented. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. The Roadshow team work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architects, professionals, academics, students and of course the citizens themselves. The Roadshow spends 5 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design workshops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes. Outcomes that will allow the cities recourses, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’.
The following report will describe the activities and outcomes of the City-zen ‘Sevilla’ Roadshow that took place in Sevilla, between the 20th & 24th of November 2017. ... Read more

Sustainability needs professionals and methodologies that can bring the architecturally qualitative and scientifically quantitative together to reveal the latent potential of our cities and people. These experts must have the necessary communication skills, personalities and backgrounds to firmly place city stakeholders at the heart of this local and global challenge. This approach, developed during the City-zen Project ‘Roadshow’ (a European Union FP7 funded initiative to develop and demonstrate Zero Energy Cities), began life as a powerful but over simplistic idea. It has since developed into a realizable, mobile, intense, creative, amenable and proven approach that supports cities in their efforts toward carbon descent. The methodology continues to evolve ‘city-by-city‘ by embracing diverse climates, cultures, economies, existing urban morphologies and building typologies. It has been successfully applied in Amsterdam, Belfast, Izmir, Dubrovnik and Menorca. Upcoming destinations will be Sevilla (Spain), Roeselare (Belgium) and Klaipeda (Lithuania). A team of internationally recognized experts in sustainable urbanism & architecture, carbon accounting, energy potential mapping and advanced technologies travel with the City-zen Roadshow to facilitate this approach. This paper will describe the Societal Impact Methodology with reference to previous outcomes, activities, experiences and a detailed explanation of two mutually dependent and inspirational parallel workshops. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. The Roadshow team work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and of course the citizens themselves. The Roadshow typically spends 5 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design workshops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes. Outcomes that will allow the cities recourses, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable ‘City Vision’. The following report will describe the activities and outcomes of the Roadshow (Sustainable Island Menorca ‘Roadshow’) that took place at the Institut Menorquí d'Estudis (IME) in Mahón on the island of Menorca, between the 24th & 28th of April 2017. ... Read more

In the strife for a carbon-neutral society, making cities carbon-neutral is the greatest challenge of the coming decades. In the EU project City-zen, academic partners collaborate to develop an urban energy transition method, which helps cities to make the energy transition to renewables. As part of the project, so-called Roadshows are organised in cities that do not form part of the project but that have expressed the desire to become carbon neutral in due time. Dubrovnik was one of those cities, and in November 2016 a City-zen Roadshow workshop was held here, preceded by a SWAT Studio student workshop in October. During these events the characteristics of Dubrovnik, the district of Gruž in particular, were systematically analysed, leading to good insight into the current problems and potentials of the city. In close collaboration with local stakeholders, the team came up with a proposal for interventions that help to make Gruž, and in its wake the whole city of Dubrovnik, net zero energy and zero carbon. The vision presented to authorities of the city encompassed a pathway towards an attainable sustainable future. This paper presents the roadshow method, the analysis of the city of Dubrovnik, proposed interventions and the impact, as calculated via carbon accounting. ... Read more

The City-zen Roadshow travels with a team of internationally recognized experts, in the field of energy planning and design to help develop a sustainable agenda for cities and their neighbourhoods. It will visit 8 cities in total over a 4-year period who are seeking expert guidance on how to become more sustainable and wish to move towards energy neutrality invite the Roadshow. The overall aim of the Roadshow team, known as ‘Roadies’, is to work closely with people from the hosting city, whether they be city leaders, energy planners, local architect, professionals, academics, students and of course the citizens themselves. The Roadshow will spend 5 days in each hosting city to deliver energy and urban design workshops in which all local stakeholders are welcome and encouraged to join and to take ownership of the final outcomes. Outcomes that will allow the cities recourses, both people and energy, to be directed effectively, by highlighting the energy challenges and potentials to be found in their neighbourhoods, and to finally present a sustainable city vision. The following report will describe the activities and outcomes of the Roadshow that took place in Belfast between the 18th & 22nd of January 2016, in specifically in the neighbourhood of Colin (West Belfast). ... Read more