Audrie van Veen

The Regional Green Deals of the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam were presented by Frank Weerwind, Mayor of Almere at the Mayor’s Summit of the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge. Together with the Amsterdam Economic Board and Amsterdam Smart City, the Metropolitan Regio Amsterdam acts as a mentor region for the 100 European cities who participate in the challenge to work together on their ambitions for the digital and green transition.

For cities that want to work with their stakeholders on ambitious green deals the European Commission now published a practical guide titled Local Green Deals, A Blueprint for Action.

Find the speech by Mayor Weerwind below

22 June 2022

Honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and honor to me to be invited to the Mayors’ Summit of the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge,  and I am very excited to share with you some of my thoughts on the green and digital – or  twin – transition in the cities and regions of Europe. I also would like to express my gratitude to the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions for organizing this event on Green Deals and for launching the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge. By doing this, you recognize the power of cities in the twin transition, you see the need for support for cities to make this transition happen and by this programme, you facilitate the network that cities can create.

My own city is Almere, a new town near Amsterdam and just 45 years old: it was created from scratch on reclaimed land from the sea, and is now a vibrant city with over 215.000 inhabitants. It is a city without ancient history and traditions, but a young city with a strong pioneering spirit, where there is space to experiment and to test innovative solutions in living labs. Our living lab approach has resulted in various circular and sustainable energy innovations in the city, for example: a smart thermal grid for the new Hortus neighborhood. The living lab approach has also led to the choice for Almere as the location for the World Expo on Horticulture in 2022, the Floriade, which will showcase innovations on greening, feeding, healthying and energizing cities, under the umbrella off Growing Green Cities.  The twin transition is evidently a core aspect in this event. I will take this opportunity to invite you all to visit the expo next year in Almere.

But this morning I represent not only Almere but the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam, a region consisting of 32 municipalities and two provinces. An economically strong region in Europe with a high quality of life, an international hub with a huge amount of talent, knowledge, innovation and businesses. The Metropolitan Region Amsterdam is one of the so-called mentors in this programme, because we believe in sharing our vision with other cities in terms of knowledge and innovation, but, please, let me assure you that our ‘success’ story has been established, due to knowledge and innovation coming from the cooperation between cities. My aim for now is to continue the dialogue with you on the issues that we are sharing together.

As many of your regions, our region, with an economy highly defined by tourism and services industries, was hit hard by COVID-19. Therefore, we decided at an early stage to investigate, together with knowledge institutions and the business sector, how we could aim for green recovery. We felt more was needed, besides the required regional energy strategies, investing in our energy backbones, which nowadays also include a hydrogen-infrastructure, and ongoing European energy transition projects such as Atelier. We asked the Amsterdam Economic Board to organise this investigation, since they act independently and aim for connecting the companies, research and education institutes and governments in our region. Facing such an unprecedented crisis, we did not want to do this as governments alone, but together with all relevant stakeholders. And, my fellow Mayors, that is a lesson I want to share with you: don’t do it alone.

Based on interactive stakeholder sessions and scenario-planning, we started a trajectory towards green recovery, resulting so far in 3 Regional Green Deals and with these deals, extra focus on skills for sustainable jobs. The Green Deals are: making the textile value chain circular, developing the region as a innovative bicycle hotspot and -for the Netherlands this is really innovative- increase the amount of new-build houses in timber to 20% of the total of new residential building activity.

As a result of those Local Green Deals, we invest faster and more effectively in the economy of today and tomorrow. The aim is to anticipate on changing jobs and the necessary skills, to fill existing and future vacancies and to achieve greater well-being and prosperity in the long term. And that is what we wish for the whole of the European Union.

To conclude, I would like to compliment you with your efforts in the 100 Intelligent Cities Challenge. And please feel free to take a closer look into the work of the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam and to learn, copy the elements that would benefit you, but also to bring your knowledge to us, for example via our online platform Amsterdam Smart City. That way, together we advance in the European twin transition. And move forward to the digital, inclusive and sustainable future of our cities.

The European Commission's CEF Context Broker Building Block is holding an introduction webinar on 18 February 2021, 15:00-16:00 CET Brussels

Register for this webinar to discover Context Broker and gain insights on how Context Broker enables organisations (including but not limited to public administrations) to manage and share data in real-time describing “what is currently happening” within their organisations, in the real world they manage or where they run their daily business processes.

Context Broker is a standard based API, a digital platform component that enables the integration of gathered data including insights for further exploitation.

• Data Broker: Assemble information from different systems, eventually belonging to different organisations, instead of having them perform in separate silos. 
• Leverage Investments: Enable the creation in the Digital Single Market (of portable and interoperable solutions) a data marketplace. 
• Easy Development: Reduce costs and time in the development of context information based platforms and solutions. Experience has shown that it is possible to create meaningful dashboards in a few days!

Context Broker is a standard-based API allowing users to collect, integrate and contextualise data in real time. It is often used by cities to track actions in real-time and then make real-time decisions.

Register 

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how city managers have responded to challenges working with limited resources and frameworks that are not designed to respond to an emergency on this scale. However, by reframing pre-existing plans and policies and finding innovative ways to implement them, local and regional governments have endeavored to respond to the needs of their citizens. There is now a consensus among the international urban and metropolitan community on the need for new and adaptive tools not only to face the pandemic but to prepare for the world to come.

This webinar is part of the Metropolis / UNDP efforts to identify solutions for cities that can help to address specific challenges that are emerging during these tumultuous times. Cities in fragile and conflict-affected settings have been operating under strain for a long time. There is much to learn from local governments that work on extraordinary circumstances such as armed conflicts, natural disasters, or extreme poverty. The pandemic has brought us all together to be under extraordinary circumstances, offering the opportunity to rethink certain things that we used to give for granted.

In many places, the COVID-19 pandemic merely exacerbates existing pressures on governance systems spurred by poverty, unemployment or high levels of informality, rapid urbanization, stressed resources, and social instability. In these contexts, local and regional governments (LRGs) remain the primary interface for the majority of people to access basic services and have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

When it comes to the metropolitan dimension, further governance challenges arise, and increased coordination between different institutions and between different urban thematics is more needed than ever.

Participants

The webinar will count on presentations by representatives from Ramallah (Palestine) (tbc), Diyala (Iraq), and LSE Cities.

The discussion will be moderated by Amy Gill (Local Governance Policy Specialist, UNDP) with closing remarks from Octavi de la Varga (Secretary-General, Metropolis).

Specifications

It will take place on the 16th February, at 8.30 am (EST) / 2:30pm (CET) and will be held in English.

Registration

Please register here to attend the webinar

The European Parliament hosts a webinar under the title Public Procurement of ICT and electronics: Power of engagement and challenges of verification. The goal is to demonstrate what kind of public procurement policies and practices are possible in information and communications technology (ICT)/electronics.
The webinar is co-hosted by European Parliament vice presidents Heidi Hautala and Marcel Kolaja.

Met elke euro die je als organisatie uitgeeft aan producten en diensten, heb je de keuze voor het duurzamer, eerlijker of innovatiever alternatief. Denk aan circulaire en energiebesparende producten en diensten, maar ook aan verantwoorde inzet van technologie. Daarmee is inkopen een belangrijke driver voor een slimme, groene en gezonde toekomst. Budgetten worden anders ingezet en systemen en gewoontes worden zo doorbroken.
De Amsterdam Economic Board heeft inmiddels een heel Insights dossier gericht op Inkopen met Impact. Daarin vind je achtergrondartikelen, maar ook quickstarts die je op weg helpen bij het verantwoorder inkopen van bijvoorbeeld bedrijfscatering, werkkleding of bouw en onderhoud van je organisatie. Je vindt  al deze quickstarts in het dossier Inkopen met Impact. Je vindt er ook links naar hoe je je kunt aansluiten bij activiteiten van de Board die je helpen met beter inkopen.

Als publieke organisatie kun je verschil maken met hoe en waar je diensten of producten inkoopt. Zo kun je bijvoorbeeld bijdragen aan een slimme, groene en gezonde toekomst door te kiezen voor duurzame producten of circulaire materialen. Of kiezen voor bepaalde dienstverleners die ook bijdragen aan een inclusieve samenleving. Inkoopkeuzes hebben dus maatschappelijk impact. Hoe kun je daarop sturen? En wat zijn de mogelijkheden als publieke organisatie? Daarover gaat de nieuwste aflevering van Podcast31.

Sommigen noemen het inkopen met maatschappelijke impact, anderen noemen het duurzaam of sociaal inkopen. Je kunt opdrachten opknippen in percelen opknippen en uitbesteden aan sociale ondernemers. Of gunningscriteria opnemen als inkoopvoorwaarde, zodat impact als randvoorwaarde geldt. Wat is daarin het verschil? En welke mogelijkheden heb je als bijvoorbeeld gemeente wanneer je met jouw manier van inkopen rekening wilt houden met de maatschappelijke impact?

Om antwoord te krijgen op deze (en meer) vragen, praat gespreksleider Fenneke van der Aa met:

• Elisabetta Manunza (Universiteit Utrecht)
• Alan Wemmenhove (gemeente Apeldoorn)
• Jolijn Creutzberg (Van Hulley)
  Meer lezen?
• De City Deal impact ondernemen (in oprichting) richt zich op het versterken van impact ondernemers in Nederland om samen toe te werken naar een duurzame en inclusieve economie. Inkopen met impact wordt opgenomen in de uitvoering van deze City Deal.
• Voorbeeld uit de praktijk: Haarlem in actie voor sociaal ondernemerschap
• Met de vierdelige serie workshops Proeftuin ‘sociaal inkopen’ inspireerde en ondersteunde de provincie Noord-Brabant (semi-)publieke organisaties bij een meer sociale inkoop. Platform31 bundelde de belangrijkste lessen per onderdeel: inkopen met impact, aanbesteden, in gesprek met de markt en social return.