SmartEnCity Academy

The SmartEnCity Academy is an online training course that will teach you how to put the Cities4ZERO methodology into practice. The Academy follows the steps outlined in the Cities4ZERO framework and was designed to qualify city and municipal representatives, planners, and developers as ambassadors for a carbon free future and to provide them with the tools to help their cities reach their decarbonisation goals. The lessons offer clear explanations and practical examples from real life cases. If you are interested in using the Cities4ZERO approach in your city, then this is a great place to start!

The SmartEnCity Academy consists of four online webinars and slide decks that will guide you through the tools and methodologies used in SmartEnCity and teach you to use those tools to start or boost your own zero carbon emission journey. The webinars also include expert speakers from the smart city community and related initiatives such as the Smart Cities Marketplace.

The theme for each webinar is outlined below:

  • Lesson 1: The SmartEnCity Way towards Zero Carbon City: The Cities4ZERO Strategy and Integrated Energy Planning. Lesson 1 is a panel discussion with different SmartEnCity experts who introduce the main Cities4ZERO concepts – Urban Transformation Strategy for Cities and Integrated Energy Planning (IEP).
  • Lesson 2: Mastering Governance & Political Barriers: Engage and Integrate. Panel discussion with political representatives from the SmartEnCity Lighthouse cities Sonderborg, Tartu, and Vitoria-Gasteiz. The discussion focuses on how governance can be secured through organizational structures.
  • Lesson 3: Where Are We Now? City Analysis and Diagnosis. The third training course is moderated by Michele de Santis from RINA Consulting S.p.A. The course focuses on the needs to be included in a city description according to the Paris Agreement, SmartEnCity, Covenant of Mayors, etc. and according to the visions of the cities.
  • Lesson 4: Envision and Planning: The SmartEnCity Planning Process . The final training course illustrates how the planning process has been used in practice in two of the SmartEnCity Lighthouse Cities, Tartu and Vitoria-Gasteiz.

How to use & tips:

  • SmartEnCity Academy is simple – just click on the SmartEnCity Academy link to get started! Once on the page, you will see a brief overview of the SmartEnCity Academy and what to expect from the training. In each lesson, there is a link to watch a video of the lesson and a link for a presentation of the main concepts. All you need to do is click the video link and/or the presentation link and start learning!
  • To learn more about the community that organized the Academy sessions and see what else they’ve been up to, go to SmartEnCity Network. For instance, the Network has been publishing their Network bulletins, covering the SmartEnCity journey along with the progress made among cities in the national Networks in Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Bulgaria and Spain.
  • Want some more lessons specifically about integrated energy planning? Be sure to check out our series of webinarstoo.
  • Want to get back to the basics? The Cities4ZERO methodology is the way to go.

Links to more information:

Visit the website here - SmartEnCity Academy