Projects List

The project “1000 Solar Roofs – Cities and Jobs Regeneration through Community-Led Solarization” (abbreviation: SOL4ALL) will tackle burning issues of unemployment and economic recovery due to COVID-19 crises in Croatia and Slovenia – by designing and delivering models for green recovery through solar energy and green jobs which can be further replicated in the South East Europe Region.
The main objective is to develop resilient business models for community-led solarization that are applicable in all local communities and independent from the current Government subsidies – focusing on private households and unemployed young adults in Croatia, and on the public service sector in Slovenia. Such business models will contribute to energy security, and economic and ecological resilience of local communities in the long-run, while simultaneously enabling cities to regenerate and jobs to be created through community led solarization – thus creating immediate impact.
In Croatia, this will be achieved by creating attractive investment opportunities for citizens to invest in roof-top solar all-year round through a matchmaking platform and cooperative approach and independently from Government support. Consumer cooperative approach will be tested at households level in 3-5 cities that have already committed to the climate and energy transition and through the network of solar ambassadors trained during the project course.

Around 770.000t of food is yearly lost and wasted in Serbia, causing serious environmental and socio-economic problems. 90% of total waste is still landfilled, food waste included. It is estimated that 580kg CO2 eq. can be saved per each ton of food waste diverted from landfill. Food waste is either used as animal feed or is collected by the poor. Systematic monitoring of food waste value chain does not exist in Serbia, while single collection initiatives are not incorporated into urban development plans. Awareness is very low among all actors along the chain. Additionally, food from the retail that ends up in landfills, but still is usable for consumption, could be distributed to the poor.
This project aims at supporting the City of Novi Sad circular economy transition efforts by piloting a model for food waste value chain optimization at the University of Novi Sad that (14 Faculties, 3 Institutes, 50.000 students and 5.000 employees) could be further applied to larger systems in the country and beyond. The objective is to turn an existing not-sustainable food waste value chain into a new, innovative circular system, which will include prevention of food waste, the valorization of non-avoidable food waste and the redistribution of food which is not yet considered waste. The project activities include a thorough data analysis of the current situation, the development and testing of a food system transformation model as well as the awareness raising and training of local stakeholders, which will be actively involved from the very beginning of the project.
It is expected that such a transformation model will have a positive impact on the food waste amounts and CO2 emissions; also, the Government and cities in Serbia will use the model in further development of strategic framework for transition to circular food systems. To enable broad-scale circular food system transformation this Pathfinder Proposal for 2020 will be followed by a longer-term impact project (2021+)

Food waste mngmt has not been addressed systematically in the past in Serbia, and cities face huge challenges in achieving the targets, set out in Serbia’s new Climate Strategy, to prevent food waste totally until 2050 and to reduce the emissions to 380 kt CO2e. This project will develop an innov. approach, to transform the food waste value chain within the Univ. of Novi Sad into a circular system. It has a large climate impact potential by considerably reducing waste that will reach landfills.

This project will enable the operation of a coordinated programme of action to support cities develop and implement their own home retrofit strategies. From July-Dec 2019, UKGBC led an EIT Climate-KIC Pathfinder project, ‘Accelerator Cities’, focusing on the role of cities in catalysing a step-change in home retrofit. A key insight that has emerged from that work is the clear need for a coordinated programme of action that would:

• Enable individual cities to develop their own city-led home retrofit programmes, in the most efficient way possible, based on leading examples from peers
• Unlock system change through coordinated action to address the barriers to retrofit across and between cities, and build the capacity and capability of city actors to respond
• Share best practice, data, lessons learned, evidence, case studies, resources, approaches etc between cities
• Enable a coordinated approach in respect of links to financial institutions and funding opportunities
• Coordinate engagement with central government in respect of, for example, barriers to finance or regulatory powers

The 2019 Pathfinder developed a clear proposition for such a programme. The focus of this new proposal is the actual operation of the programme in its formative stages. UKGBC and partners will perform a central programme management role during 2020, to enable the programme to demonstrate its value to cities, national government and the market, and implement a business plan that would enable grant funding to be reduced, and replaced with more diverse income sources – potentially from cities and/or, central government and industry from 2021 onwards.

The resulting service of Accelerator for energy transition of Croatian local authorities (or shortly “the Accelerator”) to be developed is the capacity building program for cities and municipalities in order to design and implement local solutions in the field of energy and climate through a set of trainings and peer to peer learning. It is a year-long program conducted for cities in Croatia that have the ambition to become leaders of energy and climate transition. The first year of the program will be a pilot project with cities that have already shown interest in such transition during the inception phase. During the pilot year, the program will strengthen and build capacities of up to 10 local authorities, based on received interest during the preparation activities, for city planning, resource mobilization, project management, and system innovation to enable a much faster and more comprehensive transition towards energy independent and climate-resilient cities with active participation of citizens and local communities. The result of the pilot year is to develop the business model for the capacity building program with cities and municipalities in order to strengthen their capacities and get on the path of energy transition and climate neutrality in the following years. The service will be tailored and offered to cities that are interested in receiving further specific support (upgrade) as well as for new cities (upscale) that will benefit of the program in the future.

Despite the plethora of sustainability initiatives and regulations enabling industry actors to reduce their emissions, there is currently no agreed upon method to differentiate among companies that are contributing to a low-carbon transition at the pace required by the Paris Agreement, neither at EU nor global levels. Thus, the magnitude of the challenge, i.e the urgency to cut emissions at least six times faster than we are now, is compounded by the absence of an accountability mechanism. The Assessing low-Carbon Transition (ACT) is a methodological approach that supports EIT Climate-KIC’s aim to enable system transformation by “exposing the weaknesses of the existing system and aiming to nurture something better”. The ACT Inititiave is part of the Global Climate Action Agenda of the UNFCCC secretariat since 2015 and builds on the efforts of initiatives such as the Science Based Targets Inititiative (SBTi). While commiting to set an SBT is a laudable goal and an important step for a company, once this is set, companies need to be held accountable for reaching these goals; without an accountability mechanism SBT risks losing credibility and momentum. Through the Demonstrator, CDP and ADEME are proposing to advance an innovation demonstration of the ACT methodology in the top 12 highest emitting sectors in Europe, namely Oil and Gas, Passenger Transport and Freight Transport, Cement, Cross-sector general methodology; Metals; Iron and Steel and Aluminium, Construction Materials (Glass), Chemicals, Agriculture, Beverage and Packaged Food, Pulp and Paper.

The ARISE project will develop and bring to market a new service to agricultural supply chains stakeholders that aims to transform farming systems toward enhanced resilience and sustainability and builds on the capacity of the WINnERS approach previously developed and having reached its scaling phase. WINnERS developed a financial de-risking instrument, where the cost of insurance depends on basic farming practices improvements such as better seeds or fertilizers. As showed in Figure 1, the new service will developing de-risking and financial support to more radical transformation such as the adoption of conservation agriculture or of de-fossilized farming practices , or the investment in improved water and soil management techniques. The project will identify and assess sustainable practices and develop and experiment innovative business models for these, linking farmers and crop buyers, and combining risk sharing with blended finance instruments. The innovation services and the systemic approach integrated in ARISE will be introduced and demonstrated both in Africa and in Europe. The project will

Who are the problem owners and where is the demand for this service?

In Europe: crop buying companies and retailers and farmers both incur losses deriving from supply disruption. The project will implement new financial services with J Sainsbury’s (the second largest retailer in the UK) and wheat farmer organizations in the South East of England. The ARISE project will also collaborate with wheat farmer organizations and manufacturers in Northern Italy in order to introduce and pilot the services and products developed.

In Africa: farmers currently do not access supply chains and credit market. The implementation will be carried out initially in Tanzania working with (i) the national credit guarantee body (PASS), an agricultural supply chain development initiative (AMDT) that will provide access to maize and sunflower supply chains nationally, as well as the main

The way that cities currently work is through building a climate plan and then identifying isolated solutions to work towards an end goal. The work through the Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstration is starting from the point of the city’s existing climate plan, but then challenging the model of delivery, as well as some of the underlying assumptions within it; the aim of which is to provide for a more aggressive approach to accelerating the route to net zero (this might include new governance models centred around climate transition, new processes to engage citizens or the development of financing models). This KAVA will therefore take some time to work through the intent and frame stages of the Deep Demonstration methodology, avoiding a rush to settle on solutions, but working out what the city is aiming for in the way of outcomes. Once this has been completed then the city cohort will be in a good position to go out to the EIT Climate-KIC community (and the wider market) with a call to action – at this stage we will build a portfolio of experiments with Amsterdam. We will raise funds to complement the EIT grant and select a portfolio of projects that will produce new products, processes, services, tools, start-ups etc, which will be supplied to the challenge owner, associated customers and other similar stakeholders.

Main outcome/product of the ASSIST project is an education and capacity building programme on Applied Systems Science. Systems science not only is in close alignment with, but also complements the systems innovation and the three key criteria recognized by EIT Climate-KIC. This project is a learning hub project on Applied Systems Science in Systems Transformations (ASSIST), which aims to develop and provide the main systems science approaches, tools and methodologies that can be applied within EIT Climate-KIC projects for a comprehensive understanding of the causal interlinkages between the multitude of actors and levers operating in complex systems.

Starting from needs (renewable, biodegradable and cheap bioplastic) and addressing the problem of residues, B-PLAS use an improved approach to convert waste carbon (organic matter in sludges) into renewable and environmental benign material (PHA). Thermochemical pretreatments allows to treat scarcely fermentable residues, namely wastewater treatment sludge. The use of an innovative process configuration allows to use low cost microbial mixed culture system (that do not require sterility) without stability problems. Finally MMC extraction issues were solved with a green extraction process using slightly pressurized dimethylcarbonate (DMC). Waste derived PHA can offset a significant portion of fossil-derived plastics, are in turn recyclable and biodegradable and have a significant economic value.

The project involves the following components:

1) The organization of an off-site seminar with around 20-25 targeted participants on the topic of “Financial Supervision beyond the business cycle”, targeting financial supervisors, policymakers, and key technical experts and academics.

2) The organization of a public workshop in Paris on the topic of “Long-term models = long-term thinking: Measuring and managing long-term risks”. The topic will be designed as a Tedx-style conference with a series of targeted technical presentations on the lay of the land of models looking at ‘long-term risks’, the technical challenges of modeling long-term risks in an environment of radical uncertainty, as well as approaches to integrating long-term modelling into mainstream financial management practice. This public workshop will be complemented by 2 industry roundtables in 2 European capitals.

3) The development of 3 targeted technical inputs based on the two conferences and existing research, exploring different ‘break points’ in the system that can be geared towards long-termism and potential areas for intervention.

4) The development of an academic ‘spearhead’ paper designed to give credibility and academic grounding to the long-term finance agenda within the paradigm of mainstream financial theory, notably Modern Portfolio Theory.

Urban areas across Europe are increasingly facing flooding due to peaks of rainfall, as well as water shortage as a result of longer periods of drought. Replacing the current centralised urban drainage and supply systems is labour intensive and expensive. The startup Field Factors has developed Bluebloqs: a nature-based scalable solution for decentralised water management in urban areas, avoiding flooded streets and guaranteeing freshwater availability. By locally collecting, treating and storing stormwater through an integrated circular water system, stormwater can be reused to meet the local freshwater demand. The system can be implemented at building, property or neighbourhood level, adding green to existing infrastructure or retrofitting projects with a minimum use of space.
Bluebloqs will have an impact on catalysing the transition towards a natural urban water cycle, contributing to the achievement of Impact Goals 2: Green, Resilient cities; 12: Green assets in cities, and 3: Clean urban mobility. This project will bring this new technology to market and realise its scaling potential by:
i) Providing stormwater as a valuable asset to meet the water demand of urban purposes (irrigation, cooling) or production cycles in four demonstration sites across Europe.
ii) Creating success stories and evidence base that proof the viability and benefits of upscaling a nature-based solution in urban development and retrofitting projects, underpinned by a replicable implementation model.
iii) Engaging key local stakeholders in the development of demonstration projects that include the implementation of a nature-based solution at different scales (from living lab to large scale urban infrastructure).
iv) implementing a new business model based on shared ownership and capturing the values provided by nature-based solutions.
The outcome of this KAVA will be the development of a new product (the Bluebloqs system) whose customers will be municipalities and urban developers.

MR MUTZE ALWAYS SEEMED TO GET THE WRONG END OF THE STICK. HE FOUND THIS TO BE QUITE FRUSTRATING, NOT LEAST BECAUSE NO-ONE EVER SEEMED TO EXPLAIN WHAT THE RIGHT END IS, AND HOW HE MIGHT RECOGNISE IT. BOTH SIDES APPEARED THE SAME BUT NO MATTER WHICH HE CHOSE HE ALWAYS APPEARED TO BE WRONG, MUCH TO HIS FRIENDS’ ENJOYMENT OR DISTRESS.



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Soils have a huge potential to
address climate change and make progress towards a carbon neutral or negative
agriculture sector. The Carbon Farming project aims to tap this potential by
scaling up and consolidating “transformative cases” that include co-designing
solutions with local stakeholders, developing monitoring and certification
tools and the identification up of scaling mechanisms for Soil Carbon
Sequestration (SCS). It will start in Europe but ambitions to scale out to
other continents. The project started in 2019 with committed demand owners
from 2 transformative cases in France and Switzerland where low carbon
agri-food chains are being developed. In 2020, based on initial lessons , it
will start scaling up these transformative cases and will select 2 additional
ones. In addition, it will start developing (i) de-risking and guarantee
mechanisms for farmers and businesses, (ii) a plan for a European label on
low-carbon food products, and (iii) services for scaling out to other
transformative cases for which additional funding will be raised. The outputs
of this project are: – 3 to 5 success stories showing transformed ecosystems
generating soil carbon sequestration and profits for value chain actors – a
mobile app for easy measurement of soil carbon and soil carbon sequestration
– de-risking and guarantee mechanisms for farmers and businesses – a plan for
a European label on low carbon food products – integrated services for
scaling out carbon farming The development of products and services form a
specific task (5.2) and will generate 1 or 2 product KPIs (EITN03) by 2021.
The project aims to become a programme transforming agricultural production
across Europe through 25 transformative cases in 5 years. The project outputs
and legacy will be disseminated through a powerful network of associated
initiatives at global (e.g. 4per1000 initiative) and European levels, and
through on-line communities of stakeholders. 

The proposed innovation project, ‘Catalysing Corporate Action Through Plastic Standards (CCAPS)’ will contribute to the development of standards and guidelines for corporates and plastic intervention projects under the 3R (Reduce, Recover, Recycle) Initiative (3RI), as well as develop a concept for a Plastic Action Fund which will provide pre-financing for plastic recovery and recycling infrastructure in developing countries. Over 30% of plastic used worldwide escapes waste management systems, generating serious negative externalities for the environment, while 95% of plastic packaging material value is lost after its first use. In recent years, greater understanding of the impacts of plastic waste has led to many plastic initiatives, alliances and projects, as well as an unprecedented number of commitments from companies seeking to develop circular, zero waste plastic value chains. Despite this momentum, practical strategies for achieving zero waste or ‘100% circular plastics’ are scarce.

CCAPS will significantly contribute to the development and testing of accounting standards and guidelines for corporates and plastic intervention projects under the 3RI, which aims to stimulate new action and investment to reduce, recover and recycle plastic waste. The standard/guidelines will enable a shift from corporate commitments to action and allow for greater transparency and accountability. While the 3RI presents a highly promising initiative, there is a need for funding to enhance incentives around reduction/avoidance activities within the framework of the standards/guidelines. CCAPS aims to address reduction/avoidance in the standard and guidelines, and support the development of the Corporate Accounting Guidelines. Additionally, CCAPS strives to scale-up plastic action around the 3Rs through kick-starting a dedicated Plastic Action Fund.

This KAVA is for a continuing Celsius 2.0 project of 28 months that started in September 2018. It will contribute to the following Impact Goals:
1) 1 – Promote Retrofit and Decentralised Energy
2) 12 – Foster Bankable Green Assets in Cities

The CELSIUS 2.0 Scaler project will spearhead and drive the transition of zero-carbon, affordable, smart integrated heating and cooling energy solutions and systems for the sustainable, affordable, zero-carbon cities/districts in Europe and beyond.

As a Scaler project, it will build on the completed H2020-funded Celsius project (see celsiuscity.eu), including an already committed community of more than 130 cities and partners. The aim of the CELSIUS 2.0 project is to use the networks, findings and knowledge developed within the initial Celsius project to establish a permanent structure delivering scaled, integrated and vital heating and cooling solutions support to cities. There is a clear niche for such an active, trustworthy Knowledge Transfer Network that brings players from across the heating and cooling sector together to support the innovative integration, development and promotion of the sector so that it can play a pro-active part in the EU energy transition. CELSIUS 2.0 offers a foundational brand, established networks, knowledge, collaboration and activities developed during more than five years; ready for innovation scaling support from EIT Climate-KIC.

The Circular Deep Demonstration (DD) in Bulgaria is part of the first wave of Deep demonstrations and represents the outcome of a complex, consistent endeavor undertaken by Cleantech Bulgaria (CTBG), as a co-designer, and EIT Climate-KIC (CKIC) in 2019. It is the aftermath of a collaborative process where we started from a set up phase, securing the intent of seven Bulgarian ministries via an official decree of the prime minister, went through edging the perceived needs, potential opportunities and most pressing barriers and ultimately, received a mandate to work towards defining the long-term pathway for the introduction of systemic solutions for circular and regenerative economy.
At its current stage the topic of circular economy in Bulgaria is widely up taken, where both the public and private sector have been lavishly active. Yet, аt present both the inclusion of CE in strategical documents and the implementation of activities connected to the topic happens sporadically, with an unclear path and results. As, part of the intent phase of the process in 2019 we managed to depict the policy-mix on CE in the country, including existing supporting instruments, gaps and potential cross-ministerial areas for cooperation. Based on the data acquired, national authorities agree that the circular economy should be addressed through a holistic and collaborative approach. In 2020, within the second stage of framing the DD an opportunity for pooling on the expertise of strategical players will be provided with the end goal of implementing the needed multi-level experiments which will support the Bulgarian government in setting a clear agenda, allocating the right set of mechanisms towards creating an enabling environment for circular economy. It will provide for a showcase of a system led approach up taken on a high-national level, where seven ministries, CTBG and CKIC joined forces towards reaching a net-zero, resilient future for Bulgaria, bringing Europe closer together.

The main objective of the project is the definition and validation of circular and regenerative economy experiments for a large number of households identifying a sustainable and less carbon-intensive replicable business model able to scale up rapidly (starting form a sample of 100 apartments up to 10.000). Urban modern life pushes to move several times in the lifetime (more for younger generation) creating a large quantity of waste (more than 1 tonne for each move). The project aims to the definition and implementation of a deep behavioural and market change for a large number of households. Starting from REDO’s portfolio with the objective to reach new buildings in Milan (150.000 expected in the next 10 years) and eventually in the overall country. The project tends to innovation in circular furniture and appliances mix and in business model to act as a catalyzer for the entire market.
The initiative intends to offer an innovative service to the tenants that includes the renting of all the housing appliances and furniture (in Italy there are not furnished apartments for rent). The objective of the project is to redesign the economic systems around these products avoiding waste generation and promoting behaviours that embrace circularity (in all assets lifecycle). The project includes the definition of an innovative business model and the definition of the role of actors in each phase of the asset life. In particular these aspects will be investigated: analysis existing actors market position, definition of mechanism to foster the development of a new Value Chain. Moreover the definition of a sustainable financial mechanisms in the “TO-BE” model will include the identification of contracts structure for each phase of the VC, scenario analysis and monthly fee estimation; identification of role of building owner; identification of economic/financial model and role of lenders, analysis of the environmental impact and regulatory and legislative framework assessment.

The City Finance Lab (CFL) is set up as a platform for public and private stakeholders to support the development of innovative financing solutions that can remove existing barriers for such investments, aiming to increase investments into low-carbon and climate-resilient urban projects. It was developed by South Pole and Climate-KIC, supported by its partners: the Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV), CDP and Global Infrastructure Basel. It is Europe’s first dedicated platform focusing on the development of innovative financial solutions that increase investment in low-carbon, resilient and sustainable urban projects. It supports financial innovators by bringing together leading city finance experts from public, private and philanthropic organisations to develop and improve their ideas. By doing so, it also aims to catalyse broader public and private sector efforts to scale up green investment.

One of the challenges London faces in delivering its climate ambitions is how to aggregate and scale demand and how to do this providing Local Authorities and public bodies with an expedited and lower risk means to invest and trial solutions within a rapidly changing and innovating supply side market. The Mayor’s London Plan, outlines how London will evolve and develop over the next 20-25 years. This strategy addresses the challenges and focus areas for development within the built environment, mobility, and infrastructure sectors. There is an opportunity to support the Mayor’s London Plan and accelerate the uptake of clean technology in London, and build upon the work of the CleanTech London pathfinder project in 2018, through working with the GLA, LWaRB, LLDC, OPDC and London Boroughs to foresight clean technology demand over the next 10-20 years and actively lead and guide this burgeoning marketplace through genuine public sector leadership and citizen engagement.

The project aims to achieve this through working with city authorities to turn their long-term strategies focused upon net zero carbon through solution foresighting, development of pro-innovation procurement models, public engagement, scaling of both solutions and projects and replication across local authorities and cities.

As part of the replication objective, the project will develop a pro-innovation procurement model for city authorities and their stakeholders aligning to net zero carbon pathways and identifying ambitions, foresight and needs; pre-commercial activities; procurement of innovation and partnership opportunities.
The project aims to focus on replicating and scaling the concept across the supply side by establishing a brokerage service, as part of wider CleanTech London, to connect supply and demand of cleantech innovation through aggregating demand across different local authorities, supporting their engagement and providing a platform for the supply side to bid for projects.