We are the lead partner in the CCI4Change – an Energy Transition Project Funded by Interreg BSR
We are glad to be the lead partner organisation in the new project “CCI4Change: Facilitation of Citizens’ Energy Consumption Behavioural Change in BS Cities and Municipalities”, funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea programme.
How can we address the need for behavioural change needed for reducing energy consumption? This shift is hard to develop and grasp, and project-partners believe that this is where arts / culture / creative means are essential and can help to find new ways for public authorities and communities to approach energy consumption habits, fostering a sustainable and collaboratively built future.
CCI4Change will work to empower and build the capacities of local authorities and creative and cultural professionals to collaborate in synergy, embracing mutual benefits. Local authorities gain access to imaginative ideas, creative skills to enable citizen engagement and co-creation, enriching their sustainability initiatives, while creative professionals find new possibilities of collaboration, new usage of their professional skills in the creation of sustainable solutions, new avenues for self-expression and income generation. Citizen engagement is key to find new solutions for behavioural change to reduce energy consumption.
The CCI4Change project will pilot new collaboration models between local authorities and creative professionals, aiming to transform citizens’ energy consuming behaviours. The pilots will be caried out in Jurmala, Skane and Kotka in 2024. Out of the experience gained in the pilots, the project will develop a practical toolset tailored to support collaboration between creative professionals and local authorities. This toolset will provide tested methods, enriching strategies and practical support for local authorities to work with the most complex societal challenges together with their local field of arts, culture, and creative professionals. Furthermore, the project produces three in-depth case studies cantered around the topic of energy consumption behavioural change, serving as tangible examples of successful collaborations. These studies will highlight the vast potential of such partnerships, demonstrating how they contribute significantly to advancing sustainability goals and fostering innovation in various sectors.
“I believe that the skills, insights and capacities of the cultural and creative sector play a key role in the shift towards sustainability. This project is a much needed practical opportunity for new collaboration formats between public authorities and the creative sector to achieve a shared goal together with the citizens,” says Krista Petäjäjärvi, Acting Head of the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture.
We look forward to collaborating with the project partners: Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (lead partner, the Secretariat located in Latvia); Jurmala Local Government Administration (Latvia); the City of Kotka (Finland); Scania Region (Sweden); Cursor Oy: Kotka-Hamina Regional Development Company (Finland); Föreningen Stapelbädden/STPLN (Sweden) and South- Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Ltd (Xamk) (Finland). And we are grateful to have associated partners on board in the form of the Riga Municipal Agency “Riga Energy Agency” (Latvia) and Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) (Secretariat located in Sweden).
The project is implemented from August 2023 until July 2025, the total budget of the CCI4change project is 470,000 euros, of which 80%, or 380 000 euros, come from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme and the remaining 20 percent from the project partners.
