Closer to the citizens – R2CITIES website now offers sections in Italian, Spanish and Turkish

Leveraging local business and political ecosystems is a key component of projects like R2CITIES. Without the knock-on effect produced by ongoing engagement with localities, our core aim of replicability would be difficult to reach. Furthermore, the focus of R2CITIES is renovating residential districts, and it is therefore important to ensure these end-users are able to learn about our work and how it will be beneficial in the longer term.

Consequently, the R2CITIES website now features sections in Italian, Spanish and Turkish which zoom in on the local demo sites and the works being undertaken there. These local language sections will “bring home” our vision of zero energy cities to local decision-makers, building professionals and residents in a language that they are sure to understand, while highlighting the concrete endeavours R2CITIES is making on their doorstep. These “mini-websites” present the salient futures of all three demo buildings and districts, and current energy consumption. Further sections, which are specific to each demo site, describe the passive and active measures planned or underway thanks to R2CITIES, highlighting the relationship between energy consumption, sustainability and future savings. News about the progress of the works will also feature in these local language sections.

A further aim of these mini websites is to strengthen information flow with other energy efficiency projects which have partners in the same countries as our demo sites. By having information in local languages, it will be easier to spread the virtues of our retrofitting initiatives to those beyond our own project and to encourage greater uptake by other local districts.

Keywords

• local business
• engagement
• community
• residential districts
• languages
• local
• building
• energy efficiency
• sustainability

Countries

Spain, Italy, Türkiye