Not all blessings are sent down from above. Citizens themselves are coming up with innovative, sustainable initiatives. How can governments respond?

Car-sharing, community-supported agriculture, co-housing, social bicycle workshops, food teams that buy collectively from farmers, communal allotments, local residents coming together and investing in a wind turbine... these are the kinds of transitional ideas that citizens themselves are starting to come up with. The guiding principle behind it all is the cooperative philosophy. Larger cities in particular are getting really experimental. A bottom-up approach then. Or is it?

'In practice, there's sometimes a bit of top-down involved, too. Many of the initiatives are actually co-launched by people working for the local government,' explains Thomas Block, sustainability and governance lecturer at the University of Ghent. 'They wear two hats. That can sometimes cause confusion. Sometimes during consultations, they no longer know whether they are there as a citizen or as an official. They may also clash with the city council or other city services. Take the example of the 'liveable streets' project, whereby residents create their own temporary car-free 'dream street' with the support of the city. What happens if a minority of residents don't want to be involved? What should governments do then, go ahead with it anyway? And what do you do if the fire service opposes the plan?'

Some citizens' initiatives quickly fizzle out; others catch on. Car-sharing systems like Cambio, for example, are popping up like mushrooms. What makes a movement successful? According to Thomas Block, there is a range of factors at play.

The role of citizens

A recurring theme in many sustainable citizens' initiatives is the cooperative philosophy: upon joining forces, people feel strong enough to approach things differently. For those behind the initiative, the social aspect is sometimes even more important than the sustainability factor. They are not always primarily concerned with saving the earth, but enjoy finding new ways of addressing problems. 

The role of public authorities

It is not always clear whether and how cities or municipalities should provide support for sustainable citizens' initiatives. A financial boost is always welcome, as is the sharing of expertise. However, it is rarely a good idea for cities and municipalities to completely take over an initiative and manage it themselves. They must be bold enough to loosen the reins a little and allow people to do their thing. It is also best to resist the urge to develop a one-size-fits-all solution. Every initiative arises from a specific context, and requires a specific approach. The response must be made-to-measure. 

The role of policy entrepreneurs

The term 'policy entrepreneurs' is jargon for politicians, officials or citizens who take on the role of inspired entrepreneurs. They see opportunities, make use of an extensive network, connect citizens and public authorities and work tirelessly in doing so. They also know what policy avenues need to be pursued in order to get results. 

The maturity of the project

The initiative must be 'mature' enough to respond to the cracks that have appeared in large systems. Again, take the example of the mobility system, which is historically tailored for use by private car owners. The cracks in the system are well-known: fine dust, congestion and noise, and at a higher level global warming and the depletion of commodities. Car-sharing takes advantage of those cracks, and provides an attractive alternative for an increasing number of citizens. The system is self-sustaining. The local authorities make their contribution by reserving parking spaces for car-sharing in key locations, and by using the system themselves.

Thomas Block does, however, have a couple of disclaimers when it comes to this cooperative voluntarism:

• Even a successful initiative may not always be able to shake up the status quo. The powers that be include not only industry and big business, but also citizens themselves. Eating local, organic and seasonal food appeals to a portion of the population. However, many consumers still believe that strawberries and beans should be available in supermarkets all year round.
• The citizens involved in cooperative initiatives mostly belong to the white, progressive and critical middle class; i.e. they are a minority group.

Local and global power gains

In many policy areas, the authority of nation states is being eroded. The same applies to sustainability. Local authorities and global institutes are gaining power:

More power for mayors

Nation states are too large for direct democracy to function properly. In addition, according to the American political scientist Benjamin Barber, they represent an obstacle to international cooperation as they are loath to concede any authority over their territory. As a result, they prevent solutions being found for cross-border problems such as global warming.

In his book 'If Mayors Ruled the World', Barber explains how cities do have the necessary assets to address global issues. For example, Los Angeles has already reduced its CO2 emissions by 20%, whilst the US as a nation has made far less progress. Many other cities have also set themselves more ambitious CO2 reduction targets than other authorities.

Many cities are now trying to join forces with other cities to find solutions to problems, via a range of networks and organisations such as Eurocities. Barber believes this could be taken even further. He calls for the establishment of a global parliament of mayors with 300 seats rotating between the participating cities, which would meet three times a year to adopt (non-binding) proposals.

'Cities should be given more room for manoeuvre, both financially and legally,' explains Barber in an interview with the Dutch online journalism platform De Correspondent. 'Cities usually have more in common than countries do. If Germany grows, Poland becomes smaller. But if Berlin grows, that won't affect Krakow at all. I think it's much more likely that New York and Moscow will work together than Obama and Putin.'

More power for Europe and global institutes

A robust body with global powers of enforcement? The UN is not far off, but the disadvantage is that decisions lie in the hands of a small group of players. Closer to home, the European Union is wrestling with a democratic deficit that is even greater than that of nation states. However, it is precisely because of the distance between European institutions and European citizens that the EU can sometimes force through unpopular, but sustainable measures. Take the problem of fertilisers. The strategy is a familiar one: national politicians 'ask' Europe to impose stricter environmental and other standards, and then turn to their citizens and say, 'it was Europe's decision'.

Public procurement in Europe accounts for around 19% of GNP. This purchasing power is an often underutilised icebreaker for rendering the economy more sustainable.

Public organisations, when combined, have enormous purchasing power. They can use this to steer the entire economy onto a more sustainable course. According to Mieke Pieters, this does not happen often enough. For many years, she worked as a strategic procurement expert for the City of Ghent, and organised the Ecoprocura conference last year. These days, through The global picture, she provides training and advice on sustainable procurement policies, facility management and chain management.

Mieke Pieters: 'The government and the social profit sector are giants with feet of clay: they have enormous potential, but it is hardly ever utilised. Yet you can achieve sustainable objectives via procurement policy without having to spend extra money.'

The inclusion of sustainability criteria in public contracts is just the first step on the path to a more mature procurement policy. The next step is the development of a procurement strategy. This is a relatively easy task, provided that the organisation has a clear strategy. Mieke Pieters:

'For example, that could be: by 2020 we want to reduce our CO2 emissions by 20%. But it could also be: we want to boost the social economy. It is then down to the procurement department to translate the organisation's strategy into procurement targets.'

Real needs, well-considered specifications

A sustainable procurement policy does not begin with the question 'What do we want to buy?', but with the question 'What do we really need?'. Simply replacing 50 petrol cars in a fleet with 50 hybrid cars without a second thought is not the right approach, explains Mieke Pieters:

'First ask yourself whether the organisation actually needs 50 cars. If they are used efficiently, you might only need 25. Then, those cars can be really state-of-the-art when it comes to sustainability, and can cost a bit more. Or you can switch part of the fleet to car-sharing vehicles. Or encourage the use of electric bicycles: 80% of the impact of sustainability measures is down to thinking about what you really need. You can perform this same exercise with computers, office equipment and so on.'

With the help of well-considered specifications, public bodies and social profit institutions can also set their suppliers on the path to sustainability. These organisations have hundreds of delivery vans driving around every day with paper, meals, laundry, etc. Give the supplier with the most sustainable vehicle fleet extra points, and you have already made a little progress.

Mieke Pieters: 'The same applies to other sustainability criteria. One particular hot topic is sustainable chain management. No city wants to hear that the cobblestones for its streets were made by children, just as hospitals like their work clothing to be produced under humane working conditions.

Or take the issue of social employment. As a public authority, you can achieve some of your equal opportunity policy targets via public contracting. For example, if a new school is being built, you can insert an employment clause in your specifications. This will place an obligation on the contractor to select an agreed number of unemployed young people, train them up and give them a contract if they show promise. The professions in question are often in need of new blood, so the employer benefits too.

You could also ask a contractor to turn to the social economy for certain labour-intensive, repetitive tasks. These employees could, for example, prepare the site before the contractor's painting team arrives and then tidy up afterwards.'

Sustainable standards

These new ideas surrounding sustainability are bringing about a revolution in the world of procurement. For example, a new ISO standard on sustainable procurement (ISO 20400) is set to arrive in 2016 or 2017. CPOs (chief procurement officers) in large organisations will, with the support of their procurement teams and in consultation with the management, quickly be able to catch up. But what about procurement officers in municipalities or other smaller organisations? Here, it is best to create a team to support procurement officers, says Pieters:

'The people in that team must determine the strategy and objectives, as the procurement officer cannot do that alone. A second option is to join a larger procurement group. More and more smaller municipalities are carrying out their procurement operations together with cities, which do have well-developed procurement teams. This joining of forces makes it possible to pursue a sustainable procurement policy at the best price.'

Sustainability is often in the eye of the beholder, and economic interests certainly have a role to play, too. We take a closer look at a few of the most popular sustainability measures:

Electric cars

A battery-powered car is less polluting than a car with a conventional combustion engine – but only if the electricity is not generated at a lignite-fuelled power plant. However, a real transition in the field of mobility requires not only a technological revolution, but also a change in behaviour.

The gains achieved through technological progress are often negated by increased consumption. This is known as the 'rebound effect'. Replacing all conventional vehicles with the same number of electric vehicles will also have an adverse impact on the environment, and does not solve the problem of congestion. Safe cycle paths, comfortable and affordable public transport and car-sharing systems, on the other hand, do. Another example of the rebound effect: using the electricity generated by solar panels to warm a swimming pool or to provide artificial lighting in the garden at night.

Short chains?

Urban agriculture, reducing food miles, local production... the 'short chain' is the latest big thing. It is, after all, a simple way of ensuring more sustainable production and consumption – but that does not make it a cure-all. For example, in short chains, the baby that is fair trade is thrown out with the bathwater.

The challenge here is to create a long chain that is socially equitable as well as environmentally sustainable. That's no easy task, but it does allow you to tick off more sustainable objectives. If farmers and traders in the south get a fair price for bananas, coffee and chocolate, and if the environmental impact of transporting those goods remains marginal, then a sustainable system has been created. 

On the other hand, transporting North Sea prawns to and from Morocco just to have them peeled there is not sustainable – even if the peelers are paid a fair wage. A tip for anyone who wants to give peeling prawns a try themselves: twist the head off, remove a few scales, give the tail a pinch and voilà!

The South Tower in Brussels, better known as the Pension Tower, was built back in 1964. Yet today, it is one of the most energy-efficient office blocks in the country.

The South Tower (150 metres tall, 36 floors, 41,000 m² of usable surface area, 1,670 members of staff) is the tallest building in Belgium. Its outer shell – a glass facade – was renovated 20 years ago. Yet the Belgian State Pensions Service (RVP) still hoped to find room for more savings.

The facility management team, together with Veolia, which manages the technical installations, set up an Energy Team in 2008. That team conducted an energy audit, and subsequently managed to drastically reduce the building's energy bill and CO2 emissions. How did they do it?

Marc Leunens (RVP facilities manager): 'We insulated the emergency stairwell, which goes right up to the 36th floor, and we appealed to employees to turn off the lights and computers when leaving work. But the greatest difference came as a result of taking a different approach to heating and cooling. In the space of four years, it was possible to reduce electricity consumption by 29% and even reduce fuel oil consumption by 37%: consumption fell from 760,000 litres in 2009 to 443,000 litres in 2013. All in all, we were able to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 6,000 tonnes – that amounts to the average emissions quantity produced by 1,600 households.'

Office blocks are traditionally heated using fuel oil. During the transitional season in particular, the Pension Tower's three oil-fired boilers are largely redundant, says Marc Leunens:

'In spring and early autumn, it is often enough to just turn the heating on briefly in the morning and leave it off for the rest of the day. That's why we installed two additional heating sources. The first is a cogeneration installation. The engine is gas-driven, and produces both electricity and heat. We use the two of those in parallel as much as possible. The electricity goes to the servers in our data room, as they have to be running constantly. Then we use the heat for heating the building during the transitional season. An extra advantage is that we received green electricity certificates for the cogeneration installation.

A second new source of energy is our two heat pumps. They run on green electricity. One of them is a high-temperature water pump: the first of its kind in a European office block. Thanks to these new systems, we can wait a lot longer before starting up our oil-fired boilers.'

An ongoing quest

The Energy Team is continuing its quest for energy savings. But their task is becoming more difficult, admits Marc Leunens:

'We are looking into installing small-scale wind turbines on the roof. Our tower is one of the five most suitable locations in Brussels for such a project. We are also conducting a small study into LED lighting. The problem is that we already fitted our lights with energy-saving light bulbs 15 years ago. If we now replace all of those with LED lights, we will either end up producing too much light, or we will have to reduce the number of light fittings. But then we would also have to adjust the ceilings. That could get very expensive, especially in combination with the costly LED lights.

In any case, the quest continues. We would really like to hold on to the EMAS certificate that we received in 2008. EMAS stands for 'Eco-Management and Audit Scheme', which is a European management instrument for organisations that are constantly striving to improve their environmental performance.'

Energy performance contracts: a trick for tenants

Tenants are the ones who pay energy bills. So why would landlords or external installation managers want to invest in more efficient systems? It costs them money and they get nothing in return. A good trick for tenants? Energy performance contracts. Marc Leunens explains:

'You take a reference year for consumption, with adjustments for very cold and very warm days. We have a weather station on the roof for that purpose, but you can also get this information from the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute. If we use less energy than the reference year in order to reach the agreed optimum temperature, our bill is cheaper. We share the profit from that with our service provider. If we use more, for example due to less adequate control of the system, the service provider pays us back the difference. This kind of bonus-malus system gives the provider a financial incentive to help ensure the building is run as economically as possible.'

A subscription to build customer loyalty, reinvent yourself in times of crisis and buy better: Emna Everard saw that as exactly the right way to launch and maintain her Brussels-based start-up.

Born into a family of dietitians, Emna Everard knows what it means to eat healthily. "At the age of 12, I was already deciphering packaging labels. My dream was to open a supermarket one day where you could shop with your eyes closed", she recalls.

And because Everard has entrepreneurship in her bones, that’s exactly what she did. In 2016, just before the end of her university studies, she launched the “healthiest online supermarket on the market”: Kazidomi. Her standards are high, both in terms of composition and taste. Kazidomi selects products carefully, enabling its customers to buy healthy, mainly organic, plant-based products with complete confidence.

The loyalty programme

Six months after its launch, Kazidomi’s growth is accelerating thanks to the launch of its loyalty programme. A 59 euro subscription offering 20–50% discounts on all food, cosmetics or care products available online. Profitability and savings guaranteed.

This was followed by a first fundraising of €50,000 in 2017. Kazidomi is growing, expanding the size of its stock and developing its marketing. Everard hired her first two employees. Sales grew rapidly and literally exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Consumers suddenly had time to think about their health and well-being and were doing most of their shopping online," she adds.

How did you reinvent yourself?

The post-crisis period was a turning point. "Kazidomi had to reinvent itself. We wanted to have financial stability and avoid any dependence on external resources," continues Everard. Together with her teams, she looked at their cost structure, operational efficiency and marketing. After these reflections, the aim was no longer growth at any price, but the company's long-term viability and financial health, thanks to an intelligent reorganisation.

Two acquisitions would subsequently enable Kazidomi to boost its growth, creating significant synergies: "Smart Fooding" in August 2022 and "Bébé au Naturel" a few months later, a business specialising in healthy products for babies and their parents. "With Bébé au Naturel, we doubled the volume of orders sent out," adds Everard. "This has allowed us to get a better rate from our carriers and reduce costs."

A responsive and attentive bank

As the Brussels start-up’s bank, BNP Paribas Fortis granted it three loans for its launch, between 2016 and 2019. This support came naturally, with Kazidomi’s commitments in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) objectives perfectly aligned with the bank’s strategy. "We joined the BNP Paribas Fortis Innovation Hub programme and our relationship manager – who knew the start-up environment extremely well – was immediately enthusiastic and very attentive. He believed in our project, followed it closely, advised us to participate in a series of events to meet other players whose background and profile would be of interest for us," explains the Entrepreneur of the Year 2019.

But the support didn't stop there. "In December 2022, it was thanks to BNP Paribas Fortis, among other things, that we were able to acquire “Bébé au Naturel”. Start-ups like Kazidomi need a high level of responsiveness from their bank. When there is a company to buy, or another opportunity, things have to move fast. Analysis of the file, provision of funds: BNP Paribas Fortis has always been responsive and enthusiastic and has supported us in 99% of our requests," says the CEO enthusiastically.

Eight years since launching, Kazidomi today has 4,000 products that it delivers across Europe. The Belgian start-up makes 90% of its sales on its website and 10% via external resellers, such as Delhaize. Kazidomi has also launched its own brand “Kazidomi”, which has 200 products on offer. By working directly with producers, we can offer the best possible quality products at the best price. https://www.kazidomi.com/en

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