Tampere University participates in a forum of cities aiming for carbon neutrality
The World Alliance for Low Carbon Cities (WALCC) is organising its annual forum in collaboration with the city of Porvoo on 17–18 September 2024. The forum will showcase how cities aiming for carbon neutrality must simultaneously implement a change agenda across four key areas: urban planning, renewable resources, green construction, and urban transport.
From Tampere University, Professor Kaisa Väänänen from the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences (ITC) will participate in the WALCC forum. Professor Väänänen specialises in human-technology interaction and leads one of the research groups under the umbrella of the Superblock project (NSDC).
On Wednesday, a discussion will be held on how digitalisation enables citizens’ participation in the pursuit of carbon neutrality. The panellists include Väänänen, Fredrik Jansson from Tietoevry, Airi Mölsä from Kone, and Anniina Autero from the city of Tampere.
The WALCC forum in Porvoo will be opened on Wednesday, 18 September, by Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Minister of Local and Regional Government.
This year’s forum offers urban decision-makers a comprehensive overview of best practices and key development trends in the alliance’s four focus areas. The forum highlights the need for new models of public-private sector collaboration, which will also attract international participation.
NSDC project accelerates the development of carbon-neutral cities
In autumn 2023, Skanska, KONE, Tietoevry, Granlund, JIS-Automation (formerly Integrio), Synocus, and Tampere University launched the Nordic Superblocks as Decarbonization Catalysts (NSDC) project. The project will run until the end of 2025, and it has received NextGenerationEU funding through Business Finland. As NSDC aims to accelerate the transition to carbon-neutral buildings and living, the project supports Finland’s target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025.
The foundation of the project is the Nordic Superblock concept pioneered by Tampere University. Nordic Superblock refers to a residential block area where resources are shared among all the residents in the block rather than limiting them to the residents of a single building. The idea is to introduce an intermediate scale to urban planning and development, where residents’ shared spaces, activities, and services can be distributed across one or more blocks.
NSDC is developing a new, broader collaborative model for sustainable city planning based on the Nordic Superblock concept. The model aims to create zoning plans and block and building designs that meet sustainability requirements. The goal of the co-creation model is to add value to the development of future neighbourhoods in Tampere and other participating pilot cities.
In addition to the co-development model, a key part of the path to carbon neutrality is the energy system of the superblock. A sufficiently large superblock allows for the optimisation of local energy production as part of the city’s energy infrastructure.
From Tampere University, the NSDC project includes Senior Lecturer Markus Laine and Professor of Industrial Management Tuomas Ahola from the Faculty of Management and Business as well as Professor Kaisa Väänänen’s research group from the ITC faculty.
Research on sustainable urban development, digitalisation, and energy production supports the achievement of carbon neutrality.
“We want to maintain the co-development of cities, as we need to involve both the residents and the cities themselves. Collaboration with businesses and cities and the practical application of knowledge increases the societal impact of research,” the researchers say.
The goal of the first phase of the NSDC project is to integrate the Nordic Superblock concept into urban development in Finland. NSDC aims to make it a key success factor in achieving carbon neutrality in cities.
Read more about the NSDC project
Please see the programme of the WALCC forum organised in Porvoo
