WHAT IS ENGAGE?

Local action is crucial for the successful implementation of EU energy and climate policies. But how can local administrations mobilise their different municipal departments, their stakeholders and citizens to jointly act towards the common EU “3x20” objectives and build a sustainable energy future?

The ENGAGE project

ENGAGE is a pan-European communications initiative that seeks to engage citizens and stakeholders at a local level to play their part in building a sustainable energy future. Local authorities will use ENGAGE as a communication tool to share the Covenant of Mayors objectives within their territory.

Initially, a core group of 12 cities from 12 different European countries is pioneering the project; these are all signatories to the Covenant of Mayors. The cities’ local administrations face the challenge of facilitating communications – which need to render participation both feasible and desirable – to mobilise its municipal departments and as many of its stakeholders and citizens as possible so that the objectives are jointly achieved through a grassroots bottom-up process. The resulting success of the cities’ actions should serve to inspire an additional 150 European local authorities to participate in ENGAGE.

The approach of ENGAGE is to develop and implement an efficient participative communications campaign, which leads to tangible energy savings. The campaign needs to be ultimately measurable and deliver quantifiable results. Inspired by Heidelberg’s “Klimasuchtschutz” local campaign, posters with visible ENGAGEments have been chosen as the core communications channel to raise awareness of the campaign.

These posters will have a common European identity and will be produced via an online tool available in 11 European languages.

One key performance indicator to gauge the success of the campaign is the recruitment of at least 3,300 stakeholders and citizens to feature in the posters across the 12 cities.

The project will support collaborative work among local administrations, stakeholders and citizens facing similar challenges in different European countries.

The project partners

The project is coordinated by Energy Cities, the European association of local authorities inventing their energy future. Due to its strong communication focus ENGAGE also involves a communication expert: Futerra Sustainability Communications Ltd, who provides advice and assistance to cities in the implementation of their participative local PR campaign.

The bottom up process involves a core group of 12 pioneer cities from 12 different European countries: