Further developments of the ClimateWin.org platform to bring together green businesses and innovative win-win solutions at the second Urban transformations Barcelona Workshop

 WP6 Barcelona Workshop II 

This year's focus built on the first year Workshop conclusion of creating a collaborative platform to  support green businesses and win-win solutions in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.  

In particular, at the first GREEN-WIN Barcelona Workshop last year both researchers and local stakeholders engaged in a co-production process aimed at: 1) identify the overarching system conditions for the development of win-win solutions and green businesses in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and then 2) To co-create a  Transformative a Vision of a urban green economy in Barcelona which was finally narrated as follows: 

“In 2025 Barcelona will have moved away from the city as pure consumer of grey energy to a net producer of sustainable clean energy and will have become a full enabling environment for societal transformations and sustainability”

It was also argued that: 

“This vision is realised thanks to both behavioural changes, new forms of urban dynamics -in mobility, energy resource use and residential systems, among others- as well as to institutional and regulatory changes supported by the central role of IT in collecting data and coordinating sustainability, green-oriented innovations. Such information gathering should be community owned and shared”

Therefore, it was agreed that it would be adequate to create an open Platform to support knowledge crowdsourcing, collaboration and funding in order to support exemplary win-win solutions and business models in the MAB. During this last year, we have been working hard in developing this Platform which now can be accessed in a provisional form at www.climatewin.org/

Stakeholders in attendance consisted of those specializing in green roofs, eco-innovation, the energy sector, the fashion industry, and other sharing their thoughts on how to best capitalize on the platform to support green transformations in Barcelona. Check for instance, some of our attendees websites for innovative ideas on eco-innovation and green businesses: Som Energia, Eix Verd, Inèdit and Moda Sostenible Barcelona.

The discussions highlighted the factors needed for such successful platform: a concept, launching the platform, identifying a target community, establishing confidence within that community.  The stakeholders then engaged in a SWOT exercise, as well as in other strategy-building and assessment exercises, such as the adapted green-business canvas, which helped look at how to capitalize on the group's views on strengths and potential challenges of such an undertaking. 

In spite of the rain and a taxi strike which delayed a bit the start of the workshop, stakeholders and researchers engaged in lively discussions, including also during lunch time.

The ClimateWIN Barcelona platform was created and launched.  The discussion highlighted several opportunities such as to it could help  consumers to become ‘prosumers’ of win-win solutions, that it could help matchmaking between ideas or crowdfunding and that it could help to develop new partnerships among interested actors in Barcelona, including business schools, neighborhood communities or even companies in the tourism sector. However, some concerns –and ideas on how to deal with them- were also addresses related to continued finance and a viable business model which could make such a platform a success. 

We will continue working on the ClimateWIN in the coming months so more exciting developments and results will be presented at the final Conference in Barcelona in March 2018.