RFSC & Covenant of Mayors Webinar available here

Webinar – “Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities: a self-assessment tool to evaluate the measures of your Action Plans”

Recording – English (en)
Speakers: Eugenia Mansutti – Covenant of Mayors; Pedro Bizarro – RFSC (PPT); La Rochelle Agglomération Urbaine (PPT); Nathalie Le Brun – Toulouse Métropole (PPT)

The Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC) and the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) organised a joint webinar on 12 December to explore links between the RFSC and the process of design, elaboration and implementation of Covenant Signatories’ Action Plans. The agenda included presentations of the Covenant of Mayors and RFSC, followed by representatives from Agglomération de La Rochelle and Toulouse Métropole who shared their experience, with more than 50 participants attending the webinar.

Agglomération de La Rochelle, signed the CoM back in 2013 together with the City of La Rochelle, sharing the same SEAP and enhancing a complementary approach. They have highlighted the gains of being signatories of the CoM, which stimulated them to set strategic objectives and to commit to achieve long term goals that do not depend on political elections. By using the RFSC to assess their Eco District project of Bongraine, they were able to integrate SEAP’s actions in RFSC’s framework, as they showed in  objective 28 – adapt to climate change. Using the RFSC also provided support in understanding how their actions can have an impact on different sustainable urban development objectives, reinforcing integrated policies. They have used the RFSC monitoring feature to check their implementation progress, using indicators provided in the RFSC but also adding indicators considered in their SEAP.

As a result of the actions adopted in the Territorial Climate Plan of Toulouse Métropole, the city signed the CoM in 2013. One of the targets included in the Climate Plan was to reduce urban development’s impact on the environment by considering water and waste management systems, construction materials, but also transport, social diversity and citizen participation. The EcoQuartier Andromède is an example where they used the RFSC to assess the project, assuring an integrated and sustainable urban development strategy. In their presentation, they have also highlighted the use of RFSC features on indicators to support their monitoring scheme.

Both signatories of the Covenant of Mayors and users of the RFSC, Agglomération de La Rochelle and Toulouse Métropole were able to highlight the links between the RFSC and the CoM:

• RFSC can help cities designing their Sustainable Energy Actions Plans (SEAPs) through an integrated approach to sustainable urban development promoting integrated policies and actions
• With the RFSC self-assessment tool, cities have the possibility to do regular monitoring of SEAP’s implementation, which facilitates reporting schemes
• Cities can use indicators provided by the RFSC and also add their SEAPs indicators, developing their own monitoring system which can be adapted to each project

For more information on the Covenant of Mayors and RFSC do not hesitate to contact :

Eugenia Mansutti, Covenant of Mayors Project Officer, eugenia.mansutti@eumayors.org

Pedro Bizarro, RFSC Project Officer, pedro.bizarro@ccre-cemr.org; info@rfsc.eu