Social Innovation Projects for Climate Neutral Cities

Edited by Sabrina Bresciani

This open access book examines the role of social innovation in cities as an important lever towards climate neutrality. Social innovations are people-centred collaborative solutions, activating the urban ecosystem for change and providing platforms for citizens, civic organizations, the private sector, and governmental institutions to collaborate towards the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The book, based on work developed within the EU-funded project NetZeroCities, which aims to support over 100 European cities to be climate-neutral by 2030, outlines methods, cases, and pathways of social innovation in Europe. It presents social innovation design process pathways through methods, categories of actions, and related cases for developing and scaling social innovations at the urban level, contributing to a systemic approach to tackle the grand challenge of reaching net zero. Within these pages, researchers and policymakers can find examples of cities that have deployed innovative public administration practices by systemically embedding social innovation in varied fields of urban action plans, including energy, citizen engagement, and behavioural change for lowering carbon emissions and increasing well-being.

• Chapter 01: The Role of Social Innovation in Climate Neutrality, Francesca Rizzo, Tamami Komatsu
• Chapter 02: Integrating Social Innovation in Cities’ Portfolios of Action: Building Robust Ecosystems for (of) Collective Action and Social Impact, Kaisa Schmidt-Thome, Paul Mesarcik
• Chapter 03: Strategizing for Climate Neutrality. How to Make Social Innovation Relevant in the City’s Journey to Climate Neutrality, Marzia Mortati, Eugénie Cartron
• Chapter 04: Social Innovation Scaling at Urban Level, Sabrina Bresciani, Cyril Tjahja
• Chapter 05: Ten Social Innovation Case Studies to Address Cities’ Challenges: Citizens Engagement, Energy and Behavioral Change, Sabrina Bresciani, Rohit Mondal, Kaisa Schmidt-Thome, Francesco Michele Noera
• Chapter 06: Activating Ecosystems for Change by Enriching the Civic “Soil” for Social Innovation. The Wiener Klimateam Project as a Case Study, Daniela Amann, Arild Ohren, Max Stearns, Ilaria Mariani
• Chapter 07: Social Innovation Design Pathways and Methods Toward Net Zero, Tamami Komatsu, Morgan Ricard
• Chapter 08: Advancing Social Innovation for a Carbon–Neutral Future: A Portfolio-Based Approach for the New European Bauhaus, Emma Puerari, Alessandro Deserti

Editor: Sabrina Bresciani (Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy)

Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology 

Publisher: SpringerCham

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-87726-1