The goal of the project was to develop competences and exchange good practices in terms of green transition between the technical staff of the city of Grenoble and the city of Essen. The specific objectifs supporting the overall objectif were: - Develop environmental competences of partners - Increasing the knowledge and skills of 30 people from the partners' staff in the field of green transitions - during the 18-month period of the project - Development/Enhancing of soft skills - Raise awareness of climate change challenges among staff - Increase green sustainability practices when organizing activities - Inspire and motivate municipal staff to implement impactful projects and policies - Developing Franco-German intercultural understanding - Enable municipal employees, who often work only locally, to draw inspiration from working models and understand critical issues (non-formal learning).
During the covid crisis we tried to arrange online meetings to discuss about technical topics but as interesting as it was we realize that a different methology would need to be applied in order for the exchanges to be more fruitful. We applied to this project because both municipalities wanted to cooperate with each other and the small-scale partnership was ideal for us. Our goal was to share good practices and learn from our partner, both cities have won in the past the European green capital title, Essen in 2016 and Grenoble in 2022, both of them are fully committed to transitions and usually lead the example for others cities yet each organization has still things to learn in order to improve and developpe new actions/projects. Agents from both cities wanted to know more about different topics and discover how things are done abroad. Grenoble is located in the heart of the french alps and effects from climate change are already visible so learning more about measures of climate change adaptation/mitigation are necessary. Essen aims to be a net-zero city by 2040 at the latest, so all the actions in terms of lowing the carbonfoot print and helping them to achieve the goal are insightful.