Signatiu DARM Assignment4 2015

Scope

Question

What kind of a group, with focus on Helsinki's climate work, should be established in the City of Helsinki to help Helsinki reach the climate objectives? How should the group work and how should the work be organized to be effective and not too time-consuming?

←--#: . Your question is really interesting and timely. However, your draft assessment does not produce substance to answer the question. Of course what you have described is important and relevant. But you should think more carefully about the objectives. How do you know that one group is good and another is not? In other words, how do you measure performance of the group, even before the group is set? What should the group produce and why? Is it for increasing communication, for producing new innovations, for pushing through actions that are already known important, or for giving recommendations to the city council? Depending on its purpose the group should be different. Who is the problem owner? --Jouni (talk) 10:07, 20 May 2015 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: defence)

----#: . Good questions! The draft was still not yet finished when you commented, but hopefully now there is more useful material on these aspects, below. --Signatiu (talk) 17:24, 23 May 2015 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: comment)

Intended use and users

Good organization of the climate actions requires people from different departments of the City to be involved. The operating of a climate group will benefit the City of Helsinki because it will help Helsinki reach its climate objectives. It will make the climate work more coordinated, help the employees of the City to be informed about what is going on in the climate work, and it will help to gather funding for different climate projects. A well-functioning climate group will improve the resource-efficiency of Helsinki's climate work and make it more influential. This benefits Helsinki residents because the taxes are used more efficiently to create a better environment. Furthermore, all stakeholders who are affected by climate change will benefit if the work results in reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Participants

The participants of the assessment will be the following

• people from the City of Helsinki Environment Centre
• people from other City's organizations, who are interested in being part of the climate group
• a consultant (to be defined)
• possibly other stakeholders such as researchers or people from NGO's.

Boundaries

The climate group will be formed from the employees of the City of Helsinki. The group will be informal in the sense that within the City organization anyone who is interested in Helsinki's climate work can join. There will be different subgroups established when needed, for instance for climate adaptation, for storm water management, or for communication with the Helsinki residents.

Decisions and scenarios

There should be some targets set as well as working methods suggested for the operating of the group before the group is established. However, the group should be able to set its targets and way of work by itself. A facilitator is needed in the meetings for a successful working of the group.

Timing

The consultant will be chosen in May or early June. There will be a preliminary plan on how the group could work in late June. Some of the climate experts in the City will be interviewed on how they think Helsinki's climate could should be better organized. Also some gatekeepers such as chiefs of departments will be interviewed to get more information on what is considered as important in the climate work from their point of view. A workshop for the interested parties will be held in early autumn. The group should start working in late autumn.

Answer

Results

Features of the group include following:

• the group is not seen as a group by Environmental Centre but rather as a group of the whole City organization
• the group has support from chiefs and it is considered important by all departments of the City
• the group has a common workspace where they gather and process information
• the meetings of the group are paid special attention so that they are facilitated in a manner that the knowledge of every participant can be effectively utilized and also more introverted people can have their ideas heard (Forum Virium help with the facilitation ?)
• the group will work in close cooperation with relevant existing working groups such as Ekotukiverkosto, Ympäristöraportointiryhmä, Hulevesiryhmä, Ympäristöjohtamisen ryhmä, Ekorakentamisen verkosto

The actual objectives of the group should be defined by the group, but here are some possible objectives:

• improve the communication about climate work between different departments
• help acquire a shared understanding on how the climate work should be organized and run in the City
• help get a method to prioritize different mitigation and adaptation measures
• improve the communication between the Members of the Council and the City's employees
• encourage people utilize existing knowledge to perform practical climate work: small piloting, testing and scaling up
• people are afraid of doing mistakes: there should be "a licence to fail" as well because otherwise there will be nothing new developed
• develop means to organize existing information of Helsinki's climate work in one place
• develop monitoring and evaluation of strategic objectives and measures (600+ measures in Opasnet already)
• develop means to assess the influence, impacts, costs and benefits of climate work.
• increase the cooperation between departments to help gather funding for climate projects (especially Klimate-KIC, Horizon 20)
• incorporate climate aspects to projects and activities where they are not yet paid enough attention to such as land-use planning, procurement policies, SMART-strategies (test beds e.g. Kalasatama)
• raise awareness on the importance of openness and high quality in assessments regarding climate and energy actions
• act as a test bed for performing open policy practices and open assessments in climate and energy issues
• find ways to communicate climate work with Helsinki residents and businesses. Increase cooperation and practical projects with different stakeholders.
• utilize the media to communicate climate work
• identify influential gatekeepers and stakeholders (inside and outside the City) to cooperate with them to improve the efficiency of climate actions

How to measure the performance of the group depends on the objectives set. Preliminary objectives for the group will be formulated with the consultant and members of Env. Centre and some other departments in summer. Key people of the City's climate work will be discussed with and the objectives will be based on their ideas. Also the measures for the performance will be designed at this time.

Possible workspaces for the group:

• ask Sami Majaniemi / Joonas Pekkanen etc.
• Hackpad
• Slack
• Viima App https://app.viima.com/att/
• Opasnet
• Sharepoint
• Google Drive

Rationale

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See also

• Muutoksentekijät-verkosto (governmental, ask for experiences)
• Meet Antti Joensuu (TEM strategiajohtaja) for possible mentoring?
• Transition Cities (Climate-KIC) stakeholder analysis should be performed in summer!
• Experiences from Design for Government