Experiencing and enjoying nature, human connection, education, biodiversity, stress reduction, clean air, delicious food… How do we make the complex set of values visible that green initiatives create?

This is what we did in our most recent EdiCitNet workshop in Rotterdam. On Tuesday, March 23, seven representatives from different local initiatives in Rotterdam came together at the Fabriek van Delfshaven for a workshop using the Diamond Model. Ranging from a community park to allotment gardens and from peri-urban agriculture to a social green route, the set of values created by each initiative is as diverse as the perspectives each participant has on their initiative.

(De Stad Uit https://www.destaduit.nl/, Essenburgpark https://www.essenburgpark.nl/, Groene Oase op Zuid https://www.degroeneoaseopzuid.nl/, Groene Connectie https://degroeneconnectie.nl/, Herenboeren https://www.herenboeren.nl/, Voedseltuin https://voedseltuin.com/, Volkstuinvereniging Blijdorp https://www.vtvblijdorp.nl/)

Is it possible to even compare those values? Does the value lie in the eye of the stakeholder or the participant? And how can we use these valuable insights to sustain and strengthen our initiatives?

For now, the Diamond gave us insight in the strongest values per initiative. We discussed each other’s strengths and how to ‘utilize’ these for the best.

We are looking forward to the next workshop in April – details will follow!

The workshop was initiated by the local working group “Visibility and Values” of green initiatives with Nienke Bouwhuis (Groen010/Groene Connectie), Paul De Graaf (Groen010/Coöperatie Ondergrond) and Alice Bischof (Wageningen University) who organized the workshop together.

City Team Meeting 3rd of December 2021 – Masterplan content and first scenario drafts for Berlin

Our December meeting started with a warm welcome to new city team members: a representative of the Berlin Gardener’s association (Kleingartenverband), members of the administration and a representative from the private sector.

The structure of the Masterplan, drafted during November’s meeting, was further developed, and presented to the City Team. Remarks and additions to different chapters were discussed among everyone and a small group was formed, which will continue to work on the structure.

Based on the Social Challenge for Berlin, City Team members had written down early last year, the later developed fields of action, and their respective system elements, December’s City Team brainstormed on possible scenarios for the TPM process. A total of 20 drafts for scenarios was the outcome of a just 15 minutes brainstorming session in small working groups. In order to continue this good work, the working groups gathered again in January.

City Team Meeting 12th of November 2021 – Scenario Development and Masterplan for Berlin In a very dynamic meeting, the City Team discussed the different already existing edible city strategies in Berlin to kick off the scenario development (TPM). These strategies and their relevance for the Masterplan will be further analysed. As part of the co-creative process in developing the Master Plan, the City Team decided in this meeting to agree on the content and structure of the Masterplan for Berlin.

As an outcome of a fruitful discussion, a possible structure of the Masterplan was drafted.

This structure was discussed in the next City Team Meeting in the beginning of December. Furthermore, the City Team gained new members and will hopefully continue to do so in the next meeting

Berlin City Team Meeting 8th of October 2021 – Masterplan EdiCitNet

During this City Team Meeting BOKU Wien gave a short presentation on TPM with a focus on system elements. The City Team discussed the description of the system elements and developed critical elements that should form part in every description:

• a definition of the system element,
• followed by a short description of the current situation in Berlin as whole,
• as well as the current situation in areas of the Berlin Neighbourhood Management Programme,

both might be accompanied by data and should focus purely on the system element. Moreover, the City Team agreed on a responsible for every topic and set a schedule for the co-creative work with the goal to finalize the description of the system elements. The defined system elements will be presented and discussed during the next City Team Meeting which will take place in November.

Nabolagshager and the Agency for Urban Environment (Municipality of Oslo), hosted on the 11th of November the third and last workshop of a series of three workshops to help urban agriculture initiatives in Oslo to develop their sustainable financial models. During this workshop “Focusing activities and resources for financial sustainability” we looked at how to best utilise time and resources to move towards better financial sustainability. We worked through some of the challenges of determining how to price goods and services in relation to the time needed to produce them, how to take advantage of public and private funding schemes to obtain capital, and the basics of financial models and accounting for your ECS initiative. We want to thank again all the ECS initiatives for attending our last tailor-made workshop at Linderud gård. Special thanks goes to our guest speaker Sara Prosser, who gave us an inspiring introduction to social entrepreneurship, what social enterprises are and how to plan for financial sustainability.

You can find more information about the workshops “Finding Sustainable Economic Models in Urban Agriculture” in this link: https://www.edicitnet.com/workshops-oslo-finding-sustainable-economic-models-in-urban-agriculture/

3 tailor-made workshops provided ECS initiatives with tools, resources, and networking that we are confident will strengthen their organisations and help them to develop their activities, products and services further

On the 16^th + 17^th of February 2022, the EdiCitNet project organized the first Edible Cities Network conference, bringing people from around the world together for two days of discussion, exchange and inspiration on urban food innovation, edible nature based solutions & sustainable cities.

The conference focused on exploring three major questions:

–        What are the opportunities & challenges facing urban food communities today?

–        How can policy makers better support them?

–       How can we join forces to enhance our impact?

The first day kicked off with keynote presentations from Mary Clear – one of the co-founders of the hugely successful and world-famous urban gardening initiative “Incredible Edible Todmorden” – and Jörg Niewöhner, the director of the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems – who explored both the practical and theoretical aspects of building edible cities of the future. Over the next two days, participants explored the latest updates and findings from the EdiCitNet Living Labs, inspiring theoretical insights on human-food connections, how cities around the world are integrating edible city strategies into their urban development plans and what networks, like EdiCitNet, can do to enhance the impact of small scale urban food initiatives from around the world.

The second day also saw the announcement of the EdiCitNet Award winners and conference participants taking part in an interactive meet & greet session where they could connect to others, share experiences and pose their questions to edible city experts.

We were very happy to welcome participants from over 58 countries to the EdiCitNet Conference, and would like thank all of the participants and all of the panelists who took part, for their dedication and insights throughout these two truly inspiring days. We are already looking forward to the next edition of the EdiCitNet Conference in 2023! Sign up for the EdiCitNet monthly Newsletter to be informed as soon as registration is open for next year’s event.