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.

We are glad to share with you the second publication of Work Package 2 (Toolbox for enhancing ECS learning and implementation) entitled “Nature-based solutions coupled with advanced technologies: An opportunity for decentralized water reuse in cities”.

The article features highlights such as the first database about design and performance of Nature-Based Solutions coupled with advanced technologies and was recently published in the journal “Science of Cleaner Production”.

You can click here to read the article.

In December 2021, the EdiCitNet Project kicked off a social media series called “Meet the Partners”, where we share information and insights into the individuals and organisations that work together to make this project what it is. 

The EdiCitNet consortium consists of more than 30 partners and more than 100 employees from diverse fields, including academia, business, NGOs, government agencies and professional gardeners and horticulturalists. All of the partners in the project contribute different types of skills and expertise, which all complement and serve the different goals and aims of EdiCitNet.

With this social media series, we’re showcasing the diversity of our consortium and the many different types of expertise, while also giving our project a face (or many faces!).

To follow the series and find out more, visit the EdiCitNet official LinkedIn or Instagram.

On December 11th, 2021, the EdiCitNet project was represented by the REACT team at the National Forum of Climate Change Adaptation Actors “FNAACC” – Tunisia which took place at the City of Sciences of Tunis with more than 500 participants and environmental activists attending.

REACT was there to highlight the impact of nature-based urban food innovation on biodiversity, waste/water recycling the creation of micro-climates and sustainable ecosystems, while supporting a self-sustainable and healthy food system. Exchanges between participants and REACT members offered opportunities for discussion – with a representative of the Urban Planning Agency of Greater Tunis, about integrating edible and climate components into city planning, and with an expert on marine science, about what kind of innovations can be developed for urban fisheries.

A team of young students working on an idea for a household composter that produces bio-energy, and who were looking for collaborators, were very inspired by the team’s accounts of the work done in EdiCitNet. The event was an important and successful one for extenting the Ediible Cities Network, and REACT members are already working on ideas for how to strengthen these new connections for the benefit of all and for even more effective climate change adaptation in the city.

This first National Forum of Climate Change Adaptation forum («La Conférence du Forum National des Acteurs de l’Adaptation au Changement Climatique “FNAACC”») was organised by the Ministry of the Environment and the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ).

Join the Edible Cities Network for our 1st ever Annual Conference, held live online over two days, 16th & 17th February 2022. “Making Cities Edible” will bring together leading researchers, policymakers and city administrators, civil society actors, green city activists and entrepreneurs to discuss the potentials, challenges and development of sustainable urban food innovation in cities around the world.

With a mixture of keynote addresses and roundtable discussions and an open networking session, the event will explore the latest findings about the power of urban food innovation to tackle social, ecological and economic challenges within cities, including insights from the EdiCitNet Project’s partner cities – as well as explore the social, technical, ethical, ecological, governance and financial challenges around scaling up sustainable solutions and anchoring them in current and future urban planning.  

Beyond highlighting successes, potentials and next steps for further action, the event also aims to generate guidelines on how to successfully integrate edible NBS in city planning, offering ideas to decision-makers in policy and business and addressing the societal and environmental problems facing our communities and our cities today.

Whether you are a newcomer to the topic of urban food innovation, or a seasoned professional, here are just a few reasons why Making Cities Edible is the event you don’t want to miss:

• Hear first-hand experiences from expert practitioners in the field of urban farming, community gardening and sustainable food collectives
• Explore recent developments, successes and challenges from the EdiCitNet project’s Living Labs in Oslo, Andernach, Berlin and Rotterdam
• Learn about what different cities around the world are doing to integrate edible city policies & strategies into their urban planning
• Network with other urban food enthusiasts from around the world and build alliances for more resilient urban food futures

Click here to find out more and to register!