These are projects where UBC EnvCom has been involved. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

NEW BRIDGES project will contribute to making the Baltic Sea Region an attractive and competitive region to live and work in. The aim of the project is to improve the management of urban rural interactions. This will be done through introducing the concept of quality of life to the regional planning practices.

• More information about NEW BRIDGES

Responding to climate change effects through mitigation or adaptation measures is a big challenge for cities already now and this challenge will increase in the future. How this challenge can be met through implementing an integrated management system is subject to “CHAMP – Climate Change Response through Managing Urban Europe 27 Platform” project.

• More information about CHAMP
• The CHAMP Project page

The website of the Committee of Nature use, Environment Protection and Ecological Safety of the City of St Petersburg www.infoeco.ru was launched in December 2009 as a new service for citizens. Now it would be a good time to develop it further by filling with new attractive elements and to increase the use of the portal and to get to the new level of communication with citizens.

During the project, the different channels of communication are analyzed and incorporated with the launched website. Use of social medias will be tested as a new approach of passing information to the targeted audiences. Also the use of the websites will be increased by thorough visitor analyses of the sites.

• More about NEAT project

The BaltCICA Project is designed to focus on the most imminent problems that climate change is likely to cause in the Baltic Sea Region. The concentration of large parts of the population and many larger cities in coastal areas make it especially sensitive to climate change. Changes in precipitation and flood patterns (river floods as well as storm surges) as well as sea level rise can be expected. This affects not only the built environment but also water availability and quality.

• More information about BaltCICA

Solutions local, together is a Nordic conference on sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region which introduces sustainable practical solutions and inspires participants to use local solutions together with other stakeholders. The Solutions 2011 conference takes place 31.1. – 2.2.2011 in the city of Turku Finland.

• More information about Solutions local, together

The project enables the creation of a service directed for the citizens of St Petersburg for the increase of environmental awareness. With the assistance of project partners, the Committee of Nature use, Environment Protection and Ecological Safety of the City of St Petersburg created and launched an ecological portal of the city.

• More information about

The aim of the project is to reduce risky health behavior among the young people in the partner Russian cities. It also enhances the capacity of the local leaders and decision-makers to execute proactive decisions concerning health promotion and HIV/AIDS prevalence.

• More information about We choose a life

MATRUSCHKA aims at strengthening the capacity of local authorities and developing their city planning process. It contributes to the development of a solid foundation within local authorities upon which long-term planning decisions can be made to support sustainable development. Both EU and Russian cities will either initiate or further elaborate their Integrated Management Systems around a chosen theme.

Improved communication which is a focus of the project is crucial to guarantee a smooth information flow in the municipality between stakeholders. MATRUSCHKA helps cities to address all dimensions of sustainable development by integrating participatory approach into planning processes. This is done through exchanging know-how and increasing networking.

• More information about MATRUSCHKA

Sustainment aimed to meet the needs and challenges of local authorities towards a more integrated sustainability process.The project improved and integrated the work already done on sustainable development, created in cooperation with the 12 partner cities resource units, Sustainability Management Centers (SMC) to work with sustainability issues, enabled the abilities of the local authorities to develop their working methods, skills and personnel in order to significantly contribute to all the dimensions on sustainable development. Cross-sectoral cooperation was a key element in the project.

BUSTRIP focused on breaking the link between growth in economic production and the consequent growth in transport.

• provided practical tools for cities to deliver Sustainable Urban Transport
• reduced congestion
• improved the quality of life
• decreased the environmental impacts of transport
• was the first project to refine, test and implement the Sustainable Urban Transport Plans

LVRLAC and UBC established a co-operation project in the year 2000. This co-operation project is part of the comprehensive initiative of EAC and SIDA and is also funded by SIDA.
The purpose of the project is to transfer knowledge through co-operation between UBC and LVRLAC. In the long run the goal is to improve the administrative and institutional capacities of the local authorities in the Lake Victoria Region, in order to promote sustainable development and improve the standard of living of the inhabitants. In order to create a long-term effect, the project takes into close consideration local needs and conditions and applies a step-by-step approach.
More about LVRLAC

The European project “Managing Urban Europe-25 (MUE-25)” worked with 25 European local and regional authorities to improve their environmental quality and sustainability performance. The project, which ran from 2005 to 2008, delivered a framework for better implementation of already existing environmental management systems like EMAS, ISO 14001 and ecoBUDGET. It provided a method for how cities and regions can practically work with integrated management, an approach recommended in many EU policies and strategies of today.

The project was closely linked to the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment within the 6th Environmental Action Plan of the European Union and the Leipzig Charter, among other EU-wide recommendations and policy frameworks. The main outcome of the project is a framework model of an integrated management system, an umbrella that enables the implementation of integrated management systems for the whole urban area.

The New Hansa of Sustainable Ports and Cities has been a joint project of 18 ports, cities and other partners from all sides of the Baltic Sea. The project has aimed at ecologically, socially and economically sustainable ports in the Baltic Sea region. New Hansa of Sustainable Ports and Cities has aimed at increased cooperation between the partners to face the challenge of increasing sea transport and trade and their effects on the environment. During the project, good environmental solutions have been analysed and common practices for ports in prevention of ships’ emissions to the air and receiving and handling waste and waste water from the ships, have been created.

As a result of this successful project, a Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Port and Maritime Policy for the Baltic Sea Region was signed and endorsed by the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) on the 30th of September 2005, in the General Conference in Turku, Finland.

In the UBC project Transferring Best Environmental Solution to Cities (TBestC) ten project cities worked in groups or pairs investigating the feasibility of transferring a good practice from one city to another. The projects main outcomes were the seven started implementations of transferred good practices in seven cities around the Baltic Sea Region. The good practices have contributed to the alleviation of local environmental problems and in the same time served as steps taken towards implementation of sustainable development.

Throughout the project the cities were provided with guidelines leading the way in the exchange and transferring process.

INTEGAIRE was a three-year project, which started in March 2002. The project was financed by the European Commission and coordinated by EUROCITIES. UBC acted as a partner in the project.

The INTEGAIRE project aimed at improving the quality of air in Europe. The innovative aspect was the involvement of cities to define the air quality management policies. Thus, the project was at the same time a thematic network consisting of cities, research institutions and network organizations to achieve the better air quality by improving urban governance and decision-making. The partnership of INTEGAIRE brought together academics and researchers in air quality with the managers in the cities responsible for ensuring clean air. The unique aspect of this project was the involvement of cities which provided a pan-European local vision of the air quality situation. The best practices and lessons learned were identified and further introduced and disseminated to a wider audience of European cities.

UBC was taking part in the following work packages: Dissemination and Exploitation, Towards a European Thematic Strategy, and Legislation and Implementation. Within these packages UBC was committed in representing the views and concerns of our member cities and more broadly in the EU accession and implementation process of EU directives and policies. One important aim of the Thematic Strategy work package was to interact with CAFE (Clean Air for Europe) project where UBC's role was to inform both the member cities of UBC and INTEGAIRE partners of CAFÉ.

The EMAS Peer Reviews for Cities -project was a two-year project that started in December 2002. The main focus of the project was developing and extending the use of EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) in local authorities. The 'EMAS-peer review' method as an innovative approach was used to encourage the cities to work together. In doing that, the project built upon existing experiences in the framework of LIFE projects, including the EURO-EMAS project and the Municipal Environmental Audit (MEA) project, as well as other relevant projects on this issue and also seeked to assist in delivering actions in the 6th EAP.

The project used the well-established EMAS system as well as the complementary and similar MEA system used in the Baltic Sea Region. It further developed both to become an integrated tool of wider relevance to local decision-making. This illustrated the forward planning and strategic value of EMAS. The project was implemented by 16 European cities on twinning basis.

The project is a joint venture with Eurocities, EU DG Environment, University of the West of England and the City of Newcastle.

In 2001, the UBC EnvCom Secretariat was service-contracted by European Commission DG Environment to translate and disseminate the "Towards Local Sustainability Profile", European Common Indicators for urban sustainable development. The Technical Report and Methodology sheets of these indicators were translated, printed and disseminated in twelve Central and Eastern European languages. The work was carried out in co-operation with the Regional Environmental Centre (REC) and Environmental Centre for Administration & Technology (ECAT) offices in the above mentioned countries. Since autumn 2001, the reports have been available in Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Bulgarian, Romanian, Croatian, Slovakian and Slovenian.

SUFA - Success Factors (2000 - 2001)
The Success Factors in Local Environmental Policy for Local Agenda 21 and EU Enlargement in the Baltic Sea Region Project (SUFA Project) supported Local Agenda 21 work, local environmental policy and EU approximation in the Baltic States, Poland, and the whole Baltic Sea Region. SUFA consisted of four components:

• Baltic Roundtable on Local Environmental Policy
• Research and Analysis
• Local Agenda 21 Training Course
• Information Campaign

The project, followed-up the Best Environmental Practice in Baltic Cities Award 1999 where 15 cities participated with good practices. After the planning phase, the BCP Project was launched towards cities with a large good practice seminar in autumn 2000, and this was followed by matchmaking of city couples for benchmarking of the good practices.

Five city couples were selected for these activities: Municipality of Gotland (SWE) & ECAT Lithuania (LT), Cities of Elblag (PL) and Siauliai (LT), Sundsvall (SWE) and Sopot (PL), Bützow (GER) and Sillamäe (EST), and Turku (FIN) and Panevezys (LT).

During 2000-2001 these cities carried out a benchmarking exercise where a feasibility analysis of the good practice between the cities was made, and plans for implementation created. After the BCP was finished, several of the good practices have been implemented in the participating cities, mainly with EU funds and on own financing of the cities. The BCP project also experimented with the so-called 3R Gender Analysis in the selection of city couples. This means that together with other aspects, the participation and influence of men and women within the city couples was analyzed and used as one basis for selection of the participating cities.

The goal of SAIL was to facilitate the development of Local Agenda 21 plans and processes in communities in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. SAIL produced informational materials on LA21 in all these languages, which will facilitate LA21 preparations as well as help generate public interest. Also several events and meetings were organized in the target countries for exchange of experience and for presenting these materials. SAIL was a common initiative of the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC), the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the Environmental Centre for Administration and Technology (ECAT - Lithuania), and the cities of Lahti, St. Petersburg, Tartu and Jurmala. The City of Lahti acted as a Lead City, and the project was a contribution to the Baltic Local Agenda 21 Forum Network (BLA21F).

The Baltic Cities' Municipal Environmental Audit (MEA) is a model of environmental auditing especially tailored for the Baltic cities by UBC Commission on Environment. The intention with the development work was to create a model that would be more suitable for Baltic cities and for city administration than the rather heavy and formal ISO and EMAS systems. MEA is a more flexible tool and it can be adjusted to the specific needs of each city when they start assessing their environmental situation and prioritize improvements. 15 cities have been involved in the MEA activities. The city of Tallinn was the first one, followed by Pärnu, Panevezys, Klaipeda, Pori, Turku, Marijampole, Ingalina, Kotka, Trakai, ECAT Lithuania, Helsinki, Nacka and Kalmar.

The purpose of the MEA is primarily to offer a tool for city management and environmental experts to:

1. analyse and describe current state of local environment
2. identify and assess the strengths and weaknesses of environment within the municipality,
3. assess the performance of the city to care of environmental issues and purposes based on its environmental policy
4. help to develop a broad based environmental strategy in accordance with the principles of sustainable development
5. identify and prepare the basis for future investments and development projects
6. ensure full public participation in the development of the environmental strategy
7. increase institutional capacity of the beneficiary cities, and
8. disseminate the results to other cities and countries.

The Archipelago Sea Harbour environment project was initiated by Stockholm, Mariehamn and Turku as well as municipal authorities in 1997. The project concentrated on environmental effects of regular passenger car ferry traffic on the archipelago sea as well as the various aspects of regulating the traffic. The project resulted in a common understanding of stakeholders (ports, environmental authorities and shipping companies) of the need to develop a long-term environmental policy for the different actors involved with the passenger car ferry traffic.
The project was co-ordinated by the EnvCom Secretariat.