Reducing GHG emissions; Retrofitting buildings; Models of inclusiveness in revitalization districts; One Planet living
CITY-TO-CITY COOPERATION RESULTS
Inclusive Economic Development
The City of Malmö was interested in learning from Ottawa’s engagement approaches, how Ottawa engages with new Canadians (immigrants & refugees) as well as how the business community partners with community actors in low income neighbourhoods for the benefit of community as a whole. The learning exchanges, technical visit and regular meetings and updates supported this learning. Malmö was particularly interested in the business improvement area approach of Ottawa (and Toronto). Because of the multiple visits and opportunity to ask more than just surface level questions, Malmö was able to better understand Canadian approaches and subsequently adjusted their approach. Further, during the lifetime of the project. Malmö established its first business improvement area in the city and created programming to roll out the model across the municipality.
“The big difference for me was that here in Canada the city recognizes that it needs the communities more than the communities need the city. And I think Sweden has to learn in that way. It’s not enough to just meet people and hand out some surveys and then go back and start working. You need to involve people. Show them the opportunities.”
– FATIME NEDZIPOVSKA, CITY OF MALMÖ
Waste to Energy Technologies
Ottawa has established ambitious climate targets and used the partnership with Malmö to learn from this international leader on specific technologies to use, strategic approaches & how to build community support for behavioural changes needed as a municipality. Specific experts were paired between the two cities and information was regularly shared between the two. Regular meetings in between learning exchanges and technical visits helped to keep up with relationship building and learning. A Malmö-based expert was engaged to support the partnership building and learning.
Business to Business Linkages
A key focus of this partnership was to facilitate business to business linkages in the two cities. A number of Canadian and Swedish companies were targeted and supported to provide detailed specifications and business opportunities. Ottawa is particularly interested in a waste to energy company (E.On) and one of their technical processes related to district energy.
“It’s interesting to see the challenges they’re facing. We’ll want to know what’s working over there and how can we tweak it to make it work here. This business district model is newer in Malmö. They’re going to adapt it to make it work for them and we’ll be interested to see what they do with that.”
– BRIAN SIMPSON, CITY OF OTTAWA
Case Study: Ottawa & Malmö, Sweden
Reducing GHG emissions; Retrofitting buildings; Models of inclusiveness in revitalization districts; One Planet living