Exploring Opportunities for Broader Impact in Alto Vicentino (Italy)

Giulio Pesenti, a tutor of the Municipalities in Transition System, has noted some promising developments for Italy’s Alto Vicentino area. He along with 2 municipal workers and 2 civil society members make up Santorso’s Local Implementation Team (LIT). Through an established participatory process, Santorso’s LIT co-designed an Energy Desk with the Municipalities for Sustainability Consortium. The Energy Desk provides people with information about more efficient technologies for their homes and about renewable energy and renewable energy companies. It is open 3 evenings per month and now attracts an average of 19 users per evening.

An opportunity emerged to get in touch with a consulting company that is currently working with 22 nearby municipalities on writing a regional action plan for climate adaptation (SECAP) for the Covenant of Mayors. Giulio and his team decided to expand on the work they had already done in co-designing the Energy Desk through the Municipalities in Transition System (MiTS), by teaming up with the consultant company to integrate proposals for this regional plan. The consultant company found elements of the MiTS (ex. cell cycles) surprisingly useful in developing three strategic actions. 

The first strategic action is to start up a new Energy Desk in Valsamoggia. The second is to create a group of experts to support the 22 municipalities in their climate adaptation efforts. The third action is to establish a financial board to help realise the activities of the previous 2 strategic areas.

This ongoing project exemplifies a very organic adaptation of the MiT system, i.e. how the MiTS can be applied and evolve to suit the needs of one or more municipalities working toward similar goals–in this case, a collective climate adaptation policy. The work in Alto Vicentino also serves as a case study in how to present the MiTS to consultant companies, and offers potential inroads for reaching the Covenant of Mayors.