Gulf of Finland year with an exhibition

One of the newest projects ongoing in the UBC Environment Commission is the creation of an exhibition dedicated for the Gulf of Finland year in 2014. This is the first official trilateral project between Russia, Estonia and Finland and it is hoped that the exhibition will be as visible as possible around the Gulf of Finland.
 

The project has started with great enthusiasm from all sides. It is fascinating to see what will the end product be like, as the starting point gives great hopes that it will be something else than a poster set. You can follow the process of creating the exhibition through exhibition blog 

Lots of materials unused

The current trend is that after a project finishes, the created materials are not used nor benefitted anymore. In many cases one can’t even find them through search engines, as they are well hidden in the files of the project owners. This is also the case of materials concerning the Gulf of Finland. There are a lot of different organizations that have created quality materials that are not known well-enough. The Gulf of Finland exhibition aims to bring some of these materials into better use by combining them into the exhibition. If you know any materials concerning the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland in particular, please, let us know about it. It is our common interest not to waste resources.

The Gulf of Finland year is coordinated by the Finnish Environment Center. All the events around the year can be found from the official Gulf of Finland site. 

QUEST project celebrated its results in the final project event

During the last 2 and a half years the QUEST project has developed a Quality Management Tool to help small and medium sized cities to further develop their sustainable mobility policies with the assistance of an external expert – the QUEST auditor.  Over the course of the project 46 cities have gone through the QUEST Audit and received tailor made Action Plans. These improvement programmes are directly linked to the current status of urban mobility policies in cities and point out the areas where improvements should be made. The aim of QUEST has been to support cities in making real progress towards a more sustainable urban transport system and help them to find solutions to achieve excellence in Sustainable mobility planning!

The QUEST Final Conference, organized on the 5th of September 2013 in Budapest, Hungary, celebrated the results of the project and gathered together, for the last time, the cities and other partners that have worked together during the past two years. 

From policies into practice

 

The main aim of the conference was to present the final results of the project and discuss about the future of QUEST.  The conference addressed themes such as how to turn the plans and policies into action and how to take the leap to the next level and become a more sustainable city. Michael Koucky, the Auditor for Swedish cities stated in his presentation that QUEST Audit can also provide support and a start in the sustainable urban mobility planning processes. QUEST tool was seen useful especially for smaller cities with fewer resources to achieve improvements in sustainable mobility.

The advantage of QUEST is that it recognizes that stepwise improvements are possible at all of development of sustainable mobility policy. Therefore it is suitable for both, cities with less experience in sustainable urban mobility planning and cities advanced in this field.

Five Swedish cities Borås, Gävle, Halmstad, Mölndal and Trollhättan received their QUEST certificates. 

QUEST Academy will continue the work in future

 

To safeguard the quality of the methodology and ensure training, a QUEST Academy has been established. The overall goal of the Academy is to continue to train auditors throughout Europe, so that the method can be expanded to further countries. It also provides a platform for discussion and exchange of experiences between QUEST auditors and cities. The Academy will therefore contribute to capacity building in the field of sustainable transport throughout Europe and provide support to new auditors.

Currently, the QUEST auditor team consists of 17 auditors making the QUEST methodology available in 20 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

If you city is interested in the QUEST methodology, please contact us and we will find the right auditor for you! 

Cities that completed the QUEST process successfully, received Certificates which recognise their efforts in sustainable urban mobility planning.

More information about the project can be found at: www.quest-project.eu or you can follow us in Twitter. You can also download the QUEST brochure in English and Swedish!

Text  and photos: Maija Rusanen, Project Coordinator at UBC EnvCom

PURE finalizes its investment in Brest

This week delegation from UBC EnvCom had a chance to witness finalization of the PURE investment in Brestvodokanal. Lead partner together with the investment coordinating partner – John Nurminen Foundation, arrived to Brest to visit the site of the reconstructed and newly equipped chemical storing and dosing station at the wastewater treatment facilities.  

Chemical storing and dosing station at Brest WWTP.

The meeting parties discussed schedule of the few finalizing tasks for the forthcoming week as well as more distant future plans that will continue the fruitful work for better wastewater treatment, and congratulated each other on the good work done for the better state of the Baltic Sea. 

PURE actions in Brest had been a piloting case of the EU-funded investments of this type in Belarus.

Site of Brest WWTP.
Photos by Olena Zinchuk, UBC EnvCom.

Previously, PURE has carried out technical audits at 5 more WTTPs and successfully implemented two other investments in enchanced removal of nutrients from the wastewaters of Riga and Jurmala. PURE project is co-funded by the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013.

Summer feelings from UBC EnvCom

Last days of rush and running before summer holidays at the UBC Commission on Environment, one of the busiest times during the year. Projects need to be reported and most of the autumn plans need to be set. Furthermore, budgets, activities and plans for the next year need to have clear frameworks. At the private level, we need to have clear goals and plans for our valuable holiday days. There are perhaps some tensions and stress in the air.


I usually say that we live in an interesting period and can´t stop repeating myself. Looking at the last few months we have behind us, and the months to come there are a lot of both demanding but also interesting issues going on.

The EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region has been evaluated and updated. Gaps and shortcomings in it have been identified and clear development tasks are about to be identified. The EU budget will be set for the next 5-6 years and communicated further to EU funding instruments and programmes. Both the strategy and the funding instruments will have a fundamental effect on how the cooperation and what kind of activities will take place in our Baltic Sea Region.

Our own organization is also approaching the bi-annual UBC General Conference in City of Mariehamn with a lot of important political and organisatorial issues on the agenda. The UBC has been operative for more than 20 years, during a time of lots of success and development. Important for UBC, as it is for any organization, is to further develop the organization and the activities in order to meet the needs of our member cities. There is a clear mandate for a strong city network and a momentum for cities to take a strong role in further development of the Baltic Sea Region.
As we now are living in a period when a lot of projects and activities are being finalized, and at the same time a lot of new activities under some uncertainty are being starting up, there can be a moment chaos. Nevertheless, looking back on earlier similar “chaotic” periods, these moments have most often been really creative despite the stress and uncertainty - so let us look forward with confidence and enthusiasm!

The summer is the time for rest and relaxation. The summer is the time when we meet up with families and relatives and perhaps travel to new places. The summer is the time when we read, think, listen, feel and discuss in another, perhaps more relaxed, way. The summer is the time when we should charge our batteries and also collect new ideas, get inspiration and motivation for upcoming work.
Finally I would like to wish all colleagues, partners and friends a really relaxing summer time with a lot of positive feelings, experiences and inspiration.

Björn Grönholm
Head of Secretariat, UBC Commission on Environment

The state of the Baltic Sea –Common concern of Russia and Finland

Picture: Hannamaria Yliruusi, UBC

Baltic Sea Forum 2013, organized in our secretariats home city Turku, gathered water experts and other stakeholders together to share experiences about water issues in Russia. The round table discussion included interesting presentations focusing mainly on co-operation between Russia and Finland. These two countries have a long history of joint activities in the water sector and active discussion showed that there is a great interest among Finnish professionals to co-operate with Russia also in the future. However, participants shared a concern about lack of interest of young professionals in Russia – Finland co-operation.

Water issues are high on the agenda in the Baltic Sea region and especially the state of the Sea is a hot topic. For example the Gulf of Finland suffers from mass algae blooms during summer time decreasing the attractiveness of the region and the poor water quality concerns greatly both Russia and Finland. Common worry has resulted in successful co-operation that started already during the 60s and 70s. In those days the co-operation was, according to the representative of the Finnish Ministry of Finland, Laura Saijonmaa, mainly research collaboration. One current example of joint actions, presented by Esa Ovaskainen from Ecovod Oy, was realization of advanced wastewater treatment in the city of St Petersburg. Objective of the city is that 98 % of the wastewaters are treated in accordance with Baltic Marine Environment Protection Committees (HELCOM) recommendations by 2015. During the debate, it was brought up that this target is already achieved.

When the audience asked from the speakers what has been the key to successful co-operation and to the decades long continuation of the fruitful work, almost all speakers highlighted the importance of trust. It appears that the starting of joint actions has been depended on the joint interests of specific individuals working in the water sector in both countries. Especially the co-operation between water utilities of Helsinki, Finland and St. Petersburg was brought up. The other success factor has been the will to build long term co-operation. It was mutual understanding that to be able to work together, it will take time to build up trust and to find common ground for implementation.

However participants shared a common concern about the continuation of joint efforts for better Baltic Sea. Individuals, who has been pushing co-operation for common goals are retiring in the near future and according to the experts, it seems that young professionals are not as interested in Finnish-Russian co-operation as the older generation has been. The lack of interest is unfortunate since it might be that the good relations and trust in water co-operation will stop when the individual contacts tied during the last 30 years cease to be.

Nevertheless we are now in a good position to make co-operation between Russia and Finland stronger and hopefully, at the same time, we are able to attract new organizations and young professionals to get involved. Currently the city of Turku and the city of St Petersburg are celebrating 60 years as twin cities and among other things future projects in the water field are planned and discussed. One of the events contributing to the celebrations is a seminar in Turku on Thursday 6.6.2013 called “Environmental and climate change strategies and policies in Baltic Region cities - From planning to implementation” held. In this seminar many policy areas, important equally to both cities, are discussed and one of those will definitely be water policies.

CH4LLENGE project tackles the key challenges of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning

The challenges that cities and communities face in the search for sustainability and better quality of life are increasingly significant. Cities of different sizes have a crucial role in contributing to EU 2020 targets aiming to improve the efficiency of energy use and to cut down CO2 emissions.  Urban transport is a major source of energy consumption and green house gas emissions and can thus make a big contribution to meet these goals, but also to ensure the attractiveness of our cities. Cities, with a well-functioning and sustainable transport system, are not only environmentally friendly places, but are also attractive and good places to live and work. 

European Commission has underlined in many of its policy documents that strategic and integrated approach to transport infrastructure planning is needed but also to policy making in order to link transport better with environmental protection, healthy environments, land use planning, housing, social aspects of accessibility and mobility as well as industrial policy.  There is a wide consensus that Sustainable Urban Mobility planning contributes to a better quality of life in an urban area and is a good way of tackling transport-related problems in urban areas more efficiently. 

CH4LLENGE supports cities with Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning

Recently launched CH4LLENGE project, funded by the IEE-programme,  is one of the initiatives supporting cities in the preparation and implementation of SUMPs. 

By building on previous experiences and lessons learned from past and current national and European SUMP initiatives, CH4LLENGE has identified common challenges which pose significant barriers in the wider take-up of SUMPs in Europe. 

During the 3-years project CH4LLENGE will develop innovative and transferable solutions to:

1.    Overcome challenges related to the participation of stakeholders.
2.    Provide transferable strategies for institutional cooperation.
3.    Elaborate a solid approach to identify SUMP´s effective measures and measure packages.
4.    Present methodologies for the monitoring and evaluation of SUMP processes and measures.

The nine participating cities represent the diverse cultures in sustainable urban mobility planning in Europe. Those cities spearheading the new planning paradigm are; Amiens (FR), Dresden (DE), Gent (BE) and West Yorkshire (UK), followed by Brno (CZ), Budapest (HU), Krakow (PL), Timisoara (RO) and Zagreb (HR), who all have strong commitments towards the advancement of their own SUMP processes.

In addition the project will support 30 European cities at different stages of working with SUMP and offer them guidance and training possibilities to develop or further improve their SUMPs. From UBC network Turku and Kotka from Finland, Gdynia from Poland, Kaunas from Lithuania and Tartu from Estonia and Kalmar from Sweden will be closely involved with the CH4LLENGE project.

 

Based on the results and experiences of CH4LLENGE cities, the project will develop practical SUMP challenge kits consisting of ‘quick facts’ for decision-makers, a measure option generator, manuals and e-learning courses covering the four defined SUMP challenges. The kits are aimed at local practitioners working with mobility and transport in European cities and regions.

UCB EnvCom coordinates the dissemination and communication activities in the project. 

For more information, please contact:

The CH4LLENGE website www.sump-challenges.eu will be launched in autumn 2013. For the moment, more information can be found at UBC EnvCom website. 

Follow CH4LLENGE in Twitter


Text by: Maija Rusanen, Project Coordinator at UBC EnvCom

Looking for the future: money available, simplification of rules for funding needed

Sun is shining, skies are blue and summer is approaching, so one might think that the there is still long time until this year ends. However, I sometimes feel that there is very little time as the end of the year is also the end of several European Structural & Investment Funds programmes 2007-2013, that have offered financing for a large amount of projects for UBC. For us, the most important ones have been Baltic Sea Region Programme and Central Baltic Programme. Luckily, there is already some seed money available for the next programming period 2014-2020. Seed money is funding for preparing new projects. In our region, it’s possible to apply seed money to prepare projects that contribute to implementing the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Partners that receive this seed money will draft a project plan and further develop it into a project application to any of the EU or national funding sources e.g. the European Structural & Investment Funds programmes 2014-2020.

For me, as Financial Manager at UBC EnvCom, it is of great interest to see what are the rules concerning eligibility of costs and financial reporting. To my delight, I noticed that for this seed money, the reporting is simplified as much as possible. This is the development I hope to see also in the actual new funding programmes for 2014-2020. I still remember my reaction after realising how much heavier reporting is needed in period 2007-2013 compared to the previous period 2000-2006. I can admit that I was a bit stunned. In practise, highly detailed financial reporting proved to be just what I expected: extremely time and resources consuming.

The seed money facility, however, is using flat rates for most of the costs categories, such as personnel costs, organising events and travel costs regarding daily allowances and accommodation. Only costs that need to be reported against invoice are the actual travel costs, such as train or flight. Most likely, the next programmes will not be that straightforward but I really hope that flat rates are applied. Another feature that I would like to see in Structural and Investment Funds programmes is the return of overheads. When costs, such as office rent, telephones and office supplies, would be included as indirect costs, the financial reporting would be simplified. This could be done with a flat rate percentage of either personnel costs or total costs. When reports prepared by project partners are simplified, also checking the report will be easier both for the auditors and for the staff of the programme secretariats. It the end, it benefits us all, as all the work time used for financial reporting is paid by EU tax payers.

Having said that, I don’t advocate for uncontrolled spending of tax payers’ money; my message is the simplification of the rules and reporting requirements. I know I’m not alone. According to the latest news of the preparation of the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020 all member states agreed that “rules for funding need to be simplified and differences between similar programmes' rules need to be minimised”.

Looking forward to new programming period and welcoming new simplified rules for funding!

Sanna Erkko, Financial Manager at UBC EnvCom