As we continue our journey around the world, we are landing in Grenoble, France, to see what this city is doing that could inspire Calgary. Grenoble is a medium-sized city in the French Alps that is doing a lot in terms of energy transition, environmental protection, and adaptation to climate change. For the past ten years, the city has seen drastic changes and has been elected the “European Green Capital” by the European Commission in 2022. Grenoble boasts an extremely efficient public transportation system, with a large tramway and bus network, and an extensive bike path network (it even has bike highways!), with the speed limit having been lowered to 30 km/h in most of the city. Not all those changes were favourably received initially, but the introduction of citizen-led projects called “budget participatif” has been effective in getting people on board. Putting citizens in the role of community builders has been a great and popular way to make the city more sustainable. Using this innovative form of urban development based on the “bottom-up” approach, the city not only progressed towards its sustainability goals but did it with the full support of the population.
Introduced in 2015, the “budget participatif” is a municipal initiative where each year, a part of the city’s budget is allocated to citizen-led projects (800,000 Euros per year since 2015, which has been increased to 1,800,000 Euros this year). This initiative gives all citizens (16 years and older) an opportunity to present, develop, and implement a project that will benefit the city. The initiative is not designed to cater only to projects strictly related to sustainability (it can be in relation to sports, culture, solidarity, etc.). Each year, the city collects citizen proposals, and studies their feasibility and cost. At the end of the initial process, 30 projects are selected, presented, and put to a public vote. The applicants are involved in all phases of the project, from presenting the idea to the citizens through an electoral campaign, to designing and implementing the project. A designated city department assists the applicants along the way, not only helping with funding but also with implementation. The projects can benefit a specific neighbourhood or a street or can be a way to test new ideas on the public space. Some of those experiments have been such a success that they were incorporated into the city’s climate strategy (like repainting in white the roofs of public buildings to lower AC costs during the summer.)
So far, the initiative has been quite successful, as, out of the 77 projects selected, 45 have been completed. A wide range of interesting projects have been implemented, from creating a community chicken coop in the city, to shared gardens on the rooftops or communal orchards. Other projects have included a city-wide program for shared cargo-bikes, community fridges and pantries, and even a public “object library” was opened where you can borrow anything from a lawn mower to a blender! Some projects were aimed at preserving the city’s biodiversity with green roofs or “bat hotels” within the city. The inhabitants got involved in urban planning as well with a project aimed at adding bike racks on either side of the crosswalks (where a parking spot would be), to increase visibility and protect pedestrians. The results speak for themselves: empowering residents to take meaningful action in their City has led to substantial progress being made towards their sustainability goals.
Photo credit: Grenoble.fr Budget Participatif
So, what do you think? In a city like Calgary, renowned for its volunteers, wouldn’t that be a neat idea? Let us know what you think, either on our Facebook page “Green Initiatives” or by contacting us at [email protected]. If you want to get involved and be a part of making Mount Pleasant a greener community, we would love to have you join the committee.
Have a great month,
The MPCA Green Initiatives Committee
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