CO2-reduction in new housing estates: a workshop as a building block

The first phase of the project included an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge about options for CO₂-reduction and an empirical analysis of the role of options for CO₂-reduction in planning processes for new housing estates. In the second phase a participatory method for the design of future urban areas with low CO₂ emissions, the CO₂-reduction workshop, was developed and tested. The workshop consists of two days with an interval of three or four weeks between the two sessions and should be held early in the planning process.

The results show that the workshop:- stimulates awareness about options for CO₂-reduction among key actors, - gives the actors more insight into the kinds of options available for CO₂-reduction,- involves actors who could play a role in realising options in an early phase of the planning process, and - facilitates to make agreements about the actual implementation of options for CO₂-reduction. To disseminate the workshop method and to bring the CO₂-reduction workshop under the attention of local governments and project managers of building locations, a manual aimed at these actors has been written.