An international group of business and IT students partnered with LocalZero to create a platform that bridges the gap between local climate action and proven climate strategies. The goal: to help communities across Germany implement effective measures for achieving climate neutrality. This requires a tool that aligns efforts and amplifies impact
Who is LocalZero?
LocalZero is a non-profit organization committed to helping cities across Germany achieve climate neutrality by 2035. It works with voluntary teams in cities who implement targeted climate actions, known as “local measures”. These measures are based on a set of scientifically developed “top measures” that provide a framework for addressing key areas such as energy, mobility, and waste management.
In their mission to combat climate change, the voluntary teams collaborate closely with municipalities. However, because local measures are often named and categorized differently from the top measures, this creates challenges in implementation and progress tracking.
The Challenges Faced by LocalZero
Several key challenges were identified in the development of this solution. The lack of clear connections between local and top measures was highlighted, resulting in reduced transparency within the overall climate strategy. This lack of clarity made it more difficult for teams to effectively demonstrate their impact. Difficulties were also encountered by voluntary teams in communicating their progress to key stakeholders, including policymakers, as well as in collaborating with other cities. Additionally, the process of comparing progress across cities was made challenging, which restricted the sharing of best practices and limited the scalability of successful projects.
The Solution: A Unified Platform for Local Climate Action
With this platform, LocalZero’s voluntary teams will be better equipped to implement effective measures, track their progress, and demonstrate their impact to stakeholders. This unified approach not only accelerates local climate action, but also strengthens the connection between community efforts and national climate goals.
On the left is an overview of all the top measures in the selected energy sector. By hovering over the city icon, a quick preview appears of all the cities that are currently working on this measure. By clicking on the arrow on the top measure “Funding programs for PV systems”, you get to the detailed description of the chosen top measure and corresponding best practice, pictured on the right.
Scrolling down, all the local measures are listed by cities. By clicking on the links, you get to the description of each local measure. In this example, the city Bad Hersfeld is implementing the local measure “Municipal PV funding”.
About the Co-Innovation Lab
This solution was designed in a project of the Co-Innovation Lab of Hochschule München guided by the lecturers Prof. Dr. Holger Günzel, Prof. Dr. Lars Brehm, Prof. Dr. Jessica Slamka, Mr. Hans-Jürgen Haak, Ms. Anne Mari Stenbacka and Mr. Jere Käpyaho. The Co-Innovation Lab offers students a virtual platform for learning how to work as a consulting team by creating temporary partnerships between companies, students, and lecturers.
For more information about the Co-Innovation Lab, contact holger.guenzel@hm.edu or lars.brehm@hm.edu.
- Project results:
- Project Team: LocalZero