SPARCS

1/10/2019–30/9/2024. 

During the first three years, energy and mobility solutions were be developed in Espoo and Leipzig, which were monitored and replicated for at least two years elsewhere in Espoo and in five successor cities. 

The project promoted:  

• local electricity and heat production  
• energy efficiency  
• technology for local energy markets and energy storage  
• flexible consumption  
• solutions for electric mobility  
• engaging residents in themes of energy and mobility  
• new business models  

The demonstration sites in Espoo included Sello in Leppävaara, Lippulaiva in Espoonlahti and the Kera area. 
Kera is an underdeveloped industrial area that will be built as a new residential area with 14,000 inhabitants and 10,000 jobs. Kera will become an international example of the circular economy and digital solutions. 

Espoonlahti is the second largest of Espoo’s city centres with 56,000 inhabitants. The area will be partially renovated and a new shopping center will be opened in 2022 in the heart of the Lippulaiva area. The area is expected to grow in the near future. 

The Leppävaara area is the largest and most active of the five centres in Espoo. The center of Leppävaara, with more than 65,000 inhabitants, and the shopping center Sello, as an already built area, are a significant hub for urban activities and traffic. The area is expected to grow significantly in the near future. 

The common goal of the EU’s Smart Cities Lighthouse projects is to develop commercial energy, mobility and ICT solutions with a high market potential.  

The Espoo consortium included: Adven, Citycon, Kone, Plug-IT Finland, Siemens, RIL and VTT, with supportive participation of Espoon Asunnot, Fortum, HSL, HSY, Sello, Smart & Clean Foundation and the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council. The project involved 31 partners all around Europe. 

One of the goals of the SPARCS project was to develop a co-creation model for the transformation of sustainable and smart urban areas, where the City of Espoo, companies, educational institutions, research organizations, other organizations, and citizens could collaboratively develop sustainable and smart urban areas.

These methods and models of collaboration and co-creation have been developed in previous projects, and the aim was to build new, complementary tools through service design in the SPARCS project to support these previous learnings. During the process, Kera served as a testing ground for assembling the model, which will later be generalized for use in different types of areas.

The end result of the process is a virtual toolbox to support the development of sustainable and smart urban areas.

Explore the toolbox here.(external link, opens in a new window)

You can download the guide to the Co-creation model as a PDF file below.

During the SPARCS project, a three-year Buddy Class pilot was implemented with middle school students. The goal of the pilot was to raise awareness of sustainable development themes among young people and to integrate sustainable lifestyle practices into their daily lives. Increasing youth participation was also an important part of the Buddy Class activities.

The Buddy Class Concept, which was developed based on the lessons learned from the pilot, highlights the benefits of enhancing youth participation and provides effective methods for engaging young people in similar activities. This concept is valuable for both public and private sector stakeholders, especially in development projects but also in other initiatives.

You can download the Buddy Class Concept as a PDF below.