The MUSIC Project


artist view, designed by Muriel Pagès

MUSIC (Mitigation in Urban areas: Solutions for Innovative Cities) is a cooperation project between European cities and research institutes in Northwest Europe. MUSIC aims to reduce CO2 emissions with 50% in the partner cities Aberdeen, Montreuil, Gent, Ludwigsburg and Rotterdam in 2030. Besides these five cities, the research institutes the Dutch Research Institute For Transitions (DRIFT) and Public Research Centre Henri Tudor (Luxembourg) are partners in the project. Experts from these institutes assist the cities in the project implementation.

The CO2 reduction challenge
The European Union aims to decrease CO2 emissions with 20% in 2020. Cities play a leading role in reaching this objective. The Co2 reduction challenges cities face are mainly institutional and organisational: How can policy be translated into concrete and innovative projects? How can all stakeholders formulate one vision for a sustainable city? What role should companies, research institutes and the government play? How can urban citizens be involved? To answer these questions, we need a transition from traditional to innovative ways of cooperation with regard to sustainability in the build environment.

A transition to sustainable urban planning
In MUSIC, all cities will go through a transition process aiming to make CO2 reduction an integral part of urban planning processes. The MUSIC cities will use the transition management method developed by DRIFT to guide this process. This method includes a series of workshops with several stakeholders (businesses, government, research institutes, citizens) resulting in a local sustainability vision and action plan. Besides, new GIS instruments for energy planning will be developed to be integrated in urban planning.

The local action plans and energy planning tools will be tested in pilot projects. 
  • Aberdeen: renovation of a school to become more energy efficient and at the same time, increasing the energy efficiency awareness of students and their parents;

  • Rotterdam: development of new cooperation models between public and private sector to make public buildings less energy consuming. These models will be applied to swimming pools and smart roofs in Rotterdam;

  • Ludwigsburg: building of an energy neutral community centre in a socially and economic weak district in Ludwigsburg, where local residents will be informed on energy reductive measures;

  • Montreuil: building of an energy generating school building. Local residents and students will be involved and informed during the whole building process;

  • Ghent: developing a participation project to receive support from the users and inhabitants of the city. Besides, Ghent will do a major pilot of the GIS support tool by proclaiming the energy saving message during several events.

International inspiration!
The MUSIC partners will meet twice a year to share their knowledge and experience. Besides, the partners will develop a lobby strategy to put the role cities have in CO2 reduction higher on the European agenda. 

You can download the MUSIC project brochure here.


MUSIC Landscape "Sustainable Future" by Jean Klare. The map shows the transition to a sustainable future. 
The contents of the map have been determined by the MUSIC partners during the Kick Off Meeting in Rotterdam in November 2010. 

MUSIC - Mitigation in Urban Areas