186
A. Walsh et al.
3 The City of Bristol
Bristol has a strong tradition of activism, with citizens who are engaged, expressive
and ever-ready to get involved, and the city of Bristol has many firsts. The City has a
history as a hub for sustainability activism. Windmill Hill City Farm was the first city
farm to be created outside of London in 1976, it’s a place where residents can learn
about nature and sustainable food practices (Brownlee 2013). The Bristol Green Capital Partnership is a unique collection of over 800 organisations in the City who share
a vision for a sustainable Bristol, they connect and collaborate on events and campaigns around energy, waste, food, air quality and nature (http://bristolgreencapital.
org/). In 2015, Bristol was the first UK city to be named European Green Capital.
This award celebrates and promotes innovative responses to urban environmental
challenges. Bristol impressed with its commitment to clean transport and energy,
and its role as a low-carbon hub of industry. The city influenced international policy
at the UN climate change summit in Paris in 2015, sharing best practice and presenting ambitious sustainable action. Bristol was the UK’s first cycling city, birthplace
of the National Cycle Network and home to Sustrans, the UK’s sustainable transport charity. One major achievement of Bristol students through European Green
Capital activity was the contribution of over 100,000 h of students volunteering for
sustainability-related projects in one year (Clayton et al. 2016).
4 Living Labs
In the Joint Program Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe Strategic Research and innovation agenda an urban, a living lab is defined as: “A forum for innovation, applied
to the development of new products, systems, services, and processes in an urban
area; employing working methods to integrate people into the entire development
process as users and co-creators to explore, examine, experiment, test and evaluate
new ideas, scenarios, processes, systems, concepts and creative solutions in complex
and everyday contexts” (JPI Urban Europe 2013). Additionally, and as is discussed
in Ariane König’s and James Evans’ book on “Experimenting for sustainable development? Living laboratories, social learning and the role of the university”, living
labs can provide a space where multiple stakeholders can address local and/or global
challenges and generate knowledge that is applicable to real-world situations (Konig
and Evans 2013). Apart from what happens within the living lab itself, it is crucial
to have a good interaction between the lab, and what is defined as ‘a real-world
situation’ to achieve long term impact within and outside of the lab. Much like we
need collaboration between disciplines, there is also an equal need for collaboration
and co-production of knowledge and initiatives across sectors to address the societal
challenges we are facing globally and locally. The City and the University of Bristol
interact dynamically, and are in a way, very similar systems that interact and overlap
with each other both spatially and temporally (Bourn 2009). That interaction can and
A. Walsh et al.
3 The City of Bristol
Bristol has a strong tradition of activism, with citizens who are engaged, expressive
and ever-ready to get involved, and the city of Bristol has many firsts. The City has a
history as a hub for sustainability activism. Windmill Hill City Farm was the first city
farm to be created outside of London in 1976, it’s a place where residents can learn
about nature and sustainable food practices (Brownlee 2013). The Bristol Green Capital Partnership is a unique collection of over 800 organisations in the City who share
a vision for a sustainable Bristol, they connect and collaborate on events and campaigns around energy, waste, food, air quality and nature (http://bristolgreencapital.
org/). In 2015, Bristol was the first UK city to be named European Green Capital.
This award celebrates and promotes innovative responses to urban environmental
challenges. Bristol impressed with its commitment to clean transport and energy,
and its role as a low-carbon hub of industry. The city influenced international policy
at the UN climate change summit in Paris in 2015, sharing best practice and presenting ambitious sustainable action. Bristol was the UK’s first cycling city, birthplace
of the National Cycle Network and home to Sustrans, the UK’s sustainable transport charity. One major achievement of Bristol students through European Green
Capital activity was the contribution of over 100,000 h of students volunteering for
sustainability-related projects in one year (Clayton et al. 2016).
4 Living Labs
In the Joint Program Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe Strategic Research and innovation agenda an urban, a living lab is defined as: “A forum for innovation, applied
to the development of new products, systems, services, and processes in an urban
area; employing working methods to integrate people into the entire development
process as users and co-creators to explore, examine, experiment, test and evaluate
new ideas, scenarios, processes, systems, concepts and creative solutions in complex
and everyday contexts” (JPI Urban Europe 2013). Additionally, and as is discussed
in Ariane König’s and James Evans’ book on “Experimenting for sustainable development? Living laboratories, social learning and the role of the university”, living
labs can provide a space where multiple stakeholders can address local and/or global
challenges and generate knowledge that is applicable to real-world situations (Konig
and Evans 2013). Apart from what happens within the living lab itself, it is crucial
to have a good interaction between the lab, and what is defined as ‘a real-world
situation’ to achieve long term impact within and outside of the lab. Much like we
need collaboration between disciplines, there is also an equal need for collaboration
and co-production of knowledge and initiatives across sectors to address the societal
challenges we are facing globally and locally. The City and the University of Bristol
interact dynamically, and are in a way, very similar systems that interact and overlap
with each other both spatially and temporally (Bourn 2009). That interaction can and