CT BETA and Anthesis Lavola collaborate to promote new waste management models in local administration
Through the SIMIL program, up to 24 representatives of local governments from all over Catalonia receive free consulting services
The Governance for Sustainability Area of the BETA Technology Center of the UVic-UCC and the Participation and Municipal Waste teams of Anthesis Lavola have been collaborating for a few weeks in the development of the SIMIL program. It is an initiative designed to bring local governments and the scientific world closer together, and to facilitate that they work aligned in the approach of challenges and solutions in the field of municipal waste management.
With the SIMIL program, up to 24 representatives of local governments from all over Catalonia will receive free advice in the field of municipal waste management, with the intention of proposing roadmaps that respond to the real needs they face on a daily basis. “From SIMIL we want to create a space for knowledge exchange between academic staff and representatives of the municipal political sphere, to open a process of participation and co-creation in which the experience of all the actors involved is taken into account”, explains Víctor Carbajal, coordinator of the SIMIL project at CT BETA. The ultimate goal is to be able to work efficiently to define specific solutions to the challenges posed.
In the framework of the SIMIL program, once the challenges and priorities have been identified by CT BETA and Anthesis Lavola, several working groups and a work plan for each one have been formed. The first of the participative sessions, addressed to representatives of the local administration, took place on Tuesday, September 19, at the CT BETA headquarters, in the Can Baumann building, in Vic. The session has served to generate ideas and share concerns and needs of the participants in this regard. The program of activities of the participatory sessions will be complemented with a visit to a successful case of waste management, specifically the community composting system implemented in Les Masies de Roda under the guidance of representatives of CT BETA.
One of the particularities of these participatory sessions is that they will follow a methodology developed by Anthesis Lavola: Meetfulness. This is a set of skills, methodologies and tools that allow to create the conditions for a successful development of group processes, both to achieve the previously defined objectives, and to create a climate of trust and a fluid, constructive and empathetic communication. In addition, the sustainability services consultant will provide its extensive experience in the conceptualization and dynamization of this type of dynamics, thus facilitating the analysis, synthesis and interpretation of the information collected.
The SIMIL program received funding from the Science Meets Regions program of the Joint Research Center (JRC), the European Commission’s main scientific advisory service. In total, the JRC selected nine initiatives from across Europe to serve as examples of how to facilitate policy makers’ access to the most relevant scientific evidence and, at the same time, provide participating scientists with a direct insight into the environmental policy development process. Being a relevant actor in this type of processes has been one of the strategic objectives of CT BETA since its inception.
Collaboration also in the Med4Waste project.
“The experience of the SIMIL program and the collaboration between CT BETA and Anthesis Lavola will allow us to generate materials and experiences that will help to disseminate and, above all, to value the creation of common spaces between the academic world and the local political world. This will be useful for other similar projects coordinated from CT BETA, such as Med4Waste”, says Victor Carbajal. Med4Waste is a European cooperation project that aims to facilitate new governance models for public policies on urban waste management in the Mediterranean region.
Med4Waste, which has been financed thanks to the ENI CBC Med program, focuses on increasing the impact of the results of projects already implemented in the field of waste management in the northern and southern Mediterranean. A relevant part of the activity carried out is aimed at providing guidance and training to public administrations and private and social actors, either directly through accompaniment or through free training courses.
