Italy – PLENTY-LIFE

MUNICIPALITY OF DOLO

FIRST ITALIAN PILOT

1. Geographical and demographical context
The municipality of Dolo is located on the south-east of Veneto Region, in the Province of Venice. The Veneto region is one of the strongest economic engines in the country (it counts around 10% of Italian GDP). The core economic areas are the tertiary sector (65%)and industry (33%), while agriculture/primary sector is residual (2%). Service sector is growing, bringing upwards consumptions of residents. The Region has overall remarkable infrastructural assets, only the Provinces of Venice and Belluno lack a bit behind. A recent phenomenon in the industrial sector has been the “displacement” of the production phase of several companies, leaving the motherland to foreign countries. Overall 460.000 companies contribute to the vibrant economic system of the region. Tourism plays a pivotal role (14% of Italian arriving visitors and touristic presences ), with positive effects on jobs creation and local expenditures of visitors, thanks to the cultural heritage and natural richness of this land.

The region has had a population increase in the last 35 years, actually counting around 5 million, mainly due to the arrival of foreign people (7% of the residents), balancing the usual negative birth / death balance at the national level. Nowadays, the share of the over 65-year-old resident population is around 23%. By 2030, the number of residents is expected to slightly decrease due to this aging population.
With some 15.000 inhabitants , the municipality of Dolo ranks 60th in the municipalities statistics of Veneto Region measured by population size.
The Italian municipalities (overall 7.900) vary widely in size, but those between 60.000 and 5.000 inhabitants are the most frequent (53%, respectively 23% for 20-60.000, 16% for 20-10.000 and 14% for 10-5.000).

2. Status and future urban development
The local industrial sector is strongly characterized by the presence of companies belonging to the footwear district of the “Riviera del Brenta”. Most of the small businesses are distributed within the town, resulting in an urban fabric characterized by a mix of residential, commercial and craft functions. Most relevant industrial zone is called “Arino”, it is close to the border with the Municipality of Pianiga, immediately south of the highway Miland-Venice.
Other production sites are distributed in the territory, especially near the Brenta river.

The Veneto Region law n°11 on sustainable urban planning adopted in 2004 makes mandatory to all municipalities to renovate the traditional urban planning tool called PRG (Piano Regolatore Generale) by splitting it into a strategic masterplan called PAT (Piano di Assetto del Territorio) followed by an operative zoning plan called PI (Piano degli Interventi).
Dolo adopted the PAT (Piano di Assetto del Territorio – Strategic masterplan, at reference scale 1:10.000) in 2018, jointly designed with the adjacent Municipality of Fiesso D’Artico, as the two territories share the main development challenges and ambitions. The PAT foresees that major interventions should accomplish a Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure (EU DIR 2001/42/CE) before the approval, including adequate mitigation and compensation measures.

Later, in 2018 and 2021 the Municipality adopted the PI (Piano degli Interventi – zoning plan, at reference scale 1:5000 / 1:2000). Following the strategic environmental directives of the PAT, the PI shrinks by 120.000 square meter the amount of agricultural land previously allocated to new developments. This implies an overall reduction of theoretical construction of 65.000 cubic meters (residential buildings) and 21.000 floor square meters (industrial buildings).

3. Energy profile and energy policy
In 2012 Dolo designed and adopted the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), supported by the Province of Venice – as many other municipalities did at that period -, unfortunately without developing internal skills to follow step by step and manage its implementation.
The SEAP targeted -21% CO2 reduction by 2020 in comparison to baseline year 2005, which according to IPCC emission factor calculation resulted in 5 CO2 tons per capita and 18.8 MWh/year consumption per capita (counting buildings and transport sector only), and 274.000 GWh/year overall consumption.
The -21% target implies an annual reduction of 16.000 tons of CO2 from about 73.000 (2005) to 57.000 tons of CO2, to be achieved by implementing 21 actions referring to energy efficiency in buildings, transport, awareness creation and public engagement.

In 2014 the JRC approved the SEAP with some technical adjustments; in 2015 the first monitoring has bene done, as foresaw by the Covenant of Majors agreement, and the second in 2018 (based on 2016 data).
The trend shows an increase of emission between the baseline year 2005 and 2010, counterbalanced by a sequent decrease, leading to -11% emissions in 2016 compared to 2005. Therefore, the Municipality is on the good track and should have meet the 2020 target, reversing the previous increasing trend.

4. Key challenges and priority of actions

Among the main challenges identified there are:

Lack of skills and understanding of sustainability/energy issues in internal human resources;
Lack of dialogue among some departments and agreement on the overall strategy by some internal elements;
Workload of internal human resources, almost dedicated to solve bureaucracy and daily issues.

The top priorities for the local community are:

Revising upwards the energy/environmental targets, by undertaking the challenge to achieve -50% of emissions in the next decades (compared to 2005), namely -45% by 2030 and – 50% by 2050;
Empowering the civil servant, especially those working at the technical sectors, training them on energy-environmental issues, with the final aim to define an internal “integrated sustainability manager”, able to coordinate the urban planning/environmental policies/public works areas, by introducing ambitious environmental and performance criteria to shape the administrative action of the Municipality
Fostering the good practice exchange and enhancing the dialogue with environmental associations already engaged at local Level, and sustaining citizen-led initiatives, to achieve that targets; To earmark adequate internal resources and to look for additional funding (e.g. from Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and international projects, as well as implementing private-public partnership and innovative business models to sustain the energy and climate transition.

MUNICIPALITY OF CASTELFRANCO VENETO

SECOND ITALIAN PILOT

1. Geographical and demographical context
The municipality of Castelfranco Veneto is located on the center of Veneto Region, in the Province of Treviso. The Veneto region is one of the strongest economic engines in the country (it counts around 10% of Italian GDP). The core economic areas are the tertiary sector (65%)and industry (33%), while agriculture/primary sector is residual (2%). Service sector is growing, bringing upwards consumptions of residents. The Region has overall remarkable infrastructural assets, only the Provinces of Venice and Belluno lack a bit behind.A recent phenomenon in the industrial sector has been the “displacement” of the production phase of several companies, leaving the motherland to foreign countries. Overall 460.000 companies contribute to the vibrant economic system of the region. Tourism plays a pivotal role (14% of Italian arriving visitors and touristic presences ), with positive effects on jobs creation and local expenditures of visitors, thanks to the cultural heritage and natural richness of this land.

The region has had a population increase in the last 35 years, actually counting around 5 million, mainly due to the arrival of foreign people (7% of the residents), balancing the usual negative birth / death balance at the national level. Nowadays, the share of the over 65-year-old resident population is around 23%. By 2030, the number of residents is expected to slightly decrease due to this aging population.
With some 33.000 inhabitants , the municipality of Castelfranco Veneto ranks 14th in the Veneto municipalities statistics measured by population size.

2. Status and future urban development
The Municipality of Castelfranco Veneto is located in Northern Italy, 30 km away from Treviso (province capital) and approximately 40 km from Venice (regional capital). Being in a strategic position in the centre of the region, it is since ancient times a compulsory stop between Venice, Germany and Flanders, and between Western and Eastern Europe.
The population is 33.369 inhabitants, and the municipality area covers a surface of 50,93 sq. km, with a density of 655 inhabitants per square kilometer. The main economic activities are related to service sector, manufacturing (mainly metalworking), trading, construction and tourism. In terms of agriculture, the situation of the surroundings of Castelfranco Veneto is that of an “inhabited countryside”, in which agriculture plays more of an environmental role and contributes to creating a characteristic landscape. As in most medium–sized towns of Veneto region, Castelfranco Veneto is also characterized by a remarkable amount of both public an private urban green areas.

Castelfranco Veneto adopted the PAT (Piano di Assetto del Territorio – Strategic masterplan, at refence scale 1:10.000) in 2010, that is inspired to some sustainable development principles, such as: regeneration of existing buildings and public spaces, preservation of the agricultural landscape, conservation of historical heritage. The PAT foresees that major interventions should accomplish a Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure (EU DIR 2001/42/CE) before the approval, including adequate mitigation and compensation measures.
Later, in 2018 and 2020 the Municipality adopted the PI (Piano degli Interventi – zoning plan, at reference scale 1:5000/1:2000). The PI redefines the zoning and the local building code, including some quality and efficiency criteria for the promotion of Nature Based Solution, inclusion of Renewable energy sources in buildings and energy efficiency.

3. Energy profile and energy policy
In 2013 the Municipality of Castelfranco Veneto decided to officially join the Covenant of Mayors program. The Iuav University of Venice also supported the institution in the drafting, monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) adopted by the City Council in 2014.

The municipal energy policy is expressed in the 17 actions contained in the SEAP. The actions are of three types: quantifiable actions in order to reduce emissions and implementable directly by the Municipality, quantifiable actions in order to reduce emissions and implementable only by the private sector, and non-quantifiable actions conceived by the Municipality in order to stimulate environmental awareness and behavioural changes.

The year 2007 was defined as the baseline year (approximately 7.4 tons of CO2 per capita and year consumption of approximately 24.6 MWh) against which to calculate the objectives to be achieved by 2020, corresponding to at least a 20% reduction in emissions.

4. Key challenges and priority of actions

Among the main challenges identified there are:

Lack of skills and understanding of sustainability/energy issues in internal human resources;
Lack of dialogue among some departments and agreement on the overall strategy by some internal elements;
Workload of internal human resources, almost dedicated to solve bureaucracy and daily issues.

In the 2020-2030 period of implementation of the SECAP, some actions will concern:

further reductions of non-recyclable waste up to 35 kg / year per inhabitant
energy efficiency of the public lighting system for a further 4000 light points
energy efficiency intervention on other public buildings
construction of further cycle paths for 5 km to move the center and the surrounding area reducing the use of private cars
creation of intercommunal cycle and pedestrian tourist routes and itineraries for 20 km