The aim of the SERENE project is to develop and demonstrate sustainable, integrated, cost-effective and customer-centric solutions for local communities. The idea is to integrate different energy system carriers and new renewable generation units in the local communities based on their social and technical status today to meet their energy needs in the coming years. The users has to be involved in the changes of the energy system and be informed about different technical opportunities and business cases to make decisions about their participation. Depending on the actual site, the new energy system involve different storage technologies (battery energy storages, heat storages, water storage-systems), demand response systems to enhance the flexibility of the systems (activating for instance electric vehicle charging stations and heat demand supplies), electric transportation systems like electrical vehicles or buses, heating system improvements using heat-pumps and integration of new renewable generation sources mainly in form of photo voltaics. The SERENE project will establish demonstrations in local villages in three European countries - Denmark, The Netherlands and Poland. The experiences gained at the demonstration sites will be analyzed and evaluated for replicability in firstly Europe but also world wide. Technical benchmark models and solutions will be set up together with their business models, and it is evaluated how different legal aspects form the involved countries will affect the possibility for replication. Further, the needed user involvement and their interest to join are evaluated seen from both geographic, social, environmental and economic conditions and characteristics.

Complex, affects everybody and difficult to achieve, are all words that are mentioned in conjunction with the term Sustainable Consumption. The phrase is however often formally defined as the use of services and products which respond to basic needs while at the same time minimizing the use of natural resources. Many different professions work within the area, and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) is therefore constantly evolving. Environment, lifestyle and behaviour patterns are questions that everyone must take increased responsibility for. This problem looks the same no matter where in the EU you are. Although environmental awareness is increasing, most people find it difficult to relate their consumption habits to large-scale problems such as climate change. To reverse current trends, consumers need to be well informed and know which habit changes will have the biggest impact. At the same time, the occupational groups who work in the field feel they lack the tools to work in the area. They also need to come closer and be more accessible to the public. The ESCAR project has strived to improve the VET within the field of Sustainable Consumption, with the goal to strengthen the skills of the affected professionals and give them tools that increase their professional development. In order to strengthen the VET, the ESCAR project has produced a Best Practice Guide with good examples on how to work with Sustainable Consumption, which is available online and free for anyone to use. The good examples have been collected from Learning, Teaching and Training (LTT) activities, and from Local Stakeholder Panels (LSP). The Best Practice Guide facilitates practitioners to carry out their work in a better, more coordinated manner, receive knowledge on consumer behaviour, citizen participation and how VET could adapt and capitalize of this knowledge.The EU is encouraging more Sustainable Consumption as part of different policies. As seen, this is not a local phenomenon and all partners entered the project with a need to develop their work. The partnership was very suitable to carry out the project, since they all had different backgrounds they could contribute with, and represented both an NGO, municipalities and a science center carrying out VET.Project partners:- Municipality of Borås, Sweden - In Borås the energy/climate/consumer advisers work on an individual basis. The accessibility to the public is often inadequate and there is a need to influence their attitudes on Sustainable Consumption.- Navet Science Center, Borås, Sweden - Navet has a long experience in educating within Sustainable Consumption. Navet also has a broad network of local/regional actors.- Municipality of Skanderborg, Denmark - In Skanderborg they work with a high level of citizen involvement. Their experience on working closely with the citizens to come up with the best solution to address the challenges with sustainability is of interest. - Columbares, Murcia, Spain - Columbares is a large organisation offering VET. They have experience in working with different methods for changing consumer behaviour. Columbares also has experience in educational programs.- Municipality of Santorso, Italy - Santorso has a solid regional anchorage, both leading the Provincial Environmental Educational Laboratory and is the promoter of the Mayors Statement of Altovicentino.Project activities:- Exchanged experiences on different themes and best practices on Sustainable Consumption.- Carried out LTT activities in order to develop the Best Practice Guide on Sustainable Consumption.- Carried out a common activity on the topic of sustainable food, resulting in a booklet of recipes.- Carried out LSP’s in order to get input to the VET and the creation of the Best Practice Guide.Results and impact:The Best Practice Guide is this project's main result. The guide can be found online at www.sustainableguide.eu. In this way the results are available for everybody interested in using the material produced within the project. The main impact of ESCAR is that the professionals working in the field have gotten new tools and training material in order to support citizens to make sustainable choices. Decision makers have been a part of the LSP’s, which have given them and other stakeholders better decision support. Some of the main conclusions of the project are; that it's important to involve both heart and brain in activities in order to achieve behavioural change; with international contacts a local project gains credibility and bigger interest; that the municipality can play an important role as an enabler of grassroots' ideas.Durability:All partners have been responsible for involving and reporting to local/regional decision makers, which guarantee that the results will be known and potentially applied.The Best Practice Guide has been developed as a website where new best practices easily can be added, also after the end of the project.

The overall purpose of the SUSTENANCE project is to set up sustainable energy systems for achieving novel carbon neutral energy communities. The project focus on the development of smart technological concepts ensuring a green transition of the energy systems with higher share of local renewable energy and more efficient integrated energy solutions for the electrical, heat, water, waste as well as transportation infrastructure. The set up solutions will at the same time have good socio-economic impact in the local communities and ensure ecofriendly solutions and good infrastructures, which provides support to sustaining the essentials of life. The demonstration activities are set up in four countries: Denmark, India, Netherlands and Poland. These countries has different local energy resources, socio-economic, user behavior, political structures, market conditions and regulations. The project will show how same technical concepts such as coupling of different energy vectors, storage solutions, demand response, intelligent control schemes and digitalization can be applied to all demonstration cases despite the huge differences in the local conditions and regulations. Road maps will be set up based on these technical solutions together with guidelines for methods for user engagement and ensuring cooperation among the users in relevant cases leading to cooperatives. Finally, business cases will be set up for the different demonstration sites seen from both user perspective, small enterprises and utility point of view taking into account the local conditions. In this way, synergy effects with inputs from the different demonstration sites are expected and the results give abundant possibilities for maximum impact and replication in other local communities in the four countries as well as in societies worldwide.