To enable radical change in a short time, all efforts need to be linked together. We need to work "beyond projectization" instead of, as often today, working in fragmented transition projects.
Today, many interventions take the form of projects. This means, very simply, that a group is funded to carry out a mission for a limited time. They report their results and then the group disperses. To enable the major changes needed to achieve climate neutrality, all efforts made must be linked together and contribute to a common goal, in our case to the mission of climate neutral cities by 2030, with a good life for all within the boundaries of the planet.
"Beyond projectization" means that we need to ensure that the investments made are part of a thoughtful and long-term portfolio that as a whole contributes to the "new normal", a sustainable and climate-neutral society.
The research on transformative portfolio approaches (TPA) is a governance strategy for streamlining and accelerating the climate transition in cities. TPA emphasizes the need for an overview and holistic approach to create structures for continuous learning both between projects, and from completed and ongoing projects. A transformative portfolio approach also means constantly keeping a close eye on the development of the portfolio so that it really contains the efforts that the city needs to make. If it does not, the portfolio needs to be adjusted.
The overall idea of the portfolio approach is that it is a learning process. Moreover, the development of the portfolio must be a collective skill, as it is developed by a variety of actors in a city. Within Viable Cities, Dr. Kateryna Pereverza has been leading this research since 2020, and she develops her ideas among others here (in English).
A City Lab workshop on the tranformative portfolio approach was held in 2022 with Kateryna Pereverza, Elina Järvelä, Strategic Designer at UNDP, and Olle Dierks, Head of Large Scale Initiatives at Viable Cities. You can watch it here on the left. The main findings from the research and the webinar are available on the Viable Cities blog.
