Title: TASK: Review best practices
Course: Project week - Leuphana-Copy > Section: Day 2

1. Brainstorming

Do a brainstorming in class to collect ideas and examples on possible climate actions for the city of Leinwig. Focus on the leading question:

[fa-comments-o] You can also collect and discuss your ideas in the Course Forum.

2. Reviewing case studies

Form small work groups (4 students) and review at least three case studies of communities implementing climate actions for a transition towards renewable energy sources. You can find selected case studies here:

Community-based best practices for climate actions:

- Sierra Club: Cities are Ready for 100% Clean Energy – 10 Case Studies [PDF, 10 case studies in the U.S.]
- Go 100 Percent Renewable Energy: Interactive Map [Website, case studies from around the world incl. Germany and the U.S.]
- Global 100%RE: Interactive Map [Website, case studies from around the world incl. Germany and the U.S.]
- Sierra Club: Is Your City #ReadyFor100? [Website, case studies and assessment of efforts by U.S. cities]

3. Analyzing case studies

Select one case study investigate in greater detail. Look at the following aspects and take notes:

- What is the situation of the city?
Main facts / context of the city like population size, geographical location, climate

- Why do they act on climate?
Background and motivation for local climate action

- What is their goal?
Aims and climate action targets like GHG reduction goals, renewable energy targets

- How is the goal to be achieved?
Approach or method to achieve the goals like financial incentives, local policies, public-private partnerships, local-state partnerships

- When is the goal to be achieved?
Time frame for the plan or measure? How far are they in their plan? Current situation / evaluation (if possible)

- What can we learn from this example?  Explain the case’s relevance for your project goal. In what ways is the case study relevant for your work? What is unique to your case study and what can other cities learn from it?

4. Fishbowl discussion

Summarize your group’s findings on a poster. Focus on lessons that can be learned from that case study. Deduce at least three concrete suggestions from your case study that could be transferred to your project.

Present your findings (i.e. lessons learned from best practice examples) in a fishbowl discussion (select a speaker, bring notes, refer to your poster).

Method guide: Fishbowl discussion

- Choose one student as your group speaker and help him/her summarize your findings. All group speakers, together with a moderator, sit in the inner circle.
- The speakers take turns in presenting their group’s findings. Provide reasons for the suggestions based on your case study (use the guiding questions above). You should refer to your poster.
- Group members in the audience (outer circle) can join in to support their speaker or ask critical questions – but only after being called upon by the moderator.
- In the final part of your contribution you should answer the following questions: What aspects from the case studies are relevant for your course’s project? Which measures can be transferred to your case? How should these measures be adapted or changed to fit your specific scenario?

5. Select ideas for your own project

Collect ideas and best practices from the case studies investigated by you and your classmates.

Discuss how they could be adapted to your case, i.e. in most cases you will not be able to simply copy one city’s approach and apply it to your case since geographical, economic and other factors are likely to differ.

Also, you need to decide as to what measures you can transfer – you probably will not be able to use all the examples you have reviewed / e.g. a small city cannot adopt all measures a city like Los Angeles might have implemented.

[fa-comments-o] Your can discuss your ideas in the Course Forum.

[fa-pencil] You can also document your results in the Project Journal.