Transformation through empowering people: A structural approach to pursue green life

Background Information

•Resolutions were passed at the 2009 Taiwan Energy Meeting to promote low-carbon and alternative energy policies. The Taiwan government promised to establish a nuclear-free homeland by 2025.

•Taiwan implements mandatory garbage classification to conform to the goals set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the UNFCC Conference of Parties.

•Taiwan sets up goals to establish ecological and low-carbon cities and organic farming.

•Taiwan’s “Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Management Act” limits yearly carbon emissions per person to one ton.

Goals of the Initiative

We aim to transform Taipei into a livable city, which residents have long deserved, by creating an enabling structure where people’s behavior becomes environmentally friendly. The policy innovations include city-wide initiatives to reduce energy usage, promote recycling, reduce solid waste, support green mobility, encourage urban organic gardening and develop green industries. 

Timeframes and targets vary, but we are set to reduce city-wide emissions to 2008 levels by 2016, and to reduce emissions 25 percent and 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and 2050 respectively.

Parties and Partners to the Initiative

The structural approach centers on empowering people to change their lifestyle. Through public-private-community partnerships, the city creates incentives and structural functions that direct citizens to change. For example, cross-departmental land/property surveying identifies spare public spaces/buildings that are open for citizen-driven urban acupuncture projects.

The city’s partners in the private sector offer citizens rewards/rebates for participating in projects such as recycling, gardening, energy-saving, and green mobility. The city’s green infrastructure benefits from private companies, such as the replacement of 220,000-plus high-pressure sodium fixtures with LED streetlights. GIANT, the world’s leading bicycle manufacturer, also helps build a bike-transit network of more than 300 YouBike stations.

Most importantly, participatory budgeting programs empower citizens to lead projects that are most relevant to the needs of communities. We have seen a rising number of citizen committees and groups of volunteers on projects for more green spaces, beautifying/cleaning up public spaces, building remodeling/upgrading, energy-saving, and solid waste management.

Resources Used for Implementation

Government funding and human resources are limited, so contributions from the private sector and communities are essential. Through Private Finance Initiatives and their trust, private partners share the costs of infrastructure upgrades, while the government reimburses according to the results of the upgrades. Volunteers and schoolchildren are mobilized to monitor and lead sustainability projects.

Innovation for the Initiative

The innovation is revolutionary because reform programs don’t center on the direct effects of the government’s endeavors, such as imposing restrictions. We work on bottom-up approaches through empowering communities to create fun initiatives, with material and financial resources supported by public-private partnerships. Rewards, discount vouchers, rebates and even lotteries are used as incentives for good citizenship and public participation. Government creates an environment where people can easily relate lifestyle change to government projects like green infrastructure, mobility and centers of excellence.

Innovation has been applied in

In these reform programs, the city’s role is to facilitate citizen-driven initiatives by linking available material, financial, institutional and social resources. Spare and vacant public spaces/buildings are for communities to develop urban acupuncture projects or organic gardening, revitalizing once-deserted corners of the city. The private sector is vital to both infrastructure upgrades and providing inducements for people to change their behavior, such as rewards, rebates and lottery tickets. Participatory budgeting, citizen committees and engagement are useful tools to encourage residents to drive projects that meet the actual needs of their neighborhoods.

Obstacles and Solutions for Innovation

Like quitting bad habits, the main obstacle to the project was people’s feelings that changing their behavior was not beneficial, or cost more. The decreasing price of energy counterbalances inducements and incentives. The city’s engagement strategy involves not only fun, but advocacy on externality issues. Particularly, schoolchildren are transformed into environmentalists, thereby initiating lifestyle change at home and everywhere. As energy prices sank last year, the city still managed to mobilize city-wide energy-saving by 110 gigawatt hours, which ranked Taipei top of Taiwan’s energy-saving league table. 

Outcomes and Assessments

The results are significant. The 304 recycling stations processed over 100,000 tons recycling. The city’s recycling rate reaches 64 percent, the top among all cities in Taiwan. We have retained the “Taiwan’s Cleanest City” award for six consecutive years. Through the power saving campaign, the city saved 110 gigawatt hours in 2015/16. Participatory budgeting and urban acupuncture projects transform vacant spaces to 320 hectares of parks and green spaces in urban areas, a 1.8-fold growth since 2011. NTPC provides healthy and safe organic lunch to pupils, mounting to a total weekly organic vegetable consumption of 34 tons. With strong advocacy at schools, children become the best ambassadors for leading a green lifestyle at home and in their communities.

Methods Applied

Empowerment focuses on the participation of communities to take actions most suitable to their needs. To ensure that communities are facilitated to be part of the change process, events and activities related to green life education, training, public access to information, public awareness and participation are offered to showcase good practices and lessons learned. The city, with NGOs, creates a multimedia platform of useful tutorials/tips on YouTube. Participatory budgeting, the most iconic form of empowerment, where community members engage in deliberative democracy in hearings and consultations on the action plans, have resulted in over 30 successful projects that lead to a green life.