In line with the city’s overall climate policy, the city of Mannheim developed and implemented a city lab ("living lab" approach) as part of the EU Horizon project SONNET. The city lab aimed at mobilising citizens for the development of the neighbourhood Neckarstadt-West, a neighbourhood with many residents with migration background, where language barriers posed a challenge to the city to engage with citizens for energy transition efforts. Whereas the Covid-19 crisis posed significant barriers to the original idea and scope of actions, the city still managed to implement diverse actions. The city lab entailed mobile participation/planning containers, gamification with apps, and explored measures for the neighbourhood such as energy role model flats, a neighbourhood fund (crowdfunding) for energy efficiency measures, and more. Towards the end of the project, additional funding from the German development bank KfW was acquired for a neighbourhood renovation management, which enabled a certain level of continuation of the activities. The overall impact lies in the social dialogue and processes that were strengthened and shaped, rather than measureable emmission recutions.
