Best City Practices

Best City Practices (BCP) Project is based on fifteen good practices that took part in the Best Environmental Practice in Baltic Cities Award 1999. The first workshop was in Bützow, Germany, on 12^th October 2000. Eleven of those good practices were presented there for other interested member cities. During the workshop cities started to form couples for benchmarking. Every couple includes a guiding city, with the good practice, and a partner city, interested in the particular practice.

In 2001 the city couples will study the possibilities to implement the good practice in the partner city. The feasibility study starts with the study visit, which results will be presented in the second workshop, spring 2001. The results of the whole feasibility study and the feasibility report will be introduced in the third workshop, autumn 2001. The EnvCom Secretariat will publish a summary of the feasibility reports by the end of 2001.

For participating cities the BCP project gives lots of knowledge on the chosen good practice topic. On the basis of this new knowledge there are many possibilities for new projects. Well-done feasibility study gives also a good basis to apply further funding for implementation. In the point of view of the media, good project is a piece of interesting news, and it gives positive image of the city. Also contacts and exchange of experiences, which have been made during the project between the city pairs, are valuable for the participants.

The Best City Practices (BCP) Project is a two-year project, which is realised during the years 2000-2001. It is co-funded by Nordic Council of Ministers. This project is part of UBC Local Agenda 21 Action program and Baltic 21 Joint Action 4. The project is realised between UBC member cities and it is co-ordinated by UBC Commission on Environment.