Process planning, facilitation and managing change services for Lahti: Request for Proposals (Updated)

Through the NetZeroCities City Expert Support Facility, NetZeroCities / Climate-KIC are requesting quotations for support for the City of Lahti in process planning, facilitation and managing change to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality.

About the request

Lahti is an EU Mission Label city in Southern Finland with a population of 120,000. The city has been at the forefront of efforts to achieve climate neutrality in Finland and is also among a number of other European cities leading the way in this field. The importance of climate neutrality has been integrated into various city strategies and has the strong support of decision-makers, including the City Council.

In its Climate City Contract, Lahti has highlighted its main climate related goals, including to:
1. Achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 by reducing production-related emissions by 80% compared to 1990 and binding the remaining 20% to carbon sinks and offsets,
2. Reduce its consumption-based emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005.

While Lahti has made significant progress in reducing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with a 64% reduction since 1990, largely through the phase-out of charcoal use in the district heating sector in 2019, the 2025 target will not be met.

Nevertheless, there is a strong backing for sustainability work from the city’s leadership and city council, and Service areas have experts who understand their roles in sustainability efforts and advance them to the best of their ability.

Objectives

In autumn 2024 Lahti has abandoned the 2025 target as unrealistic and aims to be climate neutral as soon as possible, with year 2028 looking realistic. For a final spurt to reach the climate neutrality Lahti is seeking to define and agree upon ambitious but realistic sector-level targets, especially in the sectors of road-traffic, machinery (IPPU), and land use. In the city organisation climate work is coordinated in the department of economic growth, whereas the department of urban environment is mostly responsible for implementation of actions in the these emission sectors, Hence, the commitment of management and leadership of the department of urban environment is critical for meeting the climate neutrality goal. To this end, the city is looking to engage the services of a Finnish-speaking consultant or consulting firm (the Supplier) for a six-month contract.

The primary goal of this assignment is to secure the commitment of management and leadership, relevant to the above-named emission sectors, to strategic sector-level targets and required actions that will lead to climate neutrality. This will be achieved by increasing the involvement of key decision-makers and management in the process.

The Supplier should support Lahti in a number of areas, including:

• process planning and meeting support,
• active collaboration and engagement, on-boarding and coaching of stakeholders,
• organisation of feedback processes, and
• monitoring and evaluation aligned to existing systems/processes.

Overall, the consultant’s role is to provide expert guidance, foster collaboration, and ensure that the city’s efforts are strategically aligned, well-coordinated, and resilient in the face of challenges.

Please find all relevant information including full scope of work, milestones, and all related information below.

Timeline and additional information

Interested parties are invited to submit their proposals by 15 January 2025 (23:59:59 CET) to Radka Reil & Mateusz Hoffmann, CESF Manager [CESF@netzerocities.eu]. Proposals should include and address all specific requirements related to the request which can be found below.