Connect with colleagues from different policy domains, from economics to youth or recreation, about the added benefits of greenblue measures in public spaces. Do your colleagues know that shopping streets with greenery generate more revenue? Or that green schoolyards lead to less bullying? They will after you've guided them through the Funnel!
As a spatial planner or environment officer you might be tasked with the renovation or design of a public street and are looking for a way to convince colleagues from other policy domains to contribute their time, expertise, and even budget. Or maybe it's the other way around: someone from mobility or economics is redeveloping a public space and you need to convince them to include as many relevant greenblue measures as possible.
Because only this way we can mitigate the effects of extreme weather, like floods or heat stress. But also because this way we can achieve the targets from other policy domains like healthy citizens or safe traffic, and ensure a holistic and future-proof design. Need help convincing your colleagues of this? Then this is the tool for you!
A screenshot of the Funnel
How to use the Funnel
You start with putting your (idea for a) project in the Funnel. The animated tool will then guide you through the different policy bubbels that profit from greenblue measures. You'll find inspiring and realistic examples of European municipalities. If you click on the image or hyperlink, you'll find more detailed information about the good example, to enable you to implement a similar approach. For this part, it is imporant that you gather representatives from the different policy bubbels for a meeting, so you can walk through all the examples together. The first time you might invite all the policy domains: economics and/or finance, health, mobility, youth, recreation & identity, and social equity & engangement. The second or third time it might suffice to only invite the policy domains you know will be relevant to your specific project.
This visual tool is meant to inspire you and your colleagues, and to get the conversation started. Are they all aware of how beneficial greenblue measures are for their targets? Are they surprised by any of the examples? Are they inspired and willing to implement some of the suggested measures in their plans? How can you help each other and come to a joined project plan?
The workbook accompanying the visual Funnel-tool to translate inspiration into action
From inspiration to action
Of course, a good conversation with different colleagues is one thing, but you also want to translate this into action. That is why the Funnel is accompanied by a workbook. Completing the workbook leads to a clear action plan for your public space project. First, you’ll translate the inspirational good examples from the Funnel into concrete targets. Then, you’ll identify all relevant stakeholders. Lastly, you get to select the applicable tools, which will help determine the actual measures your project needs to be future-proof.
We advise you to complete the first step from the workbook whilst you are going through the Funnel-tool with your colleagues. Determine together which targets are important for your project and set the priorities. The second and third step, determining stakeholders and relevant tools and measures respectively, you can do by yourself or in a smaller circle.
Feedback? Share it with us!
We are very curious to hear about your experiences working with the Funnel. If you have any feedback, positive or negative, feel free to share it by sending us an email to greenteam@provincieantwerpen.be. Or do you have a good example or tool you'd like to add to the tool? We look forward to hearing about it.