Develop resilient, and self-sufficient financing arrangements

Examples from real world governance interventions:

• Inner-city community energy in London
• Citizens rescuing and sharing food in Berlin

The ambition

Many community-led initiatives for sustainable and just cities rely on public funding (subsidies, grants etc) to carry out their activities. But changing political priorities and economic crises can restrict this funding. Developing a financial arrangement that contains a well thought-out value proposition, delivery, and capture, as well as considering the model’s risks, such as being tied to single sources of funding, will make them more resilient in the face of austerity. However, this is no easy task, since many of the projects serve low-income residents and cannot rely on them to finance it. Additionally, since funding sources and business models (often) also reflect the values of the organization using them, community-led organizations and projects may have to think carefully about accepting funding from bigger institutions, as it potentially may conflict with their own political views and environmental and societal goals.

Examples

Brixton Energy, London

After the steep decline and cancellation of the FIT subsidy for community energy, Repowering sought out alternatives such as private investment and conducted pilot projects for a peer-to-peer energy trading system (Q.24).

Learn more about this intervention:

• Take a look at the detailed Inner-city community energy in London
• Check out the brief governance scenario called From electricity to empowerment, community energy growing out of the inner-city

Foodsharing, Berlin

Foodsharing is run by unpaid volunteers, including developers, foodshares and foodsavers and refuses any public funding or subsidies. Relying on their own ressources is part of the political line of the organization as it tries to operate without financial transaction. Foodsharing members promote the “free”.

Learn more about this intervention:

• Take a look at the detailed Citizens rescuing and sharing food in Berlin
• Check out the brief governance scenario called Expanding effective practices for food rescuing and sharing among cities

For interesting examples of business models for Nature Based Solutions, see the NATURVATION project’s Business Model Catalogue [1].

Relation to justice in urban sustainability governance

Developing resilient and self-sufficient financial arrangements for urban sustainability and justice initiatives may address the consequences of Unquestioned Neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism, a driver of injustice previously explored by UrbanA. This refers to processes of privatization, commercialization, budget cuts and state withdrawal from various sectors. While this arrangement does not address the root causes of neoliberal austerity urbanism, it may lessen its impact on urban sustainability and justice by enabling initiatives to remain financially viable and therefore to continue their operations. However, special care will need to be taken to ensure that these financial schemes do not exclude low-income groups who cannot afford to pay for the benefits of the initiative themselves and are of little relevance to potential sponsors.

Critical reflection

While developing a financial arrangement that is able to remain viable amongst public funding cuts and other ripple effects of economic crises may make an initiative more resilient and therefore able to continue delivering its benefits to communities, it may set a precedent for underfunding similar initiatives, thus downplaying responsibility for collective welfare. In other words, public authorities may be tempted to limit public funding and support in the future if they see that organizations can “make it on their own”. This could in turn reinforce the driver of injustice which the arrangement is trying to circumnavigate.

Covid-19 connection/How does this enabling arrangement play out under the conditions of a pandemic?

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of developing resilient financial arrangements for any initiative. In such a crisis, sources of funding are directed to new immediate priorities, such as health care and social supports, meanwhile governments around the world wrack up huge debts. In the long-run economic recovery stimulus may be positive for urban sustainability and justice initiatives if it is directed towards a just green recovery (check out Carbon Brief’s tracking of green recovery plans [2]).