Mobility Mindshift – Co-designing a Mindshift for Sustainable Mobility

The City of Tampere is leading the EU-funded Mobility Mindshift project, which focuses on increasing sustainable mobility among young people. The project is linked to the European Commission's 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, which Tampere was accepted into in spring 2022. EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges by 2030. The EU's Cities Mission aims to support and deliver 100 European cities aiming for climate neutrality by 2030 and setting an example for others through their experimental and innovative actions. Mobility is responsible for around a quarter (24%) of all climate emissions in Tampere, which is why promoting sustainable mobility in Tampere is necessary to achieve the carbon neutrality objective.

The Mobility Mindshift project is funded by Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme, which specifically funds research and innovation activities in clean mobility, energy efficiency and green urban planning. The project is implemented by the City of Tampere in cooperation with the Gamification Group of the University of Tampere. The Climate and Environmental Policy Unit is responsible for the project's implementation in the city with the local upper secondary schools and Tampere Vocational College Tredu.

Project’s goals and activities

Tampere's "Mobility Mindshift - Co-designing a Mindshift for Sustainable Mobility" project aims to reduce mobility based emissions in Tampere to achieve the carbon neutrality target by 2030. The project uses transformative, experimental and people-driven approaches to promote sustainable mobility among students and young adults.

The project involves creating speculative scenarios for sustainable mobility by engaging students from vocational colleges and upper secondary schools in co-design workshops. These scenarios will be used to envision future mobility through urban gamification. The project also includes activities such as conducting mobility surveys, establishing a network of sustainable mobility lifestyle ambassadors, and organizing thematic days on sustainable mobility in schools.

Rather than providing top-down information, the pilot enables students to engage firsthand in finding solutions for sustainable mobility in different stages of life (e.g. during studies, establishing a family, work life) through both imagination and real-life examples. The project provides new ways for local residents to share their sustainable mobility visions and promotes policy dialogue between policymakers and citizens and other stakeholders and enables participative city-making. It is hoped that the results of the project will inspire other cities in Finland and Europe to promote sustainable mobility.