Second meeting of Leon Living Lab

On December 2, 2022, the second meeting of the Leon Living Lab (LLL) was held.

After the kick-off meeting, on this second occasion, the City Council of Leon, with the support of the Regional Government (Junta de Castilla y León) and the IUU-UVA, convoked once again a group of relevant stakeholders of the city’s energy transition.

This meeting was designed as a work session to exchange ideas among the necessary agents and actors for an efficient and effective execution of the energy planning and climate action of the city.

The session was opened by the intervention of Luis Miguel García Copete, Councilor of Urban Development of the municipality.

Afterwards, Enery Acevedo, from León Urban Renewal and Housing Institute, presented the Living Lab Integrative Process that will serve as a guide to develop the work of the LLL. This process adapts the principles of Design Thinking and establishes the driver to follow.

Following the exposed process, the work session was developed in the initial phase or space of the problem, and its objective was to expose debate and better understand the context and analyze the behaviors and practices of the users, within the local context and in the concrete field of energy.

Each participant exposed from their field of action the most critical points and local potentialities of “energy”. In a fluid and relaxed atmosphere, the connections between the different topics mentioned were discussed and pointed out. The analysis tried to help to better define the problems and elaborate an execution strategy that leads to enhance the strengths, overcome the weaknesses, control the threats and benefit from the opportunities that the city of León has.

The main ideas discussed revolved around the complexity and uncertainty of the energy context, the resources available, the relevant role of the end user, the levels of knowledge and training, urban planning and the decision-making chain, the different levels, scales and sectors of work, the built stock, mobility or economic capacity.

The total number of attendees was 18 people, representing 10 different entities from the four sectors of the quadruple helix model: authorities, research, private and people.