The steps of the LIFE_LETsGO4Climate project

Since 2022 and until 2024, the same approach is being implemented at the local level in the first six experimental territories of the region: the Tours metropolis, the Blois and Bourges agglomeration communities, the Loches Sud Touraine community of municipalities, and the Gâtinais Montargis and Pays Loire Beauce territorial authorities.

In this process, four main stages are noteworthy:

1. Conduct an energy-climate diagnosis of the experimental territories.
   
   This diagnosis aims to better understand local energy issues and highlight existing initiatives on their territory.
   
2. Enable local stakeholders to be trained on energy transition and co-construction through collective intelligence.
   
   Training sessions have been organized in each territory. In total, about 200 participants were able to (re)discover the concept of energy transition.
   
3. Empower citizens to become active participants in energy transition.
   
   This is the core of the process! In each territory, 100 voluntary and selected citizens will be invited to participate in an experiment, lasting from October 2022 to January 2023.
   
   This experiment involves 100 citizens, meeting four times in friendly workshops to collectively build solutions. They then form citizen panels.
   
   The goal is to equip participants to better understand the energy around them and support them in realizing collective projects, imagined and led by themselves. The range of possibilities is broad: local renewable energy production from solar panels, a wood-fired heating plant, or even a methanization unit, promotion of cycling or carpooling, reflection on housing or food, actions for zero waste or reuse.
   
   At the end of the workshops, participants will receive support and assistance from project partners (Center-Val de Loire Region, the territory hosting the workshops, Energy Shared Association).
   
4. Raise awareness of energy sobriety to promote sustainable lifestyles.
   
5. The LIFE LETsGO4Climate project aims to develop two awareness-raising initiatives: “Carbon Conversations” and “Challenges.“
   
   “Carbon Conversations” is an original approach to guide individuals toward less greenhouse gas-emitting lifestyles. They take the form of participatory workshops, led by two certified facilitators. Each session alternates between technical information, discussions, and games within a small group.
   
   The LIFE LETsGO4Climate project will allow volunteers on each territory to be trained to become Carbon Conversations facilitators. These training sessions will take place in January and February 2023.
   
   And the “Challenges”? It is a playful energy sobriety challenge. Participants form teams: the goal is to minimize energy use in the home. Each “captain” guides their team in implementing reduction actions and measures changes in consumption.The “Challenges” will be deployed in the experimental territories starting from December 2023.

From March 2023, the process will begin again in six other territories that have participated in the call for expressions of interest and will be selected by a jury. In 2024, another six new territories will commit to implementing the project.

In total, the four main components of the project will have been replicated in 18 intermunicipalities in the Center-Val de Loire region.