Decarbonize a city that relies on natural gas for cooking and heating
Banning natural gas connections in new developments is a big step that’s becoming more common across the world.
The Netherlands made the change as early as 2018, but the tricky part when it comes to reducing fossil fuel dependence is finding ways for existing buildings (which may have been standing for centuries), and their inhabitants to make the switch to renewable sources for their everyday needs.
Give everyone a voice in driving the transition
Solving Amsterdam’s transition required imagination grounded in engineering precision, technical expertise, and strategic coordination.
Arcadis approached the task as a citywide systems challenge: integrating data, infrastructure planning, citizen input, and stakeholder alignment to shape a transition methodology that worked for all.
A significant aspect of our team’s success hinged on collaboration, the importance of balancing a vast array of different requirements and standardizing an approach to support faster and easier decision-making.
Decarbonization accelerated with a proven path forward
Today Amsterdam is leading the way in transitioning an entire city of approximately 900,000 inhabitants away from natural gas.
Already 5,000 residents in at least two neighborhoods have been supported to transition to their own sustainable energy supply.
The energy transition impacts every inhabitant and every building in the city. Therefore, it’s very important to have a strong program, communication and strategy on participation across various stakeholders – municipalities, district heating, housing cooperations, to name a few. We also recognized the need for citizens to be part of the program to ensure adoption in low carbon household cooking and heating for example, and ensured this was reflected in the vision. Armed with this vision, the city of Amsterdam can act quickly, efficiently and with confidence.
Create a better future with us
