Positioning the past to reimagine the future

 How culture and heritage

can advance sustainable,

circular development

September 15, 2023

By

Cristina Garzillo

Małgorzata Ćwikła
Katherine Peinhardt
Gioele Racca
ICLEI Europe

Salerno, Italy

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Culture and heritage have a broad scope, encompassing architecture and the built environment, food, the arts and creative industries, religion, traditions, and lifestyles. These examples of culture and heritage are not only impacted by, but can also address rapid global challenges, changes, and disruptions. We can look to culture for solutions in many moments – for example, as we confront the hazards posed by climate change or as we strengthen community resilience. Culture is also a part of how we face increased mobility due to remote work and other labour trends. It can be a part of addressing urban sprawl, looking to existing vacant buildings for creative renovation opportunities. The possibilities span as widely as the definition of culture itself.

So how does this look in action? How can culture meaningfully drive forward shared sustainability goals?

In many ways, culture and heritage have already become a part of the policy conversation, reaching their way into sustainability commitments. And these changes are becoming apparent in areas like tourism – one area in which the link between sustainability and culture is taking root.

Larnaca, Cyprus

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Culture in Action

Culture and sustainable development have already informed international and European-level policies and commitments to sustainable development. For starters, Agenda 2030 explicitly highlights culture and heritage in Target 11.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the European Commission has touted culture as a way to move toward social cohesion. At the same time, the beginning of an initiative called the New European Bauhaus has provided a moment to address culture as “an important contribution to sustainable development, including the circular economy, social and territorial cohesion, the environment, biodiversity and climate targets, prosperity and well-being…” In a nod to the power of culture to address a wide array of development goals, the European Green Deal (as well as Local Green Deals) also acknowledges cultural heritage and creative sectors as key players in addressing the climate crisis. This recognition at the policy level demonstrates the wide and growing consensus that culture is crucial to achieving a future in which our cities are more sustainable, beautiful, equitable and connected.

Larnaca, Cyprus

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Salerno, Italy

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Innovations in Community-Based Tourism

Community-based tourism works with local communities, producers, and other stakeholders to make different locations and cultural heritage assets and sites appealing to potential visitors while also protecting the community and local environmental quality. By co-creating activities and involving more people in the cultural tourism industry, the benefits of tourism can be more equitably distributed, and the negative impacts minimised. By nature, meaningful involvement also ensures that the local culture is respected and celebrated.

A virtuous example of community-based tourism can be found in the region of Larnaca, Cyprus, a pilot heritage site of the EU Horizon 2020 Be.CULTOUR project. Here, local administrators, NGOs and small entrepreneurs, as well as a group of volunteers, work together to promote sustainable tourism and gently guide the visitors through the tangible and intangible heritage of the area: visitors are invited to taste the local honey in a new Sensory Bee Natural Trail, discover traditional basketry and lace techniques, and take part in the numerous festivals that animate the region, perhaps most especially Kataklysmos, the Festival of the Flood.

It is important to remember the opportunity to centre the role of local assets in order to cement trust and tap into local pride as we reframe heritage. One idea could be to adapt the widely popular concept of 15-minute cities to 15-minute heritage sites, supported by the intelligent planning of tourist flows, circular approaches to resource use on-site, and the procurement of resources produced and delivered locally.

Circular Tourism

As part of a broader movement by cities toward circular economy principles, many communities see an opportunity to apply them to the way they host visitors and grow or maintain their tourism industry. This can look many different ways, from adaptive reuse, to changing resource flows and educational outreach.

Activities like adaptive reuse of existing historical buildings and spaces can be crucial. As noted in the briefing paper; “cultural heritage sites in remote, peripheral or deindustrialised areas, as well as over-exploited areas, focus on sustainability, wellbeing, relationships, cooperation, and regeneration, rather than just tourism.” Such activities are in line with the European Commission’s Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) implementing the circular economy across Europe’s cities and regions.

Furthermore, initiatives like the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, administered by the UN’s World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), are putting this idea of circularity into play already – with signatories committing to work toward the elimination of single-use plastics. The signatories represent a wide array of international and local-level organisations, including “leading tourism companies, suppliers, business associations, NGOs, consultancies and certification schemes.”

Cultural sites can also play a foundational role in awareness-building at the local level around developing more circular communities. In Psiloritis, on the Island of Crete, the EU Horizon 2020 RURITAGE project supported the UNESCO Geopark in carrying out circular economy educational outreach and programming in partnership with local museums and the University of Crete. In this way, visitors could engage with the topic while also engaging with the tangible and intangible heritage, ecosystems, and landscapes of the park.

Rijeka, Croatia

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Technology Enhancing Tourism

Another trend is the use of modern technology to enhance visitors’ experience while minimising the impact on the cultural heritage site. We know from innovative digital modelling of the renowned caves in Lascaux and from the scanning of the Tomb of King Seti I to create a replica for visitors in Switzerland that this is possible, but there are more options to discover. For example, virtual reality tours and augmented reality apps allow visitors to explore sites without physical presence, preserving fragile or at-risk assets and sites while also generating a quality visitor experience. As a further element, this immersive and educational experience can have an express aim of enhancing accessibility – for example, by combining such technological advances with games to attract younger generations or adapting exhibits for people with disabilities. Also this would open more opportunities for “silver tourism,” to foster the cultural and digital inclusion of older generations.

Moving in this direction is the Archeological Park of Venosa, in Basilicata, Italy, another pilot of the Be.CULTOUR project. It has already adopted INVENTUM, a 3D augmented reality application, in practice a video-game, that allows visitors to experience the historical places and characters of Venosa. For the same purpose, the region currently works toward new creative ways to integrate storytelling about its cultural heritage into its programming and outreach.

Pakhuis de Ceuval, Amsterdam

IMAGE: ICLEI Europe

Climate, Resilience, and Culture

Culture and tourism also overlap with broader climate goals. Global commitments like the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism demonstrate an “increased urgency regarding the need to accelerate climate action in tourism and to secure strong commitments to support the global goals to halve emissions over the next decade and reach Net Zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050.”

Cultural programming can not only provide an opportunity for the sharing of historical narratives about resilience-building practices, but also the chance to collaborate on solutions.

For example, in Psiloritis, Crete, RURITAGE project partners organised resilience training sessions in the Geopark, informed by, and reflecting upon, previous disasters and hazards faced by the region. This type of outreach and training can boost local efforts in areas like disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, while also supporting engagement with heritage sites.

A Sustainable, more Equitable Future through Culture

The links between culture, heritage, and sustainability are growing in visibility. On a policy scale, global development goals increasingly take cultural heritage into account. On the ground, progress on community-based, circular, and technology-boosted tourism schemes, makes it easy to see how culture can be linked to the way that our communities can thrive now, and in the future. ICLEI Europe seeks to expand the impact of cities and landscapes at the intersection of culture, sustainability (including circularity) and tourism. Firm in the conviction of this connection, ICLEI Europe is involved in the EU's research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020 Be.CULTOUR project (Beyond CULtural TOURism: heritage innovation networks as drivers of Europeanisation towards a human-centred and circular tourism economy) and is a member of the Partnership on Sustainable Tourism of the Urban Agenda for the EU.