A significant and growing strand of our work since Allen Creedy joined ethics etc… has been developing accountability and peer review processes with cities, towns, and regions throughout the European Union.

We have developed a self assessment framework and peer review system for the 100 cites and towns of the Union of Baltic Cities to help them understand and make progress towards sustainable urban transport. The systems have been designed, piloted and tested and workshop training provided to politicians and technical experts from across the Baltic Sea region. With twelve reports completed the system is now tested and in use – the reports have set the future policy agenda for cities as diverse as Vilnius (Lithuania), Gdynia (Poland) and Liepaja (Latvia).

ethics etc... is helping cities understand the future sustainability challenges they face and to put in place radical and innovative polices and practices. Already at the forefront of sustainability innovation the cities of Oslo and Stockholm are using ethics etc... to help rewrite their environmental ambitions and targets whilst the city of Den Hague is using our experience in climate change polices to move it towards its zero carbon ambitions.

ethics etc... is at the forefront of developing new ideas to make cities and towns more "liveable" Following on from our peer review work with the cites of Venice , The Hague , Bristol , Malmo , Bourgas (Bulgaria), Copenhagen , Aalborg , and Lille Metropole, we have co-authored a guide to liveable cites. Working with the European Union, VROM (Dutch Ministry of Spatial Planning), Eurocities and the University of Groningen , the guide provides a new framework for cites and towns to manage their urban areas in more sustainable ways.

The Aalborg Commitments represents the benchmark against which many cities and towns test their sustainability progress. ethics etc... was delighted to be asked to prepare the reporting and peer review system for the Aalborg Commitments and is working to test and refine this system during 2007.