Municipality of Eindhoven

The City of Eindhoven is one of the five largest cities in The Netherlands with 230,000 inhabitants, while the Eindhoven region has more than 750,000 inhabitants. The city is one of the three economic engines of The Netherlands, delivering 14% of the national GDP. With its Brainport 2020 Strategy, developed jointly by knowledge, business and public partners within the city and the region, Eindhoven has determined its strategic objectives for the city and the region for the coming decade.

Through its “Climate Policy Plan”, Eindhoven sets its ambitions in the field of climate change and sustainability. The city is ambitious, aiming to create a green and pleasant to live in city, focusing on achieving a “Complex and Complete” city, with high quality experience of the urban working and living climate by the citizens, companies and tourists. Eindhoven is determined to create a sustainable green structure providing significant value for the quality of life. On the other hand, the city administration has set clear goals in terms of water management aimed at bringing back “blue spaces” in the urban fabric.

As to stakeholders' and citizens’ awareness, participation and engagement – these are vital elements in the public policy of the city. They have become more acute in recent years as the city administration has been forced to deliver more efficient services to citizens, often with less financial and human resources. This has forced the city to look more closely at the means to engage the citizens and has opened Eindhoven up more than before to other actors who wish to get engaged. Innovative engagement processes such as co-creation and the Natural Step approach, engaging stakeholders in municipal policy making and implementation in areas around sustainability have found a foothold in Eindhoven. This quadruple helix approach (the city administration, private sector, knowledge institutes and the citizens) determines our approach from today into the future.