Please note: Parts of this website will be included in the forthcoming CCI4Change publication, to be released by Xamk in December 2025. Therefore, if you wish to cite this material, please contact cai.weaver[at]xamk.fi. Thank you!
What is CCI4Change?
What is CCI4Change?
How can more systemic collaborations between public authorities and creative professionals help address the most complex sustainability challenges of our time?
How can more systemic collaborations between public authorities and creative professionals help address the most complex sustainability challenges of our time?
In the CCI4Change project, public authorities partnered up with professionals from the culture and creative industries (CCI) to engage citizens in fostering more sustainable attitudes and mindsets. The initiative developed and piloted a new model of collaboration in which local authorities (municipalities, cities, and regions) worked in synergy with creatives, supported by intermediary actors who helped facilitate the process.
The project focus was on the behavioural change to reduce energy consumption of the citizens, particularly by addressing underlying mindsets and attitudes that shape everyday habits. These shifts are often difficult to achieve through conventional approaches and this is where art, culture, and creative methods provide powerful tools for change.
However, to unlock this potential more broadly, creative tools and skills must become more accessible to local authorities. CCI4Change introduces a collaboration framework to support future creative climate actions between public actors and the creative sector.
“Cultural and creative stakeholders bring new perspectives, methods, and ways of engaging citizens that complement the technical and administrative approaches traditionally used. By building cross-collaborations, we open up spaces where innovation, creativity, and societal relevance can meet – making transformation processes more inclusive, imaginative, and impactful.”
- Jenny Kornmacher, Creative Industries developer at Region Skåne
“Artists and creatives often see beyond the horizon and into new, unexplored directions. It is our privilege and responsibility to include them in our search for solutions to complex problems.”
- Tomi Purovaara, Cultural Director at the City of Kotka
How?
1. The CCI4change project developed and tested a new collaboration model between local authorities and creative professionals, aiming to transform the citizens' energy consuming behaviours.
2. The project offered capacity building for the Culture and Creative Industry (CCI) professionals to support their abilities to work in synergy with the local authorities.
3. The project supported the skills and capacities of the local authorities to enable innovative collaborations and to explore the role of an intermediary organization serving as a bridge builder for the collaboration.
4. The project enabled five practical pilots that served as case studies, demonstrating how the collaboration works in practice. These creative pilots were carried out in 2024-2025 in the city of Kotka (Finland), Jūrmala municipality (Latvia) and Skåne Region (Sweden).
5. Drawing on the gained experiences the project produced a practical toolkit to support local authorities and creatives in working together in innovative ways to tackle challenges such as energy consumption behaviour change and other sustainability issues in their communities.
Explore the full CCI4Change toolkit and resource on your desktop!
The project “CCI4Change: Facilitation of Citizens Energy Consumption Behavioral Change in BS Cities and Municipalities” was implemented 1.8.2023-31.7.2025 with the co-financing of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The total budget of the CCI4Change project was 470,000 EUR, of which 80% was co-funded by the European Union and the remaining 20% by the project partners. For more information about the project please email info@ndpculture.org.
CCI4Change project was a partnership of 7 partner organisations: