Parma is an Italian city of 192,000 inhabitants located in the Emilia-Romagna region, halfway between Milan and Bologna. Parma’s smart city vision is to accelerate the city’s sustainability and innovation. To implement its vision, Parma signed the Covenant of Mayors (2013) and the Mayors Adapt Initiative (2014). The City has a zero waste strategy and in 2015 new energy regulations for the city were issued to increase energy efficiency and the use of RES. The new policy and plan for urban planning and regeneration protects and promotes the city’s environmental integrity and cultural identity.

By working with the other partners of the project, Parma will bring about a decisive change in the behaviour of citizens, in view of a more conscious and smart use of energy and mobility. This will be attained by integrating the knowledge and the experience gained in RUGGEDISED with a number of other local and European projects whose common goal is to aggregate citizens and stakeholders around the notion that sustainability is indeed a collective commodity. Thanks to the ground-breaking activities that RUGGEDISED will set in motion, Parma expects to be a model replicator and an inspirational example for other Italian and European mid-size cities.