Kampagnenclaim Wir können morgen – Neue Wärme für Dortmund und ein Plakat an einer Bushaltestelle

Client
City of Dortmund

Topic
Energy & Climate Transition

Strategy
Participation
Workshops

City of Dortmund

A Heat Transition Carried by the Local Community

Municipal heat planning connects technical infrastructure, political decision-making processes, economic interests and the population’s long-term heat supply. For Dortmund, a communication and participation strategy was to be developed that is technically precise, socially connective and usable over several years.

Task
Develop a communication and participation strategy for municipal heat planning — technically precise, socially connective and usable over several years

Solution
A multi-stage knowledge and participation process with 20 interviews, six workshops and market research, condensed into a five-stage dialogue architecture

Skills
Participation design, workshop facilitation, qualitative research, communication strategy, information architecture, infographics

Participation as Method, Not as Decoration

The strategy was not developed at a desk but through an intensive participation process: 20 qualitative interviews, six workshops and supplementary market research were systematically combined. More than 30 stakeholders from administration, politics, the housing industry, energy supply, trades and civil society were involved. Each stage of consolidation was reflected back to participants — resulting in comprehensible, jointly supported decisions rather than an editorial summary imposed from outside. The result is a multi-year communication strategy for the city’s heat transition.

Workshop zur Wärmewende Dortmund: Zielgruppen, Botschaften und Kanäle an der Wand festgehalten
Workshop on the heat transition — target groups, messages and channels on the wall
Presentation of the participation strategy to the city’s stakeholders
A full house — administration, housing industry and energy suppliers in the audience
The dialogue architecture in the presentation — five stages from attention to participation
Handover of the Dortmund heat transition communication strategy

Dialogue as a System

The resulting architecture guides target groups through five stages: creating attention, extending targeted invitations, enabling dialogue at eye level, providing information and orientation, and enabling and accompanying action. Neighborhood dialogues, a network for expert stakeholders, outreach counseling and a central topic website interlock — each format with a clear role in the overall system.

Wissenskarte Wärmewende Dortmund: Themenfelder, Kernbotschaften und Prinzipien auf einem Blatt
The Dortmund heat transition knowledge map — topic areas, core messages and principles on a single sheet
Discussion in the plenary — questions from the group
Panel discussion on municipal heat planning

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