Recommendations for an inclusive local energy transition: Responding to challenges of participation, power, and reciprocity

This brochure provides a set of recommendations for how to organize energy transition projects in a more inclusive way. These recommendations are meant for anyone working in the local energy transition who wants to build stronger collaborations between residents, municipalities, researchers and other professionals. The recommendations address a variety of challenges and are based on lessons from four years of field research in Amsterdam Southeast. The research was conducted as part of the Local Inclusive Future Energy (LIFE) project. The LIFE project took place between 2021 and 2025 and was a collaboration between universities, the municipality of Amsterdam, companies and local stakeholders in Amsterdam Southeast. The figure on the right shows a vision for a local energy community in the Venserpolder neighbourhood, which the LIFE project worked towards. The photos below give an impression of the various co-creation activities that were part of this project, and which resulted in this brochure.