Together, these cities cover a large diversity of districts such as city centres, urban outskirts, ageing residential areas, or industrial brownfields.
Positive Clean Energy Districts are the core of ASCEND. They consist of 5 pillars: Active citizenship, Zero-carbon frugal buildings, Smart energy grids, Decarbonised public spaces and mobility and Digital tools.
All pillars revolve around an 'urban orchestrator’ - a public entity aggregating all components and services of a PCED - to implement long-lasting change at district level.
In ASCEND, each pillar of the PCED will be connected to the urban orchestrator through a federating digital platform and a 'human network' gathering all local stakeholders.