Our experience

Setting the scene

Growing urban populations are putting a strain on cities’ resources and services. As a result, cities face insufficient urban infrastructure investment, negative demographic changes, poor air quality and high energy and carbon usage. As the demand for resources for different sectors increases, so does the environmental impact on habitats and inhabitants. Major environmental concerns for cities range from the quality of air and traffic congestion to pressure on limited green space, land and water resources.

This is especially true for industrial cities, like Zenica. 

A small city of around 110,000 inhabitants located in a valley, Zenica is home to a large steel-manufacturing business. The local ironworks industry is a vital part of the economy, but it also creates environmental challenges for the city and its inhabitants. The city is faced with the challenge of supporting economic needs while also maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

Zenica wanted to implement and develop an effective green model that would help combat major air-quality issues and improve their citizens’ quality of life.

How we helped

With methodological guidance from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and funding from the Federal Ministry of Finance of Austria, PwC provided evidence-based research to help identify and determine the City of Zenica’s priority environmental challenges. Based on these findings, our team helped the city to create a Green City Action Plan with concrete steps to provide a green, livable and resilient city.  

This aspirational plan looks to deliver 18 key actions over the next three to five years across the four priority sectors: energy & buildings, blue-green infrastructure, transport & spatial planning and waste management. Each action builds on existing environmental plans and activities that the city has already undertaken, and aligns to the strategic objectives of the plan. The actions include a mix of capital investment programmes and projects, as well as supporting policy, legislative and regulatory measures. The key actions identified as part of the Green City Action Plan include the renewal of Zenica’s heat network infrastructure, expansion and replacement of the bus fleet with a transition towards low/zero-emission buses, construction of new solid waste-handling infrastructure and a number of other investments.

PwC worked in close cooperation with representatives of the City of Zenica to:

• become familiar with the Green City Action Plan methodology and to establish the necessary leadership team for implementing the methodology

• identify the key stakeholders for the assignment, including main contact points of each entity, responsible for contributing to the development of the Green City Action Plan

• engage with stakeholders and raise local awareness

• conduct broad stakeholder consultation during the different steps in the Green City Action Plan.

Impact and potential

Through the adoption and completion of a Green City Action Plan, the city authorities are now able to drive forward sustainable and significant environmental projects to aid in a greener future.

The plan will secure investment into priority environmental infrastructure projects and will help to identify relevant policy actions that Zenica can implement in order to improve the quality of the environment within the city. It will also deliver a comprehensive system for monitoring and verification of the plan, and for communicating the actions and engaging with key stakeholders and the wider community.

These positive actions will help Zenica achieve better air and water quality, which will lead to improvements in public health and increase the desirability of the city for visitors, employers and residents. Action plan investments will also deliver steady improvements to the amenity and ecological value of the local environment, while improving access to green spaces, homes and workplaces through improvements to public transport, cycling and walking infrastructure. The Green City Action Plan demonstrates the City of Zenica’s commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for its citizens.