INHERIT's report shows how stakeholder engagement, co-creation, and social innovation can pave the way for the transformation of Europe’s heritage-built environment.
How can cultural heritage buildings become more sustainable and resilient without losing their identity? For the INHERIT project, the answer to this question lies in social engagement. The social foundations of INHERIT’s approach to sustainable heritage renovation are presented in Deliverable D2.2: Active societal participation and enabling conditions for the INHERIT heritage-built environment.
Developed by ICLEI, the report highlights how active stakeholder engagement, co-creation, and social innovation can enable meaningful and long-lasting transformation of Europe’s heritage-built environment.
Participatory approaches at the core of heritage transformation
The report outlines the guiding principles and methodologies that shape social engagement within INHERIT. Renovation is framed not only as a technical process, but as a socially embedded transformation that prioritises user comfort, accessibility, affordability, and long-term community wellbeing. By actively involving local stakeholders, INHERIT aims to foster trust, collaboration, and a shared sense of ownership over heritage sites.
A central contribution of the deliverable is the introduction of a blueprint for co-creating user scenarios, designed to support the development of cultural heritage solutions that balance preservation needs with resource efficiency, climate resilience, and improved user comfort.
Progress across seven INHERIT Social Labs
A major focus of the deliverable is the progress assessment of the INHERIT Social Labs, which are being implemented across seven pilot sites: Jastrebarsko (Croatia), Athens (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Gdynia (Poland), Valladolid (Spain), Visby (Sweden), and Izmir (Türkiye).
Each Social Lab functions as a dynamic platform for co-creation, bringing together citizens, heritage experts, social scientists, businesses, urban planners, and public authorities. Through iterative dialogue and feedback, the Social Labs enable transparent decision-making and trusted project interventions, while translating NEB values into concrete, locally grounded actions.
Assessing social impacts through Social Life Cycle Analysis
The report also presents the first results of the Social Life Cycle Analysis (S-LCA) carried out within INHERIT. This assessment framework examines how heritage-related interventions affect local stakeholders, social acceptance, participatory governance, and heritage preservation. By capturing social, economic, and environmental dimensions under a shared understanding of social responsibility, the S-LCA supports evidence-based decision-making across pilot sites.
Looking ahead
This deliverable marks an important milestone for the INHERIT project, reinforcing its commitment to participatory and sustainable cultural heritage management. It also outlines the next steps, including the refinement of engagement strategies, the further evolution of Social Labs, and the continued integration of New European Bauhaus values in heritage-led renovation initiatives.
By bringing together theory, practical experience, and real-life pilot insights, the report serves as a valuable reference for anyone working on sustainable, inclusive, and socially grounded cultural heritage renovation, from local authorities and heritage professionals to researchers and policymakers.
Through its participatory methodologies and interdisciplinary approach, INHERIT continues to demonstrate how Europe’s heritage-built environment can be transformed in ways that are not only energy-efficient and resilient but also socially meaningful and community-driven.
Download the report and discover more: D2.2: Active societal participation and enabling conditions for the INHERIT heritage-built environment.