Good practice:

VOLTARO

Although there are many good practices in urban mobility and other environmental issues that could easily be adopted in the everyday life, most of the citizens are not aware of them. The daily routine does not allow time for many to seek information on their own. So, the idea of Voltaro event is to provide to citizens information about good practices in urban mobility and other environmental issues while they take their walk on the coast of Thessaloniki on a Sunday with their families, where people are more relaxed and usually more receptive of information. At the Voltaro event in various interactive workshops, citizens are informed about good practices of sustainable urban mobility in cities and also raising their awareness on environmental issues, recycling, and circular economy. Citizens can "Voltaro" between electrically powered e-bikes fully controlled by a smartphone, electric bikes on three wheels, electric skates, electric cars and their charging stations, enter a portable cockpit and learn the way to go as we drive, learn about the modern uses of unmanned drones, as well as many other state-of-the-art technological developments that can make daily activities in cities more environmentally friendly. Citizens are also informed about the range of recyclable materials, ways to do recycling right, new self-managed recyclables collection structures and some of the hundreds of useful products coming from waste recycling.

The VOLTARO event costs approx. 19.000 euros per year and is financed by the own funds of the Region of Central Macedonia. Private companies provide sponsorships to the event. It is organized by the Vice Governor of Development and Environment with the active participation of approx. 50 volunteers

The event is organized with the active involvement of volunteers on a September Sunday in an open space, the coast of Thessaloniki city where thousands of citizens take their walk. So, thousands of people of all ages are informed about Sustainable Urban Mobility good practices and environmental issues.
Clear evidence of success is that every year the number of sponsorships from companies increases and the event uses more space to accommodate all the good practices that need to be presented

Volunteering is important for the implementation of the event and to find a large number of volunteers is a challenge.
Adding new things every year into the event to keep the interest of the people and not to repeat the same activities evey year is also very challenging.

This event could be interesting for other regions to learn how with limited amount of money, (since it is implemented mainly with the active involvement of volunteers), a local authority can inform its citizens about sustainable urban mobility practices and other environmental issues.