There are moments when a podcast episode brings together years of questions, past projects, and even personal memories. This one, with researcher and activist Mirte Jepma 🟥 , felt like one of those.
Mirte’s documentary The Sinking Fringe follows a social housing neighbourhood in Amsterdam as it resists top-down renewal in the name of “sustainability.” Her work is fiercely local but speaks to a much broader tension: the desire to improve our cities without uprooting their soul.
It also brought to mind something I noted while reading Quand Bordeaux se réinvente, a book about how my hometown is rethinking urban life through the lens of the commons:
Cities used to have walls. Now they are about bringing people together.
The book does not celebrate architecture or glossy masterplans. It talks about trust. About choices rooted in care and collective resilience. About preparing for tomorrow without displacing the people who live there today.
And that, really, is what Mirte’s work is about too.
Urban transitions are about people—not just infrastructure.
Back in 2022, I warned of a possible Renoviction Wave —when climate policies like building renovation are designed without social safeguards. We know this happens. Entire blocks of tenants are pushed out so that landlords can greenwash their portfolios.
Earlier this year, the Summer Energy Poverty report I prepared for the European Commission showed that as cities heat up, the most vulnerable groups—low-income households, the elderly, and women—are paying the price, often quite literally, with their health.
Now, Mirte brings these abstract risks to life. With a camera instead of a pen, she documents how people are removed from planning decisions, even as policies claim to be making life “better”, as part of the city is sinking due to climate change.
Her film is not anti-renovation. It is a demand to do it with people, not to them.
What can we learn?
This conversation with Mirte is never just about Amsterdam. It is about what happens when urban planning forgets the people it is meant to serve.
It is about recognising that social sustainability is not a soft add-on to green policy—it is the foundation.
It is about taking seriously the idea that residents are not obstacles but experts.
That resistance is not refusal, but care.
It is about embracing a feminist and inclusive perspective in energy and housing policy, one that values lived knowledge and accounts for intergenerational trauma and interdependency.
It is about bridging sectors. Housing. Cooling. Health. Participation. Climate. Because that is where transformation begins: from the ground up.
What does a truly inclusive city look like?
It looks like climate adaptation that does not drive people out.
It looks like public housing that is green, healthy, and community-owned.
It looks like heating and cooling systems for leaky and overheated homes—not just new tech, but shared, equitable design.
It looks like care as a principle—not just in social services, but in how we plan, listen, and build.
And it looks like trust.
Trust that people know what they need. Trust that local knowledge is as valuable as a consultant’s report. Trust that we can move fast and be fair.
These are the themes we returned to in earlier podcast episodes, with Monica Vidal, who reframed renovation as an act of dignity and inclusion, and who highlighted how campaigns can reframe renovation as an opportunity—not to evict—but to restore dignity and access, and Giulia Ulpiani, who showed us how urban challenges are both a climate and a justice issue. I also got a chance to share these thoughts yesterday at UNECE Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency.
So, where do we go from here?
In my recent work with the New European Bauhaus, I have seen that truly transformative projects are the ones that prioritise belonging, participatory design, and just resilience frameworks, which can help cities move from token inclusion to genuine transformation. The ones that ask:
– Who gets to stay?
– Who gets to shape the future of our streets, parks, and homes?
– What does sustainability look like when people are not shut out, but brought in?
Whether it is Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Athens, or Milan, the challenge is the same:
How do we shape our cities without tearing communities apart?
Because cities are not just about transport, buildings, and zoning laws.
Cities are about stories. About neighbourhoods. About connection. The cities that embrace creativity, diversity, and community-led responses—like one-stop-shops, heat officers, cooling shelters, and adapted planning tools—to address both physical and social vulnerability.
If we listen closely—to researchers like Mirte, residents, and frontline workers—we can begin to answer those questions from the ground up.
But it takes courage, accountability, and more spaces—like this podcast—where such conversations are not just welcome but urgent.
🎧 Listen, or watch the latest episode of Energ’ Ethic Podcast : “From the Ground Up: Housing, Resistance, and the Inclusive City”
📖 Revisit the report: “How to Avoid a Renoviction Wave”, FEANTSA 2022
🌡️ Or explore: “Framing Summer Energy Poverty”, Insights and recommendations for a resilient future – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025
💡 Related conversations: Mónica Vidal on the Build Better Lives campaign | Giulia Ulpiani on cities and climate equity
