Active city challenges
A challenge is a public authority stating a problem in its own terms. It is not a tender, not a request for proposals and not a commitment to buy anything. It is the earliest point at which useful help can reach a city.
Open
These cities are actively looking for evidence, comparable cases and technical input. Contributions are made openly, on the record.
Podgorica, Montenegro
The municipality pays energy bills for roughly two hundred buildings from a single budget line. There is no per-building consumption record, no floor area register that matches the billing accounts, and no way to tell a badly insulated school from a badly operated one.
Novi Sad, Serbia
Districts built in the past fifteen years have very little permeable surface or mature planting. Summer surface temperatures are visibly higher, and the planning rules that produced the outcome are still in force.
Izmir, Turkiye
Assessments exist for individual assets, produced at different times, with different sea level assumptions and no shared method. There is no single view of what is exposed, on what timescale, or in what order it should be addressed.
Tartu, Estonia
Cycling volumes drop sharply once snow clearance begins, because cycle routes are cleared after roads and the cleared snow is deposited on them. The infrastructure exists; the winter operating model does not.
In structuring
ESCA is working with these cities on scope, funding route and requirements. Input is still useful, but the shape is settling.
Kosice, Slovakia
Teachers report headaches and poor concentration in specific school buildings, mostly those renovated for energy performance without ventilation upgrades. There is no measurement, so the complaints cannot be acted on or dismissed.
Converted
The point of the whole exercise. These entries remain published so the route from problem to project is visible.
Brno, Czechia
Departments run separate systems procured over two decades. A resident case that touches two departments is re-entered by hand, and the city cannot report on end-to-end handling time for anything.
For cities
Most cities delay because they think they need a defined scope, a budget line and a funding route before they can ask for help. The opposite is true: those are the things ESCA helps produce.
Submitting a challenge starts no procurement procedure and creates no obligation.