An ambitious goal of the Green Deal Smart Energy Cities: achieving sustainability for five cities in The Netherlands. The Green Deal was realised by a consortium including the Ministry of Economic Affairs and five large innovation cooperations. Initially, the focus was on smart energy solutions aiming at energy saving and production in buildings. In later stages, smart energy might merely be a means to fulfill broader values, such as livable, healthy cities with a pleasurable living climate. To realise this, the consortium started with local projects, gradually broadening and scaling these projects up to city level. Furthermore, the focus shifted from a top-down approach to a user / resident driven co-creation process.

Ruth Mourik was one of the quatermaster, intermediating between stakeholders and municipalities. An important task was to share lessons .