On 6th March 2019, at the invitation of the President of Metropolis Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin, during a network event titled “use.learn.share. – International knowledge exchange and networking for sustainable urban development”, involving citymakers from Berlin, Barcelona, Sydney and Saõ Paulo, the online platform use (urban sustainability exchange) was launched. use is an international platform for learning and exchanging ideas about sustainable urban development. It offers a continuously expanding collection of international case studies and a global network of politicians, administrators, research academics and urban practitioners. Recently, use went online at use.metropolis.org. 

From Policy Transfer to Urban Sustainability Exchange

The use platform is for anyone who is actively involved in urban design, is researching topics of sustainable urban development or is simply interested in these topics. By renaming the former Policy Transfer Platform (PTP), which was founded in 2014, as use (urban sustainability exchange), and by redesigning it and adding new functions, we are drawing attention to the platform’s fundamental aim, which is to be a practice-oriented forum by and for citymakers for the purpose of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

use is an initiative of the international network Metropolis, led and co-funded by the City of Berlin. The platform is managed by an international editorial team with academic advice by the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. The case studies come from members of the use community and from the platform’s network of partners. This network currently consists of 13 international institutions and urban awards. High-quality and, in some cases, award-winning, projects and initiatives – all of which have actually been implemented – are continuously being
added to the database.

Currently, the platform offers 296 case studies from 144 cities. The use community provides access to 289 individual and institutional profiles of citymakers from five continents. It consists of experts from the fields of politics and administration, city planners, consultants, academics and students.

The use platform is a partner of the Localizing the SDGs platform.