The Climate Agreement is clear; the district approach is an important instrument in making the built environment in the Netherlands more sustainable. The Netherlands has 355 municipalities, all of which must set to work to make more than 3000 neighborhoods gas-free. One thing is certain; working on this energy transition at disctrict level as a civil servant means pioneering in a complex environment with many stakeholders and uncertain outcomes. Everywhere pilots are being done, wheels invented and noses bumped. In this relatively new task, municipalities are in charge and because few conditions have been set at the national policy level, there is a lot of room for individual interpretation.. The lack of clear frameworks and guidelines requires civil servants to dare to experiment (try things out, learn and adjust) and to openly share their learning experiences both externally (between municipalities) and internally.

The VNG Knowledge- and Learning Programme is working hard to provide municipalities with the right competences for this task. The Institute for Brilliant Failures (IvBM) has joined in this effort and developed the learning line on energy transition in residential areas based on archetypal learning. This learning method, based on pattern recognition and storytelling, is used to support civil servants to share their experiences and insights in a systematic and structured way. This is stimulated them to reflect on their own projects, learn from things that turned out differently and actually apply these lessons to (other) projects.