When talking about change, such as a transition to clean energy or a new energy community, we often speak about technology, planning, targets, infrastructure, investments, or regulation. Yet most people do not relate to technical language, nor do they have the expertise to fully understand it. In a community what matters is the everyday life and what can make it better. Change can therefore be better understood through the prism of the surroundings, relationships, landscapes, traditions, and an overall sense of belonging to a place.
Democratic sustainability starts with people
The experience from the pioneer island of Samsø, Denmark, has shown that the foundation of a truly sustainable transition, a transition that can emerge and sustain itself over time, is the participation of citizens in it.
Over the past decades, Samsø has become internationally known for its shift to 100% local renewable energy with local ownership. Locally owned wind turbines, cooperative district heating systems with biomass from the island, and more local energy projects became visible lighthouse examples of what transformative change in a small, rural, conservative society can look like. In the background, there has been the often invisible process that the Samsø Energy Academy organised and facilitated, where citizens, farmers, entrepreneurs, associations, and local leaders could see themselves as part of a shared and better future, and therefore of the envisaged change.
These experiences are at the core of the LIFE ISLET project, which builds on practical knowledge from Samsø to support other European islands in designing and implementing their own clean energy transition pathways. By translating these lessons into structured methodologies and exchange platforms, ISLET aims to replicate and adapt democratic, community-driven approaches across diverse island contexts.
Four pillars of community-driven transition
In its Guide for pioneer communities, the Samsø Energy Academy condenses the experience from the island’s successful clean energy transition journey into four interconnected dimensions, which have been the backbone of the local process about engaging people in the island’s clean energy journey: HERE, Leadership, Ownership, and Method.
HERE refers to the significance of place. For islands that are at earlier stages of this journey, LIFE ISLET has launched a Call for Interest for those curious about what it takes to develop a Renewable Energy Community adapted to their local context. This initiative offers an opportunity to engage with peers, access tested approaches, and co-develop locally adapted solutions. European islands ready to take the next step in their energy transition are invited to express their interest and become part of this growing community of practice.
Communities mobilize around what they care about. A landscape, a harbor, farming traditions or other ways of life, local jobs, a better life. Sustainable transitions only become meaningful when they connect to what people already value.
Leadership is equally essential.
In small communities especially, informal leaders often play a decisive role. These are trusted local people who can gather citizens in a meeting around a new possibility and create trust in the process.
Ownership is about participation in shaping the future, not merely accepting predefined solutions.
Too often, invitations for participation are sent after important decisions have already been made. People quickly recognize when they are simply being informed instead of genuinely involved. Real ownership appears when people can ask questions, challenge assumptions, contribute ideas, and understand what is at stake for them personally and collectively.
Finally, Method matters.
Making change takes time, listening, reflection, and requires spaces where different perspectives can meet constructively. The process itself becomes part of the outcome and what participants will ultimately remember and have a good feeling about. How meetings are organized, how information circulates, how input and feedback are dealt with are not secondary details. They determine whether trust can emerge.
Navigating local transitions
Today, many rural and island communities are entering a new phase of transition. Clean energy, climate adaptation, biodiversity restoration, agricultural reform, energy security, tourism pressure, and demographic change increasingly overlap. These agendas often come with respective targets and competing demands for land use. Yet local transitions are complex and they cannot be treated as zero-sum games among sectors. They involve questions of identity, fairness, landscape, local economy, and culture and should be addressed as a whole in an overall plan.
How can communities navigate these changes without experiencing them as external pressure imposed from above? The answer lies in strengthening the democratic process. In sensing the place and what people already value and inviting everyone to envision a shared better future for the community.
An example from Denmark is the national attempt to take out of production up to 20% of agricultural land to increase freshwater and seawater quality. In an initiative by the Samsø Energy Academy, the municipality of Samsø invited stakeholders with different interests, visions and priorities to have a dialogue on their dreams and expectations and come up with suggestions and voluntary commitments. The output was an overall plan for land use in the future.
Similarly, the Samsø Energy Academy is currently carrying out a ‘Samsø Atlas’, where participatory mapping is explored not as a technical exercise, but as a democratic practice. Maps become more than representations of territory; they become tools for dialogue. Mapping landscapes together allows communities to visualize relationships between ecology, livelihoods, memories, mobility, agriculture, heritage, tourism, and everyday life. It creates a shared language for discussing difficult trade-offs and imagining possible futures together.
What makes small islands particularly important in this context is that they can reveal societal dynamics in concentrated form. Limited resources, strong interdependence, visible environmental impacts, and deep attachment to the place, make them living laboratories for societal change. Thus energy communities are a forward-looking concept, which is here to stay, and an opportunity for small islands to become pioneers.
From local lessons to European action
The lessons emerging from island communities are increasingly relevant. Across Europe, many local communities are asking similar questions:
- How can we deliver a clean energy transition without losing social cohesion?
- How can communities remain democratic while facing rapid transformation?
- How can nature restoration coexist with climate action and other priorities?
The Samsø Energy Academy suggests one more question for reflection: What if our entire population is involved in our own energy community?
The future of sustainability may depend less on inventing new technologies, and more on creating processes through which people can shape change together. In this regard, democratic sustainability is not about avoiding conflict or disagreement. It is about building the collective capacity to deliberate, adapt, and act together despite complexity. The true legacy of places like Samsø, Denmark may ultimately not be renewable energy alone. It may be the realisation that when change serves a local purpose, people are willing to participate, make compromises, and drive transformation themselves.
And this is when democratic sustainability emerges.
For islands that are at earlier stages of this journey, LIFE ISLET has launched a Call for Interest for those curious about what it takes to develop a Renewable Energy Community adapted to their local context. This initiative offers an opportunity to engage with peers, access tested approaches, and co-develop locally adapted solutions. European islands ready to take the next step in their energy transition are invited to express their interest and become part of this growing community of practice.
