In this episode, Anton Nikitin, Chief Sustainability Officer at the City of Vilnius, Lithuania, shares how a “greenest city in the making” mindset guides practical climate action.

The conversation traces Anton’s path from cycling officer to city-wide sustainability lead, and dives into people-centred policy: citizen assemblies, street redesigns, and reframing mobility around real choices. We explore district heating shifts to renewables, creative energy efficiency (from flue-gas heat recovery to reusing data-centre heat), and the hard work of building social licence for change. A

nton reflects on lessons learned, especially around stakeholder engagement, and why investing now avoids higher future costs, all in service of a city where people simply feel good living their daily lives.

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Chapters

• (00:01:08 ) - Teaser question: “describe Vilnius’s sustainability approach in just three words?”
• (00:03:16 ) - Guest background
• (00:04:45 ) - What sustainability means
• (00:06:02 ) - European Green Capital: recognition, process, and citizen understanding
• (00:10:15 ) - Avoiding exclusion
• (00:13:58 ) - Engagement toolkit
• (00:16:40 ) - Emissions focus and energy examples
• (00:23:01 ) - Efficiency wins: flue-gas heat recovery; capturing data-centre waste heat
• (00:25:04 ) - Misconceptions: “sustainability is expensive”
• (00:32:24 ) - Bottlenecks: financing vs. behaviour change; EV uptake, charging, and building renovation; political cycles
• (00:41:20 ) - Segment: "Trial and Error"
• (00:51:36 ) - Ending question: “To you, what is a Smart City?"