Hello Amsterdam Smart City Community,
I would like to extend an invitation to the kick-off key-notes of the MIT Summer Workshop on the 28th of August.
Between 10:00 to 11:30, there will be an open lecture by the MIT Center for Real Estate Director, Siqi Zheng, and the Scientific Director of AMS Institute, Eveline van Leeuwen, on the topic of Decarbonization and the Social Cost of Climate Change.
Eveline will dive into “The (im)possibility of a fair transition towards carbon neutral cities” and Siqi will talk about “Cities, buildings, and climate change: mitigation and adaptation”.
If you are interested, please email tvenver@mit.edu so we make sure we have enough seats. The event will take place at the AMS Institute, in the Amsterdam lecture room on the 1st floor, and you are welcome to walk in from 9:45 am onwards.
For reference, the abstract of Siqi and Eveline is attached below.
Siqi Zheng is the STL Champion Professor of Urban and Real Estate Sustainability at the Center for Real Estate of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the faculty director of the MIT Center for Real Estate. She established MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab in 2019, and MIT China Future City Lab in 2017. Prof. Zheng was the former President of the Asian Real Estate Society (2018- 2019) and is on the Board of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA). She is the Co-Editor of the Journal of Regional Science, and Environmental and Resource Economics.
Eveline van Leeuwen is an expert in urban economics, is Scientific Director at Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute). In addition to her role at AMS Institute, Eveline is Chair of Urban Economics at Wageningen University & Research. Furthermore, she is Vice President of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), a member of the OECD Expert Advisory Committee on Rural Innovation and a member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) of the Amsterdam Economic Board. In various other committees she advices both national and regional policymakers.
Want to receive updates like this in your inbox?
Get notified about new updates, opportunities or events that match your interests.
Maybe you will also like these updates
Amsterdam and Haarlem launch groundbreaking sustainable artificial turf pitch innovations

The pioneering innovations were presented of the Scale Up Future-proof artificial turf pitches project, a collaboration between Amsterdam and Haarlem focused on sustainable artificial turf pitches. Over the next few years, more than 250 sports pitches in both cities will be transformed into circular, energy-generating and climate-adaptive sports venues. These artificial turf pitches can not only generate and store energy, but also involve smart water management. An approach that is globally relevant for urban sports infrastructure.
Three consortia collaborate on the sport pitch of the future
The three selected consortia Antea Sport, EnergieVeld and GOO4iT together comprise more than 15 market players. They join forces within this innovation partnership, where there is room for long-term collaboration, co-creation and scalable innovation. The pioneering solutions will make it possible to cool down sport pitches on warm days, help dispose of and collect rainwater, make the pitches more pleasant for the users and possibly even generate energy for the surrounding area. Find out how these innovations are shaping the sport pitch of the future here.
Two municipalities: joint procurement
The Scale Up Future-proof artificial turf pitches project is a unique collaboration between two municipalities and market players. The municipalities jointly procure pooling their purchasing power and use an innovation partnership to challenge the market to test and scale up innovative and sustainable solutions. In doing so, the solutions are also scalable and transferable to other cities in the Netherlands and Europe.
From prototype to pilot fields
The first prototype fields will be constructed in Amsterdam and Haarlem in 2026, in different capacities and combining multiple innovations, where they will be extensively tested and monitored for a year. Successful concepts are then scaled up to full-scale pilot pitches and tested and monitored for another year. This will form the basis for the new standard of sustainable sports pitches, with potential for adoption in other cities around the world. At the same time, existing pitches are already being improved with the most sustainable solutions available, making an immediate impact from the start. The project thus shows how cooperation between municipalities and market players can lead to innovative, climate-proof sports infrastructure with international relevance.
Join us
This project provides cities worldwide a blueprint for sustainable, smart, and future-proof artificial turf pitches. Interested municipalities and industry partners can get in touch and subscribe to our news updates by sending an e-mail to: sportveldvandetoekomst@amsterdam.nl.
Everything Urban 001_Interactive Talk for students and young professionals

Everything Urban 001 (LinkedIn Event) is the first in the Interactive Talk series for students and young professionals interested in Urban Affairs i.e. urban planning, urban management, architecture, sustainability, smart cities, to name some. Feel Free to attend it on September 4, 2025. More details in the link.
How to maintain good intentions in the smart city?

During this ThingsCon Salon, we explore how to give good intentions a lasting place in smart city projects. Join us!
On October 29th from 16:00-19:00 we will be at the stunning Scheveningen Pier for a workshop and talks on how to give good intentions a lasting place in government digital projects. Sign up here!
What is the Thingscon Salon about?
When you interact with the municipality, you often first encounter a digital tool: a website, a menu system, an algorithm, or a parking scan car. There are important reasons behind such digital systems: they're convenient and often efficient.
But if things go wrong, citizens shouldn't get lost in the digital reality. That's why the municipality promises its residents, for example in a coalition agreement, the human dimension in the digital city. And according to project plans, a digital tool should be fair, accessible, transparent, and just.
These kinds of good intentions are formulated before or at the beginning of development processes, but can sometimes slip out of view along the way. During procurement, development and implementation, choices are made that later seem to clash with the original intentions.
How do we design so that good intentions remain leading not just at the beginning, but also during execution?
During this ThingsCon Salon, we explore how to give good intentions a lasting place in government digital projects. Using one or two case studies, we'll develop concrete methods in a workshop to make intentions tangible and maintain them throughout the entire process – from administrative agenda to technical implementation and practical, daily use.
This Salon is co-organized by the 'Human Values for Smarter Cities' project from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Smart City The Hague. The program consists of a workshop and several speakers.
Tessa Steenkamp and Mike de Kreek will host the workshop.
Date: Wednesday October 29th
Time: 16:00-19:00
Location: Infopunt Scheveningen