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On the 28th of October, Amsterdam Smart City, together with the Province of North Holland and Datalab, will discuss the the costs and benefits of accommodating data centres, the complexity of the weighing of these aspects, and how future policies could manage these. We will put the complexity in an international perspective.

Why would you need data centers in your region? What are reasons to refuse them on territories? What are the dilemmas and how do cities in Europe deal with this? We can now confirm the speakers for the event!

Wout Rensink – Province of North Holland
The Province of North Holland is developing a policy on data centres, with which they try to take a first step in minimizing the impact of data centres. The Province ensures that data centres generate their own sustainable energy, the residual heat (in the environment) is used, circular design is applied in the development of buildings which blend into the landscape and that the data centres are leaders in terms of energy and innovation. The man for the job? Wout Rensink! He is the Province’s policy advisor who will try and achieve these goals with other governmental institutions and the industry itself.

Thomas Moran – techUK
Beside his job as the Senior Lead Technology Strategist for Lumen, Thomas is the vice chair of the Climate Strategy and Resilience Council for techUK, which is the largest European trade group representing the technology industry. They support the UK national, regional and local governments in formulating policy around all things technology related, including data centres and infrastructure. He will provide us with the point of view and insights from another part of the FLAP-region: London.

Daan Terpstra – SDI Alliance
After years of working on sustainable energy projects at Vattenfall, Daan Terpstra has joined SDI Alliance last year to try and move the digital infrastructure sector to sustainability by 2030. As the new Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Daan can provide a view on future international digital infrastructure policies in Europe. SDI Alliance has derived a number of fundamental positions, beliefs and principles with which they hope to ensure the development of a vibrant European digital economy, without consuming unsustainable levels of resources.

The session will be moderated by Jeroen Sipman from Amsterdam Smart City.

Join this session of Data Dilemmas on the 28th of October, join the discussion and learn from an international audience!

In een korte video (3min) geeft Geert Kloppenburg zijn visie geeft over hoe 7 wegen het Berlijnse verkeerssysteem transformeren middels een goedkoop en snel uitvoerbaar plan.

Bekijk de video hier en wordt abonnee van het youtube kanaal voor meer video's!

Laat je feedback achter in de comments of stuur een email naar: eline@geertkloppenburg.nl

Helsinki and Amsterdam are inviting motorists to take part in a study that aims to offer the most socially responsible driving routes in each city.

Code the Streets – an EU-sponsored mobility initiative which will run throughout October and November – asks drivers to test new functions in the traffic navigation app TomTomAmiGO and Mercedes-Benz’ navigation planner, to better understand how to route motorists in a more environmentally aware way.

This includes suggestions on avoiding roads close to schools, residential areas, and parts of the city with high pollution.

The initiative is a collaboration between the City of Amsterdam, City of Helsinki, Aalto University, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), Forum Virium Helsinki, Technical University Delft and The Future Mobility Network, and is funded by TomTom, Mercedes-Benz and EIT Urban Mobility.

Read the full story here: https://cities-today.com/helsinki-and-amsterdam-invite-motorists-to-code-the-streets/

We helpen NSI met verduurzaming én beter comfort. Na een succesvolle pilot met ons Smart Building Platform (we bespaarden 19,2% aan warmte en het comfort verbeterde!) rollen we de software nu verder uit naar 26 gebouwen. Daar zal de slimme sturing ruim 20% op warmte en 3% op elektriciteit besparen. Lees op onze website hoe we dat doen.

The City of Amsterdam launched a platform for entrepreneurs who want to collaborate on innovation with the public sector.

If you want to work with government and other large organisations, you need to apply for tenders and grants. These application procedures are often complex. Using clear information and useful checklists, Innovatie Partners makes tenders and grants accessible for small entrepreneurs, such as startups, scale-ups and MKB.

Find your project and apply!

On the platform

- Projects from organisations such as Gemeente Amsterdam, the Metropole Region Amsterdam (MRA) and Startup in Residence. Take a look at past and current projects (in Dutch).
- Road maps of how to apply for your tender or grant of choice.
- Explainers on what tenders and grants are and how they work, such as a glossary of unavoidable jargon (in Dutch).
- Detailed instructions and screencasts of how to fill out complicated forms (in Dutch).

Wat als iedereen in de stad op <b>elke</b>straathoek hun afval volledig gescheiden aan zou kunnen bieden – van luiers en lokaal composteerbaar groen, tot plastic en drinkpakken? Niet met de logistieke nachtmerrie van een overdaad aan aparte inzamelbakken, maar met robots die het aangeboden afval naar een centraler punt rijden. Of wat als robots kunnen helpen om het opruimen van vermoedelijk drugsafval efficiënter en veiliger te maken? Of wat als ze de schoonmakers van de stad ondersteunen in het schoon houden van lastige plekken als oevers en kades?

Dat zijn een paar van de ideeën die zijn geoogst tijdens de workshop ‘Robots & een leefbare stad’, op de demodag van Amsterdam Smart City, 16 september 2021. Ik deelde resultaten van ons onderzoek met het AMS Instituut en de TU Delft naar de interacties die ontstaan tussen robots en mensen op straat. Daarna hebben we gebrainstormd over hoe ‘straatrobots’ van nut kunnen zijn voor een schonere stad. Het werd een inspirerend gesprek, door een rijke mix mensen van gemeentes, provincies en onderzoeksinstituten.

Naast de vele ideeën, kwamen ook de meer kritische vragen aan bod. Kan een robot bijvoorbeeld wel omgaan met de onvoorspelbaarheid van de stad? Zouden gebieden buiten de stad dan niet beter werken? Kunnen robots bewustwording verhogen, ‘nudgen’, zonder manipulatief te zijn? Hoe kunnen we dit juist een kans maken voor kwetsbare groepen, zoals mensen met een beperking? Kunnen we niet beter eerst de behoeftes in kaart brengen, in plaats van meteen na te denken over robots?

Kortom, vele inzichten die samen een eerste aanknopingspunt kunnen vormen voor een schonere stad. De diversiteit van de groep gaf hele verschillende perspectieven op het wel of niet inzetten van robots. Een waardevolle aanvulling op waar we zelf al aan dachten. En de nadrukkelijke uitnodiging om de toegevoegde waarde voor mensen voorop te zetten.

The City of Amsterdam is on the lookout for innovators for the seventh edition of its Startup in Residence programme. This year’s programme will focus on the themes of sustainability and circularity, with the city looking for its best entrepreneurs, start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs to develop creative and innovative solutions.

To live within planetary boundaries, cities need to measure not only what is produced, but also what is consumed.

Consumption-based emissions can be more difficult to measure than emissions from production – it is challenging for a city or region to track imported products and their associated emissions.

However, consumption can be much bigger than production, and the two together provide a much more complete picture of a city or region's 'footprint'. Check out Metabolic's article from 2020 to learn more.

Door de bedrijven op bedrijventerreinen samen te laten werken aan integrale verduurzaming kan er op grote schaal duurzame energie opgewekt worden en CO2-uitstoot voorkomen worden. Samen met Greenchoice werken we aan een slim nieuw product: Smart Energy Systems.

CO2-uitstoot, onbenutte daken en netcongestie
Bedrijventerreinen zijn grootverbruikers van elektriciteit en bieden met hun grote dakoppervlakten ongekende mogelijkheden voor duurzame energieopwek. Toch wordt er op dit moment nog lang niet maximaal ingezet op de verduurzaming van deze gebieden. En als het al gebeurt, wordt kennis en kunde niet gedeeld, en worden oplossingen niet integraal op het hele terrein uitgevoerd. In plaats van samenwerken wordt er ingezet op de verduurzaming van één pand zonder te kijken naar de mogelijkheden om samen te verduurzamen, waar dan ook het teveel aan opgewekte energie teruggeleverd wordt aan het energienet. Dat verergert de al bestaande problemen met netcongestie.

Smart Energy Systems
In Smart Energy Systems hebben deelnemende bedrijven de keuze uit een ‘menukaart’ aan maatregelen. Daarop staan opties variërend van het plaatsen van zonnepanelen tot inzicht in verbruik tot het timen van je verbruik met je eigen opwek. Door die integrale aanpak en omdat meerdere bedrijven op het terrein tegelijkertijd verduurzamen kan er meer en sneller worden verduurzaamd.

Plug and play
Vanaf eind oktober begint de pilot bij drie bedrijventerreinen. De verwachtingen zijn hoog. Niet alleen voor de deelnemende bedrijventerreinen, maar ook voor toekomstige deelnemers. Door de ontwikkelingen op de markt goed in de gaten te houden en een vinger aan de pols te houden bij de pilotpartijen werken we aan de uitbreiding van de menukaart met nog meer duurzame en rendabele maatregelen, een gepersonaliseerde roadmap per terrein en een kopieerbare standaard voor nog meer impact.

In this short video (5min) Geert Kloppenburg shares his vision on shared mobility in the city.
Please respond by giving your feedback and share in your network!

https://bit.ly/Sharedmobilitynl

For feedback:
Email: geert@geertkloppenburg.nl

If we can find a way to reuse building materials for new construction effectively, the energy, labor, and transportation costs of producing new materials can be saved, and so can the associated emissions.

Check out this article by Metabolic, where they dive into a promising potential solution: materials passports.

When the market couldn’t offer what Amsterdam needed, the city created its own technology solution in-house. This approach gives cities more control and can also help vendors build better products.

In deze podcast, praktische voorbeelden uit de Rotterdamse haven en Groningen. Een vernieuwend herontwerp van spoor aanvraag richting infra groeifonds van Dijsselbloem ipv alle traditionele aanvragen voor extra spoor.

Luister naar ProRail innovatiemanager Karel van Gils: https://bit.ly/Karelgils

In the recent past, the value of startups in Amsterdam Delta (Amsterdam metropolitan region) has taken a giant leap. In 2015, Amsterdam startups were valued at $11.1 billion. Today, Europe's number 3 ecosystem is worth $83.3 billion. The extraordinary success stories of Adyen and Takeaway have been a major contributor to this success, but its base is much broader. On the annually published Global Startup Ecosystem ranking Amsterdam Delta rose from the 19th place in 2015 to 12th place in 2020. Everyone was curious about the 2021 ranking. Well, as the table shows, Amsterdam Delta has been overtaken by Paris and Tokyo, but only lost one place due to a significant drop in Stockholm.

The value of rankings is easily overestimated. However, the value of startups should not be underestimated. More than 30% of the 4000 startups in the Netherlands are located in the Amsterdam metropolitan region. Together, the Dutch startups have created more than 100,000 jobs and are responsible for 60% of the annual job growth.

Globally, 2020 and 2021 were amazing years for startups as the pandemic fueled technology. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021, Internet capacity increased by 35% and global broadband traffic by 51%. Consumers bought 30% more food online. Global venture capital funding nearly doubled to $288 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to the first half of 2020. Startups have benefited from the explosive technology market, supported by significant government support. Following China and the US, the European Union has been generous to startups, and the same goes for its member states. The Dutch government offers tax credits to innovative companies and environmentally friendly investments. The city of Amsterdam promotes startups that support inclusive growth and diversity, for example by subsidizing female entrepreneurs.

The Amsterdam Delta startup ecosystem can be characterized as vibrant. Still other ecosystems in the world are growing faster, including those in some European cities. In the global top ten emerging ecosystems, we find Copenhagen in second place and Barcelona, Madrid, and Zurich in places 5, 8 and 9.

To detect possible vulnerabilities in the Amsterdam Delta startup ecosystem, analyzing of success factors of the 30 highest-ranked ecosystems in the report is informative. In terms of performance, Amsterdam's composite score is in a middle position (6 out of 10 points). In terms of funding, the position is good (8). In terms of market reach, the overall score is satisfactory (7): The Amsterdam Delta startups are primarily focused on global markets and score low on the local market. Like most European ecosystems, Amsterdam Delta scores excellent (9) in connectedness, which is related to its strength on the global market. In terms of talent, the overall score is satisfactory (7), but the components differ considerably. The quality of technology students and graduates is good, but their number is insufficient, resulting in high salary costs. The scalability of the Amsterdam startup ecosystem is also insufficient, due to a lack of experience, which keeps many startups small. The overall knowledge success is assessed as poor (1) because the number of life science patents is disappointing.

When assessing the success factors, it should be considered that the population of Amsterdam Delta is about 10% of the population of London, and in this perspective the need to improve the global 13th place is not urgent. On the contrary, understanding why the Amsterdam Delta is performing so well is more relevant than looking for opportunities to improve it.

The explanation of Amsterdam's success has its roots in the fundamental strength of the Netherlands as a whole, which has at least ten other vibrant startup ecosystems. Against this background, one might be curious about the Global Startup Ecosystem ranking of the Randstad, including Eindhoven as a whole. According to the report, the strength of the Netherlands is its well-educated population, international orientation and English proficiency, excellent infrastructure, an 'extremely high quality of life' and business-friendly laws. Amsterdam is also the headquarters of many international companies, a large pool of potential startup founders.

In a next post, I will focus on Amsterdam's policy towards startups and evaluate whether a higher ranking is within reach or whether more qualitative objectives are preferable, taken into account the considerations in a former post on the Amsterdam Smart City website.

I will regularly share ‘snapshots’ of the challenge of bringing socially and ecologically sustainable cities closer using technology if useful. These posts represent findings, updates, and additions to my e-book Humane cities. Always humane. Smart if helpful. The English version of this book can be downloaded for free below.

De Omgevingsdienst Noordzeekanaalgebied heeft in opdracht van de provincie Noord-Holland onderzoek gedaan naar de hoeveelheid beschikbare restwarmte in de Noord-Hollandse industrie. Het onderzoek geeft een eerste indicatie van hoeveel warmte er in Noord-Holland nu nog via industriële schoorstenen de lucht in gaat en hoeveel warmte er via het koelwater op het oppervlaktewater wordt geloosd. Met deze gegevens kunnen gemeenten en warmtebedrijven hun plannen voor nuttig hergebruik van restwarmte verder vormgeven.

Bijna alle relevante bedrijven in beeld
65 bedrijven in onder meer de energiesector, de chemische- en voedselindustrie, en afvalverwerkende bedrijven zijn meegenomen in het onderzoek. Deze bedrijven zijn verantwoordelijk voor meer dan 95 procent van de potentiële restwarmte. Hiermee zijn dus nagenoeg alle relevante industriële bedrijven in Noord-Holland in beeld. Of de warmte daadwerkelijk gebruikt kan worden voor verwarming van woningen is afhankelijk van onder meer de temperatuur en de afstand tot een warmtenet.

Gratis ophalen
Per 2022 komt er met de Wet Collectieve Warmtevoorziening een stimulans voor het gebruik van restwarmte in de gebouwde omgeving: producenten van restwarmte moeten deze dan gratis beschikbaar stellen aan energiebedrijven.

We avoided 2.071 tonnes of CO2 emission in 2020. The amount equals to 207 people’s yearly CO2 emissions. Are you wondering how we did it? Read our Impact Report!

As the world grapples with vaccinations, variants, and how to return to "normal", it’s a good time to reflect on whether or not we are fully equipped to prevent future shocks.

Building true resilience means addressing the systemic issues that make our world increasingly fragile, by understanding the deeper structures and mental models at the root of a problem to create lasting solutions.

Check out our article done by Metabolic last year about building back better.

#circulareconomy

Barcelona is one of the oldest examples of a city that deploys technology as part of its government. Sensor networks have been producing an array of data on transport, energy usage, noise levels, irrigation, and many other topics without having much impact on the life of citizens or solving the underlying problems.

In 2015, Francesca Bria, chief technology, together with mayor Ada Colau started to reverse the smart city paradigm: Instead of starting from technology and extracting all the data we started aligning the tech agenda with the agenda of the city, she said.

One of the first challenges was using technology to increase ordinary citizen’s impact on policy. A group of civic-minded coders and cryptographers created a brand-new participatory platform, Decidem (which means We Decide in Catalan). For more information watch the video below.

Spain offers more inspiring examples. The city of Madrid has also created a participatory citizen platform, not for chance called Decide Madrid, which is in many respects comparable with Decidem, as this short video demonstrates.

The most important features of both platforms are:

Active participation in policy making
Citizens are stimulated to suggest ideas, debating them, and vote. In Barcelona, more than 40.000 citizens have suggested proposals, which form 70% of the agenda of the city administration. The most frequently mentioned concerns are affordable housing, clean energy, air quality and the public space.
The Municipal Action Plan of Barcelona includes almost 7,000 proposals from citizens. Decidem enables citizens to monitor the state of implementation of each of them to increase citizen’s engagement.

Debating
Decide Madrid and Decidem emphasize the value of being informed as starting point for deliberation. Citizens can start discussions on their own and participate in threaded discussions started by others.
As soon as citizens feel informed and have exchanged opinions voting can start. Both Decide Madrid as Decidemhave a space where citizens can make proposals and seeks support. Proposals that reach enough support are prepared for voting. These votes generally are advising the city council.

Policy preparation
Decide Madrid enables citizens amendment legislative texts. The public is allowed to commend any part of it and to suggest alternatives. This also might result in discussions and the suggestions are used to improve the formulations.

Data governance
Decidem and Decide Madrid are also data portals that show data that have been collected in the city, partly on citizens themselves. Decidem has the intention, because of its participation in the European project Decode to enable citizens to control the use of data of their own for specific purposes.

Hybrid solutions
As not every citizen has a computer or is skilled to use the Internet platforms, both cities combine virtual discussions and discussion in a physical space.

It is not only the traditional rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid that has inspired the development of two comparable systems, independently from each other. It is also the fact that the Spanish people had to fight for democracy until rather recently. Democratic institutions that have long existed in many other countries had to be reinvented, but with a 20th-century twist.

The community of Madrid has developed Decide Madrid together with CONSUL, a Madrid-based company. CONSUL enables cities to develop citizen participation on the Internet quickly and save. The package is very comprehensive. The software and its use are free. CONSUL can be adjusted by each organization to meet its own needs. As a result, Consul is in use in 130 cities and organizations in 33 countries (see the map above) and reaches out around 90 million citizens worldwide.

In contrast with e-Estonia, the topic of a former post, the footing of Decidem and Decide Madrid is enabling citizens to make their voice heard and to participate in decision-making. Both cities offer excellent examples of e-governance. e-Governance reflects the mutual communication between municipal authorities and citizens using digital tools to align decision making with the needs and wants of citizens. Instead, the intention of e-Estonia is to improve the efficiency of the operation of the state.  Both aims are complementary.

I will regularly share ‘snapshots’ of the challenge of bringing socially and ecologically sustainable cities closer using technology if useful. These posts represent findings, updates, and additions to my e-book Humane cities. Always humane. Smart if helpful. The English version of this book can be downloaded for free below.

Would this simple redesign of the public space in the suburbs of Utrecht, be an option in your area? In a special serie of short videos, Geert Kloppenburg visit suburbs of the large cities in the Randstad in Holland. Here is part 1 Utrecht. Curious what you think of the idea and feel free to share!

Watch the video here:
https://youtu.be/l_l5PRhzfVU

De gemeente Amsterdam en de Hogeschool van Amsterdam starten in november 2021 een onderzoek naar het reisgedrag van Amsterdammers. Een bereikbare en leefbare stad begint bij de behoeften van de inwoners. Hoe vaak, wanneer en met welke voertuigen verplaatsten ze zich door de stad? Dat zijn vragen waar we met de proef antwoord op willen krijgen.

Over het onderzoek
De proef wordt uitgevoerd met behulp van de slimme app Fynch. Fynch biedt niet alleen een helder overzicht van iedere gemaakte rit, ook de CO2-uitstoot, afgelegde kilometers, vermeden spitsuren en aantal minuten beweging per dag worden bijgehouden. De Hogeschool van Amsterdam onderzoekt het reisgedrag van Amsterdammers via de ritten in de app en stuurt tijdens het onderzoek twee vragenlijsten om nog meer te weten te komen over de reisbehoeften van de deelnemers.

Doe mee aan de proef
Woont u in Amsterdam en heeft u een auto? Meld u dan aan via onderstaande link! U draagt bij aan de ontwikkeling van een leefbare en bereikbare stad en ontvangt na afloop van de proef een bol.com bon van €20.