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Amsterdam is investing heavily in shared transport. Shared cars, scooters and  bicycles make the city more accessible. That last option is healthy, clean and popular. For those who don’t have a bike, or looking for a second bike, we have a shared bike. The city of Amsterdam will receive 1,400 shared bicycles, including 100 shared electric cargo bikes. Some are allready on the streets; the rest will follow from August 15.

Where can you find shared bikes?
At the Zuidas, along the ‘Westlijn’ of the metro, in Oost and Zuidoost. Electric shared cargo bikes can be found in Oost and Zuid. There is a maximum number of shared bicycles per area. It is a 2 year experiment. Then we'll see if we continue.

• FlickBike: 400 shared bicycles along metro stations on the ‘Westlijn’ (from Henk Sneevlietweg to Isolatorweg) and the bus to Westpoort, from 15 June
• Cargoroo: 100 electric shared cargo bicycles in Oost and Rivierenbuurt (Zuid), from 15 June
• Donkey Republic: 300 shared bicycles in Oost, from 15 August
• Soon to be announced: 400 shared bicycles Zuidoost and 200 shared bicycles Zuidas from 15 August

Where do I park the shared bike?
A shared bicycle is a good means of transport for commuters and visitors. The bicycles are usually located near a public transport junction. They have their own parking spaces and must be returned to 1 of the parking spaces of that provider. Only in those places can you stop the rent. The shared cargo bikes have their own parking space, clearly marked on the ground. You can of course park the bike somewhere else in between, but then you will continue to pay. That way the bikes won't roam, is the idea.

Note from ASC: Have a question? Let’s hear it in the comments!

Over the centuries, each urban expansion was followed by a period of catching up to face a new, more complex reality. We still experience it today when we know that more than half a million people sleep on the streets in the United States every night and that rents are rising faster than incomes.

In London, between 1997 and 2016, the number of jobs and the population increased by 40% and 25% respectively, while accommodation capacity only increased by 15%. The average American employee's commuting time has reached new records: an average of 225 hours per year (or more than nine days in total) is spent on the road or in transport.

As in the past, the current reality and the future of a physical place requires a good understanding of the place in question. This is why the meaning of place in a city stems both from its logistical environment and from the social and emotional context that unites its inhabitants.

What smart city technonoly does in percentage

The explosion of integrated sensors, mobile devices, high-speed wireless connections, combined with exponential growth in data and sophisticated analysis tools, offers geospatial perspectives that go beyond the theoretical framework. This led to the birth of “smart cities”. McKinsey estimates that the technologies deployed by smart cities can reduce mortality by 8 to 10%, improve rescue response times by 20 to 35%, decrease travel times by 15 to 20%, decrease by 8 to 15% disease burden and 10-15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

A new generation of smart cities

Despite some setbacks here and there, on a global or national scale, metropolises, communities and neighborhoods have followed the path of progress, with more concrete results. According to many futurists, we are in the midst of a new generation of smart cities with a more pragmatic sense of city management. Cities that not only apply intelligence to their macro-systems, but seek to optimize micro-sites for global transformations.

A true smart city uses dynamic 3D digital basemaps to obtain real-time information on the condition of neighborhoods, residential areas or buildings down to the lowest level (floor, corridor and housing) or highest (above existing structures such as the roof).

By making all this information accessible to managers; police officers, firefighters and first aid personnel, public transport employees, care providers, grocers and traders, distributors, teachers, social workers, and especially to the inhabitants, each individual will be able to know where the bus is and at what time it will arrive, where a leak has occurred on the water distribution network, in which car parks there are still free spaces,

The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the value of a collective city-wide solution, which involves knowing where people in difficulty are and how to help them. For Alison Brooks, a pioneer on innovative ideas:

As we have seen, a smart city must respond to four major challenges:

• Operational Efficiency: Streamline business processes and workflows to improve decision making and locate resources for maximum benefit. The digital dashboard is the ideal tool for this. 
• Data-driven performance: take advantage of data flows from the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile devices, but also sensors that are part of the city's infrastructure, vehicles and buildings, then analyze the whole this data thanks to artificial intelligence. This has made it possible to achieve concrete results such as the adaptive regulation of traffic lights, or real-time (and no longer static) decision-making at the scale of the city and professional services. 
• Citizen involvement: Some smart cities of the first wave encountered cultural and societal obstacles in deploying the technology without asking the opinion of the inhabitants. True smart cities involve communities from the start, identifying the priorities of the inhabitants, responding to the specific concerns and needs of different groups and working for greater social equity. 
• Planning and engineering: 3D modeling, profoundly transformed by the digital revolution and human-centered design, makes it possible to anticipate and mitigate economic, environmental or social upheavals and the resulting tensions. These cards, also known under the name of “digital twins”, take into account a multitude of elements (buildings, infrastructure, vegetation, transit, etc.) down to the smallest level (floor or room, for example). They are the underlying platform of the true smart city.

The history of our species, that is to say of human civilization, in fact merges with the history of the city ; both have the same Latin origin. The city and its systems have allowed a real concentration of resources and the emergence of an entrepreneurial spirit and collective creativity that have won over the entire planet. Thanks to powerful leaders who think outside the box and the cutting-edge tools available to us today and the lessons we have learned from this experience, we have the possibility of reinventing these systems to promote a fairer, more sustainable and more harmonious development model.

Note from ASC: Have a question? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Today the bioeconomy is everywhere: We see it in the clothing we wear, the packaging that comes to our house daily, the house we live in, the food we eat, and the energy that fuels our life.

For the bioeconomy to truly be sustainable and circular, it must meet certain conditions: using fundamentally renewable biological feedstocks, maximizing the varied types and cycles of biological resources and contributing to the biological cycle.

Learn more from this article.

The long-term use of the industrialized agricultural system, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers has degraded the crucial foundation of agriculture which is soil.

To change this narrative, the key lies in regenerative farming. This is not only beneficial for increasing biodiversity and (environmental as well as economic) resilience, but the regenerated soil can also be used as carbon sinks, storing carbon both above and below ground in their greenery and in their root systems, and helping reverse climate change.

The benefits of regenerative models do not end here, check out this article to find out more.

To achieve a circular economy, innovation is key. One of the key ways to get here is through entrepreneurship. To be effective in this journey, entrepreneurs need to know how to navigate what creating a deep, transformational impact really means. Further, how do we decide where to focus our attention? How do we design solutions and organizations that provide the best chances for success?

Chis Monaghan, Co-Founder at Fresh Ventures Studio, a Metabolic spinoff,  developed these 14 questions to serve as a simple checklist for anyone looking to maximize the impact of a particular initiative. Fresh Ventures is a venture-building program and startup studio based in The Netherlands.

We share a quick overview of the mobility and energy projects that are on the minds of our partners and community half way through 2021. In another successful Demo Day we glided from Smart Energy to the first MaaS app. We learned about Code the Streets and easier ways to get projects subsidiest after Corona.

Our demo days are part of a series and are intended for Amsterdam Smart City partners to present the progress of various innovation projects, ask for input, share dilemmas and involve other partners in projects. We give you a recap.

The bottlenecks of Smart Energy - Alienke Ramaker from Royal Haskoning DHV

We want Smart Energy and make use of it in a flexible matter. So it’s not a surprise that pilots and projects pop up to make charging more efficient. But for some reason these projects don’t grow. Tom van Loon from Royalhaskoning DHV (commissioned by TKI Urban Energy and RVO) not only presents the 5 bottlenecks with the help of 40 experts but also gives us action points. The next step is to make these points land. How can we do that?

Amaze - Edvard Hendriksen from Overmorgen/Arcadis

Amaze is the first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app in the Netherlands. It gives you access to public transport, shared mobility (cars, bikes) and taxi’s with one app. To scale up employers need to be convinced so employees are easily triggered to make use of shared mobility. In September 500 companies will join the launch event. Do you know any employers that should join, or are you one? Let us know in the comments so we can connect you to Edvard.

Code the Streets – Sander Oudbier & Lilian Leermakers from AMS Institute

Creating an app that makes cities less busy and saver, that’s what CODE the Streets is doing. Our region keeps growing and the same goes for our streets, neighbourhood’s and cities so we constantly need to come up with smart ways to organize mobility. Lilian Leermakers explains that the streets of Amsterdam are coded and added to navigation software. This can be used to avoid small streets around schools for instance. They’re looking for 200 users in Amsterdam and Helsinki so they can gather good feedback. The pilot starts at the end of August. Would you like to be part of the test team?

Innovation partners - Eefje Smeulders from City of Amsterdam & Dave van Loon from Kennisland

To give the region an economic and sustainable transition boost, the city of Amsterdam has extra funds available. A chance for our network to get a subsidy for the plans they work on.

Dave van Loon from Kennisland is working on a Dutch subsidy request himself: “energietransitie als vliegwiel voor een leefbare buurt”. An area oriented plan in which co-creation will connect multiple transitions. The idea is to work together with all the parties that are involved; residents, government, companies, energy suppliers, housing corporations and knowledge institutions. The end goal would be a Fieldlab. Would you like to know more and work with Dave on this? Let us know in the comments and we’ll connect you.

PR & Content Officer

Afdeling: Communicatieteam
Functie: PR en Content Officer (fulltime, 36-40 uur)
Locatie: Amsterdam
Arbeidsvoorwaarden: €2.920 - €4.012 bpm op basis van een 40-urige werkweek. Daarnaast een 13e maand. De definitieve inschaling is op basis van werkervaring en achtergrond.
Duur: Jaarcontract, verlenging voor onbepaalde tijd mogelijk

We zijn op zoek naar een creatieve en enthousiaste PR & Content Officer om de zichtbaarheid en positionering van ons mooie Amsterdamse instituut verder te ontwikkelen. Vind jij het leuk om de resultaten van onze onderzoeks-, onderwijs- en ondernemerschapsactiviteiten het juiste podium te geven?

Zijn PR, corporate storytelling en content marketing onderwerpen die jou aanspreken? Weet je hoe je wetenschap vertaalt naar boeiende en toegankelijke content? Gaat je hart harder kloppen bij het lezen over onze thema’s en zit je nu al vol creatieve content ideeën? En wil je graag werken in een omgeving waar duurzame innovatie vorm krijgt? Reageer dan nu.

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AMS Institute is in 2014 opgericht door Wageningen University & Research en de TU Delft, samen met het Massachusetts Institute of Technology en is gevestigd in hartje Amsterdam op Marineterrein Amsterdam. Onze missie is het vinden van interdisciplinaire oplossingen voor  grootstedelijke vraagstukken.

Wij geloven dat we door het bij elkaar brengen van verschillende ideeën, talenten en  (kennis)achtergronden, we steden duurzamer, welvarender, veerkrachtiger en rechtvaardiger kunnen maken. Vandaag, en in de toekomst. Wij noemen dit: “Re-inventing cities”. Dit doen we door middel van vier hoofdactiviteiten: onderwijs, onderzoek & innovatie, ondernemerschap en partnerships.

In samenwerking met kennisinstellingen, publieke & private partners en burgers, testen en ontwikkelen we onze oplossingen in de praktijk. We doen dit samen met de gemeente Amsterdam en zo is de stad ons Living Lab.

Functieomschrijving

We zijn momenteel op zoek naar een PR en Content Officer, die succesvol laat zien met welke innovatieve oplossingen we bijdragen aan de stad Amsterdam. Je focus ligt op PR, content en het creëren van een corporate story, met nadruk op stedelijke uitdagingen, innovatie en impact. Daarbij breng je ook de overkoepelende samenwerkingen en de link tussen bedrijfsleven, Amsterdammers, onderwijs & wetenschap in beeld.

Bij een organisatie met 1001 verhalen is er bijna een onuitputtelijke bron van content. Met jouw creativiteit en expertise weet jij proactief de contentagenda te bepalen. Je hebt oog voor de onderwerpen die spelen in de media en de manier waarop deze onderwerpen verbonden kunnen worden aan de stedelijke opgaven van de stad Amsterdam en onze activiteiten op het gebied van onderwijs, onderzoek & innovatie, ondernemerschap partnerships.

Ook weet je de juiste invalshoeken, samenwerkingen en distributiekanalen te vinden om bij te dragen aan het vergroten van de bekendheid en het verder verbeteren van de positionering en reputatie van het instituut.

Het AMS Communicatieteam is een klein, enthousiast en dynamisch team, dat bestaat uit vijf personen: een Communicatie Adviseur, een PR en Content Officer, een Project Communicatie medewerker, een Studentassistent en het Hoofd Communicatie. Je rapporteert aan het Hoofd Communicatie. Hoewel teamleden zich elk op hun eigen verantwoordelijkheden en activiteiten concentreren, zijn de resultaten altijd het resultaat van een gedeelde teaminspanning.

Verantwoordelijkheden

De PR en Content Officer is verantwoordelijk voor:

·       Het aansturen, ontwikkelen en uitvoeren van onze PR-activiteiten en Content Marketing plan in nauwe samenwerking met het Hoofd Communicatie.
·       Het bepalen van de inhoudelijke verhaallijnen voor de urban challenges waar we aan werken – dit in nauwe samenwerking met onze expertteams (Research & Innovation, Education & Data Science Team)
·       Het creëren van aansprekende content voor onze eigen kanalen, zoals onze website en socials (inclusief monitoring & rapportage).
·       Onze reputatie bewaken en kansen signaleren voor proactieve PR en storytelling. Je vindt het leuk om journalisten mee te nemen in wat we doen.
·       Het coördineren van mediaverzoeken en het adviseren en begeleiden van onze experts bij persverzoeken.
·       Het identificeren en onderhouden van relaties met belangrijke media en journalisten, evenals het opbouwen en onderhouden van relaties binnen ons netwerk van zakelijke partners, stakeholders en influencers.

Je profiel

·       Je hebt een relevante academische opleiding, aantoonbare ervaring in PR en hebt passie voor technologie en stedelijke innovatie.
·       Je hebt uitstekende schriftelijke en mondelinge communicatieve vaardigheden in zowel het Nederlands (veel van de interacties zijn met lokale pers), als in het Engels (de voertaal op al onze corporate kanalen).
·       Je hebt een goed begrip van wat nieuwswaardig is en weet de juiste invalshoeken voor diverse doelgroepen.
·       Je duikt graag de organisatie in om content die het verschil maakt te ontwikkelen.
·       Je hebt ervaring met het onderhouden van relaties met externe media en weet perskansen te creëren voor onze experts en activiteiten.
·       Sociale media heeft voor jou geen geheimen. Je weet hoe je social media in kunt zetten als geïntegreerd onderdeel van de mediamix.
·       Je voelt je verbonden met de stedelijke uitdagingen van de stad Amsterdam en woont bij voorkeur in (de buurt van) Amsterdam.
·       Ervaring in illustrator/InDesign of videoproductie, zijn een pluspunt om dat vleugje extra creativiteit toe te voegen waar we altijd naar op zoek zijn.

Wie ben jij?

·       Een enthousiast en positief persoon, een echte aanwinst voor het team
·       Creatief en proactief in het naar voren brengen van ideeën
·       Een zelfstarter met veel energie
·       Resultaatgericht, nauwkeurig en efficiënt

Ons aanbod

·       Je komt te werken in een innovatieve werkomgeving en een enthousiast team van     professionals.
·       Wanneer we (hopelijk snel weer) meer op kantoor werken, dan hebben we een fantastische locatie op het Marineterrein Amsterdam.
·       Je salaris is gebaseerd op de VSNU CAO met een maximum van €4.012 bpm op basis van 40 uur - en een jaarlijkse 13e maand. We bieden je een jaarcontract, met de intentie om en bij goed functioneren te verlengen voor onbepaalde tijd.

Aanvullende informatie

Voor meer informatie over deze vacature kun je contact opnemen met Debby Dröge, Head of Communications, e-mail debby.droge@ams-institute.org. Voor meer informatie over de selectieprocedure kun je contact opnemen met Martijn van Beersum, HR Officer, e-mail: martijn.vanbeersum@ams-institute.org, tel: +31 610598900.

Sollicitatieprocedure

Heb je interesse in deze vacature? Je kunt solliciteren door je motivatiebrief en cv te delen met: martijn.vanbeersum@ams-institute.org.

AMS Institute staat midden in de samenleving en streeft ernaar om de diversiteit van onze samenleving terug te laten komen in haar organisatie.

For centuries, entrepreneurship was linked to art and craft and rewarded by personal fulfilment, satisfied customers, and a good life. The term entrepreneur is still associated with giving direction, shape and content to new activities based on personal motivation and skills and thereby creating socially approved value. A description that applies to the self-employed, business entrepreneurs, franchisees or intrapreneurs and includes both commercial, institutional, and artistic activities.
However, there are two problems. Overcoming them opens the way to become a better business.

The plunder of the earth

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has warned that the creative power of entrepreneurship can easily become destructive. A 'maker' becomes a 'taker' once creating value becomes making money in the first place. Indeed, for centuries, companies have robbed resources around the world, destroyed nature, traded millions of slaves and exploited domestic workers, creating the divide between rich and poor countries.
The creative power of entrepreneurship can also be aimed at sustainable prosperity, for their employees, the country, and the world. In that case, the “purpose” of a company precedes the pursuit of profit. Unfortunately, still a minority of all companies are moving in this direction while others pretending.

The decline of engagement and passion within the workforce

There is more. In developed countries, the blatant exploitation of labour has disappeared. Instead, the majority of employment relegates into low strain jobs. Research by Gallup and Deloite has shown over consecutive years that over 64% of all employees worldwide are not engaged or passionate. Find John Hagel explain this in a short video. The reason is clear. 20th century companies have organized their production according to principles of scalable efficiency and have top-down planning and control.  Room for initiative is therefore neither expected nor desired. Moreover, detailed protocols and regulations limit employment for people at a distance from the labour market.
In a rapidly changing world, companies must be adaptive and innovative. They therefore need flexible, interdisciplinary teams with a high degree of self-government and less pay differentials. According to recent research in 17 countries, this type of organizations (8%) outperforms in all respects.

Summarizing, to become a better business requires a double challenge:
·  Replacing the dominance of the pursuit of money with a social and environmental purpose.
·  Mobilizing the entrepreneurial and other capacities of their whole work force by forms of self-organization and shared leadership.

Why focussing on startups?

As only a limited number of companies meet these conditions, employees consider starting their own business. In the US alone, approximately two million workers give up well-paying jobs every year and become self-employed. 127,000 starters were registered in the Netherlands in 2018.  Of them, only a minority will become a startup, which means that they will successfully commercialize a promising technological innovation and grow rapidly on an international level.

Start-ups are potential engines of growth and innovation. In the US, their steady growth is compensating for job losses in the rest of the economy. Dutch startups created 20.000 of jobs in 2018 and 2019. A recent reportoffers excellent documentation of the identity, growth and potential of the 4,311 Dutch startups in 2019, most of which have fewer than 10 employees. 34% of Dutch startups can found in the Amsterdam metropolitan area.

The hope is that start-ups will rise to both challenges by nurturing their social and environmental purpose end fueling the commitment and passion of each employee, and thereby become a better business.

Yet, like any other businesses, startups risk becoming takers rather than makers, trading their social and environmental purpose for the pursuit of money and losing the engagement and passion of their employees. Fortunately, they can prevent this.

Eleven ways to become or stay a better business

1.  Embrace self-organization and shared leadership.
2.  Involve all employees in the continuous strengthening of the social and environmental purpose of the company.
3.  Enable all employees to become shareholders or even better co-owners.
4.  Cherish diversity within the employees.
5. Secure shares in a foundation while enabling shareholders to support the purpose of the company.
6.  Cap the profit to a level that guarantees the continuity of the company.
7.  Ban greed, cancel bonuses, or at most pay a limited and equal allowance to all employees.
8.  Place surplus profits in a foundation that spends money in accordance with the purpose of the company.
9.  Being a fair taxpayer who refrains from tax avoidance practices.
10.Create a supervisory board to monitor the purpose of the company.
11.Focus the founder/director/CEO role on monitoring the purpose of the company and the commitment of all employees and on fueling the discussion on how to deal with changing external conditions.

Rapid societal changes require a reinventing the concept of entrepreneurship. Because of their flexibility and commitment, startups are apt to embrace the dual ambition of pursuing a social and environmental purpose and of mobilizing all employee’s engagement and passion.

My next post will look at how cities can help start-ups to settle, grow and become better businesses. The history of entrepreneurship, its growing distance from ‘makership’ and its possible revival by start-ups is documented in chapter 4 of my e-book Humane cities. Always humane. Smart if helpful. The English version of this book can be downloaded for free below.

Green consumers engage green growers in the green food trail around the city of Arnhem, The Netherlands.

From Wednesday July 28th, the Fashion for Good museum features a new audio tour narrated by Dutch rapper Dio. In the tour, visitors can listen to Dio explain the rise of fast fashion, why sustainable fashion is so important for people and planet, and what kinds of natural materials can be used to create the fashion of the future. The tour is in Dutch and is free to all visitors to the sustainable fashion museum on the Rokin in Amsterdam.

The Fashion for Good Museum audio tour is made possible with the support of the Kickstart Cultuurfonds.

Ready to meet the winners of the WDCD No Waste Challenge? Earlier this evening, a total of 16 ground-breaking ideas were selected for the top prize, representing a wide range of strategies for reducing waste and its impact on the planet. Each winning team will now gain access to €10.000 in funding and an extensive development programme designed to launch their ideas into action.

“The quality and range of entries we’ve seen in this Challenge is remarkable,” comments Richard van der Laken, co-founder and creative director of What Design Can Do. “In a turbulent year, it’s particularly inspiring to see that the creative community is willing and able to break away from decades of linear thinking and bad design. I’m hopeful that others in the industry will follow their lead.”

Revolutionizing the the taking and making
The winners were determined by an international jury who reviewed every project from a list of 85 high-potential nominees.  Among the ideas to take home the top prize are solutions that focus on the production process – aiming to revolutionise the taking and making of all the things we use and eat. Sustrato (Mexico), for example, combines traditional craft, contemporary design and waste from the pineapple industry to develop a range of sustainable bioplastics. Modern Synthesis (UK) makes use of a similar waste stream, this time from apple farms, to feed microbes that grow fully circular fibers for the fashion industry.

Adressing the underlying problem of consumerism
Meanwhile, other winners are unified by their desire to uproot entire value systems. These projects are looking to prevent waste by addressing the underlying problem of consumerism. Reparar.org (Argentina) for example, is a service which connects individuals to local cobblers and repair shops, working to promote a culture of care and the right-to-repair. Similarly, Project R (Japan), is a community centre that empowers citizens to learn about circular techniques and lifestyles. Together, these winners suggest inventive ways for us to reconcile what we want with what the planet needs. In doing so, they also help to redefine design as a tool that can be restorative and regenerative, instead of merely productive or destructive. Congratulations to all!

ABOUT THE NO WASTE CHALLENGE

What Design Can Do and IKEA Foundation launched the No Waste Challenge in January 2021, calling for bold solutions to address the enormous impact of waste on climate change. The competition was open to innovators everywhere, and offered three design briefs tackling different aspects of our take-make-waste economy. In April, the open call ended with an exceptional 1409 submissions from creatives in more than 100 countries. As part of the No Waste Challenge award package, sixteen winners will now enter a development programme co-created by Impact Hub, which will propel their projects through 2022.

Learn more about the No Waste Challenge at: nowaste.whatdesigncando.com

During the pandemic, it might have felt as if the world temporarily stood still. However, while most of us worked at home, the Living Lab projects at Marineterrein Amsterdam were still running.

Although dealing with traveling restrictions, social distancing, and the accompanying delays - it was still possible to run the experiments - all within guidelines - and some of the projects developed at a rapid speed. Despite all these restrictions, Marineterrein Amsterdam Living Lab (MALL) was in full swing.

Read on for updates on:

• The autonomous and modular vehicle Roboat
• Roboat meets The garbage module
• Space For Food: from waste water to cultivating purple bacteria
• Respyre lets moss grow on concrete
• The Responsible Sensing Lab
• Side walk robot Husky

Due to the many working from home, employers are moving away from fixed travel allowances on a large scale and business lease fleets are also shrinking for the first time in years. In order to meet the travel needs of employees in a good way, more employers are switching to shared mobility as a financial solution.

By focusing on shared mobility, you save valuable parking space, offer your employees a flexible mobility solution and possibly save on your CO2 emissions. Research by the Kennisinstituut Mobiliteit (KiM) shows that a car sharer annually emits 175 to 265 kg less CO2 than before he started car sharing. In addition, shared mobility contributes to better accessibility of the region. Shared mobility is therefore booming: in 2020 the number of shared car users rose by no less than 42% to 730,000.

Municipality of Amsterdam is investing heavily in shared mobility
The City of Amsterdam is working hard to make shared mobility a fully-fledged alternative for everyone who wants to move around in the city. Shared mobility is one of the solutions to keep mobility, quality of life, space on the street and accessibility in the city in balance. There are experiments with shared bicycles and scooters on the street and providers of shared cars are encouraged to offer their services in Amsterdam.

Breikers supports employers free of charge in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area
The mobility needs of every company and every employee are different. That is why Breikers provides free and independent tailor-made advice. Our interactive mobility scan is even free to use for Breikers participants! Do you need help developing your plans for the realization? In many cases you can re-enable Breikers to come up with the right solution.

To help you on your way, a white paper (in Dutch) has been prepared with the most up-to-date ins-and-outs in the field of Shared Mobility.

Amsterdammers are a lot more positive about shared transport than day trippers and commuters, and cost savings are seen as the biggest advantage. It also appears that many Amsterdammers have old assumptions with regard to availability and costs. The municipality of Amsterdam has therefore launched a campaign to draw attention to the many advantages of shared transport.

Research
The municipality of Amsterdam has commissioned a survey among Amsterdammers, day trippers and commuters. It is clear that Amsterdammers are much more positive about shared transport (49%), than day trippers (36%) and commuters (32%). No less than 16% are considering replacing their car with shared transport. Cost savings (39%), convenience (25%) and environmental benefits (19%) are the main advantages of shared transport. The arrival of mobility hubs, MaaS (mobility as a service) apps and more insight into current car costs are also reasons to opt for shared transport.

Campaign
The campaign makes it clear to the Amsterdammer that there are many advantages when it comes to shared transport. Do you drive less than 10,000 kilometers per year? Then a shared car is quickly cheaper. And it also results in a lot less hassle. In addition, there is the freedom of choice from a wide range of bicycles, scooters and cars, better accessibility in the city and cleaner air because much of the shared transport is electric. But also more space on the street, because if we share bicycles, scooters and cars with each other, fewer means of transport are needed.

Availability significantly increased
In the past year, the supply of shared transport in the city has increased considerably. The number of shared cars in public space has risen from 1,250 to almost 2000 and it is expected that hundreds more shared cars will be added this year. In addition, you can choose daily from about 750 shared cars of Amsterdammers who share their own car. Since last summer, 700 shared scooters have been driving through the city as an experiment and from 15 June, also as part of an experiment, 1300 shared bicycles and 100 community cargo bikes will be added step by step.

Note from ASC: What are your thoughts on this? Let us know bellow.

Ecologische basisschool De Verwondering in Almere Hout heeft de Gouden Kikker gewonnen: de prijs voor het meest duurzame project van Nederland.

De jury van de Duurzaam Bouwen Awards vindt De Verwondering een inspirerend voorbeeld van duurzaam maatschappelijk vastgoed op zeer hoog niveau én in de breedste zin van het woord. Niet alleen door de keuze van natuurlijke materialen, systemen en bouwmethoden, maar ook door de ontwerpfilosofie. Het natuurinclusieve schoolplein is een ecosysteem op zich, met nestgelegenheden voor vogels en insecten, lokale flora en een kleine baai. De leerlingen zien zelf hoe hun school is gebouwd, welke materialen zijn toegepast en hoe het van energie wordt voorzien.

Met dit alles, is het project niet alleen een inspiratie voor de leerlingen én medewerkers van de school, maar ook voor de rest van Nederland!

Esther 't Hoen, jurylid en projectleider circulaire bouweconomie van het ministerie van BZK, mocht de award aan de architect, Daan Bruggink van ORGA architect overhandigen. “De samenwerking tussen de Gemeente Almere en Stichting Prisma Almere, de opdrachtgevers en Paula van Kuijk, de directrice van de school en de installateur, heeft geleid tot dit resultaat.”

We zijn trots op het project en uiteraard op de samenwerking tussen de verschillende partijen wat heeft geleid tot een prachtig resultaat. Mooi dat dit, mede dankzij de Gouden Kikker van de Nederlandse Duurzaam Bouwen Awards, nationaal de aandacht krijgt. De awards worden mede mogelijk gemaakt door abcnova, Stichting W/E adviseurs duurzaam bouwen, FSC Nederland en Duurzaam Gebouwd.

Verder hebben meegewerkt aan De Verwondering: Bladgroen, Van Norel bouwgroep, Lüning Ingenieurs in houtconstructies, Nieman Groep, TDS Engineering, Projectum Inrichten B.V., GoedGeplant en uiteraard iedereen bij De Verwondering!

Gaan we straks met de hyperloop op vakantie, stappen we in een personendrone, of is de (elektrische) fiets hét vervoersmiddel van de toekomst? In vier artikelen zoekt NEMO Kennislink-redacteur Roel van der Heijden op welke transportmanieren we moeten inzetten. Sparen we het milieu of willen we zo snel mogelijk overal ter wereld zijn? Sommige keuzes gaan ten koste van elkaar, maar niet altijd. We definiëren steeds een nieuwe einddoel. Het eerste deel is: hoe maken we vervoer zo duurzaam mogelijk?

De (elektrische) fiets is in dit toekomstscenario doorgebroken als hét vervoersmiddel voor alle afstanden onder de pakweg twintig kilometer. Hij blijkt niet te verslaan als het om duurzaamheid gaat. Ga je iets verder dan pak je de elektrische auto of trein. Voor de echt lange reizen gebruiken mensen het vliegtuig op grotendeels synthetische brandstoffen uit duurzame stroom.

Klinkt dit scenario verrassend ‘gewoon’? De fiets, de auto en het vliegtuig als de vervoersmiddelen van de toekomst? Waar zijn de drones en hyperloops? Uit een rondgang van NEMO Kennislink bij een aantal duurzaamheids- en vervoersonderzoekers blijkt dat we het daar wat betreft duurzaamheid niet van moeten hebben.

Lees het artikel hier. In vervolgdelen nemen we op een vergelijkbare manier de snelheid, betaalbaarheid en het delen van vervoer onder de loep.

(foto Petar Milošević via CC BY-SA 4.0)

The idea behind MaaS (Mobility as a Service) is to give you an overview of all the public transport and shared mobility options an area has to offer. Instead of owning transport, you're just paying for the use of transport which makes streets less crowded and air cleaner. It wouldn't be 2021 if it didn't come with an easy to use app. But how easy is it really?

You no longer need a OV-Chipkaart. With the Amaze Mobility app you can plan, pay and travel with public transport or shared mobility. You can use different shared mobility with one account, so choose the tram today and a shared bike tomorrow. And since the app makes it easy to manage and share travel expenses, just say goodbye to bulky declarations.

Want to give the Amaze Mobility app a try?
Let’s change the way we travel and improve the liveability in cities as we go. We are still looking for companies that want to partner with us to test and spread the app.

Note from ASC: Like to know more or do you have a tip? Let Karin know in the comments.

Last year, during the Month of the AAI in November, the Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence (AUAS - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) presented the Dutch Applied AI Award for the first time. This year we are back for a second edition. The award is part of the Computable Awards and is for suppliers of AI solutions, start-ups in the AI field and good examples of the implementation of AI.

This award is jointly organized with AUAS, Computable and podcast De Dataloog . You can nominate an individual or organisation, based on a project you think has stood out in the past 12 months. The projects may have been particularly successful, innovative or extensive.

You can nominate until 16 August 2021

The winner will be announced on 2 November 2021 during a spectacular show in the Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Last year, healthcare platform DEARhealth won the Dutch Applied AI award. Who will walk away with the prize this year? 🙌🏻

About the Computable Awards

This will be the 16th year in a row that Computable will present the Computable Awards in November 2021. These prizes are awarded to companies, projects and individuals who, according to Computable readers, have clearly distinguished themselves in the past year.

An independent jury of experts will select five nominees for each award from the nominated parties. The ranking by the jury and the number of votes from Computable readers each determine half of which nominee will receive the award in November. The number of times a party is nominated for a nomination does not play a role, but the quality of the substantiation and information about the project mentioned does.

The Centre of Expertise Applied AI of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) has been awarded a Comenius Leadership Fellow grant of €500,000 for the AI4Students project. Over the next three years, the project headed by Professor of Responsible AI Nanda Piersma intends to use the Comenius grant to equip AUAS students for a future in which artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly important role.

The assessment committee of the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) selected the project from a total of 15 applications and praised AI4Students for its innovative character and the expected benefits for students, lecturers and the professional field. “Because of the social relevance of the topic, the committee is confident that the outcomes will be valuable to students and lecturers as well as the professional field.”

AI-ready upon graduation

AI4Students is a project that should have an impact in all faculties of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. “We would like to ensure that all AUAS students are AI-ready by the time they graduate, not just with a general acquaintance with AI, but AI specifically geared to their field of study,” Piersma explains. “So it’s not about them studying with us first to become an accountant or physiotherapist, for example, and then having to take an additional training course as soon as they start their job. Instead, they should already be thinking with us about how AI is going to affect their job.”

The Comenius Leadership Fellow 2021 grant will enable Piersma to start fulfilling that ambition over the next three years. “What we want to do is start performing an AI impact scan for 9 degree programmes,” Piersma explains. “In what way is artificial intelligence going to impact a professional field? How will this affect what professionals need to be able to do, and what does that mean for the degree programme itself?”

The impact of circular principles on the construction sector will be large and beneficial because buildings are responsible for more than 50% of the total use of materials on earth, including valuable specimen such as steel, copper, aluminium and zinc.

The picture above – the interior of the Circle pavilion of the ABN-AMRO bank in Amsterdam is an example of a new building that uses as many existing components as possible and new components of the building are designed to be reused. Think of:

• 1200 m2 of wooden floors
• Partition walls of a demolished building
• 16.000 garments of employees for isolation purposes

By circular construction we mean designing, building and demolishing a building in such a way that, in addition to the high-quality reuse of materials, justice is done to sustainability ambitions in the field of energy, water, and biodiversity and ecosystems.

New materials are often more expensive than new ones
In case of demolishment, nowadays many components are already reused, but at a very low level, for instance concrete and stones as the foundation of new roads. Apart from the limited necessity to construct many new roads, this type of recycling destroys the intrinsic quality of materials and does not diminish the use of new materials. The biggest problem is that recycled materials are often more expensive than new ones.

Evidently, progress can be made by planning, designing, developing, and building circular buildings. A number of options are mentioned below.

Dedicated urban planning
Challenges for planning are the use of inner-city vacant land and issuing mandatory requirements regarding the construction of new buildings, for instance the use of less cement, glass and steel, the mandatory application of a certain percentage of reused materials, and becoming energy positive or at least energy-neutral. Switching to sustainable timber is an option for 90% of homes and 70% of offices being built.

Mandatory reuse of existing components
Reuse of existing materials means that glass is reused as glass and concrete pillars as pillars. The same applies to doors, frames, carpets, wall-cladding materials and so on. To start with, after demolishment all materials must be selected, cleaned, registered, and stored in new-to-develop warehouses. A materials passport, which contains an overview of all materials and components that are used to construct of a house or building, is a useful tool as well. The obligation to reuse a large percentage of existing components has far-reaching consequences for the design and construction of new houses.

Industrial production and 3D printing
Construction of components in factories, deploying industrial processes, will reduce costs by 30 percent and the delivery time by at least 50 percent. In 2014, the Chinese company WinSun printed and assembled ten houses, each 195 square meters, in 24 hours, for an amount of €5,000 per house[1]. The company used 30 - 60 percent less material than in traditional construction. The “ink” for their 3D printers is a mixture of dry cement and construction waste. WinSun plans to open 100 recycling plants in China to convert waste into cost-efficient ink. This video below demonstrates the printing activities of WinSun

Sharing space
The size of apartments will decrease, partly due to costs, but also because of the presence of shared guest rooms, lounge areas and terraces for working and socializing, spaces for washing and drying laundry. The need for office space will decrease rapidly due to sharing space and working home. Already now, IBM has only one desk available for 12 employees. Given the presence of 300,000 employees, this has led worldwide to savings on real estate of around € 1 billion in the past 10 years.

Modularity and durability
A key barrier for better use of floor space is the lack of flexibility in the design of buildings and room configurations. A modular design, which provides for easy replacement of partitions and placement of complete pre-fab units (kitchens and bathrooms, walls, and roofs as well) facilitates adjustments in case of new construction or as the use of a building changes. DIRTT builds interior components that are modular and standardized and offer maximum interchangeability in both existing and new buildings[2]. This video gives an impression of the production and application of these flexible and inexpensive solutions.

Forget new construction at all
Anyway, a first step is more efficient use of existing buildings and houses.
As families become smaller and offices need less space, existing space becomes underused. Many thousands of one family houses can be transformed in apartments. Well-thought adjustments to the lay-out of existing houses and buildings can improve their efficiency without reducing their functionality and amenity. Look here for inspiring examples.

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

Note from ASC: What are your thoughts on this? Let Herman know bellow.