News

The tables have turned!
StartupDelta, in collaboration with Sprout and B. Amsterdam, organizes the first ever Startup Election Debate in the Netherlands!

Click here for more info >> http://buff.ly/2lNXlwO

This time, it is not the startups that have to pitch. The politicians will pitch for an audience full of startups, to show that they have the best plans to improve the startup climate in the Netherlands. Don't miss the chance to ask the politicians questions or show what you find the most pressing issues for startups on March 9th!

Tien young professionals van verschillende Zuidasbedrijven begonnen vorig jaar september met de Green Business Challenge. Deze Challenge is een initiatief van Green Business Club Zuidas (GBC Zuidas) en heeft als doelstelling om professionals al vroeg in hun carrière bewust te maken van duurzaamheid en wat ze hier zelf aan kunnen doen. Op maandagmiddag 20 februari presenteerden twee teams hun resultaten: zij lieten zien hoe je binnen vijf maanden door inzet en samenwerking écht een verschil kunt maken.

Circulair maken van kantoorartikelen
Team The Circle had zich ten doel gesteld om zo veel mogelijk kantoorartikelen bij verschillende bedrijven in Zuidas circulair te maken. Zij hebben het voor elkaar gekregen om de koffiebekers van AkzoNobel, die door een plastic binnenlaag niet recyclebaar waren, te laten vervangen door recyclebare papieren cups. Ook hebben ze er voor gezorgd dat bij CBRE het gebruik van wegwerp bekers is gedaald met 28% tot nu toe. En tot slot hebben ze bij Inbo en Loyens & Loeff de wegwerppennen laten vervangen door duurzame pennen die zijn gemaakt van gerecycled plastic. Om dit te bewerkstelligen, ontwikkelde het team een flowchart waarmee makkelijk geïnventariseerd kan worden welke producten bij een bedrijf verduurzaamd kunnen worden. Deze gaat GBC Zuidas gebruiken om het project door te zetten bij andere Zuidasbedrijven.

Vergistingsinstallatie in Zuidas
Het team Taste your Waste wilde een goede bestemming vinden voor (organisch) afval van Zuidas. Zij richtten zich op het plaatsen van een vergistingsinstallatie in het gebied. Hiermee hoeft organisch afval, de zogenaamde “swill”, niet meer vervoerd te worden, wat energie bespaard. Het afval wordt lokaal omgezet in groene energie, water, warmte en compost.
Het team zocht de samenwerking met The Waste Transformers (TWT), die al eerder een dergelijke installatie plaatste op het Westergasterrein in Amsterdam. Taste your Waste heeft TWT in contact gebracht met de VU, die geïnteresseerd is om de vergistingsinstallatie in Zuidas te realiseren en hier mogelijk aan wil meewerken. Ook zocht en vond het team meerdere Zuidasbedrijven die hun organisch afval in de toekomst door TWT willen laten ophalen en verwerken. Gezien de omvang en de kosten van het project, is dit ook na vijf maanden nog een “work in progress”, maar de belangrijkste voorbereidingen zijn getroffen en GBC Zuidas gaat zich verder sterk maken om de vergistingsinstallatie daadwerkelijk in Zuidas te krijgen.

Wat houdt de Green Business Challenge in?
De Green Business Challenge is een traject waarin young professionals de uitdaging aan gaan om zelf initiatieven te ontwikkelen die een concrete bijdrage leveren aan een duurzame Zuidas. In een klein team zetten zij een duurzaam project op poten. Leiderschap, creativiteit, zingeving en concreet resultaat, daar draait dit programma om! GBC Zuidas organiseert de Challenge jaarlijks en werkt hierin samen met Circle Economy en de trainers van Eyeopenerworks. Dit jaar deden professionals mee van de RAI Amsterdam, AkzoNobel, Loyens & Loeff, CBRE, gemeente Amsterdam, GreenOffice VU en Inbo architecten.

The first Circular Challenge on Valentine’s Day was marked by two Circular Commitments signed by AEB, Meerlanden, Exter and the Amsterdam Green Campus and completely sold out. The event was moderated by Jacqueline Cramer, former minister and ambassador of the circular economy. How to add value to waste? In a series of Circular Challenges organized by Amsterdam Economic Board frontrunners in the start-up scene, corporates and municipalities join forces to validate their business cases and work on upscaling and new business propositions. Next challenges are scheduled to take place on June 27 and November 28.

The first Circular Challenge on Valentine’s Day was marked by two Circular Commitments signed by AEB, Meerlanden, Exter and the Amsterdam Green Campus and completely sold out. The event was moderated by Jacqueline Cramer, former minister and ambassador of the circular economy. How to add value to waste? In a series of Circular Challenges organized by Amsterdam Economic Board frontrunners in the start-up scene, corporates and municipalities join forces to validate their business cases and work on upscaling and new business propositions. Next challenges are scheduled to take place on June 27 and November 28.

Biggest Circular Hub on Resources

Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has the ambition to be the most efficient Circular Hub of Europe by smart recycling of products and upcycling of resources.

Circular Commitments

The first Circular Commitment was signed by AEB and Meerlanden on regional sorting centres. Both companies agreed to further stimulate recycling of e-waste by setting up and/ or expanding their regional sorting centres. At the same time they commit to exploring new partnerships to further upgrade e-waste into valuable products.
Exter and the Amsterdam Green Campus signed a second Circular Commitment in which they confirmed their plans of processing agri-food streams into high quality resources to be used in products for human consumption. Their idea is innovative as they plan a cooperative with suppliers of these waste streams.

Challenges

The program further contained 10 pitches of WeCycle, Waternet, Meerlanden, AEB, e-waste Arcades, Rijkswaterstaat, Almere Upcycle City, Brightloops and Exter/ Amsterdam Green Campus. For more information on the challenges, please check out https://www.amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/nieuw-leven-afvalberg (Dutch only).

Here you can find more information on the kick start of the circular economy by the European Parliament.

Another fine example of a bit of common sense and minor behavioral change can have a huge impact.
The safety figures are based on US studies. With all the bikes in the Netherlands the percentage may not as low as shown but I believe that right turns for cars and vans are still safer than left turns.

Does anyone have figures / studies on right versus left turns in the Netherlands (or that part of Europe where they drive at the right (hand) side of the roads)?

Last month, the European Parliament Environment Committee decided for ambitious measures to boost recycling, cut landfilling and curb food waste, thus kick-starting the Circular Economy.
The share of waste to be recycled should be raised to 70% by 2030, from 44% today, while landfilling, which has a big environmental impact, should be limited to 5%, said Environment Committee MEPs on Tuesday, as they amended the draft EU “waste package” legislation. They also advocate a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030.
See for details the link below, for this information in Dutch read https://www.amsterdameconomicboard.com/nieuws/europarlement-stemt-kick-start-circulaire-economie and here (http://audiovisual.europarl.europa.eu/Assetdetail.aspx?id=16fea531-4575-4798-9b24-a5620125ee57) you can watch a short movie with the highlights of the debate.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=IM-PRESS&reference=20170123IPR59605&language=NL&format=XML

Apply now for the Dutch Smart Cities bootcamp organized by B. NY and the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York - May 1-6 2017 in NYC, USA!

Deadline extended until 28th February!

For more information, contact Yeni Joseph - yeni@b-buildingbusiness.com

More Info: http://b-buildingbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/B_NY_onepager.pdf

Nice explanation and examples. Although quite some attention for smart technologies instead of smart citizens!

At Edinburgh Napier University and Politecnico di Milano, we are trying to better understand how the development process of smart city strategies is structured and which guiding principles need to be considered. We are doing that by learning from European good practices, like Amsterdam.

Here is one of our outputs: the collaborative network that made it possible to develop the Amsterdam Smart City Strategy. This graph shows how the journey towards becoming a smart city is complex. A journey which is based on a strong leadership, political commitment, the balance between top-down and bottom-up approach and, above all, cross-sector collaboration!

The statistics describing the structure of the network is going to be published in the next months. Each dot represents an organisation collaborating in the development of the Amsterdam Smart City Strategy. Organisations are split in four groups: Businesses (blue); Universities and research institutes (green); governmental authorities (red); other (orange); undefined (black). Edges are used to link those organisations which have worked together. The bigger the diameter of the circle, the more the organisation is connected with other organisations of the system.

Stadium transitions to data driven operation: from preventive maintenance to data-driven maintenance

BAM Bouw en Techniek and Honeywell will become strategic innovation partners of the Amsterdam ArenA for all technology. Part of the agreement forms the installation of a new building management system for the management of the technical systems in the stadium. Assisted by sensors, the building management system collects data from the connected equipment, which is analysed by BAM and Honeywell. Based on data analysis, failures are detected early so that maintenance can be carried out before any inconvenience arises. The systems of BAM Bouw en Techniek and Honeywell make the Amsterdam ArenA a ‘flagship’ in the field of ‘data driven operation’, whereby preventive regular maintenance makes room for predictable, data-driven maintenance.

With the new system, BAM Bouw en Techniek, as the main contractor for all technology, will realise a cost reduction for the energy consumption, maintenance and facility management of the stadium. Honeywell will supply and install measuring and control equipment and sensors throughout the stadium, including the first phase of the new construction.

BAM Bouw en Techniek and Honeywell will act jointly as strategic partner to Amsterdam Innovation Arena for a period of ten years. BAM and Honeywell will commit to the AIA concept to apply new technological developments in the Amsterdam ArenA. They will actively participate in this innovation platform where, together with other partners, new technology, products and processes will be assessed and implemented on their practical feasibility.

Jaap Hazeleger, Director BAM Bouw en Techniek: ‘Based on the strategy formulated by BAM: ‘Building the present, creating the future’, we are investing in innovation and digitisation. BAM aims to fully design and build projects in virtual reality prior to physically realising them. Buildings and infrastructure are becoming increasingly more complex systems of sensors and technology, with the aim to make building structures more sustainable, more efficient and more comfortable. Digitisation will change the construction process dramatically. We will apply the latest technology, such as digital design, modular design and construction and predicting future maintenance with sensors and big data, to the Amsterdam ArenA.’

John Brussel, Managing Director of Honeywell B.V.: ‘The new building management system will also provide connectivity for data and the Internet of Things (IoT). All collected data will be linked through the web to the Outcome Based Services (OBS) platform of Honeywell. The Amsterdam ArenA will then have the most innovative platform available worldwide.’

Henk Markerink, Director Amsterdam ArenA: ‘The Amsterdam ArenA together with its partners aims to make the stadium and the stadium area increasingly smarter, so the operations can be more efficient and more effective. With BAM and Honeywell as strategic partners of the Amsterdam Innovation Arena we can add further strength to our innovation programme. The will assist us to achieve our goals, saving on maintenance and cost reduction in energy consumption. We are delighted that these two global players use the ArenA as real-time playground to implement innovations and to test them in a live environment.’

Collaboration BAM and Amsterdam ArenA
In the period 1993-1996 BAM built the ArenA in a joint venture with Ballast Nedam. BAM is also the Founder of the Amsterdam ArenA. BAM has extended the Founder Agreement with the Amsterdam ArenA until 2026.

Zoekt u een ruimte voor uw bedrijf, onderneming of culturele organisatie? De Stadsloods begeleidt u in uw zoektocht naar een geschikte werkruimte. Stadsloods helpt u met gemeentelijke regelgeving en met vragen over ruimte, huurprijzen, erfpacht, gemeentelijk vastgoed, bestemmingsplannen, beleid en vergunningen. Het motto is: voor elk bedrijf een goede plek!

Voorbeelden van initiatieven die in 2016 een locatie vonden met behulp van de Stadsloods zijn: Respijthuis Amsterdam, Impact Hub, Geef Café, De Appel, Rederij Kees, Stichting OOPOEH, Klederdrachtmuseum, Sungevity en Waarmakers.

22,5% méér vonden een plek
In 2016 begeleidde Stadsloods 559 partijen die ruimte zochten, waarvan bijna 400 nieuwe ruimtezoekers. Dat is 22,5% meer dan in 2015. Het gaat om grote en kleine bedrijven, om commerciële en niet-commerciële organisaties. Kantoren, bedrijven, culturele organisaties, sport, winkels, religie tot maatschappelijke instellingen: alle sectoren kunnen bij de Stadsloods terecht. In 2016 is met hulp van de Stadsloods circa 55.000 m2 leegstand gevuld, waarmee naar schatting 2500 arbeidsplaatsen zijn gemoeid.

Trends en ontwikkelingen
Door de druk op de woningmarkt verdwijnen kleinschalige bedrijfsruimten meer en meer uit de binnenstad. Maar de trend van flexkantoren zet in alle stadsdelen door, van het Centrum (bijvoorbeeld WeWork in de Weesperstraat) tot in Nieuw-West (bijvoorbeeld B. Amsterdam in de Johan Huizingalaan). Betaalbaar maatschappelijk vastgoed wordt steeds schaarser en duurder. Voor sociale ondernemingen wordt het steeds moeilijker een plek te vinden. Het fenomeen pop-up blijft populair, onder andere in winkelgebieden.

Meer lezen?
www.amsterdam.nl/stadsloods

The City of Amsterdam has won an award in the ‘Best Government Emerging Technologies’ category of the World Government Summit Awards in Dubai. The award went to the City of Amsterdam for its outstanding approach to innovation in general, and for the public-private Amsterdam Smart City programme, which forms a strong basis for the development of a smart city, in particular. The category recognises governments that are experimenting with emerging technologies to provide more efficient and effective services to their citizens and that have proven results in adding greater public value and transforming the lives of people.

The annual award is designed to motivate various consortia to promote creative smart initiatives and partnerships with the aim of providing innovative smart solutions to common global challenges. Amsterdam is currently at the forefront in this field. The City is running a lot of pilots and a long-term strategy is in place to continue developing its structures, with the aim of cementing Amsterdam’s pioneering status as a smart city.

At the closing ceremony of the World Government Summit 2017 on 14 February 2017, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and Emir of Dubai, presented 17 winners with awards. Nina Tellegen, Director of the Amsterdam Economic Board and responsible for the Amsterdam Smart City programme, accepted the award for Amsterdam.

Tellegen said: “This is an incredible compliment for the Amsterdam Smart City programme. Very often, Smart City programmes are initiated and run by city governments. In Amsterdam, we believe in a different approach. We organise smart, public-private collaboration between municipalities, knowledge institutions, corporates, startups and citizens. This leads to more creative, innovative and sustainable solutions. This is what works in Amsterdam and it’s what we need in this complex time.”

The EU FP7 GEYSER project has come to its successful conclusion. During the past three years, the GEYSER team was focused on delivering a technological and business proof-of-concept that supports Data Centres to interact with their smart city ecosystem.

Indeed, the concept of Smart Cities, the evolving role of DSOs, as well as the increasing possibilities for renewable energy sources, make GEYSER not just a data model for a DCIM, but an innovative tool to help data centres to re-think their strategies for energy sources, storage and heat re-use. Nevertheless, the developed solution targets not only Data Centre Managers and Operators but stakeholders at the interface of the involved systems such as Distribution System Operators (DSOs), Smart City Energy Managers, Energy Service Companies (ESCos) and so on.

A concrete summary of the validation and evaluation process, where collected results are analysed and presented in a uniform, consolidated way, can be found at http://www.geyser-project.eu/downloads/GEYSER.D7.6.RWTH.WP7.V1.0.pdf. This report delivers evidence on the achieved performance along with guidelines towards the development of a market-ready solution.

The results we have achieved are already used in the development of a Green Datacenter Campus around Amsterdam (http://www.greenitamsterdam.nl/projects/707-green-datacenter-hotspots) and will be taken into account for follow-up projects.
The data centre industry is uniquely positioned to actively participate within local Energy Hubs which will leverage on new combinations of innovations and technologies, from both within and outside the industry itself.

We strongly believe that the GEYSER Solution for Green Data Centres will be ready, exploitable and marketable in less than 5 years. Business drivers, such as cost reduction, revenue generation and CSR guidelines, are pointing towards that direction and the industry is already looking for new opportunities. GEYSER enables the successful integration of Data Centres operations to a Smart City vision where all involved stakeholders can benefit from the developed solution, tailored to their needs and wants, and achieve energy efficiency and costs savings.

Should you have any questions, remarks or comments whatsoever, do not hesitate to contact us!

Several elementary schools in Amsterdam compete to save the most fossil energy. A good start is to know how much energy your school is using today. Children, teachers and board work together to use less energy and to produce more renewable energy.

Would your school like to join in? Just fill in this form and get started! http://www.oranje-energie-challenge.nl/aanmelden/

In a sequence of returning events frontrunners show how they build circular initiatives and make them thrive. Collaborating partners celebrate 'live 'Circular Commitments'to realise partnerships. Closing off with innovators pitching their ideas on a circular city with questions for the audience.

On February 14th will be the first Circular Challenge out of a sequence on closing loops of 9 selected organic stream chains. The event is completely sold out! No worries, Amsterdam Smart City will be present at the event and will keep you posted about the program and highlights via Twitter and our newsfeed.

In a sequence of returning events frontrunners show how they build circular initiatives and make them thrive. Collaborating partners celebrate 'live 'Circular Commitments'to realise partnerships. Closing off with innovators pitching their ideas on a circular city with questions for the audience.

To close the loops of 9 selected organic stream chains and the recycling of products the Amsterdam Economic Board brings parties together for upscaling and creating business cases with enough volume and sales channels. By signing a Circular Commitment parties welcome initiatives to recycle products and bring organic streams back into the recycle circle in high quality as possible.

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is full of circular initiatives leading to circular activity and innovation. The Amsterdam Economic Board initiates these initiatives in collaboration with municipalities, knowledge institutions and corporates.

For more information please visit (Dutch only) Amsterdam Economic Board.

What a great event, great energy and great AND smart girls!
Thanks for organising this VHTO and Eurofiber. Proud to host this event together with the City of Amsterdam and Datalab Amsterdam.

Check out the cool movie and more information via https://www.smartcitygirls.nl/