The call for Let it Grow’s second Incubation Programme is now open and is accepting applications until 10 September 2017. Let it Grow believes in the value of plants and flowers to ensure happier and healthier city living. Let it Grow’s Incubation Programme is a five-month programme based in Amsterdam and is designed to accelerate entrepreneurial teams that work with flowers and plants in new ways. Successful applicants will receive €10,000 (no equity will be asked in return), a dedicated mentor, workshops/trainings and access to their extensive network of professionals. The first programme had a Net Promoter Score of +90. Apply now at letitgrow.org/apply
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Tim van de Laar,
Project management, Scale Up, Innovation Partnerships, Sport
at City of Amsterdam: Ingenieursbureau Amsterdam,
posted
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.
Zéger Nieuweboer,
Founder / Teacher
at Learning is growing.nl,
posted
The Amsterdam Hunger Game
Learn with the case study Amsterdam to anticipate future food disruptions. Understand the city's food supply chain vulnerabilities is critical for enhancing food resilience. Enhance food resilience in empowerment of people in urban food growing.
Jorgen Karskens,
Project manager Civic Interaction Design
at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences,
posted
Sousveillance: Civic Surveillance of Surveillance Cameras
How can citizens reclaim transparency in a world increasingly shaped by networked safety and enforcement cameras? Join our ThingsCon workshop to explore the power of sousveillance—using the tools of surveillance to scrutinize the systems that watch us.
Networked safety and enforcement cameras increasingly shape urban life, yet their presence and function often remain opaque. This workshop explores how citizens can turn the tools of surveillance back onto the systems that watch them: Redirecting object recognition to identify street camera's for civic scrutiny. Building on several camera spotting tours supported with various versions of a “mobile transparency app”, we introduce a new prototype that uses object recognition to detect street cameras and log them through a civic annotation workflow.
The workshop is for anyone interested in civic tech, democratic oversight, and human-scale alternatives to opaque “smart city” systems. Together, we explore how civic sousveillance might evolve into a deeper practice of scrutinizing—and reshaping—the technologies embedded in our streets.
More info and tickets: https://thingscon.org/events/things-2025
More info on the Human Values for Smarter Cities research project we are conducting: https://humanvaluesforsmartercities.nl/
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your interest in Let it Grow and our Incubation Programme! Our programme is definitely open to those who are using plants as part of their product offering. The most important thing we look at is how plants and/or flowers are integrated in that product offering and if we see this as adding value to urban areas. We look for innovation in the way green is integrated and applied.
Your company does use an interesting technique, and you are spot on when it comes to the amount of waste that is generated with billboards and signage.
I would recommend you to get in touch with the lead of the Incubation Programme. She's back from her holiday next week (June 14). She'll be catching up on a lot of work, but please do email her at irene[at]letitgrow.org. You might be able to connect with her about the options for you to apply to our programme.
I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, please do let me know. Here to answer any I can!
Best,
Shari (Community Builder Let it Grow)
Hi Shari,
What a great initiative! Quick question. Is this program open to start-ups that would like to use plants as part of their product offering? I work with Amsterdam to produce their urban communication using what is known as Natural-Media or green graffiti.
For years, I have been looking at developing living billboards and signage. Outdoor advertising in Amsterdam alone is responsible for producing 7000 to 9000 tons of greenhouse gases each year. In the EU each year the outdoor advertising industry consumes as much paper as a one meter wide piece of paper that wraps our planet 3.9 times. Average life cycle is 12 days and most of it is burned or down cycled. Using plants to create patterns has been done for centuries but rarely has this been used as a communication medium though plants are perfect for this.
However, this is just one technique of a portfolio of techniques that I use. You can check out my business at www.naturalmediaexperts.com
I am not sure I fit the bill but I certainly find this a valuable way to help develop the technique of using plants as a communication medium.
Thoughts?
Jim