Green and Connected Cities - English Reportage

ICT and Energy Efficiency in Buildings - Useful Links

2009-12-15T03:08:00.000-08:00

There were a wide range of speakers at this session...

Where possible links to their projects are included below....

GAIA, e-Diana project (Spain)
HOSPILOT project (Netherlands)
LOGICA internet monitoring for the home (France)
BeyWatch project (Spain)
HomeSystems (Spain)
DEHEMS project (UK)
REEB project, CSTB (France)

Day 2: ICT and Energy Efficiency in Buildings

2009-12-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

This 2 hour workshop has a wide range of case studies from around Europe about energy efficiency in buildings.

Firstly Begonia Benito Barajas, talking about GAIA, an e-Diana project based in Spain. There are around 25 delegates at the Symposia plus another 10 who are contributors.

Now Alvaro Ros is talking about the HomeSystems project ihe is working on www.ecobox.es

This is smart management of your home energy - and probably has quite a bit of relevance for the DEHEMS project. This is a user side system for home consumption.

The key questions for this session are _:

- which ICT -based solutions in buildings?
- how can such solutions contribute to tackle energy consumptin and/or make it more efficient?
- How diversity in building it taken in account in the deployment of technical solutions?
- How are these new tools considered by users?

Alvaro Ros is talking about the "user issues" for reducing energy use - the Ecobox can monitor tariffs, schedule programming etc., provide information to the user via the internet etc.

My power will go shortly and I've to give my own presentation but other projects being discussed will include HOSPILOT, (Netherlands) Logica's smart metering work (France), the REEB project from CSTB in France, the Beywatch project from Spain, and Green Data Centers from DSIO de Bouygues Immobilier (France.) There will also be a video presentation from Kan Energy in Norway.

As we hear about the HOSPILOT project within the Netherlands, we've now got about 40 people in the rom in total, all of whom have a keen interest in the area of ICT and energy efficiency in buildings.

I very much like the website of the BeyWatch project - led by Spain but oddly enough has a pilot in the UK, in Loughborough. (Not that odd, but its strange when you hear of a project being the other way round with knowledge transfer from outside of the UK to a small town here!)

Responses to New Economic Models Workshop

2009-12-10T08:23:00.001-08:00

Strasbourg has first co-working space of La Cantine style.

In Strasbourg it costs more for transport (e.g. for a family) than for parking etc. Maybe in the new economic models we need to envisage new economic models to motivate citizens to turn to sustainable transport modes.

A question from the audience about "new currencies" / bartering possibilities. Asking about legal constraints. (e.g doesn't evade taxation.) Someone's mentioned there might be taxes on bandwidth in the future - just as there were windows taxes in the past! It actually happens this way in the UK already as it affects your business rates, which is what companies pay for their buildings.

Realise that so many business models are based upon current regulation and local/regional/national particularities, yet as we know from the climate change issues, having some consensus on this is vital. The Economist magazine's editorial talks about a harmonised European-wide carbon charge as key to the market then making the decisions based upon a level playing field.

Its interesting hearing about "alternative" or "local" currencies - there's an opportunity cost around all sorts of financial decisions. The current car scrappage schemes for instance aren't of any financial benefit to people such as myself who haven't got a car - so what is the personal economic benefit? What is the societal economic benefit? And what is the global economic benefit?

Coming to the end of the day. I'm actually doing a presentation tomorrow so won't be blogging then. But its been a thought provoking day and I'm sure we'll have an interesting networking session afterwards.

Workshop 4: New Economic Models in Green and Connected Cities

2009-12-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

Key questions for this session...

- what are the successful experiments?
- can we change scale?
- can extra currencies emerge?
- what about micropayment?
- what about social and solidarity economy?

We will only have an hour and half for this session but its a potentially very fascinating session. Can things like 3D printers allow for new local economic models?

Its a session which wants to look at innovation and the models that can be behind them.

Pierre Saulay from :l'Echangeur speaking. Although he says that social innovation is really key, there's no denying that we are immersed in technology - as power at fingertips keeps growing, and the whole move to more "networked" society, the internet of "things", and the need for open standards are all key.

Had a chat in the break - French economic/tax models are changing, and currently a big debate in France in terms of what public sector can do in terms of supporting business. Sounds like they may be moving to something more similar to the UK model - though I'm not really able to get into a business tax discussion at this time in the afternoon!

Saulay is giving an overview of current trends - and makes the good point that innovation needs to integrated within the industries that need to develop e.g. transport and buildings. Makes you wonder why we ever got rid of the TECs in the UK!

He's talking about a range of innovative model case studies. For instance, a Finnish project around "many sensors" to aggregate data. This is interesting - has implications for the DEHEMS living lab and even for the FutureEverything idea around Manchester becoming an Opendata city.

Example given of http://www.covoiturage.fr/ car sharing scheme. Advanced and innovative model - where the project is free, but there are values given to things on the scheme (I think.)

Greennext - eco consumption project ... Slides will be available for the conference at the Green and Connected Cities Cluster site.

Now Patrick Anghert from Cisco is talking gain, but this time its about the U-City, "creating a city from scratch" - using the network/ICT to develop the new city models. Move from data/voice to enabling interoperability. Cisco is going to some cities around the world that are "geared for the future" - in other words the fast connectivity is vital to make this work. It's what we want to do in Manchester. He makes the point that Cisco's role is to work with government and others to make the backbone of the internet.

Now its time for Nicolas Foissard, of SOS group "social solidarity group". "Solidarity based structures" - SOS group has 3000 employees - similar to 3rd sector/social enterprise/co-operatives in the UK. The "social" and "human" aspects are both vital for solidarity based movements. Society is the body, people are the "cells". They work with traditionally unemployable people, insure traditionally uninsurable people, work with fair trade etc.

Its interesting to see how transferable such models might be between countries - as there are so many differences in local funding/markets etc. The current financial crisis means that its vital to look at connecting up "social innovation" and "technological innovation" e.g. social forms of currency (such as Local Exchange Trading Systems perhaps? LETS). Its about supporting the most vulnerable in society.

Presentation about what Strasbourg, Alsace region are doing in terms of ICT and digital inclusion. In a relatively good position as got good high speed connectivity across the region. A mixture of e-government, digital innovation and carbon reduction projects. Has a portal e-alsace.

I'll finish this post new - and come back in a few minutes as people join in questions and comments.

Living Labs

2009-12-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

Raymond Morel, Les Living Labs, speaking about the idea of a "Living Laboratory" - and how this concept can be so useful for innovation. Tomorrow, when I'm talking about Dehems project its also a "living lab." He's talking about a Rubik cube as a visualisation tool and about the Living Lab as an important actor in e-inclusion. Enabling users to better interact with projects/organisations etc.

Workshop 1: New Locations and Infrastructures for Connected Activities

2009-12-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

This first workshop asks the questions...

- what infrastructures are needed? are they already set up?
- how can these places be set up on a large scale?
- what are lessons learnt from existing teleworking/co-working centres?
- which innovative approaches?
- which economic models?

I'm interested in this session because in Manchester we've recently seen some dynamic user-led initiatives such as Fly the Coop for coworking which is now moving into MadLabUK, a shared space for digital innovation and creativity.

First 2 speakers were talking about some interesting models that were already out there - now we've got Patrick Anghert from Cisco saying that yes, the technology is there, and actually countries like France are behind places like South America. Its interesting that the whole "teleworking" thing always seems to be seen as a hi-tech thing (e.g. with video conferencing etc.) when in many ways freelancers etc. often need smaller, everyday support. In Amsterdam the Mysmartworkspace project allows you to reserve space in the smart work centres - and also allows you to have drycleaning and childcare etc. on the site.

W-Network of smart work centres in the Netherlands now has 20 sites - they rolled it out throughout the country. In Seoul they have 500 smart work centres. Wonder if this is any different at the end of the day than serviced offices? I can't imagine Cisco come cheap...? See if this question gets asked later.

Telepresence centres in the US cost $150-$300 an hour to hire. Always wonder at what level this becomes unsustainable.

We now have Serge Le Roux from French Teleworking Association. He says there are real challenges around teleworking. True teleworkers often "don't have a choice, and are obliged to work from home." If you want to cut down carbon from people's travel to work, then teleworking, either part time, full time, or having local/suburban teleworking centres, it can actually make a big difference.

Now this is more interesting, we've got Marie-Vorgan Le Barzic, director of La Cantine in Paris. Its all about "people" working together, enthused, collaborative people. Great picture on the screen of 52 people all using La Cantine at one particular time.

Interesting point from the floor about this being a particular French model - 30% public funding - and an "assumption" that it will be available. In Germany the model would be more likely to be more private sector. (In the UK it could well be either, it would be wrong to generalise.) Good point that its important that when a building is established that at the earliest point there's some real clarity about "what it is" and "who will use it." La Cantine is very much a "special case" and is seen as such in France. Investment was risky but the public element was relatively small. Now its got a reputation and anyone visiting Paris who knows about La Cantine will be likely to visit it (rather than Starbucks.) I think this is the way things are going in Manchester - where there's a genuine network of independent knowledge workers who value coworking, cooperation, real time collaboration. It would be great to see some exchange go on between La Cantine and Manchester's Madlab and Social Media Cafe!

I see that people here are very interested in the economic models, which is definitely a sea-change. Nobody's particularly talking about the environmental efficiency of teleworking/co-working but think this is an inbuilt assumption. It's interesting that La Cantine's uniqueness is what makes it successful - "its not very replicable" says someone from the floor.

More good points... the "driver" for talking about teleworking is to save people from having long commutes to work - so everyone agrees its a good idea, but its not always possible that companies will go along with this - particularly with the current economic crises. Interoperability is an issue. "Companies are not saying no, but they're not saying yes - and local authorities are not going ahead with their main investments."

In Spain the main issue is about public sector productivity - as the local government is the biggest employer, identifying productivity is hard at the office, so harder elsewhere!

Because business models are currently changing there is a real question about knowing what will work and for whom around private-public partnerships. Perhaps its a case of "let many flowers bloom" and then support to the hilt the ones that do. (In the UK context I get the sense that initiatives have to be hyper-local, as it is local need - i.e. proximity to the building - that will make people use it.)

Interesting perspective from Morocco - "the multi purpose building" is key to successful community spaces. It sounds like we're having to "reinvent" what we used to have, "the community centre" - but with perhaps added value.

A very interesting point from the floor.... that we don't really know what we are spending our (taxes) money on or what their costs are. ICTs can or should help us save money so that we can reinvent the models. A move away from "productivity" (which can be reductionist) to "creativity" and "culture" in a knowledge based economy. We need to be "entrepreneurs of skills."

Brilliant phrase..."we need to reinvent the middle ages, we're about coming to the end of the industrial age!" Perhaps the guild might make a comeback? Culture and artists are good examples of how we share our work spaces (there's some laughter at that!)

In Lyon, 3 companies have moved to a more immaterial form, and their workers work harder and longer as a result. Productivity might be a particular issue for public sector "value" - that's a whole different discussion.

I think on that point, I'll probably wrap up the blog for this session - it's almost impossible to pull together the many different aspects of the session when its such a diverse group. Some fascinating examples, and some fascinating thoughts on the important questions. What strikes me as different from a UK based conference is that here there's a real interest in challenging the questions themselves. In the UK the question is often set - either by the public sector, or by the theme - and then sits there unchallenged. Here there's a real willingness to question preconceptions.

The next workshop "Economic Models in green and connected cities" should follow on neatly from this.

The late morning session

2009-12-10T03:09:00.000-08:00

The second session has the following speakers

Prof Richard Collin, Grenoble School of Management, codirector of Green and Connected Cities cluster
Gilles Pennequin, Meditteranean Union
Francisco Salas, new tech advisor, Malaga

The Tunisian representative, Lamia Chaffai had to cancel, and a lady from Morocco (I didn't catch her name unfortunately) speaking about the Moroccan experience.

Its quite wide ranging - not for the first time I see that one key thing about these ICT events is where it does raise the issue of ICT in terms of sustainable development, city governance etc. as so often because its seen as a specialism on the one hand, and ubiquitous on the other hand, ICT doesn't get mentioned except at a supplier level. Its often easier I guess for a city or government authority to just bring in the CISCOs or IBMs or CAP Gemini etc. but it seems that this seems contradictory in terms of the "new technologies" coming out - as much of the local digital economy will be outside of these corporate models, as well as innovation.

We're now getting a case study from Francisco Sala in Malaga - again, I get the sense that other parts of Europe are less "silo" based than we sometimes are in the UK - e-Government and environmental sustainability - Malaga are involved with Covenant of Mayors and with the Eurocities network same as Manchester. Malaga just received the Eurocities innovation prize for a solar energy information collection project - tool available from their website. They seem to be integrating their ICT/e-govt and energy efficiency projects/energy planning. Might be a useful case study to look at in the context of the PEPESEC project that MDDA are also involved in. (http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/31443)

Prof. Richard Collin from Grenoble School of Management now talking. He's looking at mapping various actvities - sees a need for new systems for linking together sustainable development with ICT - one of the key reasons for these events/networks to take place.

Alexandra Debasieux introducing the European thematic network ICT for Energy Efficiency, that I am here on behalf of Manchester, one of its 16 members.

Our Friends in Copenhagen

2009-12-10T03:03:00.000-08:00

We've a video conference from speakers in Copenhagen attending the UN Climate Change Conference.

Andree Buchman, VC Strasbourg Urban Community
Ronan Dantzec, VC Nantes Metropole, co-chair climate group of Eurocities
Dominique Gauzin-Mueller, architect, chief editor of Ecologik
Ronan Uhel, European Environment Agency

Quite a lot of scene setting in this first session. Think there are around 80-100 delegates here in Strasbourg. The morning session is shared, and then this afternoon and tomorrow morning there are 3 parallel workshops. I'll be attending the ones on New Locations and infrastructures for connected activities and New Economic Models in Green and connected cities.

The whole conference is looking at how ICT can help assist in key ways to achieve better systems for reducing carbon, and for informing and educating, and involving people in a more participatory way.

Conversation between speaker in Copenhagen and Strasbourg:

There's also an extra-European dimension to all of this - with some delegates from north Africa joinning us.
With 80% of people in Europe living in cities - we shouldn't generalise - its an "overall" figure. Across Europe there's different distribution of peoples and economic activity - as well as territory. EU policy has to look, post-Lisbon in terms of what it means about "territorial cohesion." All the knowledge and skills need to work together to create social cohesion.

Q from Strasbourg: is IT being discussed in Copenhagen.

"Nobody mentions it, but everyone uses it!" - Energy consumption related to IT is "extremely high" and people like CISCO are looking at this issue. (Wondering if this is the Elephant in the room?)

IT makes things more efficient in some ways - but also causes an expectation that we work 24/7 - a need to look at the culture of ICT use. It gives us a real opportunity to "share" - e.g. including the rural and southern European countries.

Wonders whether IT creates more mobility rather than less - because we want to see the "real people" sitting behind the computers - it creates more connections...

What we are really talking about is "kindness and generosity" - e.g. in particular with regards to the countries in the south. Working as a network is very generous (Knowledge sharing means you are "sharing your power").

Copenhagen speaker says: we need to have the left brain work (rational side) but the right side of the brain needs to also be there, (empathy).

Gilles Berhault summing up from the conversation from Copenhagen. Any questions from the audience? A comment on behalf of the Moroccan delegation... thanking the Copenhagen speakers for setting the scene. "The future holds great hope - the real question, particularly in the south is how do we switch to this online approach?" Every Moroccan, whether rural or urban has a mobile phone - it has had a major effect in making information available. IT is a "given" - and the EU has talked about a political commitment. The real question is how does networking lead to real technology transfer? Not just "foreign experts coming to see us". (Moroccan delegate is an architect and director of planning in their government.)

Another comment: "There's a lot of misinformation on the network - what can you suggest to sort real information from disinformation?"

Answer to Moroccan colleague from Copenhagen. To the south of the Med, urbanisation has happened almost "overnight" - population, social, employment and urban issues all together. Networking isn't the issue so much as a vision for the future - a political and social vision, including "development and catching up". Knowledge and skills need to be shared to create "a shared understanding of the future" to avoid the negative fallout - e.g. inefficient transport systems.

A new social/economic structure required... in Europe we have had difficulties and have been overcoming them... development models are important. Specific cultural traits need to be factored in. A session at Copenhagen yesterday from French speaking Africa - transferring technology will help us all go in the same direction and "very positive."

Sense that "shared vision" is vital... and its not just a one-way of sharing, but ideas are often stronger and more innovative coming from countries with lower levels of resources. Something to be learnt from the Copenhagen negotiations. "Every country in the future should have the same access to resources/tools."

Its fascinating being here from a UK perspective and hearing that the idea of "shared vision" and "networking" seems to be a conversation that has already been had and agreed - cooperation - whereas I sometimes get the feeling in the UK that there's a frustrating non-understanding between different sectors/different regions/different political viewpoints - even between different public sector agencies. Maybe this is the key message from being involved over a longer period of time with European projects and institutions: collaborative not competitive.

Welcome to Green and Connected Cities - Strasbourg

2009-12-10T01:47:00.000-08:00

I'm at the Green and Connected Cities conference in Strasbourg at the European Parliament and I'm going to be blogging about it here over the next couple of days as well as using Twitter (hashtag: #gacc2009).

The initial session is going to be a conversation between Copenhagen and Strasbourg.

Ronan Dantzic co-chair of climate group of Eurocities is speaking from Copenhagen.

Key Links: Green and Connected Cities Website

Twitter hashtag: #gacc2009