mySMARTLife – A week of activities in Helsinki
From 17th to 20th September, the mySMARTLife consortium met in Helsinki for an intense working week starting with their periodic meeting and review meeting. A study tour to Helsinki’s Regional Environmental Services Authority (HSY) demonstrated to the mySMARTLife consortium how a sustainable progressive city like Helsinki with a stringent carbon neutral target (2035) deals with waste & recycling collection, waste water treatment as well as air quality monitoring.
How many activities can you pack in a week? If you are part of the mySMARTLife team, the answer is a lot: a periodic meeting, a review meeting, an exploitation workshop, a study visit, a study tour and a press conference.
From 17th to 20th September, the mySMARTLife consortium met in Helsinki for an intense working week starting with their periodic meeting and review meeting. Here, the focus was on the latest achievements of the project and the reporting of its past 12 months.
From the evolution of the urban transformation strategy, to the actions in the Lighthouse Cities Nantes, Hamburg and Helsinki and the Follower Cities Rijeka, Bydgoszcz and Palencia, to the progress of the replication strategy and the supporting communication and exploitation work – mySMARTLife, now in its third year, makes good progress in all fields.
“It is impressive how the consortium tackles energy, ICT, retrofit, mobility as well as non-technical actions from all sectors to make it a well-established smart city project with innovations in all the above mentioned fields”, stated Rubén García Pajares, project coordinator of mySMARTLife.
A study tour to Helsinki’s Regional Environmental Services Authority (HSY) demonstrated to the mySMARTLife consortium how a sustainable progressive city like Helsinki with a stringent carbon neutral target (2035) deals with waste & recycling collection, waste water treatment as well as air quality monitoring. HSY with its 764 employees collects waste & recycling from 1.1 M residents and has a target to have 60% municipal waste recycled by 2025. Today the organisation is 99% energy self-sufficient and has the motto “Together we will create the world’s most sustainable urban region.”
The following day, the mySMARTLife team presented their results during a press conference, followed by a study visit addressing non-technical topics. This was part of the coaching and mentoring activities that aim at easing access to cities cooperation in common matters linked to sustainable development. In connection with this coaching and mentoring activity, three study visits have already been organised in Nantes, Rijeka and Bydgoszcz.
“It is great that we can use the opportunity of having so many representatives from different organisations here in Helsinki and can present innovative technical solutions such as ‘The Great Debate on energy transition: The case of Nantes’, the concept of ‘Agile Piloting: A case in Kalasatama’ and ‘Participatory processes in Urban Planning: A case in Hamburg’, to name of few”, Maria Viitanen,
mySMARTLife Helsinki Lighthouse Lead, explained.
The 6th periodic and second review meeting of mySMARTLife was rounded up by a visit to Kalasatama, one of the three demo sites in Helsinki. Kalasatama is a new construction residential area in Helsinki (67 buildings and nearly 4 500 flats, where currently 3 000 inhabitants live; in 2040, there will be 25 000 inhabitants and 10 000 workplaces). The Kalasatama development stipulates required integrated smart technologies for all the buildings; therefore, Smart Home solutions, including smart meters, are installed in all flats.
mySMARTLife project actions targeted in this area mostly cover information collection and the co-creative development of the smart energy district in close collaboration with the Smart Kalasatama project. Integration of renewable energy systems and waste heat in the buildings as well as demand response actions are some of the features implemented and analysed in Kalasatama. The coal power plant in the area will be phased out by the end of 2024 and its replacement through innovative sustainable energy systems is a challenge adopted by mySMARTLife.
The mySMARTLife project aims, as one main pillar, at reducing the CO2 emissions of cities, increasing the use of renewable energy sources and making the demonstration cities more environmentally friendly. The project´s objectives go far beyond the environmental dimension. “Inclusive cities” is the keyword. Inclusive cities offer a high quality of life, where citizens play a vital role in the development of the city. The project develops the concept of “smart people”. At the same time, the mySMARTLife partners focus on the “smart economy” approach – they want to realise an innovative and dynamic economic concept that guarantees employment and adequate income, attracts talents and provides goods and services according to the actual requirements.
In addition to these non-technological actions, the activities planned and carried out in the three demonstrator cities include new technological developments in connection with refurbishments of buildings, usage of renewable energies, clean transport and supporting ICT solutions.
mySMARTLife is a project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Under the coordination of CARTIF Technology Centre, 27 partners from 6 countries are collaborating to make sustainable cities with smart people and a smart economy a reality. Activities will take place in the three Lighthouse Cities Nantes, Hamburg and Helsinki. Three Follower Cities – Bydgoszcz (Poland), Rijeka (Croatia) and Palencia (Spain) – will directly learn from the Lighthouse Cities’ experiences. The project was officially launched on 14th December 2016 in Nantes.
About mySMARTLife
Grant agreement number: 731297
Duration: 60 months (December 2016 – November 2021)
Coordinator: CARTIF Technology Centre
Consortium: 27 partners from 6 countries (France, Germany, Finland, Poland, Croatia, Spain)
mySMARTLife receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme.
Contact:
CARTIF Technology Centre
Rubén García Pajares (Project Coordinator)
E-mail: rubgar@cartif.es
Phone: +34 983 546 504 (Ext. 215)
Press contact:
Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum
Gabi Kaiser (Dissemination & Communication)
E-mail: kaiser@steinbeis-europa.de
Phone: +49 711 123 4033
Weitere Informationen:
http://www.mysmartlife.eu - Further information on mySMARTLife Website:
http://@mySMARTLife_eu - Twitter
http://LinkedIn: mySMARTLife Project