Mood Board

Using our ideas from the brainstorm session we were felt inspired to create the mood board. In that way we can communicate our ideas easier without expanding in a long texts. It can be seen at the following link: Mood Board
If you hover over the pictures with your mouse small explanations can be seen.

A19: Innovating searching

To gather new ideas we did a normal brainstorming session at the beginning of our group meeting. At this session we asked a specific question (“How to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in traffic for Alcoi?”), so the aim was clear and simple since we already know the topic very well. Everybody thought freely about solutions that Alcoi could benefit from. As a next step we cleared the table and everybody proposed their ideas, similar ideas were clustered. Afterwards, when everybody had a good overview, we started a second phase of brainstorming.

As the next method we used “8x8”, because we thought with the eight different categories we are close to our project since we have a lot of different stakeholders or areas that need to be considered. We sorted the ideas we had before into the different categories, some adjustments were to be made to fit the ideas more to their topic. To complete the second phase we made another brainstorming session, but in a group instead of individually like before. Doing that we had at least eight ideas per category. Having a free table with all the ideas on, helps brainstorming a lot because everybody can walk around the table to get a good overview about all the different suggestions.

After taking a break we started our last approach with a fresh mind. Our last approach was much more focused on feasibility. We looked at the ideas already created and tried to combine them in a way that would make a feasible, logical and more developed idea. With the last ideas we created we can work further on and develop them deeper.

Updated idea tree

To update our idea tree we wanted to visualize it differently. We went away from the actual tree and created a classical mind map. We put in some more ideas that we got after insights from the interview with Javier and the articles we read for the assignment 16. Furthermore, we were able to connect some ideas in order to show how  different stakeholders and ideas can co-function.

A17 Mind Map

Please click on the image to enlarge it.

In the mind map there are a lot of information from our articles included, these are there to have a similar depth than the text we wrote. Some of our new ideas are connecting with further content that is why we included so many branches.

The most important branches are the ‘red / pink’ one (Action Plan for Companies / Institutions / Universities) and the ‘violet / pink’ one (Reducing traffic congestions).

The idea of the first one is that we create an (individual) action plan for companies that helps them encourage their employees to switch to a more sustainable commute. This does not only help the organizations with their image but also in further ways that can be seen in the mind map. We learned some measures on how to achieve this in the articles we researched and added further ones.

 

The branch about congestions was a big topic of multiple articles we read as well. It shows learnings and ideas on how to let the traffic flow more freely to reduce emissions and also on how to reduce traffic or prefer more sustainable options, like buses and bikes. Most relevant points here were: Firstly, that emissions are actually lower and more efficient when the speed is around 50 km/h or more and secondly, reducing traffic by promoting alternatives.

Assignment 16: Researching the assignment

One of the articles we found, talks only very briefly about our project assignment. It is an interview of the British physicist Laurie Winkless and her findings for her Book ‘Science and the City’. She researched various topics which define the design of a city. Traffic being one of them, she discovered that scientists look at it like tiny particles moving around under differently defined rules. They are doing this to understand what it takes to reach a state of free flow traffic in the city. Free flow traffic means a system of traffic lights, where most of the participants, preferably everyone, has green lights for most or all of the time of his or her travels. This would make traffic much cleaner, since no energy is wasted in the many accelerations and brakes at intersections. Unfortunately this theory is so mathematically complex that it can not be implemented.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/maxvorstadt-stadt-plant-gruene-welle-fuer-radfahrer-1.295518

As the chart below from accessmagazine.org shows, there is a big drop of fuel consumption over speed. Most of the measuring points are in the area between 60 and 80 miles per hour [mph] (96 -130 km/h). The drop starts at 20 mph (32 km/h), meaning that the fuel consumption is higher due to a less efficient burning process, which shows that a lot of speed 30 zones might be counter productive. This, obviously, means that free flow traffic should be promoted and congestions avoided. For our project this means it could be helpful for example to close a certain street for cars and completely open it to pedestrians and additionally improve the traffic flow on another side.

http://www.accessmagazine.org/articles/fall-2009/traffic-congestion-greenhouse-gases/

What can be interesting from this topic for us is: using the idea of free flow traffic at least for some parts of traffic participants. This can bring us into a dilemma since there are two different options on how to handle it. On the one hand it seems obvious to favour sustainable ways of travelling, like bikes, walking or busses, to promote their usage, on the other hand more emissions can be saved, at least in the short term, if the fossil fueled cars would take advantage of ‘more free flow’. The last options seems very counterintuitive though. A nice possibility for us could it be to let bikes get a quicker green light with contact loops in the ground which recognize their arrival at the intersection. The same would work for bus lanes, it is a very complicated system to implement, but it works efficiently and is very convenient and appreciated if people realize it actually works in their favour. In Utrecht this works extremely well.

The second paper we found is issued by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals and includes three chapters of sustainable transition in the transportation sector, which accounts to a worldwide average of 15% of greenhouse gases. In the beginning it shows the three different stages that a person usually goes through when changing from a car based travelling to a more sustainable way. The first stage is using public transportation sometimes for certain trips. The second one is searching for faster alternatives like getting to the train by bike instead of waiting for the bus. As soon as they reached this point, people will use their bike more often to get their groceries or go to the doctor. We could benefit from these stages to understand better how to change behaviours.

The first chapter mentions certain ways of what to consider when creating a car sharing service and showing the advantages of this service. The text advises mainly companies and institutions on how they could use car sharing as a way for their workers to stay mobile for the company and also privately. The most important aspects mentioned were that the existence of the car sharing system has to be public and that there are more convenient parking spots for the users than from individual drivers. 40% of the customers of the US-based company zipcar seem to give up one of their cars in the household or decided not to buy a new one.

 

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/amywestervelt/files/2011/08/Blue_bstation.jpg

‘Facilitate vehicle sharing’ is the topic of the second chapter. It gives suggestions that are intuitive but nice to see that they are based on research. Again there are suggestions mainly for companies and municipalities like incentives (e.g. subsidized bus passes & carpool parking places) and disincentives (e.g. parking fees & reducing parking spaces). Since biking is still the most sustainable way of quick transport it should be as encouraged as public transportation. Furthermore, the text proposed another interesting concept, in which employees could earn two hours of free time per month if they come to work in a sustainable way. The testing phase of this project based in the state of Washington / USA showed that the productivity is not going down, proving the efficiency of this project. This is a very good and new concept for us to think about, it could get a lot attention and awareness to our ultimate target.

http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3877918/bouw-grootste-fietsenstalling-wereld-van-start-in-utrecht.html

The last transportation chapter is about ‘Encouraging alternative transportations’. Important thoughts about biking is making it safe while riding (e.g. put bike lanes between sidewalks and parked cars & having one continuous bike lane without interruptions) and the convenience after the trips (e.g. bike racks and lockers). One innovative idea, we already learned about in Utrecht, are facilities with showers for people who bike to their job. The municipality in Utrecht has those in their office which makes bike rides much more convenient, because nobody wants to be sweaty the entire day. This can be easily combined with a sustainability makeover for companies together with the two hour work reduction.

The last article we would like to talk about a study which researched the question ‘What does a one-month free bus ticket do to habitual drivers?’. The study was done with students as the target group. 43 students had to answer a questionnaire in the beginning and the end of the study with the aim to investigate if a temporal structural change would change the behavior in a long term. Attitudes toward, habits of, and frequency of using automobile and bus were measured. The tested group was divided into two groups, one got a free bus pass for a month and the other did not as a control group. The result, being that the frequency of bus use increased, shows that many people are just too lazy to try the supposedly less convenient option of public transport. They must have realized that it either is not that inconvenient or simply much cheaper, or both. The results suggest that a temporary structural change, such as offering auto drivers a temporary free bus ticket, may be an important travel demand management tool for converting automotive travel demand to public-transport travel demand. This gives hope that we, as a group, could come up with a similar action for Alcoi and maybe find a local sponsor for free tickets for students or young adults.

Sources:

https://www.inverse.com/article/25128-laurie-winkless-science-of-cities-urban-planning

http://www.accessmagazine.org/articles/fall-2009/traffic-congestion-greenhouse-gases/

https://www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org/files/Cool%20Trends.pdf

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021234607980

(The paper from the last website is unfortunately only accessible as a student or teacher from the HAW Hamburg via the network from the university, there is a abstract available at the link above.)

Assignment 11: Analysing the information (Interview summary)

Since the course started, we had two interviews and a brief get-together with our Spanish client. The first interview, was at the end of September via Skype with the client. In mid-October, we had a brief meeting with the Spanish delegation at the University updating them on the current status. Just recently, at the end of November, we had an interview with Javier Orozco, lecturer at the UPV at our University Campus to prepare for the following two weeks, in which we will work on different tasks for the project. As our assignment demanded the last interview was recorded and provided on Moodle and the blog.

The first interview was very interesting for us, since we got first real information about our project and especially the place of our operation, Alcoy. For this interview, we prepared a few questions about the project. What has been done already? We found out that there are already some technical solutions, but a consistent strategy is needed. Our focus should be on finding social solutions, rather than technical ones. “Be creative!” was the request.

Further restrictions and a concrete budget were not available at that moment. Obviously, it should be something feasible and if possible including business partners for funding.

Overall, we got a first good impression of the current situation and what will be expected of us.

While working on the assignments, more questions came up. We wanted to address them face to face and took the chance while Javier was visiting Utrecht for his lecture on Life Cycle Analysis.

Firstly, we wanted to know Javier’s opinion about where he sees the highest potential in CO₂ reduction. He told us that he thinks that the highest potential is in changing the habits of the people. We could achieve that by making better behaviour more attractive for example. In the current situation, the people in Spain are using the cars for everything, also for short distances. Alcoy is an old city with small streets and an unsatisfying public transport system. So, there is potential in improving the public transport, for example by making it more economic and increasing its frequency and connections. Nevertheless, there is no sense in providing an expensive service without it being used. The bigger problem might be people seeing cars as status symbols. It will be hard to change the mind of people and to convince them to use public transport. We should start with students and young people to change their minds.

An approach could be targeting students first, so that their parents can learn from them afterwards. Students usually have a limited budget and are therefore more likely to use public transport when it is more economic. Introducing electric cars would just be semi sustainable, because the current origin of the energy is not renewable.

The only benefit would be, that no direct carbon dioxide emission would be emitted in the city. Anyway, electric vehicles could also be used for energy storage e.g. in the municipality fleet.

The next question was about his opinion on the carbon tax. Javier was much in favour of this measure, thinking that this might be the only way to make people understand. If there was a tax on greenhouse gas emissions, people would start to worry about it. It should not be like a punishment and a further load though. The taxes could be cut down in a different area in return.

The following question was not clear to answer as being dependent on many details. It asks whether it is better to replace old inefficient cars or exploiting their entire life cycle. There are at least two controversial perspectives. Considering the emissions, a replacement could be reasonable but looking at the resources it might be better to “consume” it. Anyway, it will be difficult to determine the clear threshold when a car is old and there is a need of replacement. In any case the consumer’s behaviour needs to be included.

In our first interview, we spoke about the traffic data, which Alcoy started to record recently, but at this moment they seem not to be available yet.

For the question, which kind of energy will be dominant in the future and which one is the most sustainable, he talked about hydrogen. Javier said it would be the best solution, even if the storage is complicated. A combination with other energy carriers could be a possibility e.g. fuel cells and hydrogen.

Finally, we talked about the target group we should address. In Javier's opinion, students might be the proper ones, not having their minds set too much and having a great impact on their families and friends. So, the best way to change the behaviour might be through the education channel.

After this interview, we are quite satisfied with our insights and opinions we could gather from a specialist and got inspired to further ideas. We are looking forward to work on the project full time.

United Nations Discussion

Today we did an interesting assignment in class which was not directly part of our study, but our teacher proposed it and we gladly chose to do it. We were divided into three different groups, developed countries, well developing and bad developing countries, according to the amount of people living in these areas. Each group recieved some basic information about their collective of countries. The goal was to discuss on a global scale what each type of country is able to accomplish to prevent climate change and stay under the targeted 2°C level.
We did have some time in our groups to discuss the possibilities of our regions in the following categories: year in which the peak emissions are reached, year in which the emissions will start to reduce, rate of emission reduction, rate of decreaseing deforestation and amount of money we can afford for the target $100 billion /year fund against climate change.
After each group agreed on their data the elected a representative of each group held a short presentation on what will be done and with a short reasoning. In the following we entered the data in a special program online (Simulation Tool). The tool we used is a simplified model, which calculates the future emissions, the increase in temperature and the sea level rise. Sadly we missed the 2°C goal in our first try. Nevertheless, we think we did good for the first try.
To improve we took a step back in the groups and discussed if we maybe can adapt our goals. After an exchange of arguments every area was more ambitious. After presenting the new targets we had a very intense discussion between the representatives backed up by their teams. The strongest disagreement was between the richest and the poorest people.
As a result we did not manage to reach the target on the second try either. We did better, but not good enough. From our opinion, the rich countries and the poor countires had very good to  very strong ambitions, but the good developing countries could do much better. They defended their right on prosperity for their own people, since the first world countries did the majr part in pollution.
In the end we did not reach our target and had over one meter in sea level rise. It became clear to us, that it is very hard to negotiate this topic inbetween almost 200 nations, but also that with better preparation and more time we probably could have reached the goal.
Let us hope the leaders in Marakech are having everything they need to reach an solid agreement.

Assignment 6: Reflecting on SSC solutions

Assignment 6 was to reflect on the three most interesting SSC solutions found by the other groups. These are our top three products or concepts:

Source: Switch to Zero

Solution 1: Hybrid Solar Panel (Group Switch to Zero)

In our opinion the idea of hybrid solar panels is very good. First there is a short introduction about the idea. Afterwards you explained the idea more and explained how it works. It is really nice to hear about the advantages of the idea and the new concept of these solar panels.
Also we like that you abut a link to get more information about the topic.
For almost everything there is also a negative side and to compare what you need it would be nice to mention them. Maybe only to see that the negative part is in comparison to the positive part very small.

Switch to Zero - Research on existing SSC solutions


Solution 2: Powerwall: The Tesla Home Battery (Group Switch to Zero)

Source: Switch to Zero

All of us are Tesla's fans, so we think this kind of innovations are necessary for progress. The way to expose the idea is clear. It is important to clarify, that if there is more energy needed, a connection to the grid must be maintained, good point!
Furthermore, the official web page indicates use solar panels (like you), but we would like to know if it is possible to use another kind of renewable source.
Finally, we know the many advantages Powerwall has, but we guess it has some disadvantages and that is important to know, for applying this technology in the right place and to give it the correct use.

See link above


Solution 3: ShareDesk (Group SHARING SKANSSI PROJECT)

The group of the “Sharing Skanssi Project“ introduced “ShareDesk”, an online platform to rent offices all over the world for a part of a day. This is a fresh new idea, that has high value concerning their project, since the goal is to share spaces in the area. But also for other cities and projects it should be taken into account, because sharing spaces has influence on many different areas. We could benefit from this kind of ideas as well. Sharing spaces to live and work throughout a city can decrease the use of transport, since you can use a place near your location instead of having to move to the other side of the city. The website makes it more easy to do this.
Furthermore, the group points out other benefits of this concept, like greater flexibility, no need to sign a year lease term for an office, co-working and reuse of old buildings. But as for the other solutions it would have been nice to also mention potential disadvantages of the website or the idea in general.

Source: https://www.sharedesk.net/

Sharing Skanssi Project - ShareDesk

Who is new in the world of electric vehicles?

This is Sion from Sono Motors

The Sion is a very special car. In my opinion it is what many little children think of when they are playing. The idea is simple, the implementation most likely rather not. If you have an electric car there is at some point the urgent need to charge your batteries, in Germany this is called range anxiety (Reichweitenangst). That can take 20 minutes for 80% with fast-charging or take hours at the normal outlet of one's home. But just imagine your car would be charge at any daylight time while parking outside. Sounds crazy? How about the charge is free? Impossible!

Not quite! The main advantage of Sono Motors' Sion are the 7.5 square meters of solar panels that cover the outside body of the car, which charges the batteries up anytime the car is parked outside. Every day it will gives you an extra charge of averaged 30 kilometers a day. Most people drive an average of 50 kilometers a day, so you can imagine that most people using this car, which is designed for urban purposes, will drive to work for free or at least very, very cheap.
Sono Motors is a small, young, crowdfunded start-up from Munich in Germany. They created their car in a long developement process in their own garage and put a lot of lifeblood into their work. Starting at 12.000€, with a clear and nice design this car is a real newcomer on the EV market. The Urban version will go for 120 km in one charge and the Extender up to 250 km.
But it is not only designed for driving to work or the grocerystore, the Sion is an adventurer. With his trailer hitch it is strong enough to explore the nature and pull a caravan at the same time. While your are enjoying the outside the Sion will charge his battery for you and all your electric devices. You will be free in nature but stay connected to anything you fell like connecting to.
Test drives start in mid 2017.
Furthermore, reSono will be launched. It is an easy to use repair service, where Sono Motors will send you spare parts and anyone can build them in with online videos. That saves carbon emissions and money for the costumer.

In my opinion this is an awesome idea made by real visionairs. The car is perfect for urban areas, determined by size and range. The daily free charge is a real game changer for people who are afraid they will strand somewhere without energy in the battery. For the city of Alcoi this is a fantastic solution. Alcoi is not very big so the range is definitley enough, for the Extender it is even enough for a trip to Valencia and back. The Spanish sun will make the final point for my argument.

https://www.sonomotors.com/

- Lennart

Before The Flood - National Geographic Documentary

Before The Flood - National Geographic Documentary
Yesterday, on October 30th, the National Geographic Documentary 'Before the Flood' about climate change was released. It is a film that was done for more than two years and gives a broad overview about what will happen in the future if the people of this earth will not change their behaviour and what different peoples approaches on tackling this problem from different countries are. It features various influential people including Pope Francis, actor and environment activist Leonardo  DiCaprio, US president Barack Obama, entrepreneur and visionary Elon Musk and secretary-general of the UN Ban Ki-Moon. The special thing about this documentary is that National Geographic decided that this topic is too important to be not seen by everyone, as a result they made it freely available on a number of platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, iTunes, GooglePlay, etc.).
We appreciate the work that was done to realize this project and that certain men and women take action as a leader to inspire and guide their fellow humans into a more healthy, sustainable, prosper and peaceful earth.
We have not seen the documentary yet, but we are looking forward to watch it.

Idea Tree

On the day of our last project meeting with the delegation form Alcoi we as a group came up with the so called 'idea tree', which is a result of a certain brainstorming exercise, for our project. During the previous days we thought it over and improved it a little bit.We asked ourselves the following question: "How can all stakeholders (in Alcoi) reduce the individual use of cars?". But frankly we also came up with other ideas that are not directly connected with the question. On the first picture from below you can see different our different categories which we used as clusters. They include certain stakeholders that we whant to call up to act and furthermore some more specifications. For example the cluster 'infrastructure' belongs truely to the some department of the municipal or provicial government, but includes a lot of ideas that we chose to cluster it in one additional group.
Of course the citizens are demanded in a much larger way than our brainstorming session represents. Our focus of the session was: 'What can the government / public transport / public institutions / ... do for the people to help them change their behaviour to better themselves?' A huge part of responsibility lays in the hands of the citizens, they have to be aware and adapt to the changes to shape a better future.
In the two other pictures you will find our more or less feasible and creative ideas which we will evaluate over time.
If you have remarks or questions to any idea stated please do not hesitate to discuss in the comment sections.

Meeting with a delegation of Alcoi on 25th October

Today we had a very productive meeting with a delegation from the University in Alcoi and Erlijn our mentor. We talked about our stay in Spain in January, we got offered a lot of support concerning housing, workspaces and more. Furthermore, we presented the product of our previous brainstorming session. We used the methodology of the "idea tree" in order to brainstorm precisely and cluster our ideas at the same time. The result will be uploaded here as well.

Our group also learned more about our assignment and the existing infrastructure in Alcoi. The city has many bridges and narrow streets which make it difficult for cars to navigate through the city and leads to traffic jams. Alcoi also has very big differences in altitudes, so if we want to promote bicycle use as a way of transportation instead of recreational usage, then we have to come up with a creative concept to change the behavior of the people.

Instead of always increasing the amount of parking spaces, one idea could be decreasing them and making them more expensive. People will make better choices if driving a car becomes more and more inconvenient and more sustainable choices are offered.

We were asked to think outside the box when coming up with ideas and that is what we will do. This meeting ensured us that it will be an interesting project and we will have a good cooperation with the team from Alcoi.

Assignment 5: 3 interesting products/services concerning mobility

Before trying to work on concepts in order to reduce the CO­2­ emissions, it is necessary to determine the sector that is the highest emission source in an area to reach with the elaborated concept the biggest impact.
Due to our current state of knowledge and some conferences with our client, we assume that the mobility sector has the biggest influence on the CO2 emissions and therefore we present three approaches to tackle this issue.
 
1. Increase the attractiveness of public transportation

An attractive public transportation system contributes to a reduction of vehicles in use and traffic on the streets and reduces as a consequence the CO2 emissions. However, which are the factors which affect the attractiveness of public transportation?
- Price
- Frequency
- Connections
- Individual added value:
                    - Time for recreation
                    - Sensation of acting sustainable
                    - Wifi for entertainment, work etc.
                    - Route planner application
                    - Timetable at stations


2. City Bikes in Hamburg /StadtRad Hamburg

The StadtRad, which means city bike in English, is a great addition to the public transport. The people living in Hamburg and visiting it now have the possibility to not only use trains, buses and ferries to move around the city, but they are also able to bike everywhere they need to go. This completes the public transportation service to a great extend. With 2.300 bicycles it is the most used bike rental service in Germany. 350.000 people use it over 2.5 million times a year. On high-usage days every bike is used up to 7 times a day.
Every registered user can borrow a bike at any of the 200 Stations, to return the bike one has to bring it back to a station. This does sound stressful in the beginning, but looking at the locations of these return points it is never a problem to return the bike in the wider area of the city center.

The best thing about the StadtRad is that the first half hour of every rental is free, with eight cents for every additional minute and a maximum of 12€ a day. Furthermore, if you need a bike for example for 45 minutes and there is a station on your way, you can just return your bike and some point during your ride and rent a new one for 30 additional minutes free of charge. Most rides through Hamburg do not take 30 minutes, but if it does take longer this is a very handy trick. The system is used by a lot of people who would like to move around the city spontaneous, healthy and sustainable. For myself I had only good experiences using StadtRad.
Website StadtRad Hamburg




3. Carsharing

  Carsharing services are available in over a thousand cities all over the world. As of December 2012, there were an estimated 1.7 million car-sharing members. The world’s largest carsharing network across North Amercia and Europe are zipcar (767,000 members/11,000 vehicles) and Car2Go (900,000 members/12,000 cars). The main factors driving the growth of carsharing are the rising levels of congestion faced by city inhabitants; shifting generational mind-sets about car ownership; the increasing costs of personal vehicle. Carsharing contributes to sustainable transport because it is a less care intensive means of urban transport. Carsharing can also reduce the car ownership at an estimated rate of one rental car replacing 15 owned vehicles(according to The Economist).
Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by hour/day. Carsharing is attractive to people who occasional make use of a vehicle. The organization renting the cars may be a commercial business or the users may be organized as a company, public agency cooperative. Government is also a stakeholder that can be a provider of cars.