RESPONSE at the Scalable Cities & Matchup – Valencia Joint Event

On March 29 and 30, 2023, the “Valencia Joint Event”, organized between the MatchUP project and Scalable Cities, took place at Las Naves, in the city of Valencia, Spain.

The event included a panel on the 100 Mission Cities of NetZeroCities, outcomes of the MatchUp project, discussion workshops on scaling the solutions packaged under various topics, site visits to Valencia traffic control room, humble lampposts, Energy Office and Smart Buildings, as well as meetings of the Scalable Cities task groups CCG / Replication / Monitoring and Business Models & Financing. 

RESPONSE project was represented by consortium members from the City of Turku, City of Brussels, RINA-C and ICPE Romania.

RESPONSE Hackathon 2022 in Dijon 

From Friday 25th to Sunday 27th of November 2022 more than 40 students of 9 different higher education schools gathered in Dijon to work on multidisciplinary teams of 4 to 6 students in order to develop an innovative solution (software, innovative service, device…) responding to a challenge related to the smart and low-carbon city proposed by 9 companies or organizations. These challenges addressed issues such as air quality, energy, mobility, smart building etc. (see list below). A group of coaches supported the teams all along the hackathon to help them to tackle all technical or organizational blocking point.  

Each team presented the result of their work during a pitch session on Sunday 27th afternoon and three of them were awarded. 

1st Prize: LowMyWatt is an application to encourage citizens to adopt more sober behaviours. The main features of LowMyWatt are a visualization tool in order to raise awareness about energy consumption, a decision support tool, to give citizens tips for improvement and gamification to foster commitment to action. This challenge was proposed by EDF 

Team cohesion Prize: Tool to help decision about work planning in schools in order to lower energy consumption. The tool used data from rehabilitation works (type, prize,…) and energy consumption to develop a predictive model of the most efficient work to manage. The next steps will be to optimize the model and adapt it to other types of building (e.g. Gymnasium). This challenge was proposed by Dijon Métropole 

Special mention of the jury: App using the data collected in the housings of Grand Dijon Habitat to allow tenants to visualize how their behaviour has an impact on collective energy consumption. The app proposes a gamification approach including quiz, challenges, individual and collective competitions, etc. 

Some other teams proposed promising solutions that might be developed further by the challenge initiators.   

List of the challenges 

  • Web app to valorize Atmo BFC’s Open data (air quality index, exposure of populations and territories, average concentrations, annual emission of the main pollutants, pollution episodes, etc.) and give access to intelligible and useful information for the public. 
  • How to raise awareness and encourage residents to adopt a new sorting gesture with bio-waste, via innovative and incentive solutions in collective housing? 
  • Development of a decision support application for the programming of work for the energy transition based on historical data of renovation (type of work, amounts…) and consumption of buildings (schools, gyms…) 
  • Solution to mobilize citizens around energy sobriety using data from the energy and climate platform. 
  • What solution should be implemented to optimize energy management (production, storage, distribution of uses, etc.) on mixed-use blocks (offices, housing, shops, etc.)? 
  • Development of an AI to analyze electrical load curves to allow consumers to optimize their consumption and free up electrical power for the network. 
  • How, from the data collected in the housings, can we show tenants in real time (at the stairwell, building and block level (6 buildings)) that small individual gestures contribute to big collective savings? 
  • DiviAccès 2.0: Analysis of usage data of the transportation service for people with reduced mobility and recommendations for improvement to increase shared transportation. 
  • How can data from connected housing sensors (smoke detectors, thermal regulation, access systems, etc.) be used to detect pre-fragility situations among senior tenants to automatically trigger a call campaign, a home visit or contact with a partner? 

RESPONSE Ideathon 

A “Marathon of ideas” to address ecological issues: On Tuesday, January 10, more than 160 students from the metropolis participated in the Pulse Event: a 48-hour Ideathon to find innovative solutions to sustainable development issues. Among the four impactful topics proposed by the metropolis, two of them referred to RESPONSE, the positive energy blocks project, such as: how to make the commitment to energy sobriety a source of pride? The event was organized by the Campus des Métiers Territoire Intelligent and its partners, with the support of Dijon métropole. 

  • RESPONSE/Dijon métropole topic 1: How to make the inhabitants and/or the companies of the Dijon Metropole territory adhere to the collective self-consumption? 
  • RESPONSE/Dijon métropole topic 2: How to make the commitment to energy sobriety a collective and individual pride (without financial or regulatory drivers)? 

Pictures : “© Ville de Dijon”  

RESPONSE 3rd webinar – Positive Energy Building Systems

The RESPONSE project is organizing the 3rd Webinar focused on the topic “Positive Energy Building Systems” and the RESPONSE contributions and activities implemented under Transformation Axis. The webinar will be held on December 7th from 11:30 to 13:00 and aims to increase public awareness of RESPONSE and to create new links between organizations and enable learning and knowledge exchange processes, especially between Lighthouse and Fellow cities.

We would like to invite you to join this informative webinar.

The event is free of charge but registration is required.

Save the date webinar local energy supply low carbon & high share of renewables

The RESPONSE Webinar aims to introduce to the Transformation Axis#2 and present the RESPONSE contributions and activities implemented under the Transformation Axis#2.

The objective is to increase public awareness of RESPONSE and to create new links between organizations and enable learning and knowledge exchange processes, especially between Lighthouse and Fellow cities. Target audience is external.

Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, RESPONSE is a 60-month project that addresses the H2020-LC-SC3-2020-EC-ES-SCC call.

It aims to establish a strategic vision for Smart Cities Energy Transition: Climate-neutral cities by 2050. RESPONSE aims to turn energy sustainability into a do-able vision by solving the energy trilemma (security, equity/affordability, environmental sustainability) at building, block and district levels in smart cities. The project builds upon intelligent integrated and interconnected energy systems coupled with demand-oriented city infrastructures, governance models and services that foster energy sustainability.

Target audience: Project’s stakeholders: action clusters, policy-making bodies and Governance, local public and private organizations such as market enterprises, energy providers, technology and services, general public interested in the thematic.

Join this informative Webinar – the event is free of charge but registration is required.

Turku PED area residents and technical providers met at the first Environmental workshop on December

The RESPONSE technical providers introduced their solutions to the audience for the first time in the Environmental Workshop, organized by Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS). The residents of Turku PED area, the Student village, and other students were invited to the event that was held on December 2nd.
The audience listened carefully, when Turku Energia, Högfors GST, Sunamp, VTT, Egain and Solar Finland talked about the solution they are implementing in the recently constructed Tyyssija building in Turku Student village. The Student village foundation TYS was also present and explained how they support sustainable development, for example by heating control and enabling recycling.

After the presentations, the participants enjoyed coffee and snacks and toured around tables where the technical providers explained about their activities within the project. Other RESPONSE partners had also the possibility to present their activities so TYS, the City of Turku and The Student village mentors were present, too.

It was also possible to participate in different kinds of activities in the event. Participant’s preferred routes and modes of mobility were mapped in one activity. Turku City Data, together with FMI and the city of Turku, organized a workshop where participants marked pleasant and unpleasant routes in the city of Turku. The materials produced in the activities can be used later in different types of mobility services developed in the project.

Workshop participants marking their most and least favorite routes and spots in Turku.

The event was a great possibility for many of the RESPONSE stakeholders to meet face-to-face. As the covid pandemic is still causing some inconveniences when planning meetings, the technical providers have had few possibilities for meeting each other. Therefore, the Student village tenants, and other participants were not the only ones who gained information in this event, but it was also good place for networking and sharing information among the project partners.

Text: Heidi Heikkilä
Photos: Elina Lunden

The power of meeting in person – Turku Lighthouse leaders met physically for the first time

In late October 2021, the Turku Lighthouse project implementation leaders met physically for the first time since the proposal preparation. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss common challenges, timetables, and next steps regarding the work of the local ecosystem. The meeting included common discussion about the integration of technical solutions in citizen engagement activities and up-coming endeavors taking place in the coming year. Turku Administrative Site Manager Olena Zinchuk is happy about the possibility to meet in person after such a long period of virtual collaboration: “We got to see each other’s’ faces and got reminded that the project’s success is a combined effort of partner organizations and the people behind them. It was an excellent occasion to look into the main points in need of closer attention regarding the project implementation and how to proceed.” Aside from discussions the meeting also included a site visit to the one of the Positive Energy Block (PEB) buildings – “Tyyssija”. It is currently in the finalizing stages of the construction, completion of which is scheduled for 31 December 2021. The participants familiarized themselves with the building milieu and got a concrete understanding of the hard project measures which is important for moving RESPONSE forward.

Turku Lighthouse leaders in the Tyyssija inner yard

Text – Sini Lamoureux, City of Turku
Photo – Heidi Heikkilä, TUAS

SIDO Lyon

SIDO Lyon is the reference event in Europe on the convergence of IoT, Artificial Intelligence, XR & Robotics technologies. For two days, it brings together professionals from all industries, with over 250 exhibitors, 60 conferences and workshops led by 180 speakers. It gives you all the keys to make your digital transformation a reality. RESPONSE was at the heart of a conference followed by a round table around decarbonisation of territory: living green. Jean-Patrick Masson from Dijon Metropolis and RESPONSE partner James GRIVET from Wittym were speakers.
More information: https://bit.ly/3E07vOB

Suzie Besset, Dijon Metropole

Public lecture “Towards the positive energy city”

10/09/2021

The public lecture was held on September 10, 2021 at the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University. Prof Halyna Tatarchenko gave a public lecture to the students of the specialty “Construction and Civil Engineering”. Lectures cycle is a way to get knowledge about RESPONSE project ideas, and can help participants to know what Innovative technologies can be used towards positive energy city, what aspects is important in this way? What each of us could do to reduce carbon emission? As well this one can help to obtain feedback from citizens.

Regional Development Agency of Lugansk Region

School-business week and industry week

15/11/2021-27/11/2021

During the School-Business Week, whose theme was “preparing together for the jobs of today and tomorrow” and the Industry Week, whose theme was “inventing a sustainable future”, Dijon installs the RESPONSE model in the FO neighborhood house and invites students, teachers, and local actors to come and discover the RESPONSE project. Professionals of the energy transition (EDF, Enedis, Léon Grosse) join forces to show young people the jobs of tomorrow.
During the School-Business Week it was promoted an educational action, where ENEDIS explain the issues of sustainable development and global warming. A time of exchange then took place on the future evolution of the Fontaine d’Ouche district, and on the functioning of the REPONSE project. Enedis presents its missions and the company’s professions: from network technician to DATA Scientist, opportunities for internships, work-study programmes and future jobs are promoted to young people.

Suzie Besset and Thomas Deweer (Up4North)

Webinar: UBC TALKS about future trends in sustainable energy production

The 4th UBC TALKS webinar in 2021 will take place on November 30, 2021 and will focus on the future trends in sustainable energy production, bringing policies presented by Energy Cities.

The webinar is intended to answer questions such as “how to reach and promote energy efficiency”, or “what will be the trends in the sustainable energy production for 2022-2030”.

RESPONSE will be presented by Sini Lamoureux (City of Turku), and the presentation will include City of Turku’s climate positivity objective and provide examples of energy positivity solutions.

Find more the agenda and more information about the webinar here.

Register here.