Societal issues | City-zen

Efficient renovations to save energy in our social dwellings

August 21, 2019

March 2019 – 280 social housing units in Grenoble have been renovated thanks to the European project City-zen, financed by the European Commission and managed by the Mission Ville de Demain of the City of Grenoble. These renovations were carried out in the Mistral, Saint-Bruno and Teisseire-Malherbes districts, in partnership with local social housing authorities […]

[STUDY] Understand the decision-making process that leads co-owners to engage in renovation work

October 31, 2018

Since 2016, the GAEL laboratory, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Area, has been conducting an action-research project to understand the determinants of decision-making by co-owners registered in the Mur | Mur (campaign for the insulation and thermal renovation of buildings) scheme run by the Metropolitan Area. This study analyses the economic, financial and sociological aspects […]

Got big ideas to improve Preston? The City-zen Roadshow wants to hear them

October 24, 2018

International experts will help bring your ideas to life. People are being invited to share their ideas on how they’d like to change or improve Preston to make it a more sustainable and even better city to live and work in. The City-zen Roadshow is coming to Preston for five days from 12 to 16 […]

Sharing experiences: citizens are at the heart of Vehicle-to-grid and Virtual Power Plant demonstrations

October 23, 2018

Without citizens no Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and Virtual Power Plant (VPP) demonstrations. They play a critical role in the energy transition as their involvement is essential to have impact. In the last couple of months meetings were organised with citizens participating in Vehicle-to-grid and Virtual Power Plant to discuss progress and share learnings. Virtual Power Plant […]

Implementation of a sustainable cooling system succeeded through social factors

June 20, 2018

Dutch water company and Blood Bank combining forces in a new, sustainable and profitable source for cooling. [An article written by Pien Esmeijer, BSc Science, Business and Innovation student at the VU University in Amsterdam, on the occasion of her graduate internship and thesis] As world-wide proclaimed, energy gained from fossil materials is not inexhaustible, […]

Becoming an energy producer: the inhabitants at the heart of the energy transition!

February 9, 2018

In a friendly and atypical setting, the company Energ’y Citoyennes proposed, on Thursday, February 1, 2018, a creativity session on the theme of the involvement of residents in a citizen project to produce renewable energy. The objective of this moment of collective reflection was to help society meet the challenge of citizen action, an objective […]

Grenoble’s energy master plan : less waste, more renewable

December 12, 2017

The real way to move forward in the energy transition is to consume less energy to heat, move, manufacture … The need is also to gradually replace fossil fuels such as gas, gasoline and fuel oil by renewable energies! To achieve this, the Grenoble metropolitan area has a demanding roadmap by 2030 : reduce all […]

Grenoble School energy challenge : ALEC and GEG, an ongoing partnership for 2017-2018

November 28, 2017

Every year ALEC (climate and energy agency) leads and organizes the school energy challenge, a program of Grenoble-Alpes-Métropole. The aim is to make children aware of global warming, energy savings and air pollution. Understanding these issues may seem abstract to 10-year-olds. That’s why the agency partnered with GEG to monitor some of the participating schools […]

Grenoble, “city of tomorrow”: a place for participative challenges

“Grenoble Ville de demain” (city of tomorrow), is a platform that wants to bring together all the talents of the city to make the energy transition a reality. Transition has different characters : economic, social, urban, energy, digital,… and everybody can take part in the solutions from citizens to the decision makers to the scientist […]

The secret to citizen engagement. Lessons from a Manchester success story.

September 25, 2017

Does your project’s success depend on the involvement of citizens? But are you struggling to interest or motivate them for subjects you are passionate about, such as clean energy, smart cities or sustainability? Last March, when visiting Manchester, we had the pleasure of meeting Dave Coleman, co-founder and Managing Director of the Carbon Literacy Project (and member […]

WEBINAR: On dealing with non-technical challenges such as social acceptance in smart city projects

June 1, 2017

City-zen’s Craig Lee Martin (Technical University of Delft) was one of the expert speakers on a webinar hosted by the SCIS (EU Smart Cities Information) platform on May 17th. The webinar showcased examples of main financial and economic barriers encountered by smart cities projects; regulatory and administrative barriers, and measures needed to promote social acceptance […]

Renovation of co-owned apartment complexes: dream first, then decide

April 18, 2017

To refurbish apartment complexes, the majority of voting co-owners must be in favor of renovation activities. Collective decision-making is never easy. And if it involves money, well, it is even harder. To cater for that difficulty, the Local Energy and Climate Agency of Grenoble metropolitan area – ALEC, created a participatory workshop called “Refurbish my […]

School Energy Challenge: children on board to bring energy consumption down

April 12, 2017

“Teacher, that’s the day when we set up a multi-socket!” Giving individuals access to their energy usage, thanks to the VivaCité platform, is an ongoing initiative in Grenoble. As part of the 3rd edition of the successful “School Energy Challenge” lead by ALEC (local energy and climate agency) on the metropolitan area of Grenoble, one […]

“Grenoble, city of tomorrow” campaign: a new opportunity to support City-zen in Grenoble

February 4, 2016

Last Tuesday evening, 26th of January, a big event gathered almost 200 people in Grenoble Museum to push city council’s initiative “Grenoble, ville de demain/Grenoble, city of tomorrow”. Tools and projects to increase Grenoble’s potential of innovation are provided: City-zen is one of those! Platform of sharing and anticipation, “Grenoble, city of tomorrow” is like […]

Three lessons from City-zen in Amsterdam New West – Column by Mirko Van Vliet

November 19, 2015

The district Amsterdam New-West is a ‘small giant’ by itself with its own specific set of challenges and opportunities. Characterized by cultural diversity, contrasting neighborhoods and citizens with a drive to innovate. After one and a half year of project experience in the district, what lessons can City-zen share with cities across Europe? What challenges […]

“The Smart Citizen” about Amsterdam

July 21, 2015

While most cities are struggling to manage the triple helix of collaboration (government, vendor and academia) to improve their smart credentials, the city of Amsterdam has effortlessly strung the fourth strand in its helix: the say-so of community. The DNA of Amsterdam is in trade and its mayor Eberhard van der Laan is clear that […]

Colloquy “Social sciences and energy transitions” – 28 and 29 of May – Grenoble

February 17, 2015

Energy transition refers to a variety of scenarios. The passage of these scenarios to sustainable futures depends largely on the modalities (public policy , scales , rhythms…) that will govern the development of energy options for both diversification of supply and for control demand. The questioning of the energy transition should be open to societal […]

Smart City Event – 2 to 5 of June – Amsterdam

February 4, 2015

On the 2nd until the 5th of June 2015, The Smart City Event will take place for the 5th time in Amsterdam. It will bring Smart city experts from more than 30 countries for inspiring key notes, interactive workshops and inviting round tables. Amsterdam Smart City is host of this event. The City-zen game partners […]

Words from local coordinators

November 27, 2014

Amsterdam Smart City Annelies Van der Stoep, local coordinator Municipality of Grenoble Perrine Flouret, local coordinator Why are you part of the project ? “Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) is a unique partnership between companies, governments, knowledge institutions and the people of Amsterdam. In five years, ASC has grown into a platform with over 100 […]

Develop your smart city : City-zen game using real energy data

November 25, 2014

As part of the project, an applied game using real energy data is being developed by UK partner Clicks and Links. The game will be deployed in the city of Grenoble and in Amsterdam. The goal is to engage youth and citizens to save energy by raising awareness and changing behaviour. As gaming is fun […]

Posts Tagged ‘Societal issues’