Amsterdam Smart City

            Amsterdam is a European leader in being ‘green’.  The city is ranked fifth overall on the European Green City Index, with a score of 83.03 out of 100.  It has been listed as a ‘Smart City’, and was named the 2013 World Smart Capital, but there is still room for improvement.  Amsterdam ranks low on reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, so the city has set a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025 based on their 1990 levels.

            Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) began in mid-2009 with the city’s residents, businesses, research facilities and local authorities focusing on five specific areas: Working, Living, Mobility, Public Facilities and Open Data.  Their hope is to create programs and projects that can be implemented at a community level and later expanded to serve larger national or European scale.  Amsterdam is a city built below sea level, so a rising sea gives the Amsterdammers cause for concern. 

            In the area of mobility, ASC has three key projects within downtown Amsterdam.  The first project is Ship to Grid at the Port of Amsterdam.  Phase one installed almost 200 shore power stations that allow Rivercruisers and inland cargo vessels to connect to the city’s green energy instead of powering the moored vessel with the on-board diesel generator. The goal was to increase energy efficiency, encourage the use of Green energy, and reduce CO2 emissions.  Future extensions of this project could potentially allow large ocean-going cruise ships to also connect to the city grid.

            Moet je Watt (MJW) is a smart electrical battery charging system for electric cars which will prevent overcharging the car’s battery. The MJW works in combination with the smart meter, another ASC project that monitors household and office electricity usage.  With the increase in electric cars, the hope is to find a solution on how to charge multiple cars at a single office location that works for the consumer and for the electrical grid managers.

            The third mobility project is the WeGo car sharing program.  WeGo is a neighbor to neighbor style car sharing which allows interested people to rent out their car to others while WeGo provides the insurance and technology.  Considering that 62% of the citizens of Amsterdam either walk, bike or use public transport to work, there an over-supply of cars that are generally not in use during the day.  This program makes them available for rent by the hour or by the day.  The idea behind this program is to reduce car ownership, congestion and pollution by stimulating car ownership.  To encourage Amsterdammers to give up their cars, the city has a program that rewards them with a three month public transportation pass and a coupon for €300 at any of the city’s car-sharing groups. 

            Amsterdam is encouraging the use of electric vehicles.  Hopper is a taxi service that uses lime green electric scooters.  These produce about 65% less carbon emissions than a traditional moped scooter and they can weave around traffic to reduce wait times. Car2go has over 300 Smart Cars available for rent and there has also been the introduction of electric boats, with the city hall actively encouraging the use of boats using cleaner energy by granting new permits for hard-to-come-by mooring spaces.

            Amsterdam hopes to have the world’s first ‘bioport’ at the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.  In 2012, a flight from Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro was the longest flight that was partially fueled by bio kerosene, a sustainable fuel made from used cooking oil.

References:

Public Radio International:

http://www.pri.org/stories/world/amsterdam-climate-change1482.html

I Amsterdam Website:

http://www.iamsterdam.com/en-GB/living/city-of-amsterdam/environment/towards-a-climate-friendly-amsterdam

Tell Its Green Website:

http://tellitsgreen.com/organic-news/2052/travel-amsterdams-green-transport-and-climate-street-set-standards/

Green City Index

http://www.siemens.com/entry/cc/en/greencityindex.htm

World Smart Capital

http://www.worldsmartcapital.net/

Amsterdam Smart City

http://amsterdamsmartcity.com/