Smart People

Every year, the Baptist Relief Service announces the Shoebox Campaign, which aims to make Christmas brighter for children in need by wrapping gifts in shoeboxes.

Marquard Media's initiative aims to help small businesses in Hungary through the crisis caused by the epidemic.

The #vegyélhazait initiative was launched with the aim of creating a platform for Hungarian fashion, artists, creators and gastronomy, where members of the community can present themselves and spread the word.

The company behind the idea is Cotswold Fir Forestry based in Shurdington, near Cheltenham. It was created in 2012 by the owners, Commercial Manager Craig Tennock and Horticultural Manager Paul Keene. They were looking for a more sustainable, cost effective and unique alternative to cut Christmas trees, as annually in the UK around 7 million cut Christmas trees sadly end up in landfill.

The company's aim is to ensure that no more trees are cut down than are sold. Customers can choose the right tree based on photos of the trees. Their pine plantations are located in Zala County, on the Zákony hill and in Nemespátró, which are very good conditions for growing healthy pine trees. 

City officials of Vancouver, Canada were quick to realise early that involving children and young people in shaping its future outlook was the right – and smart – thing to do, and so they are now already well on the way to outlining a vision which will help ensure the city works for everyone, not least children and families.

The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA, India), has undertaken an initiative in partnership with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) to build Child Friendly Smart Cities (CFSC) in India within the urban agenda of building smart cities. The goal of this initiative is to mainstream the needs of children in the urban policy and planning framework of Indian cities under key theme areas - public health, safety and security, transport and mobility and living conditions through programme of activities focused on advocacy and interventions in urban areas.

In the spring of 2016, the 48-seat Mesevonat crèche was built in Zugló, at the busy junction of Queen Elisabeth Avenue and Öv Street, with several innovative solutions. The crèche also offers temporary childcare for parents seeking work, as well as many other special services.

Under the BeePathNet project, 5 European cities will learn from the Slovenian capital the holistic approach to urban beekeeping developed and successfully implemented by Llubjana. The project aims to establish and develop sustainable urban beekeeping. 

The Bee Friendly Network was created to serve a more sustainable, liveable urban environment and local development while preserving natural resources and biodiversity. 

Traffic volume, geographic centrality and unique relief have led to an increase in traffic accidents and fatalities every year since 2015. The Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative (CCSC), launched the ’911 Project – Predicting Hotspots for Accidents’ in early 2018. It uses machine learning, specifically multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network models, to analyse both historic and current 911 data to identify accident trends. This dataset is cross-referenced with DarkSky weather data, roadway geometric data and accident time, date, geographical coordinates.

The local government of Viladecans, in Barcelona, set up an energy company based on citizen participation to promote the shift to environmentally friendly power sources and the renovation of homes to make them more energy efficient. In addition, a digital currency was created to reward people for saving energy. The money could be spent at businesses in their area to boost the local economy. The wider goal was to ensure the sustainable use of resources in a socially just community in which citizens play an active role.