ecological awareness

Melbourne BioBlitz is the City of Melbourne's first major citizen science program, where experts and members of the community work together to discover, document and learn about the species that call their city home. The most recent Melbourne BioBlitz took place over 24 hours on 4 and 5 March 2016. During the BioBlitz 744 members of the public joined 27 activities which included spotting birds at Royal Park, identifying insects at Westgate Park, and searching for plants in the Fitzroy Gardens.

Almost all metros and trams of Wiener Linien already possess the ability to recover the energy of movement (braking energy) as electric energy when braking the train, and to feed it back to the direct current power system. This energy can be used by a train in the nearest environment for acceleration. If there is no vehicle in the vicinity of the regenerative vehicle, the energy is converted into heat in the brake resistors of the train. The aim of the project is to test in a pilot system how to more efficiently use the accumulated energy from braking a metro train.

The Boutiquehotel Stadthalle is the first city hotel with a zero-energy balance. 80 rooms including 38 rooms in the new building which is designed as a passive house and 42 rooms in the original house, a house built at the turn of the century. With 130 square meters of solar panels, 93 square meters photovoltaic panels and a water-heat pump, the hotel which is designed as a passive house, produces the energy that it needs itself. Unique for a city hotel, the drinking water is vitalised with a Grander water revitalisation device.

By investing in community-funded solar power plants, Viennese citizens have the opportunity to participate in the development of renewable energies. Citizens’ power plants mark the beginning of the dawn of a solar energy future for Vienna, and show the city’s clear commitment to developing solar energy. Setting up your own ecological energy supply system is not always an option, particularly in a big city where 80 per cent of the population lives in rented flats.

PiMi is a participatory indoor air quality data sharing project launched in January 2014. Hundreds of PiMi air boxes, a low-cost indoor air quality monitor, were given out to volunteer users across China. The volunteer users access the PiMi air box for his personal air quality data through smartphones, and then upload the data to the PiMi cloud for further analysis.

The vision for Bright Green Island is to be a 100 % sustainable community by 2025. A community which creates local, sustainable solutions, eco-friendly growth and inspires and welcomes new businesses.They want to turn this fringe area of Denmark into an asset: an island replete with green initiatives, projects and enterprises. They wish to share our knowledge and experiences with other islands and regions around the world, which have set their sights on green, sustainable development. Bornholm is one of the best places in the world for testing new renewable-energy technologies.

A unique environmental protection program was started at the site of the LEGO factory, during which a 26 hectar area is planted with indigenous species. The initiative aims to protect the unique and endangered flora and fauna of the region. The concept was developed by the researchers of the Hungarian Academy of Science Ecological Research Center's Ecological and Botanical Institute, creating an exceptional opportunity to integrate industrial development with environmental protection.

Pollution, lack of energy carriers, climate change, civilization diseases – we are ahead of great challenges if we want to leave a liveable environment for our children and the next generations. It is very important to produce power in an eco- and climate-friendly way, not only to reduce the energy consumption. To do that the common thinking of humanity is needed. Therefor we implemented the Liveable Future Park in Fót, near Budapest. The Liveable Future Park is a little energy and research island where we can show the real potential of alternative energy and the latest technology.

The general aim of the program is to collect experiences and best energy efficiency practices of successful companies; to transform them into transferable knowledge and forward them to Hungarian companies especially SMEs, who lack of energy managers internally; to motivate the management of the SMEs to invest time and energy in EE; to award the best companies showing results and use them as a role model for the others; to cooperate with the relevant authorities in order to create a legislation framework supporting energy efficiency.

Liander, in colloboration with Plugwise, has made it possible for 250 customers in the Haarlem region to test an energy management system free of charge for four months. The system enables the user to gain insight into energy consumption of each connected appliance on the applicable wall plug. Not only does the accompanying software make possible online monitoring of energy use, but it also enables the user to switch the appliances on and off automatically. The system gives the customer more insight into his or her energy consumption, which makes it easier to cut back on energy bills.