sustainable resource-management

The city of Vienna strongly supports the establishment of green walls. The green wall on the side of the MA48 office building was built in 2010 and has been under constant monitoring ever since. The city’s first green wall system is 450 m2 in size and consists of more than 3,000 m of lined stainless steel planting containers. The properties of the green wall are monitored with various sensors and its irrigation is provided by an automatic irrigation system. The summer cooling effect of the green wall is equivalent to the operation of 80 air conditioners of 3000 W each, 8 hours a day.

Due to historical, political and economic difficulties in living, a large part of the working population has moved out of the village. In 2008 the mayor introduced the concept that most of the municipal taxes would be released if a business moved its headquarters to Komlóska. Thus, businesses that moved to Komlóska were exempt from business, construction, tourism and communal taxes, basicly they have created a tax haven for businesses. The program works for both entrepreneurs and the municipality.

ROBUST is a European research project involving 24 partners from 11 countries. It is coordinated by Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

IEEE Smart Village (ISV) has a unique approach to support the world’s energy-impoverished communities by providing a comprehensive solution combining renewable energy, community-based education, and entrepreneurial opportunities. ISV provides seed-funding to carefully selected community entrepreneurs based upon a credible business plan that will impact significant number of people with electricity, education and jobs. The Foundation had and still has successful projects from Nigera through Himalaya to Galapagos.

The first connected smart public lighting system in Budapest can be found in Lechner Ödön alley (IXth district). In the pilot project, five street lighting poles with different functions were installed and connected. Besides of being capable of  power-saving, brightness control, and remote control the lighting poles provide intelligent functionality, for example wireless service, video recording, emergency calling, electric vehicle charging, environmental sensors and programmable LED information screens.

In recent years Güssing has made a name for itself because of its renewable energy efforts. This trend began in the early 1990s, energy conservation and the construction of a biomass district heating plant for supplying the heat of the city. The strategy was as follows: through the sustainable use of domestic resources for energy, depending on the one hand the nature of fossil fuels is reduced and secondly the regional value can be increased. This strategy worked out perfectly and is internationally known as a “model Güssing”.

The Stadtwerk Lehen was developed on the site of the former energy supplier (about 20 ha): 287 subsidized rental apartments, a 97-bed dorm, a 5-group kindergarten, the new city gallery, as well as shop and social centers.
A concept was sought in which energy-saving construction and a high input of solar energy can be implemented economically and sustainably in a district-heat-supplied area.
The result is a European-wide example of sustainable district development with a neutral carbon footprint.

Pornóapáti is located along the Austrian border, its poplutaion is 431. Based on the austrian practises, the municipality decided to establish  a village heating plant using renewable energy.
For the project they have used the village heating plants working in Austria for several years. Besides, the renewable energy sources, the energy independency were also an important factor.

The Microker web application is a map search engine that allows producers and artisans anywhere in the country to display their products online for free. The aim is to enable consumers to obtain as many products as possible from their place of residence, directly from producers. This would allow food from more reliable sources to be placed on the tables and the money spent on it would stay in place, thus strengthening the local economy and significantly reducing the environmental burden of freight transport.
 

Kiskosár Shopping Community started in 2012 in Esztergom. It was based on the local product market of the Conscious Shopper Festival held in September 2011, organized by the Environmental Culture Association of Esztergom. The idea of setting a shopping community in Esztergom was born in that market. The shopping community for local products was an innovative way back then.
Conscious customer demand is linked to the capacity of the surrounding producers thanks to the regular organization of product deliveries.