Pitch
Turn cities into "Blue Cities" by building a network of circular autonomous communities in any city though mobile application and standards.
Description
Summary
Cities are living organisms that can be compared and designed like any natural systems. A natural system will live, using the waste of another natural system, and generate some waste while living, which can be used/consumed by another natural system. By breaking down a city into community or district, and leveraging the "citizens" time and involvement, each community can organize itself as a decentralized, autonomous and resilient natural system, regarding the key amenities that are 1) water, 2) heat, 3) electricity, 4) food, 5) waste and 6) transportation. Standards can then be created for each amenity, and by educating, measuring and promoting the deployment of these standards, through the deployment of local currencies, the overall greenhouse gaz effect will reduce, even being carbone negative.
The Blue City Program uses existing human networks in each city (transition network, regular markets,...) but also a dedicated mobile application. Reward mecanism can be implemented when a "standard" is in place - and the reward will be provided in the form of a local "community" currency that can only be spent in the local shops, or on certified products/services supporting the Blue City program standards (to be identified), and produced/delivered locally.
Imagine 1 building block in a city being a blue city community. Imagine that this building block already has a transition network group, or even just a local management office organized by the owners. Their incentives to deploy the Blue City Program will be to reduce their charges, have a better control on their cost, or have more community life or less environmental impact. The Blue City Program is designed to respond to these different objectives, and certification is given to Cities reaching a certain level of standards.
Is this proposal for a practice or a project?
Practice
What actions do you propose?
- Build the Blue City Program standards, gathering existing benchmarks from across the globe.
- Build the mobile app
- Build the plateform to facilitate multiple local community currencies (blockchain with physical notes)
- Build the marketing and communication package and website
- Manage the community and Blue City program updates
- Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
- Manage the certification process of "Blue Cities" around the world.
Who will take these actions?
1) Blue city program owner:
- Build the Blue City Program standards, gathering existing benchmarks from across the globe.
- Build the mobile app
- Build the plateform to facilitate multiple local community currencies (blockchain with physical notes)
- Build the marketing and communication package and website
- Manage the community, and Blue City program updates
- Manage the certification process of "Blue Cities" around the world.
2) City town hall and administration:
- abide by the model and remove local regulatory obstacles.
- set up a Blue City Office to support all initiatives.
3) Any regional/governmental bodies who have an impact on a Blue City Standard.
4) Local entrepreneurs delivering products or services part of the Blue City Program standards
5) Any private company who provides/delivers any of the 5 amenities.
Where will these actions be taken?
Action can be tested in 1 city, 1 local community. Similar experiments have been done (example of Ungersheim in France)
The objective is to repeat it in a bigger city.
In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.
Belgium
Country 2
France
Country 3
Ireland
Country 4
No country selected
Country 5
No country selected
Impact/Benefits
What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?
Calculations are city specific, and also specific to the goal of every cities.
You can easily reach a carbon negative environment for a specific community/district.
The challenge will be for heavily industrialized areas, with major industrial plants. each case will have to be delt separately.
What are other key benefits?
- social: build communities in areas
- environmental: reduce waste, promote composting, increase planting trees
- political: build better environment = better political impact
- educational: ensure all blue standards are understood
- economical: reducing cost and waste will reduce bills. Using local community currencies will develop local businesses.
By:
