Sustainable Urban Lifestyles

How does urban infrastructure influence citizens?

Well, a lot of times we think about what an individual should do or can do to help address
environmental issues. And this is important, because our individual choices on what we
decide to purchase, how we furnish our homes. What we do with energy, whether we turn
off the lights etc, how warm we keep our houses, these are all really important.

But a lot of things are already embedded in the urban infrastructure. For example, does
your city have access to good public transport, whether it be trains or buses? How frequent
do they come? Do you have access to good cycling infrastructure? How do you move around
in your city? Do you need a car or can you live a car-free lifestyle?

Additionally, what kind of strategies does your city invest in for waste management? Do you
have good access to recycling facilities down around the corner? Or do you have to drive
your recyclables very far away? And then it's questionable whether or not one activity or the
other is better for the environment.

Of course, energy efficiency in buildings is hugely important. Do you live in a house where
you have to keep the thermostat up because it's really cold in the winter? Or does your
house already keep itself warm just by being well-insulated? Same thing for the summer,
depending on where you're living.

What influences environmental behavior?

There are many different factors, I should say, that influence someone's behavior. One of
them, for example, is your experiences. Are you used to taking the bus? Are you used to
driving a bicycle, for example?

Another one is what we call social norms. So we look to our peers, we look to our culture,
we look to our friends in terms of how to act and react. If a society, most people are
wearing helmets, you're more likely to wear a helmet on the bicycle. You're more likely to
buy your ticket for the bus or the train if everyone else around you is doing that. Or to wait,
I saw this myself this morning when I was walking across the street. No cars were coming,
but I waited. Because everyone around me was waiting before they crossed the street. So
norms are really important as well.

Another thing is demographics. Women tend to be, from many different studies, more
environmentally friendly. And the important thing of knowing this is not that we have to
fulfill stereotypes. But that we know how, when we communicate with people, how we then
would approach them. One other thing that I think is hugely important is convenience and
safety. Do you feel safe taking the bus at night? Do you feel safe walking or cycling at
night?

How is the city a consumer?

Yeah, a city or local authority's procurement policies are incredibly important. Because they
are a large organization and they can help steer procurement. So for example, whether they
decide to purchase renewable energy. Or they decide to purchase fair trade products or
ecological food.

How is the city a facilitator?

Well, this can be a variety of things. For example, the city or local government might fund a
particular program. They might offer trainings or they might work on communication
strategies.

A few of my favorites are in some of the Latin American cities. For example, Bogota or
Medellin where they have these cycling Sundays. And they close large portions of the city's
off and bring people out on the streets in to cycle or to practice yoga or to walk. And just
interact with the public space in a different way than they normally would by driving on it.

Malmo in Sweden had a fantastic strategy called no ridiculous car journeys. Where they
basically made fun of people driving short distances. They wore bright colors, orange, with
shiny silver helmets and they drove around the city. They had music concerts and they
really displayed how much easier it is to cycle in the city. So a lot of these are really about
enabling a certain type of behavior.

How is the city a provider?

The city, the local authority has a lot of ability to help people adopt a certain type of
behavior. In Scandinavia, especially in cities like Malmo, Lund and Copenhagen, you have
excellent cycling infrastructure. And so the city is making sure that there are good accessible
bike lanes. But it's not just about bike lanes, it's also about all the other infrastructure. For
example, good air pumps, good safe places to park your bike or to fix your bike. And all of
this, these cities are working to look at the big picture of how this particular behavior is
enacted. And provide infrastructure the whole way through.

How is the city a regulator?

Yeah, mostly cities don't like to use regulation. They're trying to enable particular behavior.
But sometimes it is a very effective strategy. For example, the cities of Stockholm and
London have adopted congestion charges to limit car driving in the centers of the city. In
the beginning this met with lots of critique. But both cities have now really improved
because of this.

There's been a limit of driving, an increase in air quality etc. Cities like Basel actually require
green roofs on all new buildings. And in Barcelona they work with trying to increase solar
panels by regulating them on new buildings.

How is the city a coordinator?

Cities more and more work with partnerships. So one of the best examples of a large scale
program on this is the Rotterdam Climate Initiative. And this is between the local authority,
several of the businesses, large scale businesses in the Rotterdam port and also some
national authorities. And together, they're trying to address climate change, both mitigation
adaptation across the city.
On a smaller scale, cities are also working with citizens, for example in urban agricultural
policies. This has been done in cities like Malmo or Amsterdam. Where the local authority
might provide certain things like funding or land. And then citizens are using this to help
green the city while also working with food policies.

What is the role of local authorities in promoting sustainability?

Well, in terms of infrastructure provision, local authorities are important in terms of planning
a city, in planning the different spaces. Increasingly though, you have energy companies
which play a very important role in terms of what energy is accessible in a city. You have
housing authorities, developers and architects that are influencing what kind of buildings
we're living in.

But citizens are also important, both in terms of their individual choices, but to keep these
different actors accountable. To promote and push for better cycling infrastructure or better
green spaces or better energy policies. So collectively they can all work together. Now this
doesn't always happen. But if it does, we can help to create cities that really are increasingly
more sustainable.

Which strategies help to influence behavior?

Well, there are a lot of different strategies out there that look to how to promote a certain
sort of sustainable behavior. One of them that I have come across is called community
based social marketing. It has many different parts and I can't explain them all here. But
one of the most important ones is to look at barriers, perceived barriers. And why people
would not want to partake in a particular type of activity.

So, for example, taking the bus. Why do people not want to take the bus? Many people
think it's not clean, it's expensive, it takes too much time etc. But if you can shift where
those barriers actually are and you can say actually it's not that expensive, you can use the
bus, the time on the bus, to do other activities. You can show them when it comes, how
frequent it comes. You can help to slowly shift the behavior towards something more
sustainable. Now, there are a lot of different parts of that, so that's this first part of it.

Another very important part is to look at the different audiences. Many times we create a
message for everyone. But if you can have the chance to really target your message to
either youth, or to a particular neighborhood, or a particular group in society, then you can
help people connect closer to the issue.

Looking at local leaders is also really important. So maybe someone who stands out in a
neighborhood, who can help you promote a certain activity. This will get more people on
board on the particular behavior. And help to shift individuals, but also neighborhoods
towards a more sustainable urban lifestyle.
Sharing Economy and Cities – an introduction

Sharing City Sweden is a national program for the sharing economy in cities. The
program aims to put Sweden on the map as a country that actively and critically works with
sharing cities. The sharing economy can contribute to social environmental and economic
sustainability. And sharing cities can unlock new opportunities and solve Urban challenges
by facilitating and applying the sharing economy.

Sharing cities are all about making interconnections between the sharing economy and
urban development local communities and ICT and digital platforms.

The program is carried out within viable cities, a strategic innovation program for
smart and sustainable cities. Jointly funded by the Swedish Innovation Agency, the
Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Research Council for Environment Agricultural
Sciences and Spatial planning. We will develop world leading test beds for the sharing
economy in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Lumia. And we will develop a national node
to significantly improve national and international cooperation and promote an exchange of
experience on sharing cities.

Through the test beds, sharing services and digital platforms will be developed and the
opportunities and risks of the sharing economy will be tested and evaluated. The program
will be conducted in collaboration with business, the public sector, civil society and
academia. And the sharing services that will be developed in the test beds will relate to the
1) utilization of spaces like housing, green infrastructure, shared public space and the 2)
utilization of goods and services like tools clothing and toys. And the program will also
include transport and mobility. The underlying aim of the program is to strengthen
Sweden's work for global sustainability goals, and to strengthen Sweden's competitiveness
by developing new services and companies in the context of the sharing economy.
Sharing Economy and Cities – key topics

My name is Harmen Van Sprang and I'm the co-founder of two organizations. One is Share
NL, which is an organization that develops the sharing economy with an eye for
opportunities and for challenges. The other organization is a foundation which is called the
Sharing Cities Alliance. So the Sharing Cities Alliance is a foundation fostering collaboration
between city governments. On the one hand, we have the organization Share NL, with
which I've been working with for a few years now. There we believe in working with the
entire playing field within the sharing economy. So individuals and platforms and cities and
companies. But we see more and more cities moving up and having to deal with the sharing
economy and also with a lot of challenges there and therefore we believe that it's really
interesting and also good to have a secure place where city governments and only city
governments can exchange information and insights and policy, etc., and learn from each
other and also collaborate on projects.

How would you define the sharing economy?

There are a lot of different definitions, but if you would really break it down, it's the
possibility for example, two people to exchange a good or a service between each other. So
take that example of a car or for example, a power drill or a meal. Most of the times they
are just available in your own neighborhood and your neighbor or somebody in the same
housing block has that drill or has that car or cooks that meal that is just available to you.
What we see of course, is that technology like an app is making it possible that if you would
visualize the block of apartments that are living, then that app is opening up all those doors
and seeing what is there available for you or what you can of course, supply to other people
in your neighborhood.

Why should cities work with the sharing economy?

What you see is that cities mostly are becoming more dense over the coming years, even
more and more people will move to cities. So it's like a mural painting in the heart of
Amsterdam, which says, "I play in the city with everything that is already there," and that's
a mural painting near a school, so it's a quote by a pupil there. But for me that's a metaphor
of the sharing economy in a city. Everything is there, all those goods and services are there,
only they're maybe not so well distributed and if we make them more visible, then I think
you can better deal also with all the challenges that the city has, for example, congestion
with mobility or, for example, people helping each other out in their neighborhoods.

So you have a platform in Amsterdam, which is called The Helping or We Help, where
people just help each other out because, for example, if you broke your leg and you have to
go somewhere and I have a day off, then I can bring you to the place. Those things are the
oldest in the book and really logical. But somehow, we also tend to forget those things, to
help each other out, we have to rely on each other and that is where the sharing economy
partly comes in. So it's an app and a website and you just turn that to, of course, like every
platform in the sharing economy is a marketplace with supply and demand and you can just
either put a question there or you can offer your help there. The interesting thing at this
moment, there is more supply of help on this platform than there is demand.

What is happening in Amsterdam?

Well, the ecosystem, so to say, of sharing economy platforms in Amsterdam is quite rich and
diverse. So there are quite some car-sharing initiatives, of course, going on and they are
also growing rapidly. The few years already ago, the city of Amsterdam had a pilot where
they said, "If you hand in your parking permits as a citizen, then you get €300 of a car-
sharing voucher." So I was one of the people doing that and saying, "Okay, I just got rid of
my car because it's standing idle 90 percent of the time." In general, doesn't make sense in
like mostly you're on the bike in Amsterdam.

So quite some mobility, there's energy sharing, more and more people are also producing
energy of course, for example, through solar roofs, etc. So you see that there is a great
initiative to share energy, the food sharing as I mentioned, of course, the goods to
household appliances.

We have an initiative called Peerby, which is Amsterdam based and where you just can most
of the tools all the time for free, borrow something from a neighbor also makes sense. I
mean, why own a drill while everybody has one.

What is working on as a city government is we need to try to see if it can expand the
sharing economy also, but also with an eye for the challenges there. For example, we have
quite some Airbnb going on in the city of Amsterdam which is partly good because it
spreads to tourism. But on the other hand of course, you don't want people to extract their
homes from the housing markets, and that is something that, for example, Amsterdam as a
government has been working on to make regulation around it and to keep it like a level
playing field with also the traditional hotel industry.

In general, you see that most of the Dutch platforms are social entrepreneurs and social
enterprises really wanting to have impact in a social or sustainable matter, which is an
interesting alternative for some of the bigger platforms that are worldwide.

What is happening in the world?

For example, the city of Barcelona is really working on the more common side of the sharing
economy. So it wants to turn away a little bit from the bigger platforms are really give it
back, so to say to the people and so for example, thinking about regulation around sharing
economy, Barcelona really crowdsourced that regulation with its citizens. This is something
that you see, this is more commons-based strategy or platform corporatism as they
sometimes call it.

Also in the City of Ghent, in Belgium, Berlin a little. It's really important to just get together.
I mean, in the end Reiki regulation is up to the people that as their current job. But you can
crowdsource, of course, by organizing several events, where you get different
stakeholders together and that has also been our experience with my other organizations
Share NL in the Netherlands, that it's really always good to get everybody to the table
instead of just working with one perspective. That's also maybe a bit of a Dutch approach
to also get always everybody to the table. It's not the easiest, but it's good to do, I think,
and gives the best success, hopefully for the future also to stick around the sharing
economy.

In a lot of countries, it's still quite coming up, so you have the regular bigger platforms, but
is quite coming up. For example, take in Japan where they're also moving up in the sharing
economy, is that they are more focusing on rural areas to say, okay, can the sharing
economy partly be an answer to smaller rural cities that are maybe becoming smaller,
because young people move to the biggest cities.

So for example, the sharing economy, they partly an answer to keep your city more
attractive. If you'd look at Singapore, they are trying to see if they can build more social
cohesion with the sharing economy because it's quite a new country. You know, it's like less
than 60 years, I think, independent, and it trying to still build the DNA, so to say, of the
society, and seeing if the sharing economy could partly be an answer to that, which is
interesting.

Another take is Seoul in South Korea, where they are, for example, looking into how they
can combine housing for students with senior citizens. So senior citizens live quite near a
university. Can maybe, students lived in those homes and partly also do some small tasks
for those senior citizens, which is, I think, also great connections between two generations.
So yeah, there's a lot of opportunities, and also, of course, really depends on the character
of a city and also the problems that might arise in the city. For example, also like isolation.
If senior citizens become alone, then it's interesting to bring in the new generation and see
if there was a connection for both.

What challenges have you faced with the sharing economy?

For example, Airbnb and other platforms in the housing markets, congestion and pollution in
your city and public space by all those cars. So we can be divide it better, regulation might
not be in place anymore. Tax is an issue. So for example, when are you still an individual?
Sometimes delivering a service in the sharing economy. When are you an entrepreneur?
Then of course, different tax, rules apply. Safety is an important one. So if you're cooking a
meal, is it safe? How do we see to it that that is monitored? Innovation, so of course, if you
give room and of course monetary, but if you give room to it, then there's more innovation
and I think that is also good for entrepreneurship and for economy, etc.

In different fields and areas there are challenges, but in general, I think it's good to mainly
give way to a sharing economy and just see how it evolves, through Fedora or Deliveroo,
etc. There you see that, work is changing and the worker rights and employee rights are
different. That is something that is also moving up in different regions in the world. So it's
really exciting and a lot of different things are coming up everywhere. So we have to
address it and balance always between the two sides, of the story, the opportunities and the
challenges.

What is your hope for the future?

Everybody has his mission and vision, of course, with our organization, that is really our
vision for the longer run. A better quality of life, because we have better access to a lot
of goods and services that make us happy and connected and more sustainable. Right now,
in most situations, you will just balance and say, "Okay, I can buy this and I can buy this,
and if I have more income, I can buy this," etc., is always about buying and having. Of
course, we're moving a bit away in a sharing economy from owning to having more
access. That will have the opportunity to have a much more variety there in your daily life.
It's also, I think, empowering citizens to be a bit more independent because they can
be a provider also of course, of those services around the sharing economy. So in general,
the empowerment of citizens, maybe more balanced cities, and I think also partly,
an answer just needed because we have limited resources in his world.

In general, you see technology coming into our lives more and more, that's not new. But
you see that there is more thought leadership needed around the ethical part of it. So when
is it still contributing to your life and when is it more maybe so to say, invading your life?
Are people aware of this? So that is I think something that is also important, to educate
people and make them aware of all the pluses and minuses of the sharing
economy, but also in general, modern technology in your lives.
WWF Consumption

It is vital that cities create solutions that help citizens live sustainably. For example, by
promoting reuse, recycling, and sharing and pooling of goods, which clearly demonstrates
how work to reduce our carbon footprint is closely related to broader social and lifestyle
issues.

For Botkyrka, the youngest and most multi-ethnic municipality in Sweden, it's been crucial to
work simultaneously with social, economic, and ecological issues of urban
sustainable development. Botkyrka demonstrates how it's possible to connect and build
on local businesses and resources to create synergies for urban sustainable development.
The project Earth.Re.Create Botkyrka, for example, aims at creating a network of young
designers and social entrepreneurs interested in sustainable fashion and design. The
fundamental idea is to raise awareness for complex issues, like climate change and human
rights, via subjects that are relevant to most young people in Sweden today.

Kalmar is another example of a municipality making a big impression in the area of

sustainable lifestyle approaches.

Climate Pilots was a project where 12 households were given 12 climate tasks each month
for 12 months. On average, participating households lowered their carbon dioxide emission
by 32% without any negative effects on their quality of life, comfort, or economy.

Climate Pilots received a great deal of media coverage, and has since been replicated
in other municipalities in Sweden and abroad. The project has been followed with the
Climate Pledge Campaign, which is a cooperation between 12 municipalities in the Kalmar
region, and whose aim is to support inhabitants' transition to a climate-friendly
lifestyle.
The Urban Green - Part 4

>> Gothenburg in Sweden has been recognized for its innovative climate strategies,
the introduction of green bonds and for its work to decrease residents' consumption-based
carbon emissions. Another key to success is cooperation with academia and the
financial sector.

>> I think the reason for the success story about Gothenburg and the environmental work,
and especially climate work is that we have good cooperation. And one example, for
instance, like when we together with a Volvo and others built the new completely, new
electric bus. A bus which didn't exist, but we decided that we want that bus and the city
planned in their way. Volvo planned, of course, with creating the bus and the bus was there
after less than two years. And now you see, the light green bus going up and down the
streets of Gothenburg.

>> Gothenburg is a leading city when it comes to looking at the larger picture. For example,
taking its residents' consumption-based carbon footprint into account when considering how
they impact the environment.

>> A consumption-based carbon footprint means that when we calculate the emissions in
the city, from the citizens, we not only look at the emissions that are emitted within
the city's borders, we also take into account our consumption of products and
services that causes emissions in other countries and other parts of Sweden. By
doing so, we also get new perspectives on which climate issues that we have to focus on.

Normally, when we have a geographical perspective, that it's the traditional way in cities and
countries. There's a lot of focus on transport, energy production and industry and that's
important. But with the consumption-based carbon footprints, we're also going to focus on
the consumption of food, the consumption on air travel and other kind of consumption.

>> In 2008, green bonds was launched by the World Bank as a tool to guarantee that
money is invested in sustainable projects. Gothenburg was the first city in the world to issue
such bonds.

>> I think the corner stone for green bonds is its simplicity. The essence of the green
bond is that is earmarked money in that way. When we issue a bond, we offer the
investors the opportunity to invest in specific projects, so they know exactly where their
money is going. So far, we have invested in electric cars, biogas production and also in
water purification filter. When you take those two extremely strong forces, finance and
sustainability and make them move forward together, you create something really exciting
actually.

>> Sometimes there is a political will for sustainable change, but the city lacks the
financial resources to see it through. One such example of how to help bridge the gap
between private and public sectors is the Swedish company Sustainable Lifestyle
Scandinavia.

>> The world is facing a huge challenge in the coming decades with close to three billion
people moving into urban districts, which means that we have to take on a sustainable
approach in order to build the urban environments. And there, we saw that the political will
is there, but there is a lack of know-how, knowledge and capital and that's where we and
Sustainable Lifestyle Scandinavia bridge that gap.

>> The concept has already been proven successful and is now being implemented in the
Chongyang County in China where private capital is fueling the sustainable expansion of the
city.

>> Chongyang County can be regarded as virgin land with rich ecological diversity so I
worry about pollution connected to the great wave of industrial development in this area.
And we’re doing our best to ensure thaw we have a sustainable approach to the
construction and urban development of Chongyang.

>> Chongyang is an area very rich in ecological resources, but our infrastructure is lagging
behind. We’re very interested in working together with new friends and partners in order to
build a beautiful Chongyang, while protecting the environment during our development.

>> The first step is making a demonstration project to secure governmental

support. The next step is making the master planning and the infrastructure design
and then come attracting the finance, the capital and then final step is
implementation.