Amsterdam Brings New/Old Views on Climate Change

The Dutch eat some unusual things for my American tastes---the herring being just the beginning. I've found that I'm not a fan of their "between the bread" options, which usually involve raw salmon or too much mayo or too many onions. So, I readily admit, after a week of Dutch conference catering, I am not a fan of the Dutch sandwich.

But, I am a fan of Dutch innovation and initiatives. And, today, I got to see one in person: Amsterdam's Smart City Climate Street project.

Behind the front doors of the shops, cafes, and restaurants of Utrechtstraat is a push toward the efficient, the effective and the sustainable. This, specifically, is the Climate Street project, but that project is just one of many within the Amsterdam Smart City plan, with its total of 15 various projects pushing sustainable living, working and mobility.

The total projects making up Amsterdam's Smart City planning are well past the second phase, with a third phase scheduled for Sept. 2010 and completion in line for 2011. Despite how organized and engineering focused it all sounds, the projects began on the less static end of things, with what the group labels "the entrepreneurs."

"You can over-engineer smart city programs," stated Maikel van Verseveld, a partner with Accenture (a company that, in turn, partners with Smart City) in an interview during the POWERGRID Europe 2010 conference. "Amsterdam Smart City has been under-engineered from the start."

That might sound a bit scary---under-engineering a tech project---but thinking from the standpoint of the consumer, both residential and retail, has helped them build real enthusiasm for the projects involved in Amsterdam Smart City, according to van Verseveld and Ilse van den Breemer, the project manager sustainability for the Amsterdam Innovation Motor (another Smart City partner).

"You can design things to death," van Verseveld continued, stating that boundaries need to be pushed on the social/societal end of things for projects to really push change. It helps find middle ground and foster real adaptation.

One area on the cusp of that boundary, that edge of adaptation is Climate Street in Amsterdam, where a group of retailers, store owners, bar and restaurant owners came together to prove that the technologies of climate change (solar, EVs, energy scans) can be very useful to the end-user as well as a municipality.

Climate Street is a collection of about 140 entrepreneurs split down the middle, pretty much, between bars/restaurants and shops. Construction on the projects along the street began in September 2009 and will continue past its original end date (December of this year) into 2011.

"The entrepreneurs wanted to do something positive," said Maaike Osieck, manger of communications with Amsterdam Smart City at a personal POWERGRID Europe tour of the area. "They started this push to do something sustainable in the area."

The group along Climate Street have been participating in small pilots and tests for awhile now with a larger rollout to begin within a few months. One participant, a fabulous five-building music store called Concerto, saw a 43% savings in energy (specifically with lighting) with their first pilot attempt.

As Climate Street and the overall Amsterdam Smart City projects move closer to completion, it will show the world just how new technologies can push into old corners of an old town and change culture from within.