Our colleague, Réka Tóth participated in the Climate-KIC Pioneers into Practice programme, and spent a month as guest-expert working on a pilot project of Helsinki in Kalasatama’s Sompasaari area.
As part of the Smart Kalasatama project, the area is being built into Smart City District of Helsinki. The vision is to offer residents one hour more a day. By offering smart services that improve traffic flow, logistics, local services and flexible working facilities, those who live in the area can save time every day.
To improve their sustainability targets and indicators, Réka did extensive research on existing frameworks to assess the sustainability and smartness of neighbourhoods and cities in general. She also examined the Sompasaari case from a holistic point of view: not just taken into account ICT and technology, but also social and economical aspects. Réka prepared a BREEAM Communities pre-assessment and interviewed more than ten people closely involved in the development of Kalasatama.
Her research concluded to the recognition of lack of holistic and ‘smart’ assessment methods considering social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability and the impact of implemented ICT on these aspects. People should be crucial part of the assessment: as occupant behavior monitoring is substantial in case of buildings, it would be essential for districts too. Read the whole interview on the website of fiksukalasatama.
