Thirteen small steps to a significantly better world
How simple ideas can save lives on Taiwan’s roads, make street lighting energy efficient in France and convince Brazilian children they really must go to the library.
Minnesota, USA
Free trade
Minnesota’s governing bodies realised that a) many people are too lazy – or too busy – to lug their unwanted sofa to the nearest tip and b) we all like to get something for nothing. So they launched a website to swap unwanted Christmas presents and unloved household goods. It’s free to list your unwanted goods and everything on the site will cost you... zilch, zip, nada. The Free Market has 75,000 users, more than 13,000 freebies have been snapped up and 2,000 tonnes have been diverted from landfill and recycling.
New York, USA
311, the kinder, gentler 911
Imagine if the council could help with such vague requests as: “Can you recycle stereos?” and “When does the free concert in the park start? I’m a bit worried about some yobs hanging around…” and deal with it in any of 170 languages.
That’s what 311, New York’s alternative hotline to 911, does. Through an elaborate tracing system, 311 helps identify what services are required where and sharpens the council’s focus on such localised problems as vandalism. After complaints about anti-social behaviour, the city has launched a big noise-reduction scheme, improving quality of life for millions of New Yorkers. Geomapping software displays streets with chronic pothole troubles and blocks battling graffiti – all integrated into custom dashboards on city officials’ laptops. Mayor Michael Bloomberg often calls in to report potholes.
Sweden
Rewarding recycling
Reverse vending machines are a simple, convenient way to keep your country tidy. Stick your empty can or bottle in a reverse vending machine and a special barcode identifies what material it is, then the machine recycles it and pays you roughly eight pence.
Operated by not-for-profit companies, there are 2,650 reverse vending machines in Sweden, many sited at supermarkets. There are 6,500 other redemption points throughout the country – where you can return bottles and cans not covered by the deposit scheme for cash.
Kent, UK
Helping the ageing
A ‘mob’ may conjure up images of an unruly group of teenagers but Kent County Council, working with the Design Council’s RED team, has created a mob to promote healthy and independent ageing.
The mob is a group of friends that regularly does a joint activity together, such as dog walking or gardening. Tight social groups and an activity based on current interest mean participants are more motivated and enjoy better mental health. ‘Welly mob’ is the name for the dog-walking group which, once it attracted six members, was given a free personal trainer.
Holland
Let there be more light
Keen to try alternatives to energy-guzzling street lighting, the council in Noord-Holland is using hard-wired flush- mounted intelligent road studs to depict bends on the rural N200 dual carriageway. Spaced so drivers think they're constantly illuminated, the studs offer ten times as much visibility as traditional cats eyes, which only light up as far as a car’s headlights reach. The new cats eyes give drivers more time to react, reduce light pollution and use 90% less energy than lighting.
Wellington, New Zealand
The clever parking meter
SmartPark, now used in 45 cities, started in New Zealand, where you buy or rent a hand-held meter for around £2.70 a month. You type in the area code on the meter, press OK and leave the machine on your dashboard or hanging from the rear-view mirror, switching it off on your return.
You only pay for the minutes you are parked, so you don’t have to guess how long that meeting will last or panic if you’re stuck in a shop queue. You just buy a card rather like a pre-paid payphone card and stick it in your meter until it runs out and needs replacing. The machine only charges when the zone isn’t free for parking.
Australia
The butts stop here
Over 20 billion cigarette butts are discarded in Australia every year – 58% of all public litter. One in ten gets washed down drains into oceans and river systems. Fisherman Gary Marshall was so fed up catching butts he invented the Enviro Pole, a steel pole with a swing butterfly opening big enough for butts but not rubbish. The pole is filled with water, so every butt is properly extinguished – essential in a country that has its own ‘bush fire’ season. They are cleaned using a vacuum extraction system connected to standard street sweeping machines.
If the world’s urban lighting produced 2% more luminosity per unit of energy, the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere would be reduced by six million tonnes. That’s 1% of the reduction laid down in the Kyoto protocol George Zissis, project coordinator, the European Union project NumeLite
Curitiba, Brazil
Libraries get a makeover
Often described as the most innovative city in the world because of its environmental initiatives and novel transport system, Curitiba has come up with another new idea – a chain of libraries known as the Lighthouses of Knowledge.
These brightly coloured, 52ft-high, lighthouse-shaped libraries contain about 7,000 books and are the first public terminals to offer internet access in Brazil. On the top of each lighthouse there’s a night-time watchtower with space for a light and a policeman, the idea being to keep the neighbourhood safe for children. The aim is to have a Lighthouse of Knowledge within walking distance of every child’s home.
Sheffield, UK
Reinventing the bus shelter
Dank, often vandalised and a haven for muggers – it’s a miracle bus shelters were ever a venue for romantic assignations. The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) wanted shelters where passengers could see and be seen. With design firm Abacus, SYPTE devised a shelter with floor-to-roof glass and a transparent polycarbonate barrel roof with illumination strips built in just above the roof base frame. The stop’s location is displayed on the side of the roof. Proper seating encourages teenagers to use the shelter as a mini-youth club. The shelters are already being used by other British councils.
Madrid, Spain
Street-smart furniture
The Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP) is designing a range of origami-inspired street furniture that should be easy to clean and maintain. Among the more stylish objects is a bus shelter, now being prototyped in Madrid. Photovoltaic cells in the roof store enough energy to light the advertisement panels and timetables, while the seating materials can cool down or heat up waiting passengers.
RRP has designed telephone boxes, litter bins, water fountains and bus shelters in a consistent style to avoid the usual municipal mish-mash. The furniture uses such new materials as polycarbonate-laminated panels to reduce wear and tear.
Albi, France
Bright lights, small city
Albi has halved the energy used for its urban lighting by using new metal halide lamps, with ceramic archtubes that efficiently produce white light. These lamps sit in fixtures designed to improve the light’s distribution while minimising its pollution. To save more energy, the system is adapted to suit the characteristics of the human eye, which at night is sensitive to wavelengths shifting toward blue.
The system produces more luminosity per unit of energy than conventional lighting. If this ratio improved by 2% in urban lighting across the globe, six million less tonnes of CO2 would be released into the atmosphere.
Taipei, Taiwan
The green crossing code
Pedestrians – and drivers – have less excuse for living dangerously in Taiwan. The lights at crossings tell pedestrians how many seconds they have left to cross and the green man stays still when motorists have priority and walks when pedestrians have right of way.
The new lights, now used throughout the Taiwanese capital Taipei, have calmed the city’s somewhat chaotic traffic. At first, an urban myth that the green man fell over every 20,000 paces led to many Taiwanese hanging around on street corners in the forlorn hope that they would see the iconic figure stumble.
Hong Kong, China
The most versatile card ever?
Nineteen ninety seven was a memorable year for Hong Kong. The British colony became part of China and a new contactless smartcard, the Octopus, revolutionised lives, inspiring London’s Oyster card. The Octopus started life as a simple way to pay fares and cut queues on public transport. Today around 95% of 16- to 65-year-olds own a card, making nine million transactions a day on them. You load up the card with cash then wave it in front of an Octopus processor. The built-in microchip deducts money each time you use it. The card is now used in fast food restaurants and convenience stores, accepted as an ID pass for offices and integrated into watches and mobile phones.
Article first published in Design Council Magazine, Issue 1, Winter 2006