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En fælles platform for grønne ildsjæle

Hos Greencubator er det målet at få bæredygtighed og iværksætteri til at smelte sammen. Pioner har talt med folkene bag det grønne kontorfællesskab.

AF MIKKEL DYRING DOHN

Det kan være svært at se det, hvis man ikke lige ved det. Men over shawarma-osen fra King of Kebabs åbne vindue på Nørrebrogade er facaden malet mørkegrøn. Det har den været siden 2015, hvor Greencubator for første gang slog dørene op for at byde velkommen til et bæredygtigt iværksætterhus.

På mange måde ligger det i selve navnet, hvad Greencubator gerne vil. Sammentrækningen mellem ’grøn’ og ’inkubator’ markerer foreningens formål om at støtte, vejlede og udvikle grønne virksomheder. Alligevel er navnet ikke længere helt præcist. I hvert fald ikke hvis man spørger Stine Kondrup, der sammen med Mads Lønneberg driver Greencubator til daglig:

”Vores navn er måske lidt misvisende i dag, fordi ’green’ helt naturligt refererer til miljø og det grønne, mens Greencubator har udviklet sig til også at handle om bæredygtighed i bredere forstand. Både i forhold til socialt entreprenørskab og i forhold til økonomi. Vi kan ikke komme uden om, at den økonomiske bundlinje er lige så vigtig som alt det andet, hvis man vil drive en virksomhed. Hvis man vil gøre en forskel, bliver man nødt til at tænke alle tre parametre sammen, og det forsøger vi at gøre her.”


Partnerskab: Mads Lønneberg (tv.) og Stine Kondrup (th.) har sammen ført Greencubator mange trin op ad udviklingstrappen.

Drømmen om at revolutionere dansk iværksætteri

Idéen om at oprette et fælleskab for bæredygtige virksomheder opstod, ifølge Mads Lønneberg, ud fra en frustration. Rundt omkring var der massere af tilbud til iværksættere, der ønskede at starte en selvstændig virksomhed op, men ikke rigtig nogen, hvor bæredygtigheden var tænkt ind fra start af. Samtidig havde havde han erfaret, hvor konkurrencepræget iværksættermiljøet var, uden at det nødvendigvis gavnede den enkelte:

”Jeg har oplevet på egen krop, at der er meget spidse albuer i iværksættermiljøet. Det er mig først, min idé, alle er konkurrenter. Det gør mange små virksomheder meget sårbare, for alle konkurrerer om de samme fondsmidler og måske også de samme kunder,” siger han.

I stedet for at få blå mærker af at kæmpe sig frem på bekostning af andre, ville han med Greencubator skabe et sparringsrum, hvor man var kollegaer frem for modstandere, og hvor man ville kunne få gavn af hinandens kvaliteter. Og det mener Stine Kondrup, stadig er det vigtigste i dag:

”Det vi prøver med Greencubator er virkelig at italesætte fælleskabet. At vi sammen kan udvikle og udveksle idéer og kompetencer, lave samarbejder på tværs og prøve at tænke hinanden ind som kollegaer og partnere i stedet for som konkurrenter.”


Grøn: Greencubators facade skiller sig ud blandt Nørrebrogades mange pizza og shawarma-barer.

Fællesskabets hjælpende hånd

Helt lavpraktisk er Greencubator et kontorfællesskab. I øjeblikket sidder der 20 virksomheder sammen, hvoraf nogle er mere selvstændige og har ikke et lige så stort behov for samarbejde eller investorer som andre. For Stine Kondrups egen virksomhed ’Intugreen’ – en mobilapp, der har til formål at motivere folk til at komme ud i naturen – har fælleskabet dog haft en kæmpe betydning.

”For mig har det betydet rigtig meget. Mig og min partner i firmaet Jonas har lavet mange samarbejder og fået nogle store kunder ved at kunne lave fondsansøgninger sammen med nogle af de andre i Greencubator. Det gør det meget nemmere, at man kan gå forbi folks kontorplads og sige: ’hey, skal vi ikke lige drikke en kop kaffe sammen og kigge på den ansøgning’, i stedet for at skrive mails hele tiden. Det gør det både sjovere og nemmere i sådan en proces.”

En anden, der har haft stor glæde af fælleskabsfølelsen er Pia Rathsach, der med sin virksomhed GoGreen Danmark har haft fast kontorplads hos Greencubator siden projektets start. Hun understreger, at det har gjort en kæmpe forskel for hende at sidde med nogle artsfæller, der som hende selv brænder for at fremme bæredygtigheden i Danmark.

”Der ligger utrolig meget synergi, at man sidder sammen med nogle, der vil det samme som en selv i forhold til at fremme hele den grønne tankegang. Samtidig er det her det første sted, jeg har siddet som selvstændig, hvor jeg har følt, at jeg har kollegaer. Vi følger tæt med i hinandens idéer og udfordringer, og det betyder rigtig meget for sammenholdet.”

Eksterne samarbejdspartnere har givet pote

Ud over den interne hjælp de forskellige virksomheder tilbyder hinanden, har Greencubator også etableret et ’Advisory Board’ og samarbejder med forskellige væksthuse for at sikre, at de grønne ildsjæle og projektmagere bliver ledt i en økonomisk bæredygtig retning.
I starten blev ’Boardet’ brugt flittigt til at hjælpe med de mere overordnede ting iværksætterne havde brug, fordi de stort set alle sammen var på det samme niveau rent udviklingsmæssigt og endnu ikke havde fået hul igennem til det marked, hvor de ønskede at være. Men i takt med at virksomhederne begyndte at udvikle sig i forskellige retninger, ændrede behovet sig også. Derfor begyndte de i Greencubator at lave workshops og mindre forløb med personlig sparring. Og i løbet af 2017 trådte ’Advisory Boardet’, ifølge Stine Kondrup, lidt i baggrunden for at give plads til endnu mere effektiv hjælp:

”Der er ikke det samme behov for Advisory Boardet længere, fordi vi har fået et partnerskab med Væksthus Hovedstadsregionen og Connect Denmark, der gør hjælpen meget mere specifik fra virksomhed til virksomhed. Jeg screener vores virksomheder og sørger for, at de kommer i kontakt med de rigtige. For flere af virksomhederne har det betydet, at de er ekspanderet på rigtig kort tid.”

For Pia Rathsach betød screeningen at hendes virksomhed fik etableret et samarbejde med Connect Denmark, og det har været en stor hjælp, mener hun.

”Det har hjulpet mig i forhold til at skabe et fokus omkring, hvad det er GoGreen skal og ikke skal. Når man render rundt med en masse kreative idéer, kan det nogle gange være svært også at have fokus på at skulle drive en forretning. Og her har den professionelle sparing, jeg har fået gennem Connect Denmark været meget værdifuld. ”

Et af de step Pia Rathsach har taget, efter hun blev en del af Greencubators fælleskab, er at ændre virksomhedens profil fra at være centreret omkring København til at blive landsdækkende. Her har i særdeleshed den tekniske assistance, hun er blevet tilbudt i huset, haft afgørende betydning. Visionen for GoGreen Danmark er nu at forbrugere, uanset hvor de befinder sig i landet, let skal kunne finde frem til de steder omkring dem, hvor de kan handle grønt og gøre en bæredygtig forskel med deres pengepung. Til det formål er Pia Rathsach i gang med at lancere en app, som hun håber kan omfatte Danmarks ti største byer allerede i løbet af 2018.


Vejviser: Pia Ratsach fra Go Green Danmark (tv) udpeger bæredygtige adresser på sit bykort.)

Netværket er blevet større

Det er dog ikke kun GoGreen Danmark, der har vokseværk i øjeblikket. Også generelt er der, ifølge Stine Kondrup, sket meget i Greencubator det seneste års tid, hvor huset har taget springet fra blot at være et kontorfælleskab til i højere grad at være et grønt vidensnetværk og en platform for politiske arrangementer:

”I dag bliver Greencubator brugt til at afholde en masse arrangementer udefra, hvor vi bare udlejer vores lokaler. Man kan mærke, at vi er blevet et navn derude, og folk begynder at komme til os med deres projekter. Vi er ikke et konsulenthus, men vi har så mange forskellige kompetencer og ressourcer i huset, og det bliver der lagt mærke til. Vores netværk er blevet ret stort.”

I løbet af 2018 skulle netværket gerne vokse sig endnu større. Her har Greencubator som målsætning at udvide horisonten og få et internationalt præg, og allerede nu er der et samarbejde i støbeskeen i forhold til at skrive Greencubator ind i et stort EU-projekt om bæredygtigt iværksætteri. Men selvom de grønne vinger begynder at række længere, vil det vigtigste for Stine Kondrup altid være, at de kan bære deres egen vægt:

”Det vigtigste er, at platformen er bæredygtig i sig selv. At fælleskabet kan bære det. Og at der fortsat vil være en følelse af fælles ejerskab. Vi er jo non-profit forening, så der er ingen af os, der ønsker at skulle tjene en masse penge på Greencubator. Vi ønsker bare at kunne hjælpe hinanden og styrke grønt iværksætteri.”

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Growing Urban Communities; One Tomato at a Time

By Nicole Andreou

Rooftop tomatoes, planters and homegrown oyster mushrooms are not your everyday social innovator. And yet, TagTomat, an urban gardening initiative based in Nørrebro and spread across Copenhagen, is bringing out the best in us.

The pride and joy of TagTomat was – and still is – their garden installations on Griffenfeldsgade in Nørrebro. Going beyond urban gardening principles and enhancing potential, the project highlights a number of social aspects of life in Copenhagen, as well as a success story in community building.

In collaboration with the local shop owners, TagTomat set up planters, bench booths, as well as a completely new atmosphere in the street.

“The core value of TagTomat is not in the vegetables and plants themselves. It is in everything around it – the community, the knowledge generated, and the creation of urban school gardens”, says Mads Boserup Lauritsen, architect, founder and owner of TagTomat.

Griffenfeldsgade has become an alternative open-space urban garden; a city showroom of what can be, with the residents – or in this case, the shop owners – responsible for maintaining the space. This urban fabric, as Mads explains it, has developed into the mechanism for providing quality community life in the public realm.

Community Action  © TagTomat

TagTomat as a community building project

From its base in the heart of Nørrebro, TagTomat reaches across Copenhagen’s social structure. With bench booths, planters and local support much more is grown than mere tomatoes. A greater sense of belonging and community is spreading alongside the budding vegetables; features like wellbeing, integration and community resilience are now recognised and embraced by people involved and bystanders alike.

The urban scenery has become more than asphalt and vehicles. It now connects to social capacity as well as the residents’ potential to establish collective positive behaviour and a feeling of ownership towards their immediate environment. TagTomat helped lay the foundation stone for this process – it devised a strategy for urban planning that exponentially scaled up to shape change.

Projects like this one tap into the concept of social capital and play a catalyst role in developing trust, collective responsibility and sustainable neighbourhoods.

A hobby forms a sustainable business plan

It was back in 2011 that Mads Boserup Lauritsen started growing tomatoes in his own residence block’s backyard. On the roof of the recycling storeroom, he still keeps a small green space where himself and fellow residents grow the tomatoes they consume.

Between 2011 and 2014, when Mads finally registered TagTomat as a company, he held voluntary workshops in this very backyard, funded by Nørrebro Lokaludvalg. The workshops aimed at illustrating the art of urban gardening, and how Copenhageners could create their own sustainable communities. One of the first things TagTomat did to ensure its financial survival, was to produce planters that they were able to sell. The profits from sales allowed the team the time and resources to develop their green ideas, and ultimately to focus on activities connected to community engagement.

Mads at Taghaven © TagTomat

Beyond the collaboration with Nørrebro Lokaludvalg, TagTomat has also worked closely with several municipalities across Denmark. When a project expands beyond a private garden, and an entire community becomes an active part of it, it is only natural that its institutions will attempt to identify with it. In this respect, institutions often support initiatives in line with the community building cause.

Growing out of Husumgade

In the early months of TagTomat, its two-person team started with guided tours of green spaces across the city. When in August 2012 Politiken published an article about TagTomat and the idea surrounding it, the project skyrocketed. In a similar fashion Social Media as a valuable supplement campaign tool, has lent a hand in communicating and promoting the work done by TagTomat.

Nevertheless, the message advanced by TagTomat’s communication strategy is not a business promotion per se. It is mostly connected to the idea that sustainability is not a foreign concept, and that creating an urban gardening open source that makes ideas, theories and applications available for uncomplicated replication is possible.

“What we do is not rocket science. It is a practical application of ideas that are free to download on our homepage. It’s innovation, but it’s not difficult”.

If Mads had to pin down what it takes to be an urban gardener, he would ask one to take a look at their surroundings and identify the spot where they can make a difference; be it on their third floor balcony, or the City Hall square.

With an idea as simple as greening one’s surroundings, TagTomat, or any other similar initiative, can really make a difference in citizen interaction. Creating a livable city, where one can bring value to an area adjacent to their private or professional setting, can be the organic way to act and react on contemporary social and environmental threats.

2018’s mushroom hit

Mushroom Growing Kits have been around for some time, and have appealed to many, yet, were not as popular within the Danish market. Hence, SvampeBox (Mushroom Box), TagTomat’s latest product, revolutionises home gardening in a fun way.

SvampeBox © TagTomat

The team has developed a very simple model for mushroom growing – mycelium and hay in a used milk carton. Then a recycled paper cover with a touch of graphics was all it took to reach the average private customer who loves oyster mushrooms.

“The more touch points we have with a person, the easier it is for them to be involved. The response was instant.”

The product was developed in mid November 2017, launched in December, and TagTomat has thus far sold over 600 boxes – some even in a Christmas gift box.

Beyond engaging and truly fascinating, the mushroom project could, perhaps, be the deal sealer for sustainable family bonding!

You can:

  •  Visit the showroom and the rooftop tomatoes at Husumgade 2, København 2200
  • Visit TagTomat’s webshop to initiate your own home gardening project, or participate in a masterclass
  • Follow TagTomat on Instagram and Facebook

Read more:

 

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In the Wake of Uber, a Local, Non-Profit Ridesharing Solution

In the Wake of Uber, a Local, Non-Profit Ridesharing Solution

The app RideAustin has reinvented ridesharing with a local, non-profit model for and by the community. Could locally developed non-profit apps be the ridesharing future?

BY MATHILDE LIND GUSTAVUSSEN

In June 2016, a new non-profit ridesharing app called RideAustin launched in Austin, Texas. The app presented itself as a local alternative to global corporations like Uber. Austin is the state capital of Texas, nestled in the state’s picturesque Hill Country region. The city is renowned as a progressive stronghold in a conservative state and for its annual music and media festival South by Southwest. In recent years, it has also become a hotbed for creative industries and socially conscious startups like RideAustin.

As in many other cities across the US and Europe, Austin saw a surge in Uber activity in the years leading up to RideAustin’s launch. Though Uber’s business model has encountered resistance, ridesharing has become integral to any urban transit future. As a model of transit, ridesharing promotes safety while reducing car congestion and air pollution. And especially in mid-sized US cities like Austin, where the sprawl and lack of density can make it difficult to track down a taxi, ridesharing has become a convenient transit alternative for urban dwellers with smartphones.

A RideAustin BILLBOARD IN CLARKSVILLE, AUSTIN

But in Austin, and in many other cities “disrupted” by the arrival of Uber, citizens and local politicians grew increasingly critical of the working conditions, poor vetting procedures, and reports of sexism and racial insensitivity at the global ridesharing app. Critics argued that Uber’s business model, predicated on undercutting competitors’ prices by maintaining a precarious network of freelance drivers with minimum vetting costs and no employee benefits, needed stricter regulation. Responding to these criticisms, Austin’s city government initiated a process to draft new regulations for ridesharing companies.

A Referendum on Public Safety

In 2016, Austin implemented mandatory fingerprint background checks for rideshare drivers—an ordinance already imposed on the city’s taxi and bus drivers. But Uber and its main US competitor, Lyft, refused to comply with these regulations, and spent $8 million on a campaign to have the fingerprint bill repealed.

When the ridesharing apps lost the citywide referendum, they left Austin, claiming the new regulations made their business untenable. While critics were happy to see Uber and Lyft go, their departure left behind a substantial gap in the urban transit market, as well as a network of unemployed drivers and stranded passengers. This paved the way for innovative approaches to ridesharing that could utilize Austin’s existing infrastructure of drivers and passengers—one of those was RideAustin. Developed in just five weeks by local tech entrepreneurs, it rolled out operations soon after the global apps exited.

A Local, Non-Profit Model

The non-profit app, powered by volunteer tech workers and donations, collaborates with the city government to create a service that fits the needs, municipal safety regulations, and culture of the community. “Local rideshare apps are better because the local companies understand the local market, what makes Austin Austin” says Bobbi Komminemi, RideAustin’s VP of Strategic Programs and Operations

From the beginning, RideAustin implemented fingerprint background checks of its drivers. “RideAustin is the only rideshare in Austin that provides 100 percent fingerprinting of drivers. All our drivers go through the same vetting process as other municipality-regulated transportation companies,” says Bobbi Komminemi. As an additional safety feature, the app’s “Female Driver Mode” allows women to request female drivers. And to promote transparency and encourage research into ridesharing, all RideAustin’s data is published on the website data.world.

As a non-profit ridesharing alternative, RideAustin doesn’t take a cut of the fare—Uber and Lyft, on the other hand, take cuts of 20 to 25 percent. This structure allows RideAustin to offer higher wages to its drivers and cheaper rides to users.

The app also encourages charitable donations through the “Round Up” feature, which enables riders to round up their charges to the nearest dollar and donate the rounded-up sum to local charities and cultural institutions (over $250,000 dollars were donated in its first year). Soon, RideAustin plans to offer free or low-fare rides to ill, elderly, or low-income Austinites, in the belief that ridesharing should be for everyone.

In another effort to support the community, RideAustin has founded the initiative ATX Alliance. Partnering with a host of Austin businesses, they promote shopping, eating, and driving local to “Keep Austin Austin” and protect local businesses, as more global corporations enter the rapidly growing state capital.

The Return of Uber and Lyft

In its first year, RideAustin facilitated over 2 million rides. In 2017, however, Uber and Lyft returned to the city. A year after the citywide fingerprint referendum, the Republican state legislature overturned Austin’s regulations, and implemented statewide, more lenient regulations for ridesharing apps. Upon their return to Austin, Uber and Lyft enticed drivers and passengers to return to their platforms by offering cash and (temporary) higher fares to drivers and discounts to passengers.

The return of Uber and Lyft forced some of Austin’s alternative ridesharing apps to shut down. RideAustin, however, has established itself as a viable alternative to the global apps. Although its users have declined over the past year, a loyal following of Austinites, continue to “drive local” with RideAustin.

“RideCopenhagen” COULD BE THE FUTURE OF RIDESHARING IN DENMARK

The Future of Ridesharing in Denmark

A similar scenario has played out in cities across the world. Municipalities like London, Vancouver, and Taiwan have passed legislation to regulate ridesharing apps, prompting their departure.

In March 2017, Uber left Copenhagen. Uber refused to conform with local safety regulations, report drivers’ taxable income, and allow collective bargaining—key components of the “Taxi Law” passed by an overwhelming majority of Danish parliament in February 2017. This legislation intended to force Uber’s compliance with existing taxi-company regulations. Uber, however, argued it would imperil the company’s business model and left the Danish capital.

Since Uber’s departure, the average wait for a taxi has increased by 84 percent, and Copenhagen has seen a surge in underground and unaffiliated cabs, dubbed “pirate taxis” by locals. To address this problem, Copenhagen could look to RideAustin and develop a non-profit alternative that fits Danish regulations and needs—including unionization and collective bargaining.

In Copenhagen, Uber built an infrastructure of 2,000 drivers and 300,000 passengers that carried out over 500,000 rides in 2014 and 2015. While Uber’s platform was created to “disrupt” the Danish transit model, a locally developed app could harness the existing infrastructure to establish a viable ridesharing model developed by and for the community. Such a model could allow the city to reap the social, environmental, and economic benefits of ridesharing—while keeping Copenhagen Copenhagen.

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Pioner Goes To SXSW

SXSW, MARCH 9-18 2018, AUSTIN, TEXAS

South by Southwest Conference & Festivals is an iconic annual event that showcases the newest trends in music, film, tech, media, and sustainability.

 

BY MATHILDE LIND GUSTAVUSSEN

Launched in 1987 in Austin, Texas, the interactive festival has grown to become one of the most important gatherings in the world for professionals across industries. The city of Austin, the progressive capital of Texas, is renowned for its music and film scene, and has become one of the central tech and startup hubs in the United States. Conglomerates like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Dropbox have established offices in city, and the organic grocery chain Whole Foods, which began as a small shop in Austin, is still headquartered there.

From Local Event to Global Gathering

South by Southwest (SXSW) was founded in the late 1980s as a music-centered showcase to create exposure for local talent, and eventually grew into the interdisciplinary, internationally acclaimed festival we know today. Film was added to the program in 1994, as was a section called “interactive,” which would come to include media, tech, education, comedy, gaming, and sustainability. In 2017, NBC News wrote of the festival: “SXSW 2017 is a mélange of ideas for those who are willing to think outside the box. . . . By meshing all these fields together, it forces the participant to realize that new, rich ideas emerge when concepts cross multiple boundaries.”

Several technology juggernauts have launched at SXSW, including FourSquare and, most famously, Twitter (although Twitter had been founded nine months earlier, it didn’t gain critical momentum until SXSW). Similarly, musicians like Odd Future, The White Stripes, and Feist attribute their early success to performances at SXSW.

In its inaugural year, SXSW had only 700 participants. But in 2017, SXSW drew over 300,000 festival attendees to Austin, pumping nearly $350 million into the local economy. Each year for ten days in March, Austin is transformed into a city-wide festival with exhibitions, screenings, workshops, panel discussions, and networking events held at venues, hotels, and conference halls across town. The different venues function like the stages at European festivals such as Roskilde and Glastonbury, playing host to a rotating series of events, many within walking distance of each other. Hotel prices soar with the average nightly rate reaching $350 during SXSW in 2016, up 60% from 2011.

The Cities Summit

In 2018, SXSW will feature a new “convergence program,” referred to as the Cities Summit. This two-day section of the festival will interrogate three themes surrounding the future of our cities: City as Narrative, Civic Innovation, and Cities for All. Expanding the dialogue between municipal leaders and creative urbanists, the Cities Summit will feature a variety of sessions with mayors, activists, practitioners, academics, entrepreneurs, and artists, as well as a public-space design competition called Place by Design. The global finalists of this competition rethink how we use and interact with the urban space around us at the intersection of art, design, and technology. As part of the Cities Summit, exhibitions scattered across Austin will highlight sustainable visions for cities in the 21st century and approaches to interactive community building and planning. The summit also features a guided tour of the first code-compliant 3D-printed house in the US.

Over the next few weeks, Pioner will bring you closer to the inspiring events at SXSW’s Cities Summit. Our coverage will focus on inventive approaches to social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and investigate how the innovations presented at SXSW might translate to other cities around the world. We can’t wait!

 

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Smukfest satser på mere end affald

Mellem skovens bøgetræer bliver der sorteret affald, samlet skrald og solgt økologisk mad, men for Smukfest handler bæredygtighed om mere end bare affaldssortering og vedvarende energi.

Af: Laura Emilie Bannebjerg/ Fotos: Eventofotografi.dk ved Klaus Dreyer

På Smukfest er bæredygtighed en kerneværdi, som kan mærkes af både frivillige arbejdere og gæster, når de fleste rammer skraldespanden med deres ølkrus, og personalet på formår at rydde hele skoven op i løbet af natten. En stor del af madboderne sælger økologisk mad og udbyder vegetarretter, og på campingpladserne er skraldesystemer, hvor man som gæst har rig mulighed for at sortere sit affald. Smukfest arbejder med den bæredygtige grundtanke og forsøger at implementere bæredygtighed i alt, hvad de gør. Helt fra det kærlige skub, når Smukfest forsøger at ’nudge’ gæsterne mod en renere festival, til når Smukfest har ambitioner om at genbruge økologisk kaffegrums og forkæle deres gæster med lækker håndsæbe, med Peter Larsens kaffegrums i. Smukfest har hele tiden bæredygtige initiativer i kog. De afprøver projekter af ved først og fremmest at udføre det småt, og hvis det går godt, så udvider de konceptet. Det vigtigste for Smukfest er dog, at festivalen skal være sjov og et frirum for gæsterne. Derfor må bæredygtighed ikke blive en sur pligt, og for Smukfest er hovedmålet, at gæsterne tager en fed energi med sig hjem.
13.500 frivillige sørger hvert år for, at de mere end 34.000 gæster kan få festet i bøgeskoven. Og den indsats definerer Smukfests talsmand, Poul Martin Bonde, også som bæredygtighed.

Det kunne være interessant at måle, hvad det er for en energi folk tager med sig, når de forlader festivalen. Jeg tror, folk ser Smukfest som et frirum og det er enormt vigtigt for folk at være i. Det er måske større end alt andet”, siger Smukfest talsmand, Poul Martin Bonde.

”Vores frivillige medarbejdere er altafgørende for at afholde en bæredygtig festival. For os er bæredygtighed uendelig mange ting, og her på festivalen handler det ligeså meget om det fællesskab og den energi, de frivillige lægger i festivalen. Samtidig går tyve procent af festivalens overskud til Smukfonden, som støtter kampen mod ensomhed, og det er i høj grad også de frivilliges fortjeneste”, fortæller Poul Martin Bonde.

Fonden støtter gode sociale projekter i hele landet, som hjælper udsatte og ensomme ved en ansøgningsrunde to gange årligt.

Nudging mod en renere Smukfest

Smukfest har haft 34.000 betalende gæster hver dag på festivalen i 2017, og det er ifølge Poul Martin Bonde op til dem at udfylde de rammer, som Smukfest sætter op. Han ønsker ikke på festivalens vegne, at presse gæsterne til at agere bæredygtigt, men i stedet opfordre til det ved at give mange og nemme muligheder for at sortere sit affald eller benytte sig af forskellige genbrugsløsninger, ved for eksempel at udleje luftmadrasser og soveposer billigt.

”De fleste gæster søger en anti-hverdag, hvor de kan drikke øl og slå sig løs”, Poul Martin Bonde.
FOTO: EVENTFOTOGRAFI.DK VED KLAUS DREYER

For Smukfest er det vigtigste, at festivalgæsterne er glade, og det bliver de, ifølge Poul Martin Bonde, ikke af en løftet pegefinger, der fortæller dem, hvad de skal, og ikke skal. ”De fleste gæster søger en anti-hverdag, hvor de kan drikke øl og slå sig løs”, Poul Martin Bonde.

Derfor har Smukfest forsøgt sig med diverse ’nudging’-projekter, der skal skubbe festivalgæsterne til en renere festival. Nudging er en metode, der skubber folk til at ændre handlingsmønstre. På Smukfest påvirkes gæsterne for eksempel til mere bæredygtighed gennem leg.

“I år har vi bl.a. opsat en automat på ”Kærligheden” hvor man kan veksle metaldåser til et brusebad – en metaldåse for 15 sekunders varmt vand. På den måde bliver gæsterne aktiveret positivt – Nudget – og belønnet for at deltage i de bæredygtige projekter”, fortæller Hanne Tokkesdal, der er miljøingeniør og frivillig medarbejder i projektet om en bæredygtig Smukfest.

Pilotprojekter tester fremtidens løsninger

På Smukfest bliver de bæredygtige tiltag gennemtænkt og afprøvet, inden der bliver satset på initiativerne. Det er, ifølge Hanne Tokkesdal, vigtigt, at de bæredygtige tiltag ikke kun er en halv god løsning, for så kan det være lige meget. Derfor forsøger festivalen hvert år at indføre flere bæredygtige konstellationer ved pilotprojekter, der tester initiativets kunnen, inden festivalen udvider og satser fuldt ud på projektet.

”Vi er ikke bange for at afprøve nye bæredygtige initiativer. Oftest i mindre målestok – hvis de er vellykkede, kan vi udvide eller opskalere dem til næste års festival. Hvis de er mindre vellykkede, er vi en erfaring rigere!” fortæller Hanne Tokkesdal.

Smukfest er et frirum

Smukfest vil gerne lave en festival, hvor gæsterne selv vælger, om de vil deltage i de bæredygtige projekter.
”Vi vil ikke skræmme folk væk ved, at de skal sortere affald som de gør derhjemme. SMUKFEST er antidagligdag. Vores nye område Skovlunden er for dem, der gerne vil rydde op og være med til at deltage i de bæredygtige tiltag eller bo i nye og bæredygtige boformer som f.eks. papkassetelt. Hvis man er ung og ikke tænker over at rydde op efter sig selv, kan man bo på ”Kærligheden”, hvor vi efter festivalen bruger lidt flere ressourcer på at rydde op end på de andre campingområder. Her forsøger vi at have fokus på, at få sorteret det affald fra som er muligt til genbrug eller genanvendelse i forbindelse med oprydningen. Det er et løbende fokus at finde nye muligheder for genanvendelse af affald fra campingområderne såvel som fra resten af festivalområderne, fortsætter Hanne Tokkesdal.
Smukfest personalet er med til at vurdere, hvor det kan lade sig gøre at handle bæredygtigt, og hvornår ambitionerne på vegne af gæsterne bliver for høje. Ambitionerne om en bæredygtig festival er ikke altoverskyggende. De fokuserer i ligeså høj grad på glade gæster, der kan tage noget med fra festivalen.

”Det kunne være interessant at måle, hvad det er for en energi folk tager med sig, når de forlader festivalen. Jeg tror, folk ser Smukfest som et frirum og det er enormt vigtigt for folk at være i. Det er måske større end alt andet.” fortæller Poul Martin Bonde.


FOTO: EVENTFOTOGRAFI.DK VED KLAUS DREYER
Så selvom festivalen har mange spændende bæredygtige initiativer i gang, så er der stadig noget at tage fat på.
”På campingområderne har vi i år valgt at indføre affaldssortering i bl.a. plast, glas, metal og restaffald. Madboderne sorterer deres affald i bl.a. organisk, plast, glas, metal og restaffald. Vi har ikke affaldssortering i flere fraktioner på selve festivalpladsen endnu. Her overvejes hvordan en evt. sorteringsordning i flere fraktioner på festivalpladsen kan understøtte behovet. På nuværende tidspunkt oplever vi, at flaskesamlerne gør et kæmpe stykke arbejde ift. frasortering af emballage bl.a. i form at plast og glas. Det samme gælder på campingområderne. Vi har f.eks. indført pant på dåser fra Tyskland for tillige, at få indsamlet disse til genbrug”, fortæller Hanne Tokkesdal.

Kaffegrums i sæben

Ifølge Poul Martin Bonde og Hanne Tokkesdal nytter det ikke noget at begrænse virksomhederne, ved at sætte en masse krav op, som kan være svære at efterleve. Derfor gør Smukfest en dyd ud af at gå i dialog med de forskellige leverandører og boder.
”Vi er bl.a. i dialog med Harald Nyborg for at påvirke leverandørerne til at producere bæredygtige produkter til festivaler, som for eksempel telte, luftmadrasser mv., der er PVC-frie og derfor bedre for miljøet. Det er i dialogen med virksomhederne, at vi kan skabe de gode bæredygtige resultater. I forbindelse med afholdelse af SMUKFEST i år er der bl.a. fremkommet en ide til at genbruge kaffegrums fra kaffeboderne. Det vil vi nu gå i dialog med Peter Larsen kaffe om. Vi håber på at kunne genbruge kaffegrumsen direkte til et andet produkt på SMUKFEST f.eks. i sæbe eller lignende”, fortæller Hanne Tokkesdal.

Nyt i 2017: 5 min. fra festivalpladsen findes der miljøvenlige papboliger, man selv sætter op. Materialerne er 100% nedbrydelige og bliver efter festivalen lavet om til toiletpapir til Smukfest 2018. Dét er festival med god samvittighed.
På denne måde opnår Smukfest og virksomheden et spændende samarbejde, de begge kan være tilfredse med.

”Bæredygtighed hos os skal bæres af opfindsomhed og underfundighed og skal altid give mening for såvel organisationen som vores publikum”, udtrykker bestyrelsen på vegne af Smukfest, på pressemødet 2017.

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  • Inden festivalen kan du…Købe en regnjakke du kan genbruge i flere år, i stedet for et regnslag, der nemt går i stykker og ender i skraldespanden
  • Under festivalen passer du på miljøet ved at…Sortere dit affaldLeje et paphusLeje luftmadras og sovepose på festivalenSpise kødfrit (måske bare en af dagene)
  • Efter festivalen kan du…Rydde op efter dig selvPille teltstænger fra teltet og smide det ud hver for sigSortere dit affaldDonere din sovepose eller dit liggeunderlag til en hjemløs

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  • Inden festivalen kan du…Købe en regnjakke, du kan genbruge i flere år, i stedet for et regnslag, der nemt går i stykker og ender i skraldespanden
  • Under festivalen passer du på miljøet ved at…Sortere dit affaldLeje et paphusLeje luftmadras og sovepose på festivalenSpise kødfrit (måske bare en af dagene)
  • Efter festivalen kan du…Rydde op efter dig selvPille teltstænger fra teltet og smide det ud hver for sigSortere dit affaldDonere din sovepose eller dit liggeunderlag til en hjemløs
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YourLocal gør bekæmpelse af madspild til en god forretning

YourLocal er en app, der bekæmper madspild lokalt ved at lade forretninger annoncere hvilke varer i deres sortiment, der snart overskrider holdbarhedsdatoen. Den hurtige forbruger kan dermed købe varer, der snart udløber til en nedsat pris. Ifølge stifterne bag YourLocal bliver appen, udover bekæmpelse af madspild, brugt som effektiv markedsføring af dagligvarebutikkerne.

AF URSULA TARP

Ifølge en rapport fra Miljøstyrelsen smider detailhandlen i Danmark årligt 163.000 ton mad ud, som sagtens kunne være spist. Dagligvarebutikker står således for 58 % af den danske servicesektors samlede madspild.

Your Local
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

Det store madspild forsøger skaberne af appen YourLocal Kasper Kastoft Nielsen og Sebastian Dueholm at forhindre ved at give forretningerne en mulighed for at annoncere varer, der nærmer sig udløb. Appen er samtidig attraktiv for forretninger, da den kan bruges til at styrke virksomhedens bæredygtige profil.

Your Local
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

”I dag er det blevet en del af en god markedsføring at gøre opmærksom på, at man som forretning ønsker at minimere madspildet. Forretningerne bruger YourLocal til at markedsføre sig overfor brugerne af appen og styrke deres bæredygtige profil” forklarer Kasper Kastoft Nielsen, Co-founder af YourLocal.

Han oplever også, at der er en økonomisk gevinst for forretningerne at hente, ved at sælge den mad, der ville blive til madspild.

”Alle forretninger er ikke kun ud fra et socialt- og miljømæssigt synspunkt interesserede i at reducere deres madspild. Der er også en økonomisk gevinst i det. Så der er en god portion ideologi og en god portion økonomi i det for forretningen. Så uanset, hvad der trækker, så kan det betale sig at være med.”

Ingen fare for forbruger-spekulation og misbrug

Ifølge Kasper Kastoft Nielsen, er det de virksomheder der formår at skabe en god og bæredygtig forretning, der kommer længst.

Han understreger, at det ikke underminerer forretningens øvrige salg af varer at være en del af YourLocal, da der er stor tilfældighed på spil, når det gælder de specifikke varer forretningerne laver opslag om – hvilket gør det stort set umuligt at spekulere i som forbruger. Derudover kræver køb af madspildsvarer, at man som forbruger reagerer hurtigt og spontant, da forretningerne spontant annoncerer varer, når behovet for at komme af med varerne opstår.

YourLocal
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

”Måske har det tidligere kunne betale sig for forretninger at smide maden ud, fordi de ikke har haft et alternativ. Med YourLocal har de nu en nem mulighed for at komme af med maden og ovenikøbet tjene en ekstra skilling, som de ikke havde mulighed for før” fortæller den 42-årige iværksætter.

YourLocal har i skrivende stund 85.000 downloads og over 500 forretninger tilknyttet på landsplan. YourLocal giver derfor mulighed for, at lokale butikker kan nå ud til mange lokale forbrugere. Man kunne derfor frygte at appen ville blive misbrugt til at annoncere varer, der ikke er i fare for at blive til madspild. Men dette slår skaberne bag YourLocal hårdt ned på:

”Det er relativt sjældent at butikker udnytter konceptet til annoncering af generelle varer. Men det er noget vi slår hårdt ned på. Og hvis det sker, så er der ofte brugere der hurtigt rapporterer det til os” fortæller Kasper Kastoft Nielsen.

Iværksætterduoen Kasper Kastoft Nielsen og Sebastian Dueholm oplever, at appen YourLocal bliver positivt modtaget af både forretninger og forbrugere. Det har derfor ikke været nødvendigt med en stor markedsføringsindsats af appen:

YourLocal
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

”Vi har en god fortælling og et ideologisk fundament som er stærkt – og derfor har vi kunne komme ret langt uden at skulle bruge penge på at annoncere” siger Kasper Kastoft Nielsen, som forklarer at budskabet om appen har spredt sig på sociale medier og fra mund til mund i lokalmiljøer.

Tabuet om madspild er brudt

YourLocal samarbejder bl.a. med organisationen ”Stop Spild af Mad”, som er en national bevægelse, der arbejder for at sætte madspild på dagsordenen og reducere det generelle madspild i Danmark. Organisationen blev startet af Selina Juul i 2008, og organisationens arbejde har bidraget til at nedbringe Danmarks samlede madspild med 25 % de sidste fem år. Kasper Kastoft Nielsen peger på, at YourLocal dermed er en del af større tendens, der går imod madspild i Danmark:

”Man skal huske, at der også er en masse andre initiativer sideløbende med YourLocal. Hvor dagligvarebutikkerne før smed meget mad ud, er de også blevet bedre til at samle datovarer i bestemte områder i butikken og sælge varerne, der snart udløber, til en lavere pris. Så vi er jo en del af større bevægelse mod madspild”.

Som en del af denne tendens oplever han, at dagligvarebutikkerne ikke længere forsøger at skjule varer, der nærmer sig udløbsdatoen men derimod bruger kampen mod madspild som markedsføring:

”Der er sket et skift i, at butikkerne ikke længere er bange for at skilte med, at de har madspild. Det er blevet mere legitimt. Alle butikker oplever et uundgåeligt madspild. Før var dette noget butikkerne forsøgte at feje ind under gulvtæppet”

YourLocal
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

Forbrugernes krav er afgørende

For Kasper Kastoft Nielsen er YourLocal ganske enkelt en platform, der giver den lokale forbruger og den lokale forretning mulighed for at ”mødes” på det rette tidspunkt – og det faktum, at forbrugerne stiller krav til forretningernes aktive rolle i forhold til at reducere deres madspild, er ifølge iværksætteren helt afgørende.

”Jeg tror at det vigtigste element er, at nogle forbrugere synes, at bekæmpelse af madspild er vigtigt. Hvis det er vigtigt for forbrugerne, så bliver det også vigtigt for forretningerne”.

Han tilføjer, at det er vigtigt at gøre det så nemt som muligt for butikker og forbruger at reducere madspild i en travl hverdag.

Ifølge Kasper Kastoft Nielsen kan kampen mod madspild kun vindes, hvis alle er med.

Derfor har skaberne af appen desuden valgt at gøre det muligt at være en del af YourLocal på en gratis version af appen, hvilket gør det nemmere at komme i gang.

Kasper Kastoft Nielsen tilføjer, at hvis vi skal bekæmpe madspild, skal der ske en indsats i alle dele af fødevareindustriens produktion og i de private husholdninger. Den madspildsbekæmpende iværksætter er optimistisk og tror at vi i fremtiden vil komme til at se mange flere initiativer mod madspild:

”Man skal huske, at vi med YourLocal kun er en lille bitte bid af en stor kæde fra produktion, til distribution, til butik og til forbruger, hvor der i hele kæden er et spild. Der skal ske en indsats i rigtig mange led, og det både håber og tror jeg vil komme til at ske”

YourLocal
FOTO: YOURLOCAL

”Madspild er et stort problem, ikke kun i Danmark, men i hele den vestlige verden – og markedet for YourLocal er dermed enormt”, fortæller Kasper Kastoft Nielsen. På nuværende tidspunkt har iværksætterduoen Kasper Kastoft Nielsen og Sebastian Dueholm planer om, at deres app YourLocal skal udvides til det tyske marked og senere det amerikanske marked.

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Singapore’s grand and glorious city gardens

The spectacular Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is a sustainable example of some of the rewards that can be reaped from the right mix of globalization, technology and capital investment in a modern city.

BY CAL MCGUIRK

Gardens by the Bay is a sustainable nature park covering 250 acres of reclaimed land in central Singapore that has attracted over 20 million visitors since opening in 2014 and won numerous awards.

Pioner has delved deeper into this project to try to understand how the idea was developed, what problems they encountered along the way and what lessons can be learnt from this enterprise.

Singapore, population 5.4 million, is the wealthiest country in Southeast Asia and according to the World Bank, the 4th richest in the world as measured by GDP per capita. It is a modern, advanced metropolis famous for being clean – chewing gum has been banned in the country since 2004. However, according to the WWF it has the 7th largest ecological footprint per capita (Denmark is even higher at 4th place). If all people lived like the Singaporeans, we would need 4.1 planets to sustain our consumption. As part of an effort to improve this, the Singaporean Government announced an ambitious initiative to transform the ‘Garden City’ to a ‘City in a Garden’ with US$ 1 billion put towards the development of Gardens by the Bay.

A Visual Spectacle in the Tropics

Bay South and Bay East make up Gardens by the Bay with Bay Central acting as a garden walkway between the two. Bay South and Bay East have unique attributes. At Bay South Garden, the largest at 130 acres, so-called Supertrees rise 50 meters into the sky, providing a dazzling spectacle at night as they light up the city skyline. Each Supertree is a clever blend of the natural world and the artificial; of technology and Mother Earth, the new and the old. Built structurally with concrete cores and steel frames, the eighteen Supertrees collectively house more than 700 varieties of orchids, ferns and climbing plants not commonly found in Singapore. At the top of the Supertrees, solar panels harness the sun’s energy – just as real trees harness the sun’s energy via photosynthesis – to provide lighting and for energy for watering systems. The top of each tree also houses a rainwater collection tank which cools both the super tree and the neighboring greenhouses.

“We wanted to capture people’s relationship with nature and use innovative technology to create rich lifestyle, educational and recreational experiences for both local residents of Singapore and visitors from around the world,” says British landscape architect Andrew Grant. He led the design team from his firm Grant Associates during the development of the Gardens. According to him, his team drew inspiration from nature. He was in part inspired by the famous Valley of the Giants in Western Australia, where visitors get a bird’s eye view of the trees from a boardwalk, in the construction of a 128 meter long skyway bridge across the Bay South Garden.

Besides the colossal Supertrees, the Bay South Garden also boasts two conservatories named Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, each one an approximate size of four football fields. Over 90,000 plants of more than 3,160 species and varieties originating from every continent except Antarctica are featured in the conservatories. The Flower Dome mimics the cool, dry climate of the Mediterranean and subtropical regions of the world, while the Cloud Forest replicates the warm, moist conditions experienced in the tropics, suitable for orchids, bromeliads, pitcher plants and other epiphytes. These glasshouses are temperature controlled in a sustainable way. Instead of using energy-guzzling air conditioners, the domes are cooled from the bottom up using underground chilled water pipes run by electricity generated from the burning of the organic matter produced when the plants decompose. The Cloud Forest also houses the world’s tallest indoor man-made waterfall, veiled in mist and with lush vegetation covering its 35 meters.

If the Bay South Garden is the glamourous big brother, the Bay East Garden is the low-key younger sibling offering a tranquil oasis in the middle of pavilions and wide open lawns, just a five minute walk across the Marina Bay Sands Resort. Developed by Gustafson Porter, an award-winning landscape architect practice from the UK, the 32 hectares large Bay East Garden is treasured for its vantage views of Marina Bay and the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The Bay East Garden has been designed with the everyday user in mind. Free to enter, the wide promenade is ideal for walks and exercise and thus provides an avenue for Singapore’s citizens to escape their usual concrete jungle.

With the park’s natural landscape and environmental needs in mind, Gustafson Porter incorporated reed bed water filtration systems and five water inlets to channel water through the gardens and into Marina Bay. The major attractions are clustered in five ‘leaves’ along these water inlets, with leaf-shaped landforms folding over and enveloping the building structures, providing insulation and allowing rainwater infiltration. This design highlights the symbiotic relationship between the republic and water.

Tourism Impact and Public Views

Although difficult to quantify in exact dollar figures, Gardens by the Bay has had a large effect on the tourism industry in Singapore. Specifically designed to be a sustainable solution both environmentally and economically, it has been the economics that have provided the most conjecture. Its tourism impact has been profound. The site received 6.4 million visitors in 2014, more than one third of the total tourist arrivals to Singapore in 2014 with 15.1 million visitors in total. It is listed as the number one site to visit in Singapore on TripAdvisor. It was the 13th most checked-in place in the world on Facebook in 2015. It has won numerous awards worldwide from tourism boards, architecture and design industry associations and building and construction groups. Tourism is worth US$ 29 billion per year to the Singaporean economy. As the new number one tourist attraction, Gardens by the Bay provides a definite quantifiable boost to Singapore’s GDP.

However, with a total budget of US$ 1 billion there has been much disagreement focusing on the economic opportunity cost of the development. 80% of this budget was spent on construction with only 20% spent on the actual plants and soil. During construction, much criticism was directed at the poor working conditions and wages offered to the construction workers, with some critics comparing their conditions to those of construction workers in the Middle East. Annual operating costs are US$ 50 million. Local citizens have questioned this cost and stated that the park should be run as a private enterprise with the ticket sales needed to cover these costs and with the suggestion that the ticket prices for international visitors should increase accordingly to cover this. Nevertheless, the biggest criticism has concerned the opportunity cost of both the initial outlay of US$ 1 billion and the value of the land on which the gardens are built. As the third most densely populated country in the world and with the 4th or 5th (depending on the measurement) most expensive property in the world, 250 acres of prime although reclaimed land in the heart of Singapore are a big deal. A very big deal. As the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong said, “(We) could have used this for far more valuable commercial or residential developments, right in the middle of the new Singapore city”. Property developers argue that the return on investment of the government’s outlay would have been much higher if the land was used for commercial property construction.

This criticism of the opportunity cost of this development is a common complaint levelled against sustainable developments. Often this is due to the ease with which direct costs can be quantified as opposed to the difficulty in valuing common goods. However, as Mah Bow Tan, who is the former National Development Minister responsible for the project, told The Straits Times, the highest selling newspaper in Singapore, “Would you think of putting a commercial value on Central Park? Can you imagine if someone said, ‘We should have built houses on Hyde Park’ or ‘Let’s turn Botanic Gardens into good-class bungalows’”. Of course not. The development of green spaces in a city has a large positive effect on the city’s image, the health of its citizens, its air quality and it increases neighboring property prices. And as Gardens by the Bay is now the number one tourist attraction, it is a major component of the US$ 29 billion that tourism generates every year for Singapore. Plus, the investment in Gardens by the Bay also spurred technological advances in the field of plant conservation, sustainable construction techniques, architecture and design that will benefit other projects throughout the world in the years ahead. It is the combination of these benefits that needs to be evaluated when judging whether or not this development (or any similar sustainable development) is ‘more’ or ‘less’ economically sustainable than simply building apartments and charging rent. Pioner believes that in the future and with the benefit of hindsight, Gardens by the Bay will prove to have been a better investment in environmental terms and dollar terms than property construction. Only time will tell.  In the meantime local Singaporeans and millions of tourists will continue to enjoy the beauty and nature of the gardens.

This project has shown that a problem cannot be ‘too big’ to be addressed sustainably. Here the Singaporean government found a solution to the large scale problem of their high ecological footprint in a sustainable way both environmentally (through a green park) and economically (boosting tourism revenue). Singapore has taken a bold, daring and audacious leap into the future of sustainable development and green tourism, while other cities and countries have been shown a sustainable way to plan their next large scale developments.

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Big World Homes – A New Housing Revolution?

What makes a city truly great? Is it the people? The culture? The architecture? The weather? Many different factors combine to make a great city, just as there are many different cities that can be considered great. New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Sydney – the list goes on. And of course there is Copenhagen, declared the 2016 world’s most livable city by the Metropolis magazine. Naturally the demand to live in these cities is high. And you don’t need an economist to tell you that where there is high demand, high prices follow.
BY CAL MCGUIRK

Housing affordability is an increasingly important issue in Copenhagen and Pioner has already explored this issue previously in a separate article titled ‘CPHcontainers’. However for today we have travelled all the way ‘down under’ to Australia’s largest city, Sydney, to investigate a new solution to their housing affordability issues. Sydney is currently the 7th most expensive city in the world to buy a house (Copenhagen doesn’t make the top 20) and also boasts the largest average house size in the world.

A tale of an unaffordable city

When people think of Sydney they think of the beaches, the harbor and of course the Opera House, designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. What they may not know is that Australia not only managed to avoid a downturn during the global financial crisis of 2007-8, it is now in the middle of 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth. It has integrated itself in the Asian market and by most indicators is a dynamic, prosperous and growing economy with a diverse job market. However for young Australians, the great Australian dream of owning your own home is now largely out of reach. It is no longer a question of working hard and saving hard – property is now simply too expensive for the average income earner.

House Prices in Sydney have risen dramatically over the last 40 years. In 1975, the average house price was four times the average annual income. Move forward to 2016 and the average house price is now 12 times average annual income. With a current average annual income of $81,900 AUD (approx. 420,000DKK), this means the average home (i.e. not a mansion on Bondi Beach) sells for $980,000 AUD (approx. 5.1m DKK). Teachers, tailors, builders and bakers that used to be able to purchase property are now priced out of the market, needing to save 50% of their income for five years to afford a deposit on an average home. This is almost impossible for most people to do.

With or without the government

The Australian Government has little interest in providing a solution – property developers provide some of the largest donations to political parties and the baby boomer generation (those born in the post-World War II baby boom, approximately between 1946 and 1964), the beneficiaries of this property boom, make up the majority of the electorate due to Australia’s ageing demographics, while also making up the vast majority of Australia’s politicians. The Grattan Institute, a leading Australian based think tank, recently stated in their 2016 report on Australia’s property tax system that Australian negative gearing tax arrangements (negative gearing allows those property investors who can afford to purchase more than one property to deduct the net expenses of the costs of those additional properties, such as interest on loans and depreciation, from their personal income tax) go beyond broadly accepted principles in other OECD countries, and that negative gearing primarily benefits those on high incomes. Introduced in 1987, ostensibly to encourage growth the in property industry, the policy has increased homes purchased by investors from 14% in 1992 to 51% in 2015. Despite being a ‘hot topic’ at the recent 2016 federal election, nothing changed.

A price-conscious solution

Fortunately, a group of Australians have come up with a groundbreaking solution. They have split the housing market equivalent of the atom – the strong force that has wrapped together the value of land and the price of the building into the total house price. Welcome to Big World Homes.
Big World Homes aims to be the new model of sustainable, affordable housing. Designed and founded by architect Alexander Symes, Big World Homes is an ecologically sustainable mash-up of the tiny homes movement and IKEA. Tiny modular homes (13.75m²) are shipped flat-packed directly to the customer, and can be set up in just a few days, with no tools other than a drill and a hammer. The houses come with water tanks and solar power units so it’s completely off the grid and can be set up literally anywhere there is flat, available land. They’re also modular – so you can connect two or more if you want more space. The price is just a fraction of the cost of most of the homes currently on the market. By removing the other component of traditional housing (land and labor), Big World Homes can price their product at an affordable level for all Australians. The first BWH house cost $65,000 AUD, a price less than the average annual income in Australia.

Each home is built on a custom made trailer that is durable, lightweight and fits the solar batteries and water tanks underneath its deck. As long as the trailer is registered it is considered a vehicle and in most places in Australia there are no restrictions on parking a registered vehicle on private property (think of caravans). This means that virtually anyone can house a Big World Home, you can even put one in your backyard. But for those without access to vacant land (the majority), Big World Homes is trying to solve this problem too. Through partnerships with landowners like universities and local councils, unutilized land will become home to Big World Homes communities.

Big World Homes Ambassador Ella Colley explains:

“The idea is to create pop-up communities on land that’s underutilized. For example when a developer buys a piece of land, the process of getting approval to build might take two or three years. In that time, a Big World Community can provide affordable housing for people who need it. Those people can then take advantage of the benefits of city living, like public transport and access to services and jobs. When the permanent structure is ready to be built, the mobile Big World Homes can be moved to a new site.”
“These homes provide a lower point of entry into the housing market – somewhere between renting and home ownership. For young people like me, it’s a chance to get out of the cycle of renting, which takes up such a huge portion of income without investing anything in the future.
“In terms of the bigger picture, this project also aims to challenge our assumptions about what ‘home’ means. Australians have some of the largest average house sizes in the world, and so much space is wasted. We want to encourage a more sustainable and community-focused approach to housing, where people can take advantage of the sharing economy to a greater degree“ says Ella Coley.

A big world owner and big world aspirations

Ms Colley, a recent graduate of The New School in New York City where she completed a Masters in International Affairs and Media, is both the ambassador of the brand and the test pilot.  She will soon be moving into the first prototype Big World Home for four months, which is located in central Sydney. “I can’t wait to move in. When I saw it for the first time I was actually really surprised – it was bigger than I’d imagined, even with the full kitchen and bathroom. You wouldn’t call it luxurious, but it’s perfectly comfortable for just one person. I’m going to have to get creative about how I use the space, and definitely reduce the number of things I own. But I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I like the idea that I’ll gain a greater understanding of things like my energy and water usage, and how much waste I create,” says Ella Coley

Time will tell how much success Big World Homes achieves, however they have already made giant strides and have a team of over 25 talented professionals with varying expertise working on the project. They have been featured on all major TV stations and newspapers in Australia and even on Good Morning America on ABC. They also have several major partners backing the project, including IKEA. While there is still work to do, the Big World team will announce details of their first Big World Community in early 2017 and have been in talks with banks to ensure affordable financing products are made available to folks looking to fulfil the Great Australian Dream of owning their own home.

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