Improve urban cleanliness while optimising resources and environmental footprint

Project Information

Clean City

Grant agreement ID: 817328

DOI

10.3030/817328

Project closed

EC signature date 9 May 2018

Start date 1 June 2018

End date 30 November 2018

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

CORTEXIA SA
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Clean City (Improve urban cleanliness while optimising resources and environmental footprint)

Reporting period: 2018-06-01 to 2018-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Population in the cities is growing and societal habits are changing. Urban littering is increasing.

Only a clean city is attractive and prosperous, for the inhabitants, tourism and economy.

We help cities to improve urban cleanliness, while reducing cleaning costs and environmental footprint.

We propose not to clean more, but to clean better. Our solution monitors an index representing the cleanliness perception of the inhabitants. Cameras with intelligent vision algorithms combined with cities’ vehicles or bicycles count litter by type. The city can engage the right means, at the right time and place. Cleanliness is in control, resources are saved, less CO2 is emitted. A piece of plastic or a cigarette butt collected at the source will not flow into the rivers.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The goal of this SME phase 1 project is to validate the go to market approach.

The business plan and go to market approach have been challenged and redesigned thanks to the SME Instrument phase 1 project. Our SME coach, Sabrina Coccia, helped us to asses in detail the cities decision processes. Beside the cleaning department, a new player has to be included in the acquisition process: the department in charge of the city’ innovations, often the Smart City organisation.

In many European countries, the cities outsource cleaning to private companies. These companies also benefit from our value proposition, improving cleanliness while optimizing resources. Furthermore, they are able to commit for and deliver a performance instead of means.

From a product development point of view, the project was in the test phase with selected cities. The cities of Carouge and Toulouse tested the monitoring approach and how the tool impacts their operations. The city of Geneva monitored a campaign to reduce cigarette littering. At the end of this phase, we are now ready to scale-up.

This project confirmed our value proposition relevance and market potential. For the scale-up, we will follow a step-wise approach, starting with France and Switzerland, before extending to Germany and UK and finally the rest of Europe.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

For the first time, thanks to AI (artificial intelligence), the city can monitor urban cleanliness in real time. This will result in a cleaner city, better to live in and more attractive. It will improve safety, because hazardous can be remedied immediately. At the same time, the city will use its cleaning resources in a more efficient way. Predictive and well managed cleanliness operations also result in a lower environmental impact and lower CO2 emissions.

Measurement system on Geneva's truck