GO PUBLIC!

Humankind is facing problems resulted from the climate change and depletion of natural sources. Governments have been exploring ways to mitigate these challenges by enforcing regulations towards a more green world. As citizens, how can we take part in making the world green again?

The answer is complex, but I have a simple idea! Cities can save energy by encouraging citizens to use public spaces (libraries, co-working spaces, cafes, etc.) instead of their homes for daily activities. For instance, many people in the Netherlands work sometimes from home. They can use public spaces in their neighborhood more often. This will help to reduce the energy demand of the house, as well as of the transportation for commuting.

In the current situation, a public place is operated (heating, lighting,...) whether it is fully occupied or not. If people utilize these places instead of their homes, considerable amounts of energy can be saved from individual buildings. The solution that I propose is a strategy that enables smart ICT systems integrated into the public buildings in order to create a communication network to provide users with information about available spots and group work areas, noise levels, occupancy rates, availability of food or coffee in that building. This strategy can be achieved with the help of a mobile app that connects users with buildings. This approach could impact on energy savings in city scale which contributes to reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Also, community feeling could get stronger in the society as the time spent with others would increase. Last but not the least, the productivity of people would increase with changing the working environment as many studies suggested.