Cleantech takes over consumer markets

enabling trends
8. Smart City
COMPANIES
Smart city as a service platform: IoTsens
Smart routing and mobility: Kutsuplus, BikeCitizens
Smart heat renovations: Thermondo
Smart waste collection: Enevo
Smart Cities tackle difficult urban problems with new technological
solutions. The management of growing cities is complicated due to
intensifying problems like traffic, the high cost of upgrading infrastructure,
growing emissions, and ever more complex administrative
systems.
Smart City solutions use information technology to bring about
new kinds of co-operation and to enable the interweaving of different
city elements (energy, buildings, transportation, and users). In this
way, existing infrastructure can be utilised better and by using fewer
resources, and the growing needs of cities can be satisfied. This is
crucial in Europe and especially in Finland where a major proportion
of building stock dates back to 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. At the moment,
these areas are far from energy efficient and have come to an age of
renovation.
The smart city is one that adapts to both the environment and its
citizens. From the service viewpoint, smart cities can offer citizens
the services they need with a push of a button – or even without the
button. As street lights, sewage systems, solar panels, thermostats,
cars, trams, and ad screens become interconnected, a new wave of
optimisation will sweep the urban environments. The connected city
will enable radically different business models and businesses.
9. Growing anti-regulation attitudes
Whether the conversation is about the efficacy of the public sector,
opening hours of retail shops, or advertisement of alcoholic beverages,
one can be sure about one thing: the regulation debate has most likely
touched the issue. The rapid transformation of the world has proven
to be a major challenge for the regulation system, also in Finland. The
present regulation is partly planned to serve and support the traditional
institutions and industries. While it is doing so, it is hampering
the emergence of many of the most innovative new businesses.
Experiments and trials are one way for testing the effects of certain
actions, for example the impacts of new laws or different forms of deregulation.
Very recently, the idea of experimenting has mainstreamed
in Finland. For instance, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra has conducted
dozens of experiments in various contexts over the last years.
Another indication of this is that fostering experimental culture and
several specific experimental procedures were mentioned in 2015’s
government programme (Finnish Government, 2015).
Many highly valued disruptive companies such as Uber have been
proclaimed illegal in Finland (see i.e. Yrittäjät, 2014) or are at least
having problems operating in Finland due to regulation. Especially
companies in the fields of sharing economy and distributed energy
solutions often find it difficult to operate under the current regulation.
Efficient and systematic testing protocols, introduction of deregulation
areas, and well-planned adjustments in regulation could foster
consumer cleantech innovations.
Cleantech takes over consumer markets 18