The Horse 2020/21

It's was a bit difficult because we haven't found any collaboration with another team. So we couldn't include other countries in our work.

Luckily we have found a good expert which helped us very much and answered our questions in a interview. 

overall, we are quite satisfied with how the work has gone so far. The cooperation between me an Leandro is going also very well.

Interview with Peter de Haan, Partner, EBP Schweiz AG

1. Was sind Ihrer Meinung nach die besten Methoden um das Klima einer Grossstadt zu verbessern?

Es gibt zwei Gruppen von Methoden, die erste sind Massnahmen zur Vermeidung von Treibhausgasemissionen (z.B. Elektroautos statt Autos mit Verbrennungsmotor; z.B. sehr gute thermische Isolation der Gebäude, so dass auf Heizung mit Öl oder Gas verzichtet werden kann; z.B. Elektrobusse statt Dieselbusse), so dass der gegenwärtige Zuwachs des Treibhauseffekts und damit der Klimawandel reduziert wird.

(more)

2. Wie stellen Sie sich eine Grossstadt in der Zukunft betreffend grünen Flächen (Bäume) und Solarenegie vor? Wird das ein bedeutendes Thema sein?

Grünflächen ja, Solarenergie siehe Frage 4. Zusätzlich sind die Massnahmen (a), (b), (c) und (e) aus Frage 1 wichtig.

3. Inwiefern trägt die Begrünung von Stadtflächen zur Verbesserung des Stadtklimas bei?

Neben der Begrünung von «Stadtflächen» können auch Häuserdächer und Fassaden begrünt werden. Die Kühlung durch Evaporation funktioniert aber nur, solange die Pflanzen Wasser zur Verfügung haben. Die Bereitstellung von Trinkwasser benötigt erstaunlich viel Energie für das Pumpen, Reinigen und Transportieren. Deshalb sollte das Regenwasser aufgefangen und für die Grünflächen verwendet werden.

4. Inwiefern tragen Solarpanels zur Verbesserung des Stadtklimas bei?

Wenn mit Solarpanels Photovoltaik (oder auch Solarthermie) gemeint ist: Wenn man Solarpanels als lokale Massnahme zur Kühlung versteht: Nur wenig. Sie wandeln zwar einen Teil der einfallenden Sonnenenergie in Strom um. Damit werden Photovoltaikpanels in der Sonne etwas wenig warm als gleich schwarze «normale» Fassadenpanels.

(more)

5. Haben Sie Statistiken zu diesen Themen, welche Sie uns zur Verfügung stellen könnten?

Es geht um zukünftige Massnahmen, dazu gibt es noch keine Statistiken (welche ja immer nur die Vergangenheit abbilden). Relevante Berichte finden Sie im neusten BAFU-Klimaindikatorenbericht sowie namentlich auch in Deutschland (Berichte für das UBA, Berichte des PIK); die Stadt Frankfurt am Main ist die «Hochhausstadt» Deutschlands und dazu finden Sie viele Berichte mit Grundsätzen und Überlegungen zur Durchlüftung, Strassenschluchteneffekten, Kaltluftzufuhr usw.

6. Wie genau würde die Realisierung dieser Projekte (Begrünung von Stadtflächen und Solarenergie) aussehen?

Siehe dazu auch Frage 7 und Frage 8: (a) Bei Neubau-Vorhaben könnte Städte entsprechende Auflagen bei der Baubewilligung machen. Aber die meisten Gebäude sind schon gebaut: Für Grünflächen auf Privatgrund (in Hinterhöfen usw.) kann die Stadt lokal informieren, Workshops organisieren, Beratung anbieten, damit Gebäudebesitzer freiwillig zusammenarbeiten. 

(more)

7. Wie kann der Einzelne zur Verbesserung des Stadtklimas beitragen und wie bedeutend wären diese Anpassungen?

Wer kein Auto besitzt, beansprucht keinen Parkplatz und weniger Verkehrsfläche. Wer nur eine geringe Wohnfläche nutzt, vereinfacht die Verdichtung der Städte so, dass auch Stadtklima-Aspekte berücksichtigt werden können.

8. Was hindert die Bevölkerung daran, diese Projekte grossflächig umzusetzen und zur Verbesserung des Stadtklimas beizutragen?

Der grösste Teil der Bevölkerung sind Mieter/innen. Die erwähnten Anpassungen müssten durch die Gebäudebesitzer und durch die Gemeinde umgesetzt werden. Wo kommunale Bau- und Zonen-Ordnungen oder Sondergestaltungspläne sowie Beeinträchtigungen von Kantonsstrassen zu bewilligen sind, ist auch der Kanton involviert.

(more)

We did a short survey where we asked 86 people some questions about coral reefs. 

1. The first question was about whether you have ever seen a coral reef with real eyes. With this question we wanted to find out how many people know how impressive a coral reef can be. From 41 people 15 answered with YES and 26 with NO.
2. The second question was what comes to mind first when you think of a coral reef. As you can see here most of them answered with snorkelling. But many also thought of fish in the sea or the Great Barrier Reef.
3. In the third question we asked the participants if they know what benefits corals have for us. From 41 people 18 answered here they do not know. 12 mentioned oxygen productions and the remaining 11 mentioned other things like the habitat.
4. The 4th question was: Do you know of any organizations that work to protect coral reefs? In this question 24 people answered YES, which is almost 60%. Personally, I was surprised, because I always thought that many people do not know about the extinction of coral reefs
5. Our 5. Question was: which of the following organizations do you know. It was very surprising for us that so many of the interviewers knew the organizations. We did not expect that more than 10 people know the OCEANA and Great Barrier Reef Legacy.
6. The next question was: What do you think, how much oxygen is produced by Coral Reefs. All respondents have chosen a value greater than 0. This is certainly due to our question, where it was clear that corals produce oxygen.
7. Next, we asked when they think, coral reefs will be extinct. Most of the people are have the same opinion here. 85% have chosen 30 years, which also agrees with the truth. Only five think that it will still take 60 years and 1 thinks 90 years.

Attached you can also find the results of our survey in a pdf file where you can find some diagrams.

1_Powerpoint Coralreefs.pdf (565.26 kb)

About the survey:

With our collected information about urban gardening, we created a survey. 80 percent of the respondents already knew what urban gardening is and support it. Unfortunately, only a small part of the respondents have their own garden or a small bed on the balcony. In summary, we can say that most of them are exaggerated that urban gardening has a positive impact on our climate.

The Interview:

We conducted an interview with Mr Eberle. He told us about his connection to urban gardening and how he came across it. We will publish the interview soon on the website "don't waste my energy".

Simon Leuzinger & Luca Hofmüller

It's a bit difficult because I haven't found any cooperation with another team. So I can't include other countries in my work.

I have found two good experts who are willing to help me and answer my questions.

However, I am quite satisfied with how the work has gone so far. I have interesting starting points, which I would now like to deepen. Perhaps something new will emerge from this. 

Unfortunately, we did not have the time to update you on our current position of our project in the last two weeks, because we have been completely busy with our interview.

Update December 16th 2020:

- On December 2nd 2020 we were able to conduct a very interesting and successful interview with Mr. Schumacher from the company Polyloft.

Our next steps are:

- Evaluate and finalize the interview 

- Fininsh researching 

- start putting the whole project together

Kind regards, 

Alexa & Cindy

On a thursday afternoon I've done an interview with Mr. Peter Hofmann. He works in the environmental department in Zurich as project manager, his task is to check the environmental impact of vehicles.

When I asked him how realistic he thinks it is to have only electric cars in the city of Zurich, he said that this is a difficult question.

Today it is not possible to let no diesel vehicles or only electric vehicles into the city of Zurich, because there is no legal basis.

On the national and cantonal level as well as in the city of Zurich there are many efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is also in order to comply with the climate agreement of Paris. In order to achieve this, measures have to be taken, which can be quite specific, such as so-called low emission zones, as far as it is legally possible. There is still a lot to do to reach the goals and it is not easy but he is in a very positive mood. He sees the significance of electric cars in the city of Zurich as divided. On the one hand, he sees a continuous increase in the number of first redeemed electric vehicles, while on the other hand this figure is still in the single-digit percentage range. One reason for the rising numbers is most likely the good prices that are now prevailing.

During our conversation I also asked him about his city of the future.

He said that his city of the future is quite similar to the transport policy of the city of Zurich. This policy states that people will mainly travel to the city by public transport and will0 continue to use public transport or bicycles once they arrive in the city. This way the air is spared and the valuable space is not filled by private vehicles.

Basically he is of the opinion to use public transport as often as possible and if this is not possible, then a car with a small environmental impact.

When I asked what other points the transport policy contains, he said that there is a guideline with the following three points:

1. try to avoid traffic altogether and if possible to cover all shifts on foot.

2. use public transport such as bus and streetcar

3. use a clean vehicle

Another aspect of the city of Zurich is to make it easier to change to public transport or bicycle. For example, bicycle paths are to be extended or separate lanes for public transport are to be built.

At the end of our interview I wanted to know what his opinion on electric cars is and if he owns one himself.

Since he lives in the middle of the city, he does not need an own car. He often used his bicycle or public transport for longer distances. If he still needs to transport larger things, he uses the services of Mobility.

The knowledge he has about electro mobility he acquired himself during his own study at the beginning of this year. We have also received this study and will look at it in more detail. We have not been able to do this yet because the study is very extensive.

As far as electric vehicles are concerned, he is still split. The production of these cars, especially the battery, is a big thorn in his side. Because the many metals and materials used for the batteries have a big impact on the environment during extraction and production.

He also said that he thought that Zurich was using electric cars at the expense of East Asian countries.

In his last sentence he said that a small electric car powered by green electricity is a step in the right direction, but does not solve the problem completely.

On thursday, the 12th november, I've done an interview with Mr. Peter Hofmann. He's the project leader air polution control in Zurich.

I've asked him the following questions:

- What is his area of responsibility?

- How realistic does he think it is to have only electric cars in the city of Zurich?

- Importance of electric cars in the city of Zurich?

- What does the city of the future look like for him?

- Personal opinion on electric cars? - Does he own one himself?

(in progress)

Our experience so far

Review and assessment of things done and still to do

We have completed all orders that are important for the horse. Furthermore, we have already had a very exciting interview with the apprentice of an urban gardening shop. 
Link to the post of the interview: https://2021.the-horse.education/post/interview-shop-urban-gardening 

In the collaboration, we could start with Reshma and Ashish from India. We could already give each other tips and had our first google meeting. It was very exciting and funny. For our survey, we could also ask several friends and families from other countries. 
Link to the post of the collaboration: https://2021.the-horse.education/post/collaboration-urban-gardening 

The only thing we have to do until our presentation is the brochure about our topic and the preparation for the presentation. We also have to evaluate the survey and post it on the horse.

Experience on don't waste my energy:

Our researches went quite well and we informed ourselves quickly. It was interesting to find all these interesting facts about urban gardening and how it already is in progress, so we made up a few ideas on how we all can improve and increase urban gardening, especially for cities. 

It was a bit harder to make the survey and collaboration. We had a little while to figure out the survey tool, but we handled it quite fast. The hardest part of the survey was to motivate the people to fill it up and share it. 

The collaboration was great we had interesting ideas and tried to realize them. Time differences made it hard to communicate with our team in India and with a full and stressful timetable it seemed to be impossible to not miss the deadlines, but with chatting instead of video calls we solved our problem. 

We made a working hypothesis, which was hard to prove. We couldn’t find any information, so we only assumed. 

The good thing is we planned an interview. In the beginning, we were a bit scared, that it wouldn’t work, because of the Corona situation and that maybe the garden shop owner wouldn’t be so open about it. We still went for it. We prepared our questions and went spontaneously to a gardening shop. To our surprise, they were totally open to our questions and we also proved our working hypothesis. 

With a lot of planning and good communication and preparations, it all went really well.

Debora and Melane

Review and evaluation of what has been done and what remains to be done

We have drawn up a plan to realise everything we want to achieve

All in all, we hardly had any problems. The only thing that can be a thorn in our side is the coronary gland, which makes the survey and interview difficult.

We try to stick to the plan and work through everything step by step.

This week we will contact Andrea Gion Saluz to organize an interview. Maybe this will help us enormously in the other things

Laurice & Michael