Breathe in…breathe out…Sure thing, doctor! But what if the air is polluted? Help is now at hand as Sensio AIR, Clarity, Flow and other startups are working to improve our air quality, and consequently our health, on the road to the Smart City.

Air quality is a major public health issue. According to a report published in the peer-reviewed general medical journal The Lancet on 20 October, polluted air is the cause of 6.5 million deaths worldwide annually. Meanwhile an OECD report informs us that medical costs linked to pollution amounted to $21 billion for 2015 alone and forecasts that they are likely to rise again significantly. And air quality is not only an issue that affects countries notorious for pollution, such as China. In Denmark, for instance, the number of residents of the capital, Copenhagen, dying annually from the consequences of pollution is estimated at 500. The municipal authorities are now measuring air quality in real time, in order to find a solution to the problem. Having the information, and being able to report on it is an important step but you still need to act. So how are smart cities dealing with this problem? And how might City Hall collaborate with startup companies working in this field? They can set targets and draw up strategies which will certainly improve the situation in the long term. But in the meantime, what can city residents do in their own sphere? A number of tech startupers, some of whom L’Atelier talked to at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 event held in San Francisco in September and also at the latest HAX (hardware) accelerator DemoDay, also in San Francisco, have been developing solutions.

Startups helping city-dwellers to protect themselves from pollution

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, close to 25 million people in the United States are asthmatic. Moreover, a number of studies show that not only can pollution impact very negatively on the respiratory condition of an asthmatic person but it can also bring on asthma in a person who has hitherto been in good health. In order to avoid suffering the symptoms of asthma, the best thing you can do is to breathe pure, clean air.

This is the goal of London-based Sensio AIR. Co-founder and CEO Cyrille Najjar, whom L’Atelier met up with at TechCrunch Disrupt 2017, explained that his app and device are designed for “people who would like to know the level of air quality in their city and also in their home”. But what index should you refer to in order to find out exactly what you are breathing? Air quality assessments are still highly subjective. Points out Cyrille Najjar: “International organisations still haven’t agreed on a threshold for each pollutant, beyond which the air is considered bad for your health. Each country has its own air quality index, and politics plays a major role in deciding thresholds. The scientific community is also still unsure whether long-term, moderate exposure to a pollutant is more dangerous than a short but extreme exposure.”

Against this background, Sensio AIR decided to go for the index most likely to ensure protection for citizens. The London-based startup has a “huge network of sensors” deployed in houses and around the city, and which are also intended for installation in “road vehicles, trains, public buildings, aircraft hangars, and so on,” adds Najjar. This is an excellent way to find out and report accurately on pollution levels and the presence of harmful substances in the air at any given point so as to advise on action and prevention. “We’ll be able to find out the reasons and tell users to be careful to open the windows today, use a dehumidifier etc.,” he foresees. In fact, the main focus of Sensio Air is to help prevent allergies and respiratory ailments. Asthma and allergy sufferers can “register their symptoms on the app. The more often they do so, the more capable [Sensio AIR] will be of predicting in advance when the symptoms are likely to return,” explains Cyrille Najjar. 

Plume Labs is on a very similar mission. Also headquartered in London, the company has developed an app called Air Report, which is intended to help users avoid pollution peak-periods. The idea is that if we cannot improve the air we breathe, we must learn to adapt our activities to the prevailing level of air pollution. In order to work out when you should or should not go jogging or take the kids to the park, you can check on the ambient air pollution at the present moment or during the coming hours just as you would check on the weather forecast. And to enable people to have the most accurate picture possible of what is happening inside the home as well, Plume Labs has now launched a portable sensor called Flow, a sort of wearable device that attaches conveniently to a bag.

In similar vein, the young French tech company Wair, which presented its work at CES 2017, has come up with a scarf that has an integrated pollution mask to enable pedestrians or two-wheeled road users to protect themselves from harmful airborne substances. All these inventions are encouraging people to change their habits so as to breathe more healthily. Nevertheless, in reality their scope is rather limited. While it is true that sensors and devices do have the merit of raising individual awareness of the problems, they certainly cannot all be solved at individual level. Only cities that take a ‘smart’ approach to this issue will be able to have a significant impact on air quality.

In the long run, human health is linked to the health of the Smart City 

Smart cities are applying a range of different strategies to improve their air quality. In Copenhagen, connected sensors deployed by CPH Sense provide real-time information on pollution levels. An equivalent system exists in many other cities, including San Francisco, where the state-wide AirNow website is up and running. Clarity, a startup that graduated from the HAX accelerator, points out that the number of cities taking active steps to measure air quality has nearly tripled in six years, from 1,100 to 3,000. Does this mean people are now waking up to the problem?

In the city of Oakland, to the north of the San Francisco Bay Area, a number of public and private players have been working together in an effort to better understand the problems of air pollution. In June researchers at the University of Texas in Austin, Google Earth Outreach teams and experts from the Environmental Defense Fund published the results of their collaboration with Aclima, a San Francisco-based startup that delivers environmental intelligence through sensor networks. Embedded into Google Street View cars for a period of one year, the Aclima sensor systems showed how far air quality could vary from one city block to another. This type of study demonstrates the need to measure air quality as locally as possible. And this is where fledgling companies such as Clarity Movement Co can help. Its dense sensor network enables it to capture real-time air quality data, which is then directly uploaded into the Cloud. “A second layer of machine learning algorithms is then applied to further refine the data quality through cross-analysis with government reference stations and other local environmental parameters,” explains Meiling Gao, a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences who works as Chief Operating Officer at Clarity.

"Cities often have stations which monitor air quality; the advantage here is that they use standard, highly accurate methods. However, they’re very burdensome, including as regards maintenance, so there aren’t many of them,” reveals Cyrille Najjar, pointing out that the UK only has 150 for the entire country. Moreover, “they’re frequently installed on top of buildings or away from densely populated areas,” underlines Meiling Gao. However, many startup companies have developed a wide range of sensors, often low cost and easy to maintain, which can therefore be used to supplement those installed by city authorities, enabling “an overall view of a city’s air quality,” argues the Sensio AIR CEO.

His company is in fact well-placed to send an alert to the authorities at a particular locality when an unusual situation or a major air problem arises, and make recommendations. “Some cities, for instance, having understood the situation, have then adjusted their urban planning in order to reduce sources of ad hoc pollution,” says Najjar, pointing out: “Traffic lights are a huge source of pollution because this is the point where people re-start their engines. So some have been moved and the road configuration changed so as to protect people most sensitive to air pollution – young children, the ill, the elderly and so on. Setting up a good public transport service along polluted roads has also resulted in a drastic reduction in pollution levels.” Such recommendations might seem to be nothing more than common sense. Nevertheless, city authorities do not always find it easy to put them into practice and frequently run into obstacles when trying to do so.

City dwellers, public and private players: air quality must be everyone’s business

One of the difficulties here is “the inherently multi-sector nature” of monitoring air quality, explains Meiling Gao, pointing out: “The Environmental Protection Agencies that have the regulatory authority to monitor air quality don’t always have the authority to implement policies that can reduce emissions such as vehicle control restrictions in certain city zones or converting municipal fleets to electric vehicles. Therefore, all these stakeholders – environment, energy, planning and transportation – must sit at the table together to solve the problem.”  Moreover, these agencies need to have better quality data available to them if they are going to take the right decisions. “Air pollution problems are complex and driven by different emission sources, the physical environment, climates, and human behaviours. Decision-makers must therefore have localised data to determine the particular variables influencing the air quality, and monitor the effectiveness of their policies in real-time to see what works and what doesn’t,” explains the Clarity COO.

Another fundamental Smart City mission is to raise awareness of key issues among the population, engage with citizens and make them realise that their behaviour can help to bring about real change. Meiling Gao argues that “air quality information should be as common as time, temperature, or traffic warnings displayed to the public.” Moreover, cities need to have dense sensor networks in place that will enable the local authorities “to make available to the public air quality information about the spaces that people commonly inhabit –  schools, parks, public squares, commercial areas –  that is localised and relevant,” she underlines.

On the other hand, ordinary citizens also have a role to play in pushing Smart City authorities to live up to their responsibilities. “Citizens can get involved by first educating themselves on the health risks associated with air pollution and supporting policies that will improve air quality. Initiatives like investments into public transit, green spaces and bike lanes represent the direction we want cities to move towards in terms of creating sustainable and healthy cities. Moreover, increased measurement and more data are critical to quantifying the impacts of a specific policy on air quality,” stresses Meiling Gao.

Air purification a feasible solution?

One of the difficulties here is “the inherently multi-sector nature” of monitoring air quality, explains Meiling Gao, pointing out: “The Environmental Protection Agencies that have the regulatory authority to monitor air quality don’t always have the authority to implement policies that can reduce emissions such as vehicle control restrictions in certain city zones or converting municipal fleets to electric vehicles. Therefore, all these stakeholders – environment, energy, planning and transportation – must sit at the table together to solve the problem.”  Moreover, these agencies need to have better quality data available to them if they are going to take the right decisions. “Air pollution problems are complex and driven by different emission sources, the physical environment, climates, and human behaviours. Decision-makers must therefore have localised data to determine the particular variables influencing the air quality, and monitor the effectiveness of their policies in real-time to see what works and what doesn’t,” explains the Clarity COO.

Another fundamental Smart City mission is to raise awareness of key issues among the population, engage with citizens and make them realise that their behaviour can help to bring about real change. Meiling Gao argues that “air quality information should be as common as time, temperature, or traffic warnings displayed to the public.” Moreover, cities need to have dense sensor networks in place that will enable the local authorities “to make available to the public air quality information about the spaces that people commonly inhabit –  schools, parks, public squares, commercial areas –  that is localised and relevant,” she underlines.

On the other hand, ordinary citizens also have a role to play in pushing Smart City authorities to live up to their responsibilities. “Citizens can get involved by first educating themselves on the health risks associated with air pollution and supporting policies that will improve air quality. Initiatives like investments into public transit, green spaces and bike lanes represent the direction we want cities to move towards in terms of creating sustainable and healthy cities. Moreover, increased measurement and more data are critical to quantifying the impacts of a specific policy on air quality,” stresses Meiling Gao.

Air purification a feasible solution?

Source : L’Atelier

A recently commissioned survey by BNP Paribas Fortis on mobility found that this remains a major challenge for the coming years. The bank is determined to play its part.

A survey among 2,000 people, and representative of the Belgian population, on mobility shows that the switch to electric driving is slowing. Almost 80% of those surveyed still drive a diesel or petrol vehicle, and more than a third of them have no intention of trading in their cars for a more environmentally friendly model any time soon. And yet almost 50% want to be driving electric by 2029. But before that switch, some hurdles first need to be cleared. According to two-thirds of respondents, the bank needs to take a proactive role in the transition to sustainable mobility.

• Only 10% of cars on the streets today are electric, hybrid or run on hydrogen. Users of these vehicles confirm they are very satisfied. Though most have their own charging station, public charging stations are a bottleneck.
• While fighting climate change remains the main argument for switching, changing mobility habits isn’t so easy. The switch to electric is slow, and more incentives are needed, such as new tax measures, and above all, a commitment from the government. Prices also need to come down. It is clear that the practical issues of driving and charging times mean people hesitate to make the switch.
• As a result, enthusiasm about new mobility initiatives is rather muted. Although, especially in big cities, an app that combines mobility options has good chances of success.
• Mobility and work are strongly linked. One in three people spend at least an hour a day travelling to/from work. It turns out that teleworking is a solution for only 50% of the people, and that the other half of the population don’t have the opportunity to work from home.
• More awareness needs to be created around new mobility. Not everyone is familiar with shared cars, bikes and charging stations yet.

Mobility partner

BNP Paribas Fortis is determined to contribute to more sustainable mobility and be a mobility partner for both professional and private customers. We are doing this by informing audiences of all the advantages of an environmentally friendly switch. And also by offering support through financing, insurance and leasing. Our goal is to provide a global response to tomorrow's mobility needs through innovative services.

More and more people are cycling to work. Mobility solutions expert Philippe Kahn explains how and why.

People are changing the way they travel to limit their environmental impact: behaviours are starting to shift, and the use of bicycles is rising, including and especially for travelling to and from work. We spoke to Philippe Kahn, Mobility Solutions Expert at Arval BNP Paribas Group, about these developments. 

Two out of three Belgians use soft mobility, mainly bicycles

According to Profacts’ “Mobility Tomorrow & Beyond” survey, two out of three Belgians have adopted soft mobility. "But the biggest change is the increasing use of bicycles for business travel and commuting. People are also using bicycles more on the school or nursery run, facilitated by the arrival of electric cargo bikes on the market," says Kahn.

A favourable regulatory framework

But what are the reasons for the increased use of bicycles for business travel?  “Let’s first take a look at how the regulatory framework has changed," says Kahn. "In Belgium, the creation of the federal mobility budget has made alternative ways of travelling attractive for all employees. The budget makes it possible to choose a comfortable company bicycle as part of a tax-friendly salary package. Moreover, this mobility budget can even be used to cover housing costs if you work from home more than half the time or if you live within 10 km of your place of work. So instead of having a company car, people can choose to have a combination of an electric bicycle and a contribution to their housing costs. Furthermore, two measures effective from 1 May 2023 should reinforce this trend: the bicycle allowance for commuting is increasing to €0.27 net per km travelled, and all Belgian employees will be entitled to this allowance. In practical terms, this means that those who choose to cycle for these journeys will be substantially rewarded.”

Investment in public infrastructure is paying off

Another important factor in the increased use of bicycles is the development of road infrastructure.

Philippe Kahn: "One factor that can convince people to cycle to work is the certainty of a safe journey. A few years ago, cycling to work in Brussels, for example, could be dangerous. But today, cycling infrastructure is making these journeys increasingly safe, in particular thanks to the cycle motorways on which only bicycles can travel. Infrastructure investments are now also happening in the rest of Belgium, not just Flanders and its major cities. In recent years, Brussels has undergone significant changes, and things are also starting to move in Wallonia.”

Half of all Belgians live within 15 km of their place of work

Distance from the workplace is also crucial in determining how attractive cycling is. "One in two Belgians lives within 15 km of their workplace, a distance that you can easily cycle," adds Kahn. "Along with the Improved infrastructure, this means that cycling to work is a realistic option for many Belgians. And the €0.27 per kilometre allowance will be an added incentive for them to make the change.”

78% of leased company bicycles are electric

To meet the needs of companies and their staff, Arval is now offering bicycle leasing. This full-service lease covers maintenance, breakdown assistance, insurance and repairs, as is traditionally the case for a car. Philippe Kahn points out some very significant trends in this area: "60% e-bikes and 18% speed pedelecs: in total, 78% of our leased company bikes are electric.

High-end bicycles costing several thousand euros, such as electric cargo bikes, are also highly successful, which is probably due to opportunity: the mobility budget or employer “cafeteria plan” benefits packages are making it possible for people to acquire these bikes. But it may also be a consequence of Belgium’s specific tax regulations: the more expensive the bicycle, the more significant the tax incentive. Another interesting observation is that when a  bicycle replaces a car, it’s usually the family’s second car. So we’re not yet seeing any radical replacement of cars by bicycles, but the emergence of the company bicycle is definitely reducing the total number of kilometres travelled by car.”

Digital applications: shifting up a gear

Lastly, Kahn points to another factor that could encourage more people to take up cycling to work. "I think that technology, and in particular digital applications, can make a big difference. We can expect strong growth in the market for apps dedicated to commuting by bike. The business model for on-the-go electric bike rental is already based on a smartphone app. So imagine the success of an application that gives you a safe and bicycle-friendly route for travelling to and from work, and the boost that this could give to this type of travel," concludes Kahn.

Producing biogas through fermentation of agricultural waste? That is exactly what they do at Biomethane du Bois d'Arnelle, Belgium's largest production facility in Hainaut.

You can spot the three large grey domes and a cone-shaped roof from a distance in the countryside around Frasnes-lez-Gosselies. This is a biogas production unit. It took its creator and CEO, Jérôme Breton, 12 years to complete this project due to the lack of a legal and administrative framework. But today, the unit is operational, producing 70,000 MWh of energy.

Turning food waste into biomethane

"We recycle food waste and agricultural materials, livestock manure, straw, beet leaves, peelings, etc. from farmers in a 15-km radius around the site", says Jérôme Breton. "We work with 100 farmers for whom this represents additional income. In digesters, i.e., concrete tanks that are heated to 40°C, bacteria digest the material and produce biogas, consisting of 45% CO₂ and 55% CH₄ methane. We recover this biomethane through filtration, before injecting it into the natural gas distribution network. Fermented matter or digestate, a black liquid that is rich in organic matter, which is very nutritious for crops, is spread as a fertiliser in the surrounding region, where it is used to permanently store CO₂ in the soil and completely replaces chemical fertilisers."

Unrivalled performance

About 15% of the biogas is converted into electricity and heat, half of which is used for the unit’s own needs. The remaining 85% is purified and transformed into biomethane. Once it has been injected into the grid, this biomethane can be used as fuel or as a raw material for petrochemicals. It can also be used to power turbines, and the heat generated can be recovered, just like in a car engine. “While a cogeneration engine, which produces electricity and heat simultaneously, has a total efficiency of between 40 and 80%, our system allows 99.5% of the biogas produced to be injected into the grid”, the young entrepreneur explains. "The pressure varies in a distribution network. That way, the infrastructure can absorb injections without the need for additional investments to store them."

Growing to valorise

The company also grows maize, beets and cereals to valorise them as biogas: "We made a deliberate choice to grow 600 hectares of energy crops to offer farmers a complementary diversification pathway. This accounts for 30% of our raw materials. These crops are stored to allow us to 'smooth' the inflows into our digesters, which depend on agricultural and food activity, on a seasonal basis."

BNP Paribas Fortis, the only bank with such advanced skills

Jérôme Breton says the project would not have been possible without the support of BNP Paribas Fortis. "We would not have gotten funding if it wasn't for the work of their expert. It is the only bank to have such high-level skills in-house. All the other partners also benefited from the analyses and information that he provided to us! A strong, lasting relationship of trust has developed as a result. In my model, I didn't want to rely on public financing for what I do. At the same time, I wanted to produce at the right prices. We produce and sell our biomethane at 100 euros per megawatt hour, while market prices were close to 350 euros last August."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

Elessent EMEIA is on a mission to make the chemical industry more environmentally friendly and sustainable through innovative methods and cleaner production processes.

"We strive to create cleaner, carbon-free production processes for our customers. Innovation is at the heart of what we do", says Sara Alvarez, Finance Manager at Elessent EMEAI. "We suggest less polluting alternatives to traditional industrial methods, allowing our customers to continue to develop products that are essential to our daily lives while significantly minimising their impact on the environment, particularly in terms of pollutants and CO₂ emissions."

4 key technologies

The metals, fertiliser, chemical and refinery industries make up the majority of the company’s customers, with Elessent EMEAI able to deliver complete turnkey production sites. Tjaart Van Der Walt, Director of Elessent EMEAI: "We have four flagship technologies. The first concerns the manufacture of a compound that is widely used in industry, from fertiliser manufacturers to pigment plants, namely sulphuric acid. This is obtained by burning sulphur. We have 90 years of expertise in site design – we have delivered more than a thousand sites – and process and energy recovery. These processes will be key to producing cleaner batteries."

Increased quality and yield

The company also has alkylation technologies (a reaction that is commonly used in organic chemistry) which is used to produce high octane fuels, for more efficient engines. These compounds are valuable for the petrochemical and refinery industries. "We operate at more than 100 alkylation sites around the world", continues Van Der Walt. "And 25 hydrocarbon hydrotreating sites. This is a crucial step in the refining process, during which some elements are removed from the oil. This includes reducing sulphur and nitrogen content to improve stability. Our proprietary soft hydrocracking technology allows us to recover more value from crude oil."

In addition to these processes, which optimise the quality and yield of hydrocarbons, the company also has “wet scrubbing” technologies, which are very effective in fume treatment.

Financial support and real industry expertise

"Our business is growing on a global scale. For our international expansion, we need the constant support of our bank, BNP Paribas Fortis, which, in addition to assisting us with the financial aspects, contributes its in-depth expertise in our industry", Sara Alvarez explains. "This cooperation is crucial in Morocco, Tunisia, India and South Africa, for example. For our long-term investments in these countries, we benefit from our bank’s advice, particularly in terms of resources and guarantees of payment: secured transactions, letters of credit, etc. The same goes for hedging currency risk, which is essential in the context of volatility. This partnership allows us to continue our international expansion."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!