The REPLICATE Project, a five-year European pilot project, brought together Bristol, San Sebastian and Florence to explore this question. The work of the Bristol pilot aimed to improve quality of life in the Ashley, Easton and Lawrence Hill area by working with people to explore how technology could help to tackle issues.
Specifically, it aimed to help people save money on their energy bills, explore new ways of travelling around, and reduce energy use and demand, and our impact on the environment.
REPLICATE stands for REnaissance in PLaces with Innovative Citizenship And TEchnology.
The project had three themes:
Smart Homes: some homes trialled internet-connected appliances like ‘smart’ fridges and washing machines, low energy LED lighting and solar panels. The project also explored how homes and businesses could generate and share energy within their local area as part of a ‘smart grid’, to reduce demand at peak times.
Smart Streets: people trialled new ways of getting around, including an electric bike scheme, an electric car club and an electric taxi bus. These transport options were brought together in travel apps to give people more ways to get around and make it easier for drivers to find a local parking space.
Created By Us: REPLICATE explored fun and creative ways to tackle other issues identified by the community, such as poor air quality and damp homes.
The REPLICATE Project was a project of many partners and we supported them to collaborate with local organisations, volunteers and residents to ensure the project benefits as many people as possible and that local knowledge is recognised and valued. We have worked in communities for over 20 years and recently worked with organisations and residents in Easton on the Damp Busters pilot, which explored solutions to the problem of damp homes.
We led the activities of the ‘Created By Us’ theme, which used the process of The Bristol Approach to work with organisations, groups and the wider community to identify other issues in their area and relevant digital technologies that could be used to tackle them.
For more information visit the REPLICATE Project website.
Bristol partners include Bristol City Council, University of Bristol, University West of England, NEC, Co-Wheels, Esoterix, Route Monkey, Zeetta Networks, Bristol Is Open and Toshiba.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691735.
