Improving public-private collaboration in cities

As people develop new ways to navigate their urban environments, Shared Mobility and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) are becoming increasingly popular. Today, many options for these services are available such as carsharing, bike sharing, scooter sharing, autonomous vehicles, ride-hailing, and Mobility as a Service (MaaS). These applications allow users to access and pay for a […]
Investigating the current MaaS scene

The Sustainable & Smart Mobility Strategy has set a high ambition for the EU: by 2030, European passengers should have access to seamless multimodal transport, facilitated by integrated electronic ticketing. To reach this goal, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions will play an important role. MaaS represents the integration of different forms of transport services […]
Citizen movements reclaiming space for bikes in cities

Walk around Barcelona on a Friday morning and you’ll probably come across a bunch of kids on bikes (and other wheels) who take over the city’s streets. Escorted by their parents, volunteers, and sometimes the police, they get to school in a healthier and more sustainable manner. Barcelona has a long history of citizen movements […]
Did shared mobility pilots reduce CO2 emissions and car usage in the five MOBI-MIX cities?

The Interreg 2Seas project, MOBI-MIX, has shown in the past three and a half years that shared mobility can bring numerous advantages if cities nurture collaboration with private mobility providers and together seek to continuously improve services. Partner cities have experimented with various solutions, such as Mobility as a Service (Antwerp), mobility hubs (Norfolk, Valenciennes), shared cars […]
Bax & Company becomes Bax

We’ve refreshed our name, identity and mission to focus on what Bax does best – making ideas happen. We provide changemakers all across Europe with the expertise, strategies and funding they need to advance solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. Bax & Company is now Bax. We’ve refreshed our name, identity, and mission to reflect […]
Bax opens new office in Brussels

Bax has expanded its presence in Belgium with the opening of its Brussels office. Working closely with our teams in Barcelona, Utrecht, Cambridge, and Düsseldorf, the Brussels office will serve Bax’s growing base of Belgian clients and partners with dedicated in-country support. For more than twenty years we’ve helped Belgium’s forward-thinking cities and companies to […]
Bax joins EU’s €60M TEF-Health initiative to drive AI innovations to market

To establish Europe as a frontrunner in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the European Union is investing €220m in world-class Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs). Bax will assist the TEF-Health team in supporting SMEs to transform their AI healthcare solutions into market-ready services. Technological advances in AI and robotics are progressing at a staggering rate, with significant […]
Supporting the Netherlands to look after its most important resource

In collaboration with Arcadis and 10 other Dutch partners, Bax is supporting the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to advise on policy and implement projects on topics ranging from water accessibility to resource efficiency. The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is responsible for much more than safe and accessible water. Its […]
Illuminating the paths to green logistics while leaving no one behind

Public authorities have been trialing solutions to decarbonise logistics and transport for years. However, the implementation thus far has often been experimental, without clear frameworks for large-scale rollout. A consequence of bolder and larger-scale policies is that many businesses will lose access to cities. The GLEAM NSR project directly addresses these challenges by supporting cities […]
Putting people at the heart of urban mobility

Active ways of getting from A to B like walking and cycling are low-cost, healthy, and sustainable. But towns and cities are not always designed to promote active travel. To find people-first solutions to the way we move around cities, Bax is supporting eight cities to pilot new solutions as part of the Active Cities […]
How can we make electric mobility more sustainable? Four circular business models for the reverse logistics of EV batteries

This is an extended version of the article originally published on EIT’s Mobility Innovation Marketplace. The electric mobility revolution needs its own ‘fuel’ – millions of batteries made up of tonnes of scarce raw materials. Fortunately, unlike oil, this fuel can be kept in the loop. In this article, Bax Battery Circularity Specialist Piotr Grudzień […]
Towards the harmonisation of lightweight policies at EU level

Originally published in the JEC Composites Magazine. The sustainability impact of lightweight technologies and composites is worth studying, as well as the role played by the European Lightweight Cluster Alliance (ELCA) in coordinating efforts at the EU level. How can an EU-wide policy on lightweight technologies contribute to the EU’s overarching goals, including the European […]
Bax opens new office in Germany

Bax marked the beginning of 2024 by opening its newest office, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Working closely with our teams in Barcelona, Utrecht, and Cambridge, the Düsseldorf office will serve Bax’s growing number of German clients and partners with dedicated in-country support. Whether it’s the clean energy transition, future mobility, or bio-based materials, Germany is a […]
Hamburg is making public transport available everywhere within 5 minutes using autonomous mobility

The City of Hamburg wants public transport to be accessible within 5 minutes everywhere by 2030. This vision requires up to 10,000 new vehicles, which with conventional vehicles would mean 10,000 new drivers. But faced with an ongoing driver shortage, Hamburg is exploring autonomous options to fulfil its ambition for one of the highest-quality public […]
Bax & Company’s Sofia Aivalioti tours frontrunner cities as Lead Expert for Europe’s One Health transition

recently welcomed Bax & Company’s Sofia Aivalioti as the lead expert of One Health 4 Cities. This URBACT project brings together 9 European cities to put the health of people, animals, and the environment at the centre of urban improvement projects. “Following the pandemic, there has been a renewed energy to consider health and wellbeing […]
Designing human habitats healthy enough to prescribe

Bax & Company’s Healthy Cities team has guided a group of expert urban practitioners to understand the power of prescribing green space and socialising for urban wellbeing. Organised by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the workshop showed planners and health professionals how to use urban design as a first-choice treatment for mental illness […]
How Barcelona is designing its streets for health and happiness – Ideas That Happen

We are the only animals which build habitats that harm us. Eloi Juvillà, Director of Building and Logistics at the Diputacio de Barcelona, speaking on Ideas That Happen We recently sat down with Eloi Juvillà, Director of Building and Logistics at the Diputació de Barcelona, to learn how Barcelona is rethinking city design for healthy […]
The Open Source Starter Kit for Public Service Delivery

To help public service providers harness digital solutions to do more with less, Bax & Company has produced the Open Source Starter Kit for Public Service Delivery. The Kit contains three documents to help providers make sense of the value that cost-effective open source solutions can offer their service delivery. The Municipality of Dordrecht developed […]
5 Lessons from European Cities Using Open Source Software to Improve Public Services

Digital innovation is key to improving public services, and relies heavily on supporting softwares… Cities and governments have a responsibility to exploit digital innovation as it represents a key opportunity for meeting citizens’ expectations of next generation public services and helps cities in solving societal challenges. Open collaboration around software development and data sharing can […]
Exploiting the Potential of Open Source Software for Better, Cheaper, Faster Public Services

The world is changing. Transformations of mobility patterns, pressing air quality issues, and growing flood risks present new challenges for European cities. Now, however, thanks to data and digitalisation, cities can tackle these challenges together. Rather than reinventing the wheel or going down the traditional software vendor route with its associated issues, cities can improve local […]
Connectivity, Mobility, and Healthy Cities

The Healthy Cities Network aims to deepen the relationship between health and the urban environment, following a holistic approach by focusing on three overarching topics: greening and landscaping, mobility and connectivity, and lifestyle and sports. To gather expert advice for urban planners on improving health outcomes in cities, we are creating a series of three […]
Halfway Through Healthy Cities: Reflections and Revisions

The Healthy Cities Network has passed its halfway point in the project. To evaluate all we’ve done and look ahead at what’s to come, we’re taking this opportunity to reflect on our progress with the Mid-Term Reflection (MTR) process. by Lead Expert Dr. Sebastiaan van Herk Originally published: URBACT Healthy Cities Though the pandemic slowed […]
Crowd data can improve city services, efficiency, and quality of life. Ghent’s Justine Ottevaere explains why.

Crowd monitoring in cities gained considerable attention with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Ghent, however, was a step ahead, as they were already working with crowd data well before the start of the pandemic in 2020. To understand how and why cities should strategically look at crowd data, we interviewed Justine […]
Share and Share Alike: Replicable Open-Source Solutions for Improved Public Service Delivery

Originally published in IoT For All by Amber De La Haye, Camilla Sandberg, Juliette Tenart and Sebastiaan van Herk Our world is changing. Transformations to mobility patterns, pressing air quality issues and growing flood risks present new challenges for European cities. Now, however, thanks to digitization and data, cities can tackle these challenges together. Rather than reinventing […]
Reclaiming the Public Space for People and Nature

Originally published in ‘Mark and Focus: Building a Smart, Resilient, Nature-Based Future’, by Bax & Company’s Sofia Aivalioti. Cities are fascinating. They are the places where most of us live, work and grow. If cities are not designed for their people, then we are doing something wrong. What makes a city thrive? What makes a city […]
Gender Equal Cities are Healthy Cities

By Sofia Aivalioti, Amber De La Haye, Sebastiaan van Herk, and Marta Rofin Serra. What makes a city a healthy place to live, work, and socialise? And do planning needs differ depending on gender? For International Women’s Day this year we are exploring some key ideas of how urban planning can be used to foster […]
HEALTHY CITIES: Bridging Urban Planning and Health

By Sofia Aivalioti, Sebastiaan van Herk, Marta Rofin Serra and Amber De La Haye. Almost all urban planning policies and actions have an impact on human health. Think busy, polluting roads, unwalkable streets, or access to shops selling fresh fruit and vegetables. By baking health factors into every stage of the planning process, the HEALTHY […]
Making cities healthier, faster

The COVID-19 pandemic that has sent the world into lockdown has also affected, but not derailed, progress towards building healthier cities. In fact, it’s only under confinement that many people truly took stock of their living environment – their homes, streets and neighbourhoods – and appreciated the value of accessible green spaces. It was also […]
4 recommendations for successful blue and green infrastructure in cities

Our climate action project BEGIN (Blue Green Infrastructures through Social Innovation) just published its policy brief, which sets out four recommendations for local governments that aim to construct Blue and Green Infrastructure (BGI) in their cities. Co-authored by Dr. Jannes Willems (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Prof. Richard Ashley (IHE-Delft), Dr. William Veerbeek (IHE-Delft), Ellen Kelder (City of Dordrecht), and our […]
Social innovation: building blue and green infrastructure in cities

In this edition of Beyond Bax, we discuss social innovation as a tool for the implementation of blue and green infrastructure (BGI) with Jannes Willems, assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Amsterdam and former postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam. What is social innovation? JW. […]
Preparing for a crisis and building healthier cities

Modern medicine has managed to either wipe out or control the infectious diseases that plagued humankind for so long. But when a new strain appears, such as COVID-19, it becomes clear that we are not always prepared to fully comprehend the threat level and respond accordingly. How can we better prepare our cities and people […]
Innovative Procurement: insights from Glasgow City Council

Innovative procurement is a much more flexible and open process compared to traditional procurement. Instead of buying a specific product or service the local authority is given an opportunity to discover new approaches. It’s allowing them to have a greater influence on products and find solutions that are catered to solving particular challenges, but will […]
Green public spaces for health and well-being

by Sebastiaan van Herk, Sofia Aivalioti, Karlien Sambell, Gregor Giannella & Kees Joosten Cities are starting to apply more nature-based solutions (NBS), aiming to enhance health, well-being, climate resilience and biodiversity. Urban planners and researchers are advancing in designing and valuing NBS, but with limited understanding of the actual positive impacts. NBS can mean much […]
How can design-thinking connect European research to business?

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On 25 January 2018, Bax & Company welcomed guests, from across Europe, to take part in the workshop Future of Online Knowledge Marketplace to improve University and Industry interaction in very tangible ways. To address the ‘pains and gains’ faced by online tech-transfer and brokerage platforms such as Innoget – an online platform, designed to […]
City2City Learning: The Climate Resilience Accelerator

Cities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges as they deal with climate change, rapid urbanisation, increasing disaster risks, volatile economies and environmental pressures; now climate resilience is a global priority. In order to accelerate progress towards climate resilience, collaboration, cooperation and coordination between cities is vital. To do so, Bax & Company partner Dr. […]
How can we facilitate coordination and coherence to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience?

A UN Environment report, published on 25 January 2018, highlights the need for “unprecedented levels of coordination and coherence” in order to face twenty-first century challenges of global warming, increased carbon emissions and weather-related disasters. The report sums up the views of experts who met in Bonn, Germany, and explains the need for an integrated […]
CODEVELOPING THE FIRST LARGE-SCALE PEER-TO-PEER ENERGY TRADING MARKET IN THE NETHERLANDS

We are involved in the creation of the first ever large-scale peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading market in the Netherlands. This sustainable, customer-centric concept, is based on novel blockchain technology, which enables prosumers to not only produce their own energy, but to trade it with others. It is one of the first operational examples for Europe’s […]
UN Climate Summit COP23 – Shining the Spotlight on Climate Adaptation

Presided over by the government of Fiji, the UN Climate Summit and Twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP 23) was held in Bonn, Germany, this year. Bax & Company’s managing partner and director of the Climate & Environment cluster, Sebastiaan van Herk, travelled to Bonn, with a team of consultants, to launch the Global Centre […]
Bax & Company present at the Smart City Expo World Congress

On Tuesday 14 November, over 700 cities from 120 countries gathered in Barcelona for The Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) to exchange knowledge on how they can make their cities smarter and more efficient. Bax & Company consultant, Claus Mullie, presented at the SCEWC, demonstrating how we help cities learn how to manage data-driven […]
COP23 official side event: What is excellence in climate adaptation?

Excellence in Climate Adaptation Many governments, NGO’s, businesses, financial organisations, knowledge institutes, and international organisations are engaged in climate adaptation projects. They face similar challenges but fail to connect adequately to each other to share knowledge and best practices. To become more effective in climate adaptation, we need to create a common understanding of what […]
Collaborative Contributions to Reducing Carbon Emissions

At Bax & Company, we’re passionate about collaborating with cities, OEMs, research institutes, universities and SMEs on high impact, Energy Efficiency projects across Europe. We’ve contributed to the reduction of Europe’s CO2 emissions, by facilitating the lightweighting of vehicles, green property renovations, recovering peatlands and developing innovative energy solutions for cars, homes and cities. Some […]
European Automotive OEMs challenge innovators to improve efficiency

Six leading European carmakers (Daimler, Volvo, Opel, Toyota, Volkswagen and Centro Ricerche FCA), four suppliers (Thyssenkrupp, Novelis, Batz, Benteler) and eight knowledge partners (Swerea, Inspire, Fraunhofer LBF, RWTH-IKA, KIT-IPEK, University of Florence, Bax & Company, Ricardo) have joined forces to form the ALLIANCE project, aimed at addressing the need for more efficient vehicles. They have […]
Can sustainability be included into property valuations?

In real estate transactions, valuers play a key role; especially, in providing independent opinions on the value of properties, providing confidence to buyers, sellers or lenders. In fact, any person or business that owns, develops or occupies a property relies on a valuer’s expertise in order to make informed decisions. A valuer can provide formal […]
Lightweight ALLIANCE at global automotive event

Bax & Company attended the Aachen Body Engineering Days 2017 to represent the ALLIANCE Project. Bax & Company joined some of the world’s most notable OEMs, including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Mazda and Opel, for the Aachen Body Engineering Days; to promote the ALLIANCE Lightweight Open Innovation Challenge, ahead of its launch […]
Developing Collaborative Circular Solutions for Peatland CO2 Emissions

Globally, peatlands are responsible for almost double the amount of Carbon Dioxide emissions than aviation, according to a recent Wetlands International report. Covering 3% of the earth’s surface, estimates are that global peatlands store more than 1.4 trillion tons of carbon. Following Indonesia, the EU is the world’s second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions […]
Can Micro Energy Trading create future markets and save energy and money?

What is Micro Energy Trading? Micro Energy Trading is the buying and selling of electricity on a very local level. By combining a smart grid with renewable energy generation, landlords, householders and businesses are able to become prosumers and take ownership of their energy production and distribution. Some families with solar panels are generating more electricity […]
Over 180 Cleantech SMEs Connect to Large Corporations in One Year

Over the past year, SCALE-UP Meet the Buyer events have given innovative SMEs the opportunity to present their cleantech solutions to large corporate buyers such as Siemens, Skanska, Anglian Water and the British Antarctic Survey. SCALE-UP partners have organised 10 Meet the Buyer events in the UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. These events have […]
Sustainability, an important factor in real estate valuation assessments?

RICS, the world’s leading professional body for valuers, has released an update of global standards, the so-called Red Book. The RICS standards are used by investors, mortgage lenders, portfolio managers and the public sector across the world to make valuations consistent. The new version of the Red Book, now available for public consultation, highlights the increasing […]
Low Carbon land use practices connect Europe

One third of CO2 emissions worldwide are caused by agriculture, which when put into perspective is greater than all land, air, and sea transport combined. Therefore reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint is essential to countering climate change. New land use practices such as rewetting drained peatland at specific sites across Europe will transform high emitting lands […]
Are you following Open Innovation Best Practices?

Open Innovation best practices can inspire you, make you re-think your work, and ultimately improve your business. Innovation challenges the ‘business as usual’ mindset and it is under these circumstances when best practices are essential. However, best practices are not easy to find. This is why in Science2Society we are making sure that everyone can […]
The emerging complexity of climate adaptation governance in a globalizing world

The International Scientific Workshop “The emerging complexity of climate adaptation governance in a globalizing world”, organized by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is going on this week in Stockholm. The aim of this event is to explore governance of climate adaptation beyond the national level. Participants will discuss new forms of adaptation governance, its consequences […]
City to City learning to cater city needs to climate adaptation

Today, Prof. Chris Zevenbergen (UNESCO-IHE) will be at the Dresden Nexus Conference to present results of a preliminary study on City to City learning conducted together with Bax & Company partner Dr. Sebastiaan van Herk and Wolfgang Haupt (Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila). The full abstract is available here. During the Dresden Nexus Conference, policy- […]
Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation: accelerating climate adaptation and resilience

In the build-up to COP23 November this year, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) organises the ‘Bonn Climate Change Conference‘ from 8 to 18 May 2017 in Bonn, Germany. The conference focuses on the Paris Agreement work programme, in particular on measures and progress on climate mitigation and adaptation. Next Monday 15th […]
Major milestone reached in automotive lightweighting research

September 2016 marked a major milestone in automotive lightweighting research in Europe, with the completion of the 4-year R&D work of the EU-funded ALIVE and ENLIGHT projects (FP7 programme). At the same moment, in October, the new large-scale H2020 project “ALLIANCE” launched which will carry on the advancement of innovation in this field for the […]
City-to-city learning on disaster risk reduction; call for proposals.

On 30 November the European Commission, UNISDR and UN Habitat launched a call for proposals via the Resilience City Connect market place (RCC). FYI, below the communication from Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The city-to-city learning exchange approach and service were developed and tested by UNESCO-IHE and Bax & Company (see brochure here) and we have been involved in […]
Create Blue-Green Cities through Social Innovation and International Collaboration

Blue and Green Infrastructures (BGI) comprises an approach to climate resilience for cities that mimics nature’s potential to deal with flooding. BGI supports existing grey infrastructure to cope with extreme weather events (reducing flood risk by 30%) and improves urban liveability. Research (TEEB, 2015) shows that BGI benefits outweigh costs by a factor of 2 […]
Innovation session on Smart Cities through data re-use

Bax & Company organised an open innovation event in the inspiring DataLab Amsterdam, dedicated at facilitating peer-learning among 9 large and mid-sized cities in Northern Europe on Smart City concepts (e.g. Smart Mobility, Smart Parking etc.) to improve cities’ public service delivery. The cities had two constructive days to actively share ideas, learn from each other, […]
Lenders and investors start to value energy efficiency in housing – perhaps more so than owners and tenants do

As part of the REVALUE project, Maastricht University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology brought together lenders, investors and researchers to discuss policies and trends in investments in green housing. A picture emerged of careful investors paying more attention to energy quality of their stock than the actual tenants do. While practitioners confirm energy efficient […]
Creating a Global Center of Excellence on Adaptation; preparing COP22 and Climate summit

As requested by UNEP and on behalf of the Dutch government, Bax is supporting the creation of a Global Center of Excellence on Adaptation. State of the Art knowledge is to be deployed effectively to help the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through Creation Action (upstream) and Managing Direction (downstream), developing and financing climate […]
The impact of 3D printing

3D printing is a transversal technology that presents new possibilities, constitutes a potential enabler for new business and productive models and has the potential to change and often disrupt the status quo in many different industries. 3D printing is flexible, versatile, has the potential to transform logistics and enables mass-customisation of products – but companies […]
How can Europe take the global lead in automotive composites: a vision by Suschem’s stakeholders?

The market for global automotive composite materials is forecast to reach €3.72 billion by 2017. This represents a real opportunity for the European chemical and composites industry. The automotive industry faces a new challenge aligning material properties, product design and production or assembly processes – especially in larger volume production series vehicles – but could […]
A new model for innovation through Open Data in cities

Over the last decade, recognising the innovation potential, we have established a strong track record in various Smart sectors such as energy efficiency, city resilience and industry. Innovation within these themes has pushed them closer to become mainstream. In the last three years, authorities at all levels realise that data is a key asset and […]
RIS3 communities: a big opportunity for R&D in Catalonia

RIS3CAT strategy: context Last March 2014, the Catalan government presented in Brussels the RIS3CAT: the Research and Innovation Strategy for the Smart Specialisation of Catalonia. This document aims at identifying top priority areas of economic activity for the region, a prerequisite set by the European Commission to the regions for receiving the ERDF funds (assessed […]