To tackle the problems associated with urban transport such as traffic congestion, emissions and noise pollution, cities need to implement ambitious Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). However, cities also have to be able to forecast the impact of policies and measures included in their SUMPs through scenarios to prioritise the interventions which will make the greatest difference. Assessing this without expert knowledge can be a challenging and expensive task.

The free to use Urban Transport Roadmaps Tool, commissioned by DG MOVE, allows cities to explore transport scenarios that are practical, feasible and implementable. This helps political and technical decision makers to find the most suitable mix of policies and measures for their SUMPs and effectively translate their vision on sustainable urban mobility into reality. It allows users to enter the characteristics of their city, such as its size and traffic conditions. More detailed customisation settings are also available. Users can then select mixtures of policies, and clearly see how the tool calculates the impact on indicators.

In June 2016 the project organised a series of interactive webinars in English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish to help users to become more familiar with the tool. Recordings of these webinars and presentation slides are available in each language through the project website. The webinars go into more depth about how the tool can be used, the range of policy scenarios that can be explored, and the many outputs that the tool produces to better inform users of how to develop their SUMP.

For more information about the tool, visit urban-transport-roadmaps.eu.Image copyright: Image (Flickr) by "hansthijs", licensed under CC BY 2.0 more   4 August 2016 InnProBio factsheets on bio-based products now availableThe InnProBio project has just released its second and third factsheets focused on the sustainability of bio-based products and on myths and facts about biodegradability. InnProBio, the Forum for Bio-Based Innovation in Public Procurement, aims to build a community of public procurement practitioners interested in Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) of Bio-Based Products and Services (BBPS). The InnProBio factsheets provide more information about the most relevant issues concerning bio-based products and their associated services.

Entitled Sustainability of bio-based products, factsheet #2 contains detailed information about feedstock, the end-of-life of bio-based products, how to measure environmental impacts using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), as well as a section on certifications and labels that can help public procurers to define their requirements regarding bio-based products in their public tenders.

Factsheet #3 tries to clarify some misunderstandings and myths, as well as to address some confusion governing the topic of biodegradability. The publication also includes a table with the most important terms around biodegradability and what they mean, with specifications on the end result, the process and other extra remarks.

To view the factsheets, click here.Image copyright: Image (Fotolia) by "Pixelot" more

» Publication Date: 08/08/2016

» Source: Iclei Europe

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