In the last few years the smart building market has grown exponentially and is estimated to be worth around 100 billion by the year 2025. The amount of active competitors, combined with the required time and effort to launch a new sensor-based product, makes it difficult to enter the market and slows innovation. WeAreReasonablePeople (WARP), a Rotterdam-based digital design agency, is trying to broaden its impact by starting a venture under the name SensorBloxx. This venture is building a universally implementable base to simplify the launch of new sensor-based products. WARP will design the first ‘flagship’ product build on SensorBloxx to test this universally implementable base and start encouraging other companies.

In order to catch the attention of fellow innovators the product needs to stand out from the competition. A projection of the metaphorical competitive analysis on the Dutch market provides a better understanding of which businesses should be targeted to increase the flagship’s viability. Although it initially seemed that the viable audiences were already being targeted, a change of perspective has shown the potential of small-sized businesses in five sectors based in office environments.

Various rounds of qualitative research with stakeholders in the targeted audience indicate the flagship’s ability to treat these sectors identically. Desk research brings to light potential motives for business owners to start generating indoor environment data. However, business owners are explicitly devoted to use the data to optimise the work experience of their employees.

A concept is created based on the findings of the explorative qualitative research. This concept is presented to existing and new participants within the target audience. These concept validation sessions provided a better understanding of how the flagship should optimise the employees’ work experience. The results of the concept evaluation sparked an iterative digital prototyping process that led to a new concept embodiment. This concept embodiment and its functioning have been once more validated to confirm the flagship’s desirability.

A final design arose, a flagship called ‘DROP’, a non-intrusive sensor-based product that optimises work experience. This flagship involves employees in realising an optimal work environment together. DROP combines a non-intrusive calm display and a supportive mobile interface for employees. DROP can function as a flagship since it genuinely fulfils the needs of a target audience that competitors are barely targeting in the smart building market.

With the ever increasing number of wirelessly operated connected devices, the environmental consequences that this trend brings about need to be considered. This project has been carried out to explore the possibilities for transitioning industrial IoT sensor nodes into the circular economy.

Wireless sensor nodes are battery powered instruments for monitoring processes and condition of industrial equipment. They need to endure harsh environments and are subjected to critical certification. In general, they are discarded once their internal battery depletes, meaning their embedded potential is lost.
Structuring the analysis of Edge Dynamics’ current product on circular aspects using tools such as HotSpot mapping and the Disassembly Map framework, revealed the disassembly steps and activities that inhibit circular activities such as repair, remanufacturing and recycling. These key components are responsible for a significant fraction of the product’s environmental and economic footprint, or are subjected to a high rate of replacement.

The outcome of the project is a concept sensor node featuring an optimised product architecture. The concept uses a novel way to configure the internal components as such that the key components have the top priority in disassembly. The redesigned sensor node is faster to repair, faster to assemble and disassemble and houses less components. Moreover, the product is made up of less materials and better fits recycling processes as no materials are mixed.
On a system level, circular strategies such as repair and remanufacturing can considerably reduce the environmental impact of the sensor nodes, as giving nodes a second or third lifespan will prevent the need to use virgin materials for the manufacturing of new products.

On a product level, the current product’s key components are sufficiently easy enough to reach and repair that a redesign will only make a significant difference in time savings, and thus costs, on a certain scale. Optimising the sensor node has not increased the embedded footprint. Reusing the circuit boards by for instance repairing sensor nodes can dramatically reduce the lifecycle footprint.
On a material level, using exclusively recycled metals and polymers in the sensor node could reduce its carbon footprint with 4,9% compared to the use of materials containing typical recycling fractions. Moreover, the effectivity of recycling processes can be improved by avoiding the use of mechanical fasteners mixed with dissimilar metals.

Besides the potential reduction of the environmental impact of wireless sensor nodes, a financial incentive is likely at hand as well. Depending on the scale of operation, significant cost reductions can be achieved by faster maintenance and repair when operating a circular business model.

Combining the efforts of each level will lead to the highest potential for sustainable sensor nodes. Edge Dynamics can take a leading role in the industry, offering circular IIoT devices.

Project Motivation
In 2013, Dutch politicians longed for more rigorous actions against fraudulent applications for financial support. They were all done with residents taking advantage of the system and decided to adopt an all-or-nothing approach. Child support applications would be assessed thoroughly and mercilessly. Consequently, that would also mean that the good can suffer from the bad, as stated by the state secretary of finance Frans Weekers (Frederik, 2021).

In the years that followed, about 30,000 parents were wrongly labeled as fraudsters by the tax authorities. These parents had to repay their allowance in full at the slightest mistake. In some cases, a single missing receipt was enough to make parents pay back tens of thousands of euros. To this day, some parents are experiencing the financial, mental, and physical consequences of the fraud hunt. We now label this the Toeslagenaffaire (Eng: The Child Welfare Fraud Scandal). Within public organizations, every effort is made to prevent these kinds of debacles in
the future.

The Toeslagenaffaire shows that the government sometimes imposes unrealistic demands on residents. Policymakers assumed that residents understood the rules for applying for benefits and had sufficient capacity to submit applications fully and correctly. However, not all parents can submit monthly forms and indicate changes in their wages in practice. Sometimes they are not even aware of the conditions. Here we see a difference between the policymakers’ expectations (the rationalistic perspective) and the capacities of the resident (the realistic perspective). Adopting a realistic policymaking perspective makes public services accessible to more residents, reducing process costs and stimulating residents’ self-sufficiency (NL: redzaamheid).

Within a realistic policymaking perspective, civil servants create realistic assumptions about the mental capacity of residents. This mental capacity consists of two components: the ability to understand the process (NL: denkvermogen) and the ability to act accordingly (NL: doenvermogen). When the procedures of implemented policies match these abilities, the resident will be able to follow the process. If the cognitive load of the policy exceeds the denkvermogen and doenvermogen, the resident faces more difficulties. They might require a customized process, which is costly and inefficient. Assessing the cognitive load of the context and the residents’ mental capacity supports policymakers in creating realistic assumptions about residents.

De ‘Erkenningsmethode’ (Eng: Acknowledgment Method) supports policymakers in creating this realistic assumption. Through empathy exercises and context assessments, stakeholders realize the different mental capacities of residents and consider the challenges they face in the policy process. Some residents might not be able to enter the process or get stuck along the way. When participants experience the challenges of certain residents, they can make an informed decisions for the innovation approach.

First, participants can choose to let the current process’s cognitive load and the residents’ capacity remain the same. This might be the case when resources are scarce, or not all profiles receive the same prioritization. Alternatively, the next phase can increase the mental capacity (stimulating residents) or make the process easier (less complexity and more support). Whatever option is chosen, the stakeholders should all be aware of the prioritized approach, acknowledging the consequences for the self-determination profiles.

This way, a more diverse image of residents can be considered when innovating public services. Understanding these residents and acknowledging their problems is the first step in creating more realistic assumptions about the mental capacity of residents.

It’s beneficial to involve residents in the design of the renovation plans of their own homes. This leads to more energy efficient, healthy and comfortable homes due to the removal of mismatches between the resident and their home. It also results in an easier approval process thanks to the increased ownership and a more fair process. I propose a set of five interventions to accomplish this: 1. a survey session to understand current mismatches, hopes and worries 2. a printed renovation guide explaining the changes to the residents’ experiences 3. a tour of a demo apartment focussed on experiencing the new installations 4. a co-creation session together with residents and the renovating party 5. and the communication of the resulting changes. This should solve mismatches which might otherwise remain because the plans ignore existing issues. It also prevents extra mismatches where the new installations do not match the behaviour of the residents. These interventions are designed based on research in the context of a renovation in Reigersbos (Amsterdam) for the Energie Lab Zuidoost. I interviewed and observed residents in a demo apartment, on the street and in their homes, sometimes aided by prototypes or ethnographic probes. I combined those findings with theory from literature and insights from experts I interviewed. The resulting knowledge contributes to our understanding of apartment mismatches and communication surrounding sustainable renovations. The interventions fill a gap of concrete tools to involve residents. Together, it helps us in making these kinds of renovations more inclusive and, through that, making the energy transition more fair and sustainable.