Conserving resources instead of technological upgrading: New strategies sought for urban centers 

Within the framework of a funding action of the Climate and Energy Fund, the Competence Field for Renewable Energy Systems of the UAS Technikum Wien is currently dealing with so-called frugal innovation processes in the research project “FIRST”. The main question is how such strategies can be applied in Austria’s municipalities and cities.

The background: Today, urban centers are confronted with a broad spectrum of challenging developments such as population growth, urbanization and climate change. Often, however, the resulting problems can no longer be addressed with conventional strategies.

Frugal innovation represents a possible new approach to solving these problems. It does not rely on extreme mechanization and maximum use of resources, but also takes into account aspects such as local conditions and resources. In this way, the ecological and economic costs for the individual and society are to be minimized from production through use to disposal of a product or service.

Good practice examples in demand

 “In developing countries, frugal innovation processes are now being successfully applied in practice,” reports topic area coordinator Susanne Schidler. One well-known example is the production of notebooks locally and with a low resource input.

Themenfeldkoordinatorin Susanne Schidler

Especially in the urban areas of western industrialized countries, however, the application of such strategies is still an unresolved challenge. “There is a lack of good practice examples that take into account the market regulation requirements in the target countries and at the same time meet the requirements of national and European sustainability standards,” says Schidler.

The FIRST project at the Competence Field for Renewable Energy Systems at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien will deal intensively with this topic area. It is currently the only project implemented in this framework in Austria. The goal is to transform the challenges of socio-economic limits and resource scarcity into opportunities for Austria’s municipalities and cities. The project will start in June 2021.