Sustainable sharing – looking for solutions for housing companies

How could we enhance sharing spaces, goods and services in housing blocks? Forum Virium Helsinki launches an open call for agile pilots focusing on digital solutions that promote sharing economy and can be piloted together with housing companies. Applicants will have until 29 April 2022 to participate in the open call.

The ‘Sustainable sharing’ pilot programme aims to help housing companies and the property management sector to find ways to implement new solutions in housing companies, and promote sharing economy and sustainable living in residential blocks. The pilots will be carried out as part of the Circular Green Blocks project. 

The aim is to find creative solutions and services that utilise the sharing economy. The proposed solutions may be related to e.g. shared spaces, goods, or means of mobility.

The total budget for the piloting round is 48,000 euros (VAT 0%). 2–4 solutions will be selected for piloting with housing companies. The maximum price for one pilot is 12,000 euros (VAT 0%). 

Housing companies involved in pilots and development

The solutions and services to be tested are ultimately intended for use by housing companies. Four pilot blocks will be participating in the project. They serve as the living lab environment for new solutions and services. The pilot blocks include both private housing companies and state-subsidized rental housing.

The companies selected for the pilot programme will be able to develop solutions together with housing company residents and other project interest groups with the help of user surveys, workshops and peer-to-peer sparring, for example. 

The spaces and needs of the pilot sites have been assessed. The requirements and interest in various sharing economy solutions of each housing company were mapped in connection with the assessment. 

Learn more about the pilot blocks (in Finnish)

Propose a pilot

Pilots can be proposed via Forum Virium Helsinki’s online form. The call for tender and the tender form can be found via the links provided below. The open call materialis are in Finnish but tenders can be submitted in English as well. 

Call for tenders (In Finnish)

Tender form (In Finnish)

Pilot block presentations

The call for tenders will be open until 4 pm on 29 April 2022. Tenders submitted by the deadline will be evaluated in accordance with the call for tenders and based on the criteria described therein.

The pilots will be selected by 20 May 2022 and implemented from June to December 2022. 

Enquiries

Any questions regarding the call for tenders should be submitted in writing by 20 April 2022 to the address annamaria.rossi@forumvirium.fi (subject line: Sharing spaces and things, agile pilots). 

Information about agile piloting

Agile piloting is an agile, challenge-based model for experimenting with new services and technologies in a real-world urban environment with real end users – be they residents, units of different City divisions or companies forming part of the Helsinki Group. Agile pilots respond to real, identified challenges.

Objective to learn as much as possible

Co-creation is an essential part of agile piloting. The solutions are developed together with the City, companies, residents, research partners and other stakeholders. The objective is to learn and share the results widely with different actors and networks. The key partners and channels will be identified case-specifically. 

For the City and other municipal actors, it is crucial to gather lessons learnt and results about the feasibility of new technologies and services in relation to the challenges identified and to the development of activities in general. Agile piloting primarily aims to create and share new knowledge and understanding. 

For companies, agile pilots provide an opportunity to trial new solutions in a real-world urban environment with real users – thus offering a reference of the service or product being piloted. 

Photo: Laura Oja / The City of Helsinki Material Bank