• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  •  
    Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  •  
    Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  •  
    Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  •  
    Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  •  
    Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  • Jobs
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      BusinessGreen Leaders Briefing - Towards Net Zero Transport

      This exclusive conference will explore the emerging technologies and business models that will allow businesses to deliver deep decarbonisation across their fleets and logistics operations.

      • Date: 19 Mar 2019
      • Prince Phillip House 3 Carlton House Terrace St James' London SW1Y 5DG , London
      event logo
      BusinessGreen Technology & Investment Forum 2019

      Investors and sustainable tech firms are invited to sign up to BusinessGreen's Tech & Investment Forum to explore the investment opportunities offered by the UK's fast expanding green economy.

      • Date: 28 Mar 2019
      • Prince Philip House 3 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5DG, London
      event logo
      BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2019

      The BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2019 will bring together over 600 executives, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and campaigners to celebrate the green economy's most exciting and innovative achievements from the past 12 months.

      • Date: 26 Jun 2019
      • The Brewery 52 Chiswell Street London EC1Y 4SD, London
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
  • Sign in
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
     
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
  • Follow us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
Business Green
  • Investment

Arup launches VR tool to design child-friendly cities

playground
The VR tool is aimed at helping city planners design more child-friendly policies | Credit: Stephen Craven
  • Michael Holder
  • Michael Holder
  • 13 February 2019
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

Virtual reality experience will give city planners a 'child's eye view' of urban environments

Arup has teamed up with children's charity the Bernard van Leer Foundation to help designers, planners, policymakers, and development agencies improve the lives of young children in cities, informal settlements and refugee camps.

Under the partnership announced on Wednesday, the two organisations said they hoped to combine expertise in design, planning and early childhood development to create child-friendly initiatives in urban environments.

Related articles

  • Science-based targets scheme tightens rules in line with latest science
  • EU committee shelves climate concerns to open US trade talks
  • Calling all green tech innovators: Last chance to apply for BusinessGreen pitch event
  • EU agrees first ever rules to tackle truck emissions

To kick off the project, they plan to publish a guide in 2020 for designers, planners, city authorities, and development agencies, looking at the challenges and aspirations of young children, care-givers, and pregnant women.

Engineering giant Arup has also developed a new virtual reality (VR) tool as part of the initiative which it said enables users to experience "a living, breathing environment from a child's perspective at 95cm tall, the average height of a healthy three-year old".

The VR tool is designed to raise awareness of the common challenges faced by young children in cities, to help aid city planners in developing child-friendly policies, explained Arup's global cities leader Jerome Frost.

"Places designed for urban childhoods are the bellwethers for healthy cities," he said. "Despite the importance of early years to our personal and social development the experience of 0-5-year olds has largely been ignored in the design of our cities. But if we design and plan from their perspective, 95cm off the ground, the environments we create can include and bring together people of all ages."

Michael Feigelson, executive director at the Bernard van Leer Foundation, explained that planning and design decisions have a "huge impact" on babies, toddlers and their carers that can last for the rest of their lives.

"We're excited to continue to scale our work to change the way families with young children live, play, interact and move through cities by partnering with Arup, a global thought leader and trusted partner to cities around the world," he said.

The partnership is the latest move from the business community targeting childhood development and inclusive education, which are a key pillar of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and are specifically addressed through SDG4.

Other efforts to achieve SDG4, which targets 'quality education for all', hope to develop a more sustainable education system and boost the circular economy at the same time. 

Last month a new UK website - reuse4education - launched enabling schools and other educational institutions to buy, sell, swap, and loan learning equipment, to cut down on both waste and costs.

Dubbed as "like eBay, but better", the website allows for the sale and purchase of anything from photocopiers and PE equipment to musical instruments and books, according to its developers.

The service was created by Mark Abrahams, who is also the CEO of Recycle Your Cycle, a programme run in partnership with HM Prison Service that sees bikes and vacuum cleaners refurbished by inmates.

"Whether you need a new set of French textbooks or stacks of old classroom chairs are taking up valuable space in your school hall, you can add them to reuse4education, the only site of its kind for the education sector, and we are confident that a solution will be found," said Abrahams. "We know there is a need in the UK for this service, but we also hope reuse4education will help those studying in developing countries where resources are scarce but the passion for learning is alive and kicking."

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Investment
  • Technology
  • Management
  • Buildings
  • arup
  • SDG4
  • SDG Hub

More From SDG Hub

ARM Holdings
SDG4: How Arm reaches for partnerships to boost education

  • IT
  • 20 Feb 2019
'Increasing maturity': PwC poll highlights growth of ESG and sustainable investing

  • Investment
  • 19 Feb 2019
'Urgency cannot be ignored': UK businesses call for 'clear plan' to achieve SDGs

  • Policy
  • 18 Feb 2019
city-of-london-1
Arup pledges $3m to aid city climate planning through C40 partnership

  • Buildings
  • 15 Feb 2019
Herry Lawford
Report: Cut food waste to feed restaurant profits

  • Waste
  • 14 Feb 2019
playground
Arup launches VR tool to design child-friendly cities

  • Investment
  • 13 Feb 2019

More news

The rise of climate change litigation and what to expect in 2019

White & Case lawyer Mark Clarke lifts the lid on the pioneering climate lawsuits taking courts around the world by storm

  • Legislation
  • 21 February 2019
Credit Henry Hemming
Shaky foundations: UK housing not prepared for climate impacts

Homes across the country will struggle to cope with rising temperatures, floods, and water scarcity, UK climate watchdog warns

  • Buildings
  • 21 February 2019
sunrise over earth
Science-based targets scheme tightens rules in line with latest science

Influential initiative updates approach for assessing if corporate carbon targets are in line with 1.5C and 'well below 2C' warming goals

  • Management
  • 21 February 2019
'Policies failed': CCC issues quietly damning assessment of UK climate policy progress

In advising the government not to carry forward surplus carbon emissions into the UK's next budget period, the CCC has warned the government's decarbonisation policies are behind schedule

  • Policy
  • 20 February 2019
Back to Top

Most read

UK battery storage firm Zenobe secures £25m Japanese investment
'A good step forward': Glencore announces plan to 'limit' coal production and develop 'Paris-consistent strategy'
Centrica steps up investment in 'intelligent home' vision
make uk greg clark manufacturing beis secretary
Greg Clark insists UK can lead world in EVs as he defends clean growth ambition
Kingfisher confirms science based targets for operations and products
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy and Cookie policy
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017