Presentation by: Engez, A., Aarikka-Stenroos, L., Kokko, M., Jokinen, A., Jokinen, P. The 41st R&D Management Conference, École Polytechnique (June 2019)

1. Smart City District as a Living Lab Platform in Sustainability
Transition: Nutrient Recycling in Hiedanranta, Finland
Anil Engez
Doctoral Student
Unit of Industrial
Engineering and
Management
Tampere University
Leena Aarikka-
Stenroos
Assoc. Prof.
Unit of Industrial
Engineering and
Management
Tampere University
Marika Kokko
Asst. Prof.
Unit of Materials Science
and Environmental
Engineering
Tampere University
Ari Jokinen
Senior Research
Fellow
School of Management
and Business
Tampere University
Pekka Jokinen
Professor
School of Management
and Business
Tampere University

2. Introduction
• There is an urgent need for more sustainable living and urban governance as
natural resources are being depleted and deteriorated gradually as a result of
linear production/consumption patterns, which threatens our well-being (Bifulco
et al., 2016; Liedtke et al., 2012; Voytenko et al., 2016).
• The shift to use of renewable energy from fossil fuels already began in all parts
of the world aiming decarbonisation, and living labs are one of the ways to
support that movement.
• This study examines the impact of a living lab in the creation process of a
sustainable city district. Approaches in urban governance and interactions
among public and private actors are analyzed.
• Since the studies on nutrient recycling activities that take place in cities are
limited, this study elaborates the issue further.

3. Background
Fig 1. Main characteristics of an urban living lab

4. Background
The ultimate goal of the living lab is…
… to improve or develop a product, service, technology,
infrastructure or system which would lead to social and
economic value creation (Westerlund and Leminen, 2011).
Source: University of Leeds

5. Nutrient Recycling
An example of an eutrophication of
the Potomac River
The amount of recyclable phosphorus =
26 000 tonnes / year
(19 300 tonnes come from livestock manure)
This amount would easily cover Finland’s annual
phosphorus need for plant production.
Marttinen et al. 2018
Nutrient recycling would create =
66 000 new jobs
Replacing imported phosphorus with
recycled nutrients.
European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform
Use of inorganic
phosphorus in 2015 =
11 000 tonnes
Marttinen et al. 2018
The amount of nitrogen lost and vaporized
in existing wastewater treatment plants =
10 000 tonnes / year
This amount could be utilized in agriculture instead.
Aho et al. 2015

6. RQ1: What are the physical sites that an urban living lab consists of?
RQ2: What are the activities of actors and their perspectives on nutrient recycling
in urban living labs?
The objective of this research is how to apply a living lab approach to improve
circular economy and sustainability in cities while concentrating on nutrient
recycling.
Research Purpose

7. • Hiedanranta district in Finland is chosen as the case, as it is a good location for testing
different solutions and new nutrient recycling applications due to its lack of infrastructure, as
the district is in the creation phase of becoming a proper livable city district that will have ca.
25,000 inhabitants in the future. The experimentation approach and sustainability of materials
are in focus in this particular living lab in Hiedanranta, as the district is in the creation process
and different type of stakeholders have been engaging in various activities.
• The study relies on qualitative research design containing interviews with key stakeholders
and broad secondary data.
• Hiedanranta acts as a piloting platform for new technologies and methods aiming the transition
to lifestyles that include e.g. renewable energy and recycling.
• The analysis is done by assessing the interviewees’ statements on nutrient recycling activities
that take place in the living lab and comparing the interviews with each other and with news
articles to verify the consistency of the information.
Methods

8. Source of Data Details
News articles
News articles about technologies, solutions and
operations of the living lab companies and the
development work in the area that have been
published in media
Observation, ethnography
Attending living lab company visits, the event
venue Kuivaamo and a seminar
Websites
Websites of the companies, municipality and
related associations such as Global Dry Toilet
Association of Finland and Finnish Biochar
Association
Journal articles
Journal articles on urban living labs, actor roles in
living labs, sustainable development in circular
economy and smart city management
Interviews 8 interviews
Data Sources

9. Interviews
Actor Type Role Theme
Municipality
Project Manager (Nutrient
recycling/City development)
Ongoing nutrient recycling projects in the city associated with the
development of the region
Municipality
Project Manager (City
development)
Stakeholder engagement in the city development
Researcher
Project Manager (Nutrient
recycling)
Research on dry toilets and utilization of nutrients from urine
Researcher
Project Manager (Nutrient
recycling)
Research in microalgae plant and using nutrients for microalgae
growth
Company General Manager Nutrient recycling activities in the vertical farming facility in the area
Company General Manager Information about the biochar company and its operations
Company General Manager Information about the dry toilet company and its operations
Association Project Manager (Dry toilets)
Benefits of dry toilet on nutrient recycling and required policy and
infrastructure changes for its adoption

10. Results

12. Users
Researchers/
Farmers
Equipment/
Service
Provider
The equipment provider
supplies dry toilets for the
collection of urine and
service provider
processes the waste.
Municipality allows the
facility use for the dry
toilets.
Collection of urine in
places that
incorporates dry
toilets.
Researchers together with
farmers and companies
run tests on the properties
of urine and evaluate its
suitability for use as
fertilizer.
Regulators
Research
Organizations
/Companies
Treatment and management
of urine using various
methods to reduce its
volume while increasing its
concentration.
Municipality
Regulators
supervise the
legislation for
fertilizer use.
Fig 2. Chain of different actors in nutrient utilization
Results

13. Results
• The vision of the city is to create a neighborhood that produces more resources
than it consumes.
• Main goal of the Hiedanranta living lab is to increase the reuse of nutrients and
utilization of waste in business operations as well as in daily lives of citizens.
• Source separating toilets and nutrient recycling technologies that are tested in
Hiedanranta can provide substantial benefits in the future, if the required
infrastructure for the collection of nutrients (e.g. source separating toilets) is
broadly built and cover the majority of the households in a district.
• Decentralized sanitary solutions that are tested in Hiedanranta living lab can be
implemented in remote villages where it is inconvenient to build long sewage
pipelines, or in new city districts. For this purpose, living lab platforms act as a
facilitator and a model to prove the viability of applications that are planned to
be implemented in the future on a larger scale.

14. Conclusions
• In order to advance the nutrient recycling in living labs, all the actors including researchers, equipment providers, city
planners from the municipality, regulators, companies and users need each other to test solutions and contribute with
their expertise, knowledge, equipment and facilities.
• Theoretical contribution to smart city management (Leminen and Westerlund, 2015) and living lab literature (Voytenko
et al., 2016) by examining the activities of a living lab’s contributing actors (Juujärvi and Pesso, 2013), and by
presenting a framework that illustrates the building blocks of an urban living lab. It takes into account the governance,
technology development, and research perspectives and introduces a new smart city district and an enabler-driven
living lab to the researchers who are interested in developing the knowledge in this area (Leminen et al., 2012).
• The illustration of the Hiedanranta living lab that consists of physical sites, actor perspectives, and methods the actors
use to improve nutrient recycling in the district provides an overview of a resource utilization scheme in a smart city
district, which would be a useful tool for evaluating the integration of similar structures in other districts.
• Future research can focus on a larger scale living lab with a similar setting comprising nutrient recycling applications
and can examine the systems and actor perspectives further, especially user perspective.