Today on September 17th 2013 the very first Airbox of AiREAS was installed in the city of Eindhoven (The Netherlands).  It was an emotional event for all involved in this co-creating venture.

The emotions were not so much because of the unification of high tech elements inside the box, designed to measure the environmental conditions in the public space up to the smaller detail (ultra fine dust, sizes smaller than a virus). It was more because of the unique unprecedented multidisciplinary way this all had come about.

The Airbox, its design, the location of the boxes in the public space, the real time measurement, the level of detail of the measurements, the scientific research, the transparent nature of making the information available to the general public, has all come about through direct membership interaction between local citizens, the local government, scientific experts and technological innovators. They all accepted the civilian invitation to take responsibility for creating world’s first healthy city together.

This way of working is suggested by a new development, called Sustainocracy. It is a transformative way of addressing our democracy by accepting health to be a joined responsibility above political and economic forces. The acceptance, even by the local government, to become MEMBER of change in an open and transparent cooperative way, is unprecedented in the world.

AiREAS is formally a cooperative and works entirely through the commitment of its partners. It has no personnel, nor buildings, yet co-creates high tech, changes local cultures, modifies local law systems, changes leadership routines and performs purpose driven scientific research. It is a value driven movement that saveguards the values created together, making them available to the world through its institutional partners and directly by creating local AiREAS anywhere in the world through the dynamics of fractal growth. Sustainocracy is referred to as the “transformation economy”.

Initiating civilians: Jean-Paul Close ( founding father of Sustainocracy) anf Marco van Lochem (specialist in complex projects).

Government membership: City of Eindhoven and Province North Brabant
Business members – multinationals: ECN (Airbox development), Philips Electronics (key components for ultra PM measurement), Imtech (Collection Database and mobile app)
Business members: Local entrepreneurs
Scientific institutions: IRAS ( longue and respiratory) University of Utrecht, ITC ( modulation, space observation, allergy) university of Twente, University of Amsterdam (heart and artery)
Local citizen’s of Eindhoven.

For me personally this materializes a dream as it took me over 10 years to define Sustainocracy and make it work in practice. The Airboxes are only a step, significant but not more then a first step. However, as in real life no marathon has ever been run without taking that first step. It is just as significant as crossing the finish line. Healthy city, here we come!