{"id":1004100803,"date":"2014-07-18T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T20:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/synd.yardi.com\/?p=277317"},"modified":"2022-12-06T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:35:09","slug":"bostons-parks-get-greener-with-high-tech-solar-powered-benches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/bostons-parks-get-greener-with-high-tech-solar-powered-benches\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston\u2019s Parks Get Greener with High-Tech Solar-Powered Benches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Since last year Boston was named the <strong><em><a title=\"\u2018America\u2019s Number 1 Digital City\u2019 Welcomes New Facebook Engineering Office\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/cities\/boston\/americas-number-1-digital-city-welcomes-new-facebook-engineering-office\/1004086529.html\">Number 1 Digital City<\/a><\/em><\/strong> in the country for its best practices in communication technology and public-sector information, it only made sense for the Hub to continue investing in innovation and energy efficiency and become more connected with its residents.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_277318\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 310px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/synd.yardi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/07\/Boston-Soofa-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-277318\" title=\"Soofa smart bench designers: Jutta Friedrichs, Sandra Richter and Nan Zhao\" src=\"https:\/\/synd.yardi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/07\/Boston-Soofa-2.jpg\" alt=\"Soofa smart bench designers: Jutta Friedrichs, Sandra Richter and Nan Zhao\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soofa smart bench designers: Jutta Friedrichs, Sandra Richter and Nan Zhao<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Boston\u2019s most recent green initiative is a public-private partnership between the Streetscape Lab of the Mayor\u2019s Office of New Urban Mechanics and the MIT Media Lab spin-off Changing Environments, a Verizon Innovation Program partner that uses Verizon\u2019s 4G LTE network to connect wirelessly to the internet. According to city officials, several parks and public space in and around Boston will get new benches\u2014not the regular wood benches, but \u201csmart urban furniture\u201d with built-in solar panels and charging points for smartphones.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Dubbed \u201cSoofas,\u201d the solar-powered benches were created by three women\u2014marketing specialist Sandra Richter, electrical engineer Nan Zhao, and designer Jutta Friedrichs\u2014all of whom come from Germany, where solar energy is highly popular. First unveiled at the White House Maker Faire in Washington, D.C., last month, the smart benches will be installed at Boston Common (the oldest park in the country), at Titus Sparrow Park in the city\u2019s South End section, and along the Rose Kennedy Greenway. According to <em><a title=\"Mashable\" href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/2014\/07\/13\/solar-powered-smart-bench-soofa\/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link\">Mashable<\/a><\/em>, six high-tech benches have already been installed in Boston since June 25 and four more are scheduled to be added in the following weeks. Changing Environments has already built around 100 smart benches and plans to create more if they prove to be successful for the city.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_277319\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 310px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/synd.yardi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/07\/Boston-Soofa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-277319\" title=\"Soofa smart bench designer Nan Zhao\" src=\"https:\/\/synd.yardi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2014\/07\/Boston-Soofa.jpg\" alt=\"Soofa smart bench designer Nan Zhao\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soofa smart bench designer Nan Zhao<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Thanks to the encased solar panels and computer, the high-tech benches will provide Bostonians enough solar energy to charge their smartphones and other electronic devices in parks, at playgrounds and even around sports fields. These charging stations will also collect and share location-based information such as air quality and noise level data.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Envisioned as magnets that invite people to enjoy outdoors while reading the news or catching up on an email without fear of running out of power, the \u201cSoofas\u201d are expected to reactivate the city and create a new shared social experience. To make this green initiative even more interactive, the three designers\u00a0 of Changing Environments have invited Bostonians to go <a title=\"Soofa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.soofa.co\/yoursoofa\/\">online<\/a> and recommend a location for a solar-powered bench.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\u201cSoofa is the first step into Smart Urban Furniture. The possibilities to update the city for the mobile generation are endless and long overdue,\u201d said Sandra Richter, co-founder and CEO of the young startup.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>Images via <a title=\"Soofa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.soofa.co\/\">Soofa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since last year Boston was named the Number 1 Digital City in the country for its best practices in communication technology and public-sector information, it only made sense for the Hub to continue investing in innovation and energy efficiency and become more connected with its residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1490,21742],"tags":[1815],"class_list":["post-1004100803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston","category-latest","tag-national"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - 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