The company Green City Solutions helps people in highly polluted places to enjoy cleaner air and thus better health and quality of life. The CityTree and CityBreeze biotech filters developed for this purpose combine a wide range of applications to make ideal use of urban space.
The basis of Green City Solutions is the idea of combining nature with digital technology. The natural ability of living moss to filter fine dust and cool the ambient air is used. The interaction of sensors, intelligent ventilation, irrigation and software makes the natural cleaning power of moss usable and measurable.
Air pollution is one of the world’s biggest environmental problems, responsible for 1 in 7 deaths. The complex problem and its combating requires the interaction of many actors. Successful measures often require long planning and implementation phases, which is why implementation is difficult for cities and companies. Short-term measures against air pollution are therefore of great importance. Green City Solutions contributes to this with its products by helping people in particularly polluted urban locations to enjoy cleaner air and thus better health and quality of life.
Green City Solutions was founded by a young team of experts from different fields in Dresden. The intelligent combination of individually available expertise led to the basic idea of combining nature with state-of-the-art technology to improve air quality. The vision is a world where people can breathe clean air in urban living spaces. The core product is a moss filter – the CityTree, which combines the natural filtering properties of moss with smart technology to make it measurable and controllable. The CityBreeze premiered as a new member of the product family in May 2021. Due to its much “slimmer” shape and dual use as a digital presentation surface, the CityBreeze finds many more usable spaces in the city.
Moos – the hero of nature
Mosses are capable of amazing things: They bind fine dust, some are antiseptic, antiviral and fungicidal; true all-rounders for air pollution control and health. With the interaction of sensors, intelligent ventilation, irrigation and software, we can increase their natural cleaning performance and make it usable and measurable.
Various moss species grow in the moss filters, which can absorb and metabolize fine dust. At the same time, they produce valuable oxygen and lower the air temperature. Due to their enormous surface area, mosses store and evaporate large amounts of moisture. This ensures a cooling of the ambient air of up to 4°C and makes itself felt through noticeably fresher air.
CityBreeze and CityTree are used, an active moss surface of 60 and 120m² respectively, which can absorb fine dust from the air. The fine dust has a negative, electrical charge and is attracted and bound by the positively charged moss surface. Most of the “prey” is metabolized and biodegraded by microorganisms and rendered harmless.
The CityTree
Green City Solutions has developed the CityTree, the world’s first biotech fine dust filter for demonstrable improvement of air quality. The CityTree is based on the idea of combining plants with Internet of Things technology to create a natural and at the same time intelligent air filter. Special moss cultures filter fine dust and other harmful substances from the air. The CityTree generates real-time environmental and air quality data, which is displayed using specially developed software. The CityTree is an innovative solution that can provide cleaner air in the short term – and thus a healthier life in highly polluted urban environments.
The CityBreeze
With CityBreeze, Green City Solutions has created a way to use existing infrastructure in cities and improve air quality with immediate effect where as many people as possible will benefit. The city is a very tightly knit and planning-intensive space, so rapid change and immediate air improvement are constrained by little space and long decision-making paths. CityBreeze was developed in response to these challenges.
It combines a natural and active air filtration with digital presentation technology in a compact stele. Due to its dual function as a communication and green space, there are numerous locations that can be used for the CityBreeze in addition to fresh air generation. The costs for the purchase and maintenance of the air filter can be refinanced through advertising revenues.
In the long term, we aim to provide clean and fresh air for 500+ million people by 2030.
Peter Sänger & Zhengliang Wu
Green City Solutions >>