October 27th, 2020 - PlanetWatch, a French startup which is leveraging the Algorand blockchain to build a global air quality ledger, announced today that it has already activated over 100 sensors in the Italian cities of Milan and Taranto.
PlanetWatch builds its global air quality monitoring network by combining city specific partnership networks and the creation of a global community of individual air sensor owners.
Fast and seamless sensor deployment in these cities was achieved thanks to strong partnerships with Wiseair in Milan, a citizen association in Taranto and support from a grant from the Algorand Foundation.
C. Parrinello, PlanetWatch's CEO said:
"The activation of dense sensor networks in Taranto and Milan is a major milestone for PlanetWatch. We are delivering cost-effective air quality monitoring solutions for cities worldwide. By leveraging citizen communities and associations, together with corporate partners and advanced technologies, we believe we can raise the standards of environmental monitoring and help protect public health. We are very grateful to the Algorand Foundation, Wiseair srl and the Taranto citizen association for their support towards our endeavours."
"We are delighted to support PlanetWatch in their global air quality monitoring network," said Sean Lee, CEO of the Algorand Foundation. "By building on a blockchain with the speed and scale of Algorand, PlanetWatch can be confident that as their network scales to millions of devices and daily measurements, Algorand will be able to comfortably handle data volumes, while making the data accessible to all."
C.A. Gaetaniello, Wiseair's COO said:
"Wiseair's mission is to involve urban communities in air quality monitoring to promote a clean air future. With the support of the Wiseair community, we distributed more than 100 air quality sensors all over the city. Thanks to our strong partnership with PlanetWatch the data collected will be validated and made accessible to all. Citizen science and technology are combined here to build a new model to fight against air pollution."
S. Fersini from Comitato Cittadini e Lavoratori Liberi e Pensanti said: "We advocate the closure of all highly polluting industrial plants in our city and we hope that these monitoring activities and subsequent developments will help studying the connection between the excess of diseases linked to pollution and industrial production and the need for change in European environmental legislation on allowed emissions."
About PlanetWatch
Planetwatch leverages advanced technologies and the direct engagement of the population to raise the standards of air quality monitoring worldwide. By deploying dense, outdoor air monitoring networks streaming data almost in real time, Planetwatch helps detect local air pollution peaks and identify local air pollution triggers, ultimately leading to more effective mitigation measures. In addition, PlanetWatch pioneers innovative indoor air quality monitoring and COVID-19 risk mitigation solutions. More info at https://www.planetwatch.io
Contact: Claudio Parrinello, CEO
claudio.parrinello@planetwatch.io
About Wiseair
Wiseair empowers cities to achieve clean air through accessible and actionable information. Starting from local networks of proprietary sensors and combining secondary data sources and advanced modelling algorithms, our solution allows cities all over the world to build their own air quality city platform. Wiseair is about monitoring, extracting information and driving decision makers to promote data-driven actions, but it is also about connecting with your local community, involving citizens in the capillary distribution of the sensors and fostering awareness and clean-air behaviors. More info at https://www.wiseair.vision/
About A.P.S. Comitato Cittadini e Lavoratori Liberi e Pensanti Taranto
A.P.S. Comitato Cittadini e Lavoratori Liberi e Pensanti Taranto brings together workers, unemployed citizens, temporary workers, students, professionals, social activists and citizens who demand to be at the center of every political decision concerning the future of the city. The objectives of the Committee are the protection of the rights of workers, a culture of health and safety in the workplace, a safe and healthy environment, the protection of the right to public health care with equal treatment of all, in compliance with the principles of sustainable development. More info at https://www.liberiepensanti.it/
About Algorand Foundation
The Algorand Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that has a vision of a borderless, frictionless economy built on public, decentralized blockchain technology. The Foundation envisions a wide breadth of applications being built on the Algorand protocol by a new, broader community of blockchain and mainstream developers. The Foundation is committed to facilitating this innovation in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner. More info at https://www.algorand.foundation
