#SmartCities: Strawberry Energy benches land in Canary Wharf
16th October 2015
After its huge success at Canary Wharf Group’s Cognicity Programme, participant and Serbian superstar Strawberry Energy has unveiled four of its groundbreaking solar-powered benches in the Canary Wharf estate.
Strawberry Smart Benches, aside from being fully functional, (and beautifully designed by Belgrade-based architect Miloš Milivojević) provide on-the-go access to energy for recharging mobile devices.
Installed across the estate at Jubilee Park, Cabot Square, Westferry Circus, and in front of Crossrail Station in Canary Wharf, the benches come equipped with USB ports and QI charging zones.
As well as powering-up mobiles, tablets and portable music players, the Strawberry Smart Benches track air quality and noise levels in the surrounding area and include an emergency call button linked to the Canary Wharf Help Estate Centre.
The launch in Canary Wharf is the first in a roll-out across London and the UK. The benches were recently chosen as a winner of the ‘Connecting people and creating communities’ competition, organized by the Institute for Sustainability in partnership with the Mayor of London’s Office and supported by EIT Digital.
“We are in negotiations with real estate companies and boroughs in London, so we expect that at least 10 more smart benches like these will be on service to Londoners until the end of this year,’ said Miloš Milisavljević, CEO and founder of Strawberry energy.
To speed the placement of benches, Strawberry energy is offering an early adopters programme, until 1 November, with benches provided at an introductory price.
“We invite Londoners to suggest locations where they would like Strawberry Smart Bench to be installed by tweeting the location with the hashtag #SEBenchLDN, and we will do our best to make it happen”, he added.