Green Digital Charter
Posts by: Rebecca
The Smart Cities Information System (SCIS) is launching its podcast channel! From now on, Anthony Colclough from EUROCITIES will inform you on a monthly basis about different smart city related topics. In Urban Reverb, he will interview anyone who is either directly involved in smart city projects (such as politicians and engineers) or who is somehow affected by the outccomes of innovative and smart solutions (such as tenants).
Jump on the first episode and listen experts from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Helsinki explaining what ‘bidirectional chargers‘ are, or why ‘vehicle to grid‘ is the future of mobility in town.
SCIS podcast channel : https://www.smartcities-infosystem.eu/newsroom/podcasts
In January 2018, the Green Digital Charter organised the 2017 GDC Award competition recognising the three most innovative projects implemented in one of the 53 signatories of the Charter.
Among them, Dublin’s iSCAPE project, aimed at improving smart control of air pollution in Europe. In order to more efficiently reduce the impact of air pollution, iSCAPE comes out with a mixed approach focusing on 1) the use of ‘passive control systems’ in urban spaces, 2) policy interventions and 3) behavioural changes of citizens lifestyle.
Curious to know more about it? Meet the project’s team in Brussels at the occasion of the Green Week in one of several events listed below :
- Tue. 22 May : Partner event on ‘climate-intelligent city (eco)design: the benefits of urban climate services’
- Thu. 24 May (09:30-11:00) : Session on ‘Air quality in cities; solutions and synergies with Climate Action’
- Fri. 25 May : Partner event on ‘involving citizens in air quality monitoring through Citizen Science initiatives’
iSCAPE will also be among the 20 stands exhibiting during the 3 days of the Green Week Brussels (venue: BluePoint) and will be showcasing its citizens game in the tool room, a special area dedicated to demonstrating various existing tools and platforms helping cities develop in a sustainable way.
This article was originally published on www.governmenteuropa.eu
Always at the forefront of innovation, Milton Keynes is the newest, fastest growing city in the UK, offering excellent employment diversity and activity. The Knowledge Media Institute (KMI) at the Open University is a data science research and development lab. Alan Fletcher, business development manager at KMI, explains how the MK:Smart project continues to shape the future of Milton Keynes.
Founded in 2014, MK:Smart was funded partly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), whilst the remainder of funding came from partners. MK has benefitted immensely from the vision of the local authority. MK Council have a Director of Strategy and Future, Geoff Snelson, who has been instrumental in ensuring that the city brings together government, academia, industry and citizens to help shape the future of ML.
Mobility of the future
Smart activities developed and implemented in MK first relate to mobility. It was in MK that the first fully electric bus route was built in the UK, using wireless induction loop charging in the road. MK was also the first city to have a fully dedicated non-road-based network (of over 270 km) for cycling and walking, called the ‘redways’. The £20m UK Autodrive project is running the UK’s most significant trials of autonomous transport, including a a city-scale network of artifical intelligence (AI)-enabled video sensors helping to learn about traffic movement and prediction, a fully-equipped electric vehicle (EV) showroom with long-term user test drive programmes, and a large network of EV charging infrastructure.
MK Data Hub
MK:Smart was designed to help the understanding and interoperability of projects and demonstrators in the fields of transport, energy, water, business and citizen engagement. The MK Data Hub is more about creating a network which enables the interconnected parts to talk to each other and to increase the understanding they have of one another. The MK Data Hub creates an architecture which allows for further investigation, experimentation and research, in order to understand the benefits which may not be apparent in the individual projects.
MK:Smart’s education programme
The education work stream within the MK:Smart project resulted in the creation of the globally accessible Smart City MOOC, hosted on the FutureLearn platform, and engagement with local schools to create Urban Data Schools, exploring the purpose and use of data in city scenarios.
Milton Keynes continues to build on the success of MK:Smart, developing a network of people and organisations, alongside the technical and physical architecture – computing and data – in order to create other kinds of education-focused activities. For example, The Open University Gustave A Larson is part of the Institute of Coding, a UK national initiative to develop new skills in a changing digital economy, as well as engaging in knowledge exchange activities with citizens, business and government.
Engaging citizens
Community mobilisers from the charity Community Action: ML are accumulation grass roots intelligence, actively going out and talking to people across the city, seeking their opinions and working to identify problems.
An online platform called Our MK was designed to allow people to submit suggestions about the future of Milton Keynes. Through this platform, some ideas received funds, such as citizen-based experiments for small-scale solar panels for 12v lighting in houses.
Read the full article at https://www.governmenteuropa.eu/mksmart-smart-future-milton-keynes/87402/.
Shortlisted cities for the 2020 European Green Capital Award (ECGA) have been announced: Ghent and Lisbon, two out of three runners-up have signed the Green Digital Charter, asserting a political commitment to use digital technologies to improve quality of life in cities.
SAVE-THE-DATE : on Thursday 21 June 2018, winners of the 2020 EGCA will be announced in Nijmegen. The ceremony will be live-streamed. Keep an eye on the ECGA website (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/) and social media channel (@EU_GreenCapital)
Monday 7 May 2018
17:30 – 20:30
BOZAR, Henry Le Boeuf Hall
(rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Brussels).
Free entrance but registration is required
At a time when Europe is striving to retain its legitimacy and relevance in the face of growing disillusionment and Euroscepticism, cities can provide a critical link to citizens. Participatory decision making, citizens’ initiatives and the involvement of people in policy making at all levels are fundamental to an inclusive and democratic society.
More information on the campaign at http://cities4europe.eurocities.eu/eu-campaign/index.html
Throughout May 2018, EUROCITIES, the network of big European cities http://619roofing.com/, is running the campaign ‘Cities4Europe – Europe for citizens’, a platform for local initiatives that engage people, envision new forms of democracy and map out a common future. Together with BOZAR and the city of Brussels, EUROCITIES is launching this campaign on 7 May in Brussels with a public debate, featuring a panel of national and European leaders as well as actors of urban change, artists and activists.
Speakers:
Ada Colau is the mayor of Barcelona.
Philippe Close is the mayor of Brussels.
Gilles Pargneaux is member of the European Parliament
Ingrid Pecquet is general and financial director of Recyclart
Saskia Sassen is Professor, Columbia University and is member of its Committee on Global Thought (www.saskiasassen.com).
Daniel Termont is the president of EUROCITIES and mayor of Ghent.
Philippe Van Leeuw is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.
Philippe Van Parijs, philosopher and economist, is professor emeritus at the UCL.
Karmenu Vella is the European Commissioner for the Environment.
#iCapitalAwards
Together with the European Commission’s iCapital team, EUROCITIES is organising a webinar to inform and discuss about the European Capital of Innovation Award – also known as iCapital. The contest rewards the European cities which have better demonstrated their ability to take advantage of innovative to enhance of citizens.
26 April 2018, from 14:00 to 15:00
Objectives of the webinar are :
- Present rational and dynamics of the 2018 iCapital award
- Listen to previous iCapital prize winners about their journey to success, including their motivation to apply, how they approached the contest criteria as well as practical tips and tricks
- Open the floor for questions
Registration for the webinar is open until 25 April.
Visit EUROCITIES website: http://bit.ly/2vv86d7
The contest will award €1 million to the city named European Innovation Capital of the year. Each one of the five runner-up cities will receive €100,000.
The iCapital award is open to cities with a population above 100,000 inhabitants. In countries where there are no such city, the biggest city is eligible.
Deadline for application: 21 June 2018
More information on the European Commission website
For the first time in its history, the ICF Global Summit will be taking place in London, 4-6 June 2018, and EUROCITIES was invited to become one of the event partners.
ICF, together with NextGen, is looking forward to welcoming mayors, civic leaders, CIOs and industry representatives from around the world to an iconic city for this unique event. The annual theme is ‘Humanising Data’, which will tackle various topics related to the big data, open data and their contributions to the humanity.
Three full days of inspiring speeches and presentations of practical case studies will be provided in addition to the following key events:
- Urban and Rural Master Classes teaching development strategies based on information and communications technology
- Economic Development Matchmaking for public and private-sector organizations seeking new opportunities.
- Top7 Intelligent Communities Reception, honoring the finalists for the Intelligent Community Awards
- Top7 Conversations with the mayors and administrative leaders of our finalists
- Intelligent Community Awards Dinner, where one of the Top7 is named Intelligent Community of the Year
Join EUROCITIES to debate over the impact of big data and open data on Humanity.
- Tue. 5 June, 14:00 – “Who cares about open data?”
- wed. 6 June, 16:00 – “What does Humanizing data require of us?”
You can find the full program of the ICF Global Summit here:
EUROCITIES members can benefit from a preferential rate. Register by using the code EUROCITIES at the following link.
We are looking forward to meeting many of you in London this June!
This article was originally published on Cities-Today.com
By Bart Rosseau, Chief Data Officer, City of Ghent
Linked open data
Linked open data on a semantic website might seem distant from the daily operations of local government, but in Ghent we believe the benefits outweigh the possible pitfalls of using this pioneering technology.
Originally defined by Sir Tim Berners Lee, the semantic web aims to connect data and meaning (not just the values but also the definitions) on a scale the size of the Internet. So you have not only a web of text and images but also of data with the same ease to jump from one data point to another, enabling artificial intelligence and humans to reason over these data points. Linked open data on a semantic website might seem distant from the daily operations of local government, but in Ghent we believe the benefits outweigh the possible pitfalls of using this pioneering technology.
Using the web as a distribution platform of contextualised data will allow us to distribute content, and filter datasets that are disconnected by design. Through machine-readable definitions and uniform resource identifiers (URIs), government-managed datasets become anchor points, allowing external data providers to add their content to those concepts. This allows for a more extensive knowledge graph based on linking data to content, rather than coupling on a technical level. As this is distributed over the Internet, there is no limit to possible links with other cities, government levels, companies, civil society and others.
Most of all, in Ghent we have experienced the benefits in a more internal alignment. By developing the semantic vocabularies we saw different city services agreeing on common terminology and meaning, and agreeing to coordinate data governance.
More institutions are adapting this technique, and the need to recognise and attract people with the right skillset is growing. Semantic experts and linked-data professionals are not knocking on our door (yet) but as more open source tools and accessible training programmes become available, the understanding, added value and sustainability will become essential to any data governance unit.
There is a huge difference in this evolution compared to other trends. The DNA of the semantic web is to reference data to validated concepts (ranging from peer-to-peer validation to internationally approved standards). There is a need to (re)use existing definitions, but also provide enough space to expand the definitions to suit specific needs.
Incremental approach
Until now, two projects have proved to be milestones in making us acquainted with the technology and its possibilities.
The first project was internal, where we added a machine-readable semantic context to our existing webpages. This meant that a published news item on our website became enriched with information on the location it referred to–the relevant city department, the responsible politician, its theme and so on. By applying the right query language, a local startup could filter the information and distribute it on their hyper local platform.
The OASIS project (https://oasis.team/) is a good example of how we can work internationally. The project (supported by the EU through its Connecting Europe Facility programme) has enabled us to work with Madrid to define vocabularies for public transport and city-issued government services.
By adopting defined vocabularies, a web-based query to find government services, opening hours, the right department and the relevant public transport to take you there, becomes available, regardless of the language the web-based text is published in.
Of course, there are still some challenges. The short-term budgetary gains are not apparent, so the business case requires some more long-term thinking. Visit http://thefloridamaids.com/. There are still some debates on what supporting technology will prove to be the industry standard. The tools to make the wealth of information available to non-technical people are eagerly awaited.
The deep understanding and practical value needs to be developed, to embed this into the existing practices of IT and organisational development.
However, the implications and possibilities exceed the traditional boundaries of data management. Defining concepts and providing validated URIs for key policy tools and identities means that the role of the government as a validating, trusting authority becomes articulated in a digital world. For instance, providing URIs to government-approved initiatives–schools, philanthropic organisations and others–will add credentials that are easily shared and used in a digital environment.
Defining concepts by different government levels provides a more solid core to organise intergovernmental reporting and data exchange.
We are still in the early stages of this technology, the challenges are there, but so are the benefits.
In January, city representatives and experts gathered to discuss how to build smarter cities that work for all their residents at the ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ conference co-organised by the Green Digital Charter (GDC) and the EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF).
This was the first gathering of a series of ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ events, launched by EUROCITIES for 2018, an occasion to take an in-depth look at EUROCITIES’ vision, priorities and actions.
At the conference, participants brought their local experiences in working for a better urban future through the use of ICT and digital technologies, in particular related to environmental challenges and the future of work.
Speakers, workshops’ moderators and city representatives share their views in a series of individual interviews available on our YouTube channel : http://bit.ly/2tTGUUG.
Thanks to The Marketing Heaven and their dedicated work from concept idea to channel strategy, our story now inspires a growing circle of people to get involved in this project.
This video gives a summary of the main topics treated at the ‘Imagine the Urban Future’ conference:
Two years after the first implementation monitoring document, a new report on the progress made by GDC signatories towards their commitments to the Charter has been published.
The Green Digital Charter (GDC) is a political declaration committing cities to use digital technologies to meet their carbon emission reduction targets, and contribute to the fight against climate change while improving governance.
Based on evidence collected through a survey and interviews held with data officers and smart city project managers, this document builds on peer-learning activities and case-studies submitted from 38 different cities in order to provide an analysis of the situations in European cities involved in the activities of the project for the period 2016-2018.
The report is divided into four sections :
- Policy trends and development
- Cities co-create
- Cities innovate
- Cities measure
The findings confirm the trends tackled in the previous report, and highlight challenges encountered by cities: financing, progress measurement, administration’s internal working culture and staff skills, data management as well as the difficulty to deal with the great variety of standards on the market.
Overall, the cities are keen to improve sharing experiences and best practices, and opening up knowledge gained through concrete measures. This report intends to feed this collective effort for mutual learning and strengthen collaboration between European cities.
Flip the book online at http://anyflip.com/zerr/xjwy/ or directly below
The full report can also be downloaded at GDC Monitoring 2018 Web
Contacts:
- Nikolaos Kontinakis, GuiDanCe project coordinator, Nikolaos.Kontinakis[at]eurocities.eu
- Rebecca Portail, GuiDanCe project support officer, Rebecca.Portail[at]eurocities.eu
This activity is part of a series of three webinars on participatory budgeting organised by the EIP-SCC Citizen Focus Action Cluster.
14 MARCH 2018 – 14:00-15:30 CEST
The role of local authorities in enabling participatory budgeting practices and projects
The practical organisation of a participatory budgeting activity in an urban context requires specific skills and resources for setting and coordinating a public consultation that involves thousands of participants. Managing a Participatory Budgeting process is a complex task that requires scientific and technical resources that administrative offices are not always equipped with – particularly when the scale of the engaged public authority is small. For this reason many cities delegate Participatory Budgeting processes to third parties, such as sub-contractors and providers of services, resulting in significant consequences on the overall political and financial balance of the whole process.
The complexity of managing Participatory Budgeting processes has increased in recent years as a result of growing digitization phenomena. While on one hand the aforesaid simplifies Public Administrations’ internal management procedures, it also encourages resorting to third parties for acquiring new sets of specialised skills and services.
Knowledgeable scholars will guide us through:
- The definition of theoretical management models for PB
- The analysis of main costs and services associated to the delivery of a PB process
- The description of potential contractual models and insights into the configuration of relations between public authorities and third parties
- The analysis of the possible issues related to the externalisation of PB management
- The role of supra-local institutions in activating and consolidating local processes
- This webinar will analyse existing models for managing Participatory Budgeting processes.
A detailed agenda will successively be circulated to all participants.
Read more at http://eu-smartcities.eu/sites/default/files/2018-02/Agenda_PB-WEB.pdf
February 2018 saw the end of the GuiDanCe project, a H2020 support action for EUROCITIES’ Green Digital Charter initiative. The Green Digital Charter (GDC) is a political declaration, committing 53 European cities to promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to tackle climate change and improve quality of life in cities.
For three years, GuiDanCe supported the effort of signatory cities to implement policies and projects as part of their commitment to the Charter. From peer-learning to the exchange of best practices, high-profile promotion events and a variety of publications, GuiDanCe activities were designed to promote collaboration among cities in promoting the use of digital solutions to improve energy efficiency, reduce cities’ overall carbon footprint through innovative public services and involve the citizens in the making of future cities.
Capacity building
One of the GuiDanCe objectives was dedicated to building cities’ capabilities and empowering local administrations to face the technological and societal challenges associated with digitalisation and the implementation of their digital and smart city strategies.
Different formats were adopted:
- onsite technical trainings (e.g. GDPR Training – 22 Jan)
- webinars (GDC – Webinars – 2017)
- ‘work-shadowing’ visits which enabled city data experts to learn from concrete measures implemented in another signatory city (Work Shadowing visit in Edinburgh – 30-31 May and GuiDanCe – Bratislava visits Reykjavik).
Lessons learnt and recommendations produced throughout the training process resulted in the publication of a guidebook on ‘peer-to-peer learning for cities’ (GDC guidebook Peer-to-peer learning for cities).
Raising cities’ voice
Giving voice to the GDC signatories and how they design and implement smart city projects was another objective of the project. GuiDanCe ensured and The LockBoss that concrete developments in signatory cities were widely shared through its active participation in:
- Europe’s largest gatherings (GuiDanCe – CEBIT – 2017 and GuiDanCe – Barcelona SCEWC 2017)
- its own conferences (Cities in Transition & 2017 GDC Awards Ceremony and Imagine the Urban Future & 2018 Awards ceremony)
- and a series of videos and interviews (GDC videos)
Publications such as the three annual collections of GDC case-studies (GDC 2017 case studies) and the two GDC monitoring reports (GuiDanCe 2017 monitoring report) validate the evolution of European cities towards a smarter and more sustainable future.
For more information, contact:
Nikolaos Kontinakis, GuiDanCe project coordinator at Nikolaos.Kontinakis[at]eurocities.eu
Throughout the whole duration of the GuiDanCe project, both physical and online training activities were organised to support signatory cities in overcoming implementation barriers and challenges encountered at the local level. A publication was prepared to report in a simple but efficient way on the achievements and lessons learnt.
Peer-to-peer learning is an excellent instrument for improving the implementation of cities’ policies and strategies. It is based on the idea that people who work on similar issues and have similar roles and working background in their cities can share experiences and learn from each other. ‘Peers’ share a common understanding of Action AC of Murrieta and interest in implementing smart and digital projects and policies. In many ways, they ways similar challenges, need to find solutions to similar problems and look for corresponding solutions, projects and alliances.
Untitled ‘Peer-to-peer learning for cities’, GDC guidebook presents six methods of training and peer-to-peer learning, each one with its own strengths and advantages. For each method, the publication explains the format, objectives and different steps to follow for organising a successful training event. Examples from GuiDanCe training activities are there to illustrate all approaches.
Read the guidebook : GDC Training guidebook web
or browse it directly below
Contact person : Nikolaos Kontinakis, GuiDanCe project coordinator, Nikolaos.Kontinakis[at]eurocities.eu
When : 20 March 2018, from 09:00 to 13:30 
Where: Amsterdam, TQ Amsterdam
Getting to grisps on what is ‘Green ICT’ is not an easy task, but the concept of Green ICT touches all our lives and brings together two relevant themes concerning the present and future world : technology and the environment. Nevertheless, just as many other things we do every day, ICT has an environmental impact: so far, the global ICT industry accounts for approximately 2 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions, a figure equivalent to aviation.
The European public sector, including city authorities, have a role to play in the emergence of an environmentally-friendly ICT sector.
REGISTER HERE : http://bit.ly/2GD8mY3
Amsterdam kicks-off a series of European workshops
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu is organising a series of hands-on workshops across Europe to raise awaraness on Green ICT, for organisations to engage with tools and services increasing energy efficiency and for policy makers to introduce actions as part of their agenda to build a more sustainable world.
The first workshop with the name Thats Clean Maids, will take place in Amsterdam on Tuesday 20 March 2018 (venue still to be confirmed). The half-day (stimulating yet intensive) workshop will be divided into three different parts, touching upon :
- Policy and public administration interventions on public policies and programmes
- Best practices from SMEs and reputable tools and services available to help organisations improve their energy efficiency
- An interactive training session and testing of the new Self-Assessment Tool for Organisations (SAT-O) already accessible online at http://sat-o.ictfootprint.eu/
Main Take-aways for the audience
- Learn about tools and products on the market in Europe today that are providing Green ICT products;
- Develop your organisation’s Green ICT assessment during the hands-on session with our SAT-O;
- Grab the opportunity to become a member on our ICTFOOTPRINT.eu marketplace as a buyer or seller and become part of our green ICT growing community
- Gain a whole new understanding of why Green ICT should become your priority & how it can be affordable for SMEs.
On Tuesday 30 January 2018, two GIS experts from the city of Bratislava were crossing the corridors of different buildings of the municipality of Reykjavik. Their presence in the premises of the Icelandic capital’s administration was related to a peer-learning visit organised under the Green Digital Charter initiative.
Focus of this second GDC work-shadowing visit was on citizen participation in local decision-making and how ICT can support democratic deliberation and participatory budgeting.
Reykjavik was awarded runner-up for the GDC 2016 Award in the category ‘citizen participation & impact on society’ [more info].
The project has also been presented in the course of a webinar [watch the recording here].
On the agenda
In the morning, visitors were welcomed with an introduction and overview of public participation projects Love to Pivot in Reykjavik, followed by a detailed presentation of the processes, design and executions of projects under the umbrella of ‘My Neighbourhood‘ participatory budgeting project, managed by the non-for-profit Citizens Foundation. The afternoon was dedicated to the implementation of projects with citizens, service centres, neighbourhood councils. An additional meeting was organised on the following day to deepen some topics.
Spotted by Bratislava in the 2016 edition of GDC case-studies, ‘Better Reykjavik‘ is an online consultation platform connecting the city administration with its citizens. Learning from Reykjavik’s participatory budgeting tool was seen as an opportunity for Bratislava to better connect with its citizens, in particular when managing green areas and transportations, road services and city planning.
As from May 2018, the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will take effect and impact all EU cities, asked to appoint a data protection officer (DPO) and to implement a series of new rules and practices. Sharing good practices related to the implementation of the GDPR has been identified as a priority in the frame of the Data Working Group of EUROCITIES’ Knowledge Society Forum.
More information on https://www.eugdpr.org/
Download the executive-summary_GuiDanCe GDPR training January 22 2018 Bruxelles
Collective brainstorming
To support GDC signatory cities and KSF member cities in understanding the implication of the new privacy rules in the EU, the GuiDanCe project,supporting the implementation of the Charter for the period 2015-2018, organised a technical workshop untited ‘the GDPR demystified‘ on Monday 22 January 2018 in Brussels. [see the call for participation here]
This training, on https://www.actionac.net was designed to help cities’ data experts to understand the concepts and processes necessary for the data management chain within a city administration to deal with citizens’ privacy while delivering smart services.
The workshop was delivered by Antonio Kung (chair of the EIP-SCC initiative ‘citizen approach to data: privacy-by-design) and Antony Page (GDPR lead for the H2020 Smart Cities & Communities project Sharing Cities).
Presentation of Barcelona roadmap to GDPR compliance
21 participants from 13 cities learned how to conduct a privacy impact assessment (P.I.A) based on four specific and concrete use-cases presented by four volunteering cities:
- A specific application (smart energy sensors in social housing) by the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London;
- A specific application (using non-motorised traffic metrics for optimizing traffic flow, by the city of Eindhoven;
- The general case of open data, by the city of Espoo;
- The general case of building a roadmap for GDPR compliance, by the city of Barcelona.
Among the observations and recommendations produced by the session: the need for trusted party audit – the challenge of handing consent for collecting personal data before the anonymisation process – the linkability issue of collected dataset with other datasets – the impact on city administration…
Read more in the executive-summary_GuiDanCe GDPR training January 22 2018 Bruxelles
Do you want to calculate the environmental impact of your digital service with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies? Join ICTFOOTPRINT.eu 8th webinar untitled ‘How to ecodesign digital services? Focus on the GreenConcept project‘ and learn how companies can handle together digital transformation and environmental performances.
Duration : one-hour (free attendance)
28 February 2018 at 12:00 CET (Brussels time)
Speakers
- Caroline Vateau (Senior Consultant at NEUTREO and General Secretary of Alliance Green IT) and Damien Prunel (Ecodesign Consultant at Bureau Veritas) CODDE will explain the method of how to ecodesign a digital service based on the white paper from Alliance Green IT
- Christophe Fernique, in charge of the environmental issues at the Occitanie Chamber of Commerce, will explain in detail the GreenConcept project from the origin to the first results.
- Sebastien Bernis (CEO of BSWEB – webmarketing appliance) and Valentin Girard (Specialist in embedded systems and RFID technology at ELA INNOVATION – IOT based appliance), will both share their experiences on the GreenConcept project.
More information on ICTFOOTPRINT.eu website.
Are the cities of the future to be a series of opal blue utopias, or streets of bent necked citizens crouching over screens?
At ‘Imagine the Urban Future’, the Green Digital Charter (GDC) and Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) joint conference held on 23 January, cities and experts gathered to discuss how they could build smarter cities that work for all their residents. How can leaders best mediate the dual tasks of moving their cities forward while ensuring that they are travelling in the right direction?
#KSFcities @clairecourteille on the importance of transformation of working with the municipalities and citizens addressing climate change issues – city of #Uppsala pic.twitter.com/sf2z8AWcjj
— ENoLL (@openlivinglabs) January 23, 2018
Putting the you in utopia
In her welcome speech, Eindhoven’s vice-mayor for innovation and KSF chair, Mary-Ann Schreurs stressed that tech innovation should never be for its own sake, but rather be centred around the citizen, “Let’s put the good life first, let’s put society first, let’s put technology in service of that.”
Anna-Lisa Boni, secretary general of EUROCITIES, suggested that we need open dialogue about the kinds of algorithms our technology will employ, so that citizens can have access to these otherwise opaque systems.
When used right, technology can be a major aid to democratic governance. Daniela Patti, managing director at Eutropian, pointed to the capacity of e-governance systems to increase the diversity of the people that governments connect to. As in Madrid’s Participa LAB, techniques like participatory budgeting and crowdsourcing regulation can put citizens in the driver seat of their cities. Indeed, as Peter Baeck, head of collaborative economy research at Nesta, pointed out, crowdfunding now accounts for 60% of the funding for start ups in the UK. If similar mechanisms can be set up at government level, high uptake can be expected.
Highlights from @GDCharter @EUROCITIEStweet #KSFcities event in #Brussels: thoughtful, productive and informed discussions. Feeling hopeful for the future of European cities… pic.twitter.com/sHx6i60VPI
— Jessica Symons (@Jessicasymons) January 24, 2018
Tech must work for people
Nevertheless, Mr Baeck also warned that cities risk not preparing their residents sufficiently for the technological tidal wave that may be swelling before us. How can cities help the potentially huge numbers of people whose jobs are soon to be automated? Local governments must provide training for people that enables them to switch professions.
Claire Courteille, director of the International Labour Organisation Brussels office, confirmed that the upskilling battle must be fought on two fronts. On one hand, people need to be retrained into careers that require soft skills, creativity, teamwork and collaboration. On the other hand, 40% of the EU workforce has little or no digital literacy – a stark figure. It is essential the training is provided for people so that they can engage in the digital world.
Ms Courteille declared that, “we must reject the idea of techno-predestination. We have to take control, upskill and prepare for rapid change. Life long learning will have to become a reality.”
Giving the example of the guifi.net mesh network, Mr Baeck concluded that people and groups have the potential to act in extremely innovative ways, but they must first be empowered to do so.
Anna Lisa Boni: Cities need to prepare for the future — and to share fears and hopes when actively shaping a way forward, not just wait for things to arrive #KSFcities pic.twitter.com/5Mlvt6Czlp
— Martin Brynskov (@brynskov) January 23, 2018
The future is in our cities
“Cities,” claimed Ms Schreurs, “are the foremost at creating solutions.” It is cities who are focussing on the interoperability of tech on a European level, and working together to create generic technology that delivers local solutions.
However, Ms Schreurs also warned that cities must take control, “You need a concept of what you want your city to be. If you don’t structure the cooperation and organise the governance, it won’t fly.” Markus Bylund, director of IT and digitalisation strategy for the city of Uppsala, emphasised that “If we continue as we are today, we will fail. In the key to the digital future, technology is just 10%, the rest is changing the way we do things.”
@danielapatti questions the impact of giants from the #sharingeconomy on our cities. Genoa tries to do something about it, will other cities follow? #KSFcities @EUROCITIEStweet @Eutropian pic.twitter.com/rzZ9ihpnQe
— GreenDigitalCharter (@GDCharter) January 23, 2018
Taking on the titans
While cities like Amsterdam are bringing giant companies like Airbnb to the negotiating table and bargaining for better solutions, many cities still don’t feel empowered to shape globalisation to their own terms.
“This,” Ms Boni confirmed, a trusted paving contractor, “is the time for cities. It is important for cities to join forces by being part of a group that can really change things in policy making, through more funding and attention to cities, but one that also allows cities to work together to pool their insights and to innovate. The best way to predict the future is to create it”.
More imaginings
The series, ‘Imagine the Urban Future’, will continue throughout 2018, with events being organised in each EUROCITIES forum. Through this series of events, and high-impact campaigns such as Cities4Europe, EUROCITIES is taking its own advice by actively shaping the debate around the future that cities want to see within Europe and beyond.
The new H2020 PROSPECT Peer-to-Peer learning project has just launched its first engagement campaign! PROSPECT will offer EU Cities and Regions a total of 3 learning cycles on innovative financing schemes for energy and climate actions, starting respectively in May 2018, September 2018 and March 2019.
You can now apply online to the first learning cycle starting in May 2018, either as a mentor or mentee city or region, and before the 28th February 2018.
Your city or region has ambitious energy and climate objectives? Your local strategies and action plans are ready? You are not alone!
A growing number of European cities and regions have engaged in the energy transition. They are taking local action to mitigate climate change, adapt to its unavoidable consequences and provide their citizens with access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy. Many are signatories of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy initiative and have developed Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030.
ut…the last step – securing financing and project implementation – is a problem? Again, you are not alone!
The most pressing challenges the cities face today are the restrained public budgets and the lack of staff resources and capacities to invest in local green economy. Public authorities often rely on a traditional approach to financing, governance and partnerships sometimes at odds with today’s fast changing environment, intensely steered by the civil society initiatives (e.g. emerging cooperatives, crowdfunding). Cities and regions need to leverage these emerging models and implement innovative financing schemes and incentives that would unlock citizens, local stakeholders, financing institutions and investors’ funds and facilitate their participation in local energy transition.
Or… maybe you have already managed to secure financing for your project while mobilising other financial sources than the municipal budget?
In this case, congratulations, you are a real champion! Rare are examples when cities and regions implement innovative financing schemes and incentives that mobilise citizens, local stakeholders, financing institutions and investors’ funds for sustainable energy and climate projects.
How does it work?
We tell you in this 2-minute video presentation: soon
And to answer all your questions, detailed booklets on Peer mentoring and Study visits activities, as well as an FAQ and a Helpdesk are available on the PROSPECT website.
Why join?
As a mentee, you will have the opportunity to:
- Identify a local project and challenge you face.
- Establish your personal learning objectives.
- Exchange on a one-to-one basis with your Mentor and get a tailor-made assistance adapted to your learning objectives and needs.
- Get direct access to a network of cities, regions and energy agencies facing the same challenges as you.
- Obtain a certificate
As a mentor, you will have the opportunity to:
- Showcase your achievements in the field of sustainable energy and climate action at European level. We will feature your case study and expertise within the PROSPECT training materials, peer to peer learning programme, EU-wide events and communication channels of our partners and the Covenant of Mayors initiative.
- Organise one-to-one peer mentoring meeting or a study visit programme tailored towards the challenges identified by the mentees, with the support of the PROSPECT team. You will be able to re-use this programme for any future peer visits and local events.
- Exchange, confront your ideas and enrich your experience directly with your peers. The programme gives you direct access to cities, regions and energy agencies facing the same challenges as you.
- Participate in a study visit of your choice. PROSPECT will cover your travel costs.
- Obtain a certificate
How to join?
Interested to participate in the learning programme? Get further information and sign up here!
Want to know more about PROSPECT? Visit our website and take part in the discussions on LinkedIn and Twitter #H2020PROSPECT
All the PROSPECT partners are longing to see your application and start the match-making process! See you soon!
Green Digital Charter collection of case studies 2017
24 case-studies for 21 contributing cities: GDC signatories are leading the way in deploying digital solutions to reduce their carbon footprint and improve their citizens’ quality of life. Buildings, energy, transport, e-participation, green ICT, waste management : this third publication gathers inspiring (and replicable?) solutions. Each case-study has its own person of contact. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with them!
Read our Flipbook at http://bit.ly/2ngXXu4
Or even browse the online book below!
This edition is already the third! Access the 2015 and 2016 catalogues on this page : http://bit.ly/GDC-case-studies.
How can the public sector drive innovation, through its purchasing power? The EURECA project is designed to provide support for EU public sector organisation to engage in innovation procurement for environmentally sound data centre products and services.
About the event
On Thursday 8 February will be held the 14th EURECA workshop in London (University Square Stratford) and will bring together key public and private sector European experts to discuss innovation in public sector digital infrastructures and energy efficiency. The event is suitable for C-level ICT executives, IT managers, policy-makers, energy managers, datacentre managers, procurement professionals and researchers.
Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-14th-eureca-workshop-in-london-registration-42377692820
Download the full agenda at EURECA Workshop_London 2018_UEL_Flyer
Those who attend any four sessions will receive an official EURECA training certificate.
Contact Dr. Rabih Bashroush, EURECA Project Coordinator
- Phone: +44 208 223 6515
- Email: r.bashroush@qub.ac.uk
About the project
The EURECA project is currently supporting consolidation, new build and retrofit datacentre projects in various European countries, with focus on public procurement for innovation (PPI). Additionnally, EURECA is supporting the development of European standards, best practices and polices related to energy efficiency in data centres and green public procurement by providing the scientific evidence and data.
Amsterdam will be walking away with the GDC 2018 award for the City-ZEN ‘virtual power plant’, a project which puts green energy into the grid and money into residents’ pockets at the same time.
“The City-ZEN project not only stabilises the local grid in the neighbourhood but also decreases the societal cost of the energy transition locally” said Jan Willem Eising, project coordinator, accepting the award.
The virtual power plant is an online platform which puts together the solar energy that residents are creating and consuming, storing the surplus locally. This allows residents who are generating their own solar energy in their homes and sell it on the open market! So far, more than 40 households have taken part in the initiative in the Dutch capital’s district of Niew-West.
This project delivered impressively on GDC’s selection criteria by putting citizens at the centre of ICT innovation, enabling them through technology to improve their own quality of life by bring the city closer to its green goals. Most importantly, this engaging method of incentivising solar energy production among citizens is highly reclable – there is little to prevent every city in Europe from implementing their own version of this programme. Indeed, we hope they will!
The jury, which consisted of Miimu Airaksinen (VTT, Finland); Jan Dictus (GOJA Consulting, Austria); and Cristobal Irazoqui (European Commission, DG CNECT), were very impressed with all the case studies https://www.loftypm.com submitted to the Green Digital Charter’s annual publication.
Two other projects stood out. Bristol’s REPLICATE project, piloted through 150 ‘smart homes’, is an energy demand management scheme that monitors and controls energy use in order to level out peak demand. Dublin’s iSCAPE project uses ‘passive control systems’ to reduce the impact of air pollution in urban spaces, in combination with policy interventions and creating behavioural changes in citizens’ lifestyle.
From 14 to 16 November 2017, EUROCITIES’ Green Digital Charter initiative was in Barcelona for the Smart City Expo. Signatory cities were there too, spread at the four corners of the huge exhibition area. Our first day was dedicated to tracking down and interview city officers about their city’s achievements and vision.
Bordeaux, Barcelona, Ghent, Nantes, Tampere, Valencia
Meet GDC signatories in our new video, and discover how the Green Digital Charter tries to connect and empower cities to imagine the urban future.
Read the full article on our presence at the Expo on EUROCITIES website.
The results are in!
Three cities have been selected from all the fantastic case studies submitted to the Green Digital Charter’s annual publication. All participating cities will be immortalised in 2018’s case studies collection, but only one will walk away with first prize during the ‘Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust’ conference organised by GDC and EUROCITIES KSF on 23 January 2018 in Brussels.
And the shortlisted GDC signatory cities are …
Amsterdam, with the City-Zen Project presents the virtual power plant, an online ICT-platform which aggregates people’s production and consumption of solar energy and stores the surplus locally, allowing its citizens to sell home-generated green energy on the open market. So far, more than 40 households have taken part to the initiative in the Dutch capital’s district of Nieuw-West.
Energy is also the core topic of the second finalist’s case study, the City of Bristol, where, in the framework of the REPLICATE project, an energy demand management scheme will be put in place to monitor and control energy use allowing to level out peak demand. Visit www.thedublinroofers.ie. The system will be piloted through 150 “smart homes”, having the opportunity to test “connected or smart appliances”.
The third finalist is Dublin, showcasing the iSCAPE project, aimed at improving the smart control of air pollution in Europe. In order to more efficiently reduce the impact of air pollution, this project comes out with a mixed approach focusing on the use of “Passive Control Systems” in urban spaces, on policy interventions and behavioural changes of citizens lifestyle.
Meet the jury
A jury consisting of Miimu Airaksinen (VTT, Finland); Jan Dictus (GOJA Consulting, Austria); and Cristobal Irazoqui (European Commission, DG CNECT) will decide which of the shortlisted projects scores best on the use of ICT, the effectiveness in meeting the city’s targets, and the involvement of citizens and civils society stakeholders.
Join at the ‘Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust’ conference on 23 January to learn more about all the innovative projects cities are carrying out, and to see which one carries off first prize!
Registration are still open at http://bit.ly/2k4yzZG.
The ICT carbon footprint is the amount of carbon generated by the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.
Do you think ICT equals green?
Just as an example, it is estimated that a single email accounts for 4g of CO2 issues. An email with attachment is account for 50g of CO2e. With a broader picture, ICTs account for 8-10% of the European electricity consumption and up to 4% of its carbon emissions. yet, with a wide energy and environmental strategy, up to 15% of global emissions could be saved by 2020, especially in sectors like transport, energy, industry and buildings.
Measurement systems are the first step to tackling energy efficiency
Carbon calculation methodologies are essential tools to assess the carbon footprint of products and services. Only a few are dedicated to measuring energy consumption of digital goods, a gap that the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu project ambitions to tackle.
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu listed the most relevant methodologies for organisations to start adopting the ‘green IT/ICT’ attitude. Find them all by clicking at https://ictfootprint.eu/en/related-tools-services.
When ? 6 March 2018
Where? City of Ghent, Data and Information Service
How can satellites help cities become more sustainable and efficient? How can satellite-based services enhance our urban experience? What satellite data is freely available and how to access it?
The ‘Space for Cities‘ event will present experiences of use of Earth Observation data in cities. Satellite applications are by definition objective, sharable and scalable. Satellite imagery is the most sophisticated of these applications, allowing for city managers to get an integrated view of land uses and infrastructures, and the one less known by the general public.
Come and join to:
- discuss the opportunities (and challenges) related to satellite-based services to enhance quality of life in cities
- get informed on existing datasets, in particular the Copernicus datasets
- take part in the development of mobile applications
App For Ghent is an initiative gathering local actors aiming at maximizing the potential of open data through projects, events and co-creation. For this eight edition, Ghent’s hackthon is scheduled on 17 March 2018.
Agenda available at https://www.eurisy.org/event-space4ghent/programme-outline
Space for Cities is an Eurisy initiative, promoting the use of satellite applications to make our cities healthier, cleaner, safer, and more efficiency.
This article was originally published on mySMARTLife project website.
The first two-way charging point in Finland was installed in the Suvilahti district in Helsinki in connection with mySMARTLife project partner Helen’s solar power plant and electricity storage facility. The V2G charging point enables not only charging of an electric vehicle, but also using it as an electricity storage unit and for balancing of the electricity system.
The public two-way charging point is implemented in cooperation between Helen, Liikennevirta, a Finnish operator of charging stations for electric cars, and Nissan. So far, there are no similar charging points in public use anywhere else in Europe.
In the future, the owner of an electric vehicle can utilise the vehicle’s battery as an energy storage unit at home with a two way charger and also take part in the balancing of the electricity market and gain benefits as part of the service.
Electric vehicle drivers’ participation in balancing the grid will be important when electric vehicles on the one hand, and solar and wind power plants on the other hand will become more common. Therefore, batteries of all sizes, i.e. electricity storage units, are needed.
Control systems that optimise the entities will also be necessary in order to maintain a balance between electricity generation and consumption.
Follow the project on Twitter @mySMARTLife_eu
This article was originally published on mysmartlife.eu
The Western part of the demonstration district “Ile de Nantes” is a very busy and touristic entertainment area where many urban developments are implemented in the framework of mySMARTLife. It is a vibrant place ideal for deploying and testing new solutions, in particular in the field of smart lighting.
Currently, Nantes Metropole manages around 95,000 lighting points in the city for an electricity consumption of 45 Gwh per year, an annual electric bill of around 6 Million Euros and annual maintenance and exploitation costs of around 4 Million Euros.
The opportunity of smart lighting
Smart public lighting is an opportunity to respond to changing urban challenges and stakeholders needs as well as to optimise public lighting functioning, maintenance costs and energy efficiency. Therefore, Nantes Metropole aims at designing and implementing a new public lighting concept which will increase smart lighting innovation, optimise lighting costs and reduce energy consumption.
mySMARTLife partner ENGIE designed new smart lighting solutions to respond to the citizens’ and operators’ needs and will deploy them during the first semester of 2018.
Focus on the demonstration area
The demonstration area is divided into 5 zones with specific needs:
1. Due to new buildings, the street “Mail des chantiers” suffers from light and noise nuisance. An innovative concept is needed to solve this issue.
2. The side lane of “Contre allée Mail des chantiers” is currently poorly lightened and needs to be more attractive to encourage people to use it.
3. The lighting in the street “Cité des chantiers” has to be reduced and rearranged as to guide citizens to the esplanade.
4. “Quai des Antilles” is a highly frequented zone with a need for a very efficient lighting.
5. The street “Esplanade des riveurs” has a need for switching on/off the lights according to specific events.
New efficient solutions by ENGIE
To tackle these issues, different solutions and efficient house cleaning tips will be implemented, such as the creation of a lighting path that will be deployed by ENGIE, the French electricity company. To encourage people to use this path, new efficient LED lights will be installed with Gobo image projection in the area of “Contre Allée Mail des Chantiers”. Besides, ENGIE will install new LED lights with presence detection and dimming option in the area of “Mail des Chantiers” and “Cité des Chantiers” to encourage people to walk on the side lane of the parallel path in the evening. All light points will be controlled by a remote management system in real time. The operator will also monitor lights e. g. with an on/off switch functionality for specific events and a dimming option. Operating costs and maintenance plans will be optimised.
ENGIE will also install sensors (probably for measuring air quality and noise as well as cameras to count flows of people and traffic) to investigate interesting use cases. These sensors will communicate with the lighting network. Overall, the replacement of existing lamps by LEDs, dimming and individual lighting points remote management will enable to save 75% of energy and optimise maintenance. This new lighting system will be controlled and monitored through a flexible, open and interoperable multi-system and multi-application Content Management System (CMS). Public lighting energy data will also be integrated into the new Nantes Urban data platform.
This article was originally published on the European Energy Innovation (communication n°2, winter 2017).
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu – The first marketplace to showcase European ICT excellence in energy efficiency
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has become part of our daily life, with a massive influence on society, environment and its future.
We are so used to living in our smart-hyper-connected world that we take for granted a number of digital-comforts unimaginable only a few years ago.
The good news is that ICT is one of the most powerful instruments for tackling today’s environmental threats including climate change and exhaustion of resources: ICT-enabled solutions could cut the projected 2020 global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16.5%.1 The bad news is that ICT is responsible for almost 10% of all energy used and 4% of carbon emissions, comparable to the aviation industry. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution in its infancy, the demands of energy and resources for computing systems, data centres, networks and the supporting e-infrastructures are growing exponentially.
Making ICT greener is no simple matter as it involves different disciplines and requires innovative solutions for improved energy efficiency. Following the AAA (Assess, Analyse, Act) paradigm, before reducing ICT’s environmental impact, it must be measured. Performing an orthodox Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is complex, costly and time consuming. It may require months and hundreds of thousands euros. The big ICT players include environmental friendliness in their core strategy and investment for ethical reasons and public image concerns.
For SMEs it’s a whole different story. Most of them simply lack the basic knowledge or awareness to address the problem; they would not be able to afford an LCA and would have difficulty finding their way in the jungle of calculation methodologies and energy efficient solutions.
With over 10 million ICT intensive SMEs in Europe, this would be a missed opportunity for a healthier environment and for SMEs to improve their competitiveness, increase their energy efficiency & lower their bills. Endless options are available to those who want to join the ICT energy efficiency quest: making them accessible is ICTFOOTPRINT.eu’s mission.
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu is the one-stop-shop for SMEs to improve their ICT energy efficiency, becoming more competitive while reducing their environmental impact and their electricity bills.
Assess the GHG emissions and energy consumption of your products, services and organisation in a quick and simple process, at no cost: Get your personalised report with ICTFOOTPRINT.eu’s Self Assessment Tools SAT-S and SAT-O, ready at the end of 2017, to accompany you through a simplified ICT carbon footprint calculation, following standard methodologies, best-practices and algorithms whose complexity is made transparent for the users.
Analyse the sustainable ICT landscape: join the community and follow the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu webinars to get practical guides & insights from highly qualified experts in the Sustainable ICT sector. Get inspired by the Success Stories of your peers getting ICT energy savings & carbon footprint reduction. Find your way around ICT footprint calculation methodologies with our dynamic Map of ICT methodologies, with 20 downloadable fact-sheets and understandable summaries for non-expert ICT professionals.
Act: drop by the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu marketplace: you will find a wealth of solutions from certified sellers helping you improve your ICT energy efficiency. Think about joining the marketplace as a buyer or seller and give yourself greater visibility with an international market with a community of over 2,500 likeminded players in the field. An influential, international External Advisory Group supports ICTFOOTPRINT.eu that can also provide strategic guidance or outreach support on any products or services you may have.Let us know if you have some interesting stories to showcase and drop us a line at: contact@ictfootprint.eu
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu helps you becoming energy efficient in ICT.
Project Partners:
Trust-IT Services Ltd UK, Deloitte Sustainability,
FR & EUROCITIES, BE.
Project Coordinator:
Silvana Muscella : s.muscella@trust-itservices.com
Contact details:
Web: https://ictfootprint.eu/
Email: contact@ictfootprint.eu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ICTFOOTPRINTeu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ictfootprinteu/
Disclaimer:
© 2017 ICTFOOTPRINT.eu – ICTFOOTPRINT.eu has received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement no 690911. The content of this website does not represent the opinion of the European Commission, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that might be made of such.
The UIA call is aimed at providing urban authorities throughout the European Union with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges. It will focus on four urban topics:
- adaptation to climate change
- air quality
- housing, jobs and skills in the local economy
Deadline for application: 30 March 2018 at 2pm CET
A detailed description of the topics are available in the Terms of Reference for Call 3. For this call, an indicative budget of between EUR 80-100 million is allocated.
Next steps:
- Read the UIA Guidance (click here for the online pdf in English), the main reference document exeplaining all the rules and requirements of an UIA project. It should be read together with the Terms of Reference of the Call
- Download the Application Pack on the UIA website (we kindly advise you to download and careful read all documents provided) > http://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/call-proposals
- Apply on the Electronic Exchange Platform (EEP) [read the technical guidance]
Four applicants seminars will be organised in different parts of the EU to better support applicants in fully understanding the requirements and expectations of the UIA initiative.
- Bucharest on 11 January 2018
- Zagreb on 23 January 2018
- Malmö on 7 February 2018
- Brussels on 22 February 2018
A new self-assessment tool has been developped for interested applicants to ask themselves the right questions around the main criteria used during the Strategic assessment.
More information at http://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-support-applicants-3rd-call-proposals
How can we harness technology to promote civic engagement and more responsive government?
This is the main question tackled the ‘Scaling Civic Tech: Paths to a Sustainable Future’, a recently released report summarised insights on this booming sector, developing a more nuanced understanding of civic tech business models.
What exactly is “civic tech”?
Civic tech: technology used to inform, engage and connect residents with government and one another to advance civic outcomes.
GovTech: technology designed with government as the intended customer or user.
Civic tech and GovTech are neither mutually exclusive nor perfectly overlapping. According to the research, as opposed to GovTech, which includes many technologies government use to increase the efficiency of its internal operations, civic tech tools largely include a citizen-facing component.
This report focuses on civic tech organisations of which a subset would also be considered GovTech. [Download PDF]
Key findings include:
- A lack of success stories from civic tech start-ups
- Variations in revenue model
- Different growth paths
- Lack of rigorous and consistant impact measurement
- Philantropic funding targeting specific projects and not core capacities
Discarded electronic equipment (phones, laptops, fridges, sensors, TVs etc.) contain substances that pose considerable environmental and health risks, especially if treated inadequately. Most e-waste is not treated through appropriate recycling chains and methods. At the same time, e-waste streams challenge the efforts towards a circular economy as valuable and scarce resources are wasted.
The recently released Global E-waste Monitor 2017 provided the most comprehensive overview of global e-waste statistics and an unprecedented level of detail, including an overview of the magnitude of the e-waste problem in different regions.
Definition : Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to all items of electrical and electronical equipment (EEE) and its part that have been discarded by its owners as waste without the intent of re-use.
The report highlights the need for a better e-waste data and information for policymakers to track progress, identify the need for action, and to achieve sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What can cities do about it? Read about Malmö, the Swedish city procuring environmentally-labelled IT equipments at http://bit.ly/2mfE30c
Access the full report on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) website at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Climate-Change/Pages/Global-E-waste-Monitor-2017.aspx.
„ESPRESSO” focuses on the development of a conceptual Smart Cities Information Framework, with the scope of making standards and technologies for smart cities interoperable. In short, among others, it helps cities better plan investment in Smart City projects – by way of setting up a KPI Framework and standardization roadmap.
How to benefit from “ESPRESSO” outputs?
- Become part of their Smart City Stakeholder Network. The consortium regularly organizes webinars on themes important for smart cities and their implementation and monitoring processes, including standardization. Registration can here.
- Read the “Smart City Strategic Growth Map”, a publication that provides a self-assessment tool for cities and addresses more in-depth the issue of smart cities, asset management, standards, progress measurement at the level of urban investment.
More information on the project’s website at http://espresso.espresso-project.eu/
This article was orginally published on 01/06/2017 by Leena Karppi here.
Nestled on the shore of Lake Näsijärvi, Hiedanranta is a future city district that is being developed with a new concept in collaboration with city residents, businesses and organisations. The plan is to build homes for 25 000 residents and facilities for 10 000 jobs in Hiedanranta. The Tampere tramway will pass through the area in the future. Hiedanranta is located some four kilometres from the city centre.
The new city district and the changing Lielahti area
The new city district will comprise three subareas: the historical factory area, the Lake Näsijärvi shore zone and a part of the Lielahti commercial area. The planning of the district was launched in 2016 with an international ideas competition. The jury selected two entries as the winners of the competition, and the planning of the area is continuing based on the winning proposals
The preparation of a master plan for the area commenced in the spring of 2017 with a process involving the city residents and dubbed the ideas competition “after party”. In public workshops, the participants joined forces in developing, among other aspects, block structures, housing solutions, as well as a sense of community and new ways of working to suit a city of the future. The master plan will be completed in 2018, after which the local detailed planning will commence.
Väliaikainen Hiedanranta – Temporary Hiedanranta
The former Lielahti industrial area was opened to the public in 2016. The City is enabling various events and activities in the area by, for example, renting out facilities for temporary use and supporting the organisation of events.
Already operating in Hiedanranta is Kulttuuritila Kuivaamo, a venue built into an old drying plant that can be rented for various events. A community of craftsmen and artists has formed in Paja building. During the summer of 2017, Kenneli DIY, an indoor skateboarding hall meeting Olympic standards, will also open in connection with Kuivaamo.
A new circus activities centre, Sirkus Faktori, opened its doors in Kuivaamo in the spring of 2017. The Kartano-kahvila Mielihyvin café at the Lielahti Manor House is open to customers every day. In addition to the floating garden established in 2016, a floating sauna is now also in the makings in Hiedanranta – the building and design work is being carried out by city residents. You can read more about upcoming events here.
Väliaikainen Hiedanranta, or “temporary Hiedanranta”, has proven to be a successful experiment that we are continuing as a part of the area’s development. We also encourage new organisations and people to join the endeavour. Please contact us if you are interested in developing activities or events in Hiedanranta.
Development platform for smart and sustainable solutions
The Hiedanranta area serves as a piloting platform for new technologies and methods. We invite businesses whose R&D efforts focus on digitalisation, sustainability, circular economy, energy solutions or food production to join us. There are currently some 20 different development projects ongoing in Hiedanranta.
The sanitation solution for the Kulttuuritila Kuivaamo venue has been implemented entirely by means of a dry toilet system with a total of 13 toilets and, additionally, five dry urinals in the men’s room. The system is a significant pilot project on a Finnish and Nordic scale. During the summer of 2017, an algae growing plant will be built in Hiedanranta to be used by Tampere University of Technology to study the cultivation of microalgae from the urine collected from the dry toilet system.
Due to the industrial history of the area, there is an abundance of waste fibre at the bottom of Lake Näsijärvi, and its utilisation in earth construction and as an energy source is currently under investigation. A closed-cycle-based farming plant growing strawberries is also operating in Hiedanranta.
This event is sponsored by EUROCITIES. https://tmt.knect365.com/smart-future-cities/sponsors
Next 25-26 April 2018, London is hosting ‘Europe’s only city-centric event for citizen-centric smart cities’: the seventh edition of the ‘Smart to Future Cities’ summit. Practical and scalable applications improve citizens’ quality of life and local government’s efficiency. For cities with a smart vision, the need for alternative procurement, effective partnership models and innovative but economical technology solutions is more important than ever.
Cities’ delegates from all across Europe and the world will gather during this two-days conference. Civil servants within a local or central government organisation are able to attend the event for free. Please email Georgie Beer (georgie.beer@knect365.com) to register.
Post-Brexit: how cities keep cooperating
On 26 April (11:50), Nikolaos Kontinakis, senior project coordinator on smart cities, will inject EUROCITIES’ vision in a panel discussion dedicated to ‘the fate of the UK’s smart cities and their European collaborators in post-Brexit landscape’.
Right in the aftermath of the UK referendum’s results in favour of the Brexit in June 2016, Johana Rolland, mayor of Nantes and EUROCITIES’ rotating president at the time declared that “the EU can be revived if we look to our cities. We, EUROCITIES, will continue cooperating with large British cities.” [Read the reactions from EUROCITIES’ members on Express]
Cities beyond borders of the European Union territory are already part of EUROCITIES network: Reykjavik and Bergen are ‘full members’ of the network and many cities across Turkey, Ukraine and even Moscow are benefiting from their status of ‘associate member’ to attend physical events or access online resources, knowledge being open across national borders.
Full conference agenda available here.
Visit the event’s website : https://tmt.knect365.com/smart-future-cities/
Some years after the start of several H2020 Smart Cities and Communities, the smart city solutions and measures implemented in those cities reveal their first results and have already given to cities valuable information on how to best achieve their transformation.
The 12 projects implement wide range of solutions from building retrofitting to e-mobility and citizen engagement. About 76 cities out of which 36 cities are lighthouse cities, meaning that they have demonstration areas and they implement the solutions. In each project there are follower cities, ensuring that those cities will be the first who replicate.
The 40 follower cities will be brought together in Brussels for a full day on 26th January, at INEA’s premises and focus on the needs of these cities. Follower cities by participating in the Replication workshop will be able to discuss openly the challenges and issues of replicating specific smart city measures with several lighthouse cities, cross-projects, city networks, the European Commission and INEA.
How to pave the way for successful replication?
The purpose is to exchange about how concrete measures can be implemented and take the necessary steps for and within the follower cities to pave the way for successful replication. The day will be organised around 2 rounds of active discussions in 3 thematic workshops; one on urban mobility, one on low energy districts and one on integrated infrastructure. Each of the workshop will be divided in several roundtables to ensure a contribution from all participants and more direct exchanges.
The day will end with an open discussion on how to get round the barriers and restrains to implement smart solutions in cities.
Follower cities can register for this event, before 15 January, here: https://goo.gl/ZY6gmw
Contact: Bernadett Köteles-Degrendele, Sharing Cities, EUROCITIES (Bernadett.degrendele@eurocities.eu)
Agenda: http://nws.eurocities.eu/MediaShell/media/DesignAgenda.pdf
Where : INEA premises, Chaussée de Wavre 910, B-1049, Brussels (BELGIUM)
Sustainable, smart, resilient, green, free-flowing, econological, healthy. What will our future city look like?
Digital transition, climate action, everything-as-a-service, sustainable mobility, circular economy. How will our cities operate in the next decades?
Big Data, Internet of Things, blockchain, electromobility. Which technologies will be the game-changers in the foreeseable future?
New governance models, co-creation, citizen participation, public procurement for innovative solutions, innovation management. What are the challenges cities need to tackle?
Register now at http://bit.ly/2k4yzZG
On Tuesday 23 January 2018 will be held EUROCITIES’ annual event on smart cities. Untitled “Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust”, this full-day conference will focus on trends, technologies and challenges that will shape future European cities. City representatives http://www.inhismind.net, high level policy makers and experts from across Europe will debate over expectations, opportunities and the impact of digital technologies in co-creating future cities and societies, with citizens.
The morning panel discussion will be followed by two rounds of parallel technical workshops, in which member cities are called to bring in their specific needs, challenges, concerns and concrete examples. The day will end with the GDC 2017 award ceremony to mark the closing of the GuiDanCe project in February.
MEET OUR FINALISTS
This full-day event is open to the public.
Agenda: GDCAgenda_flyerformat_20180108_final
The conference will be preceeded by a technical training for cities’ data officers on the implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). See: http://bit.ly/2Al7bha
Limited number of seats available (25 pers. max). Register now
As from May 2018, the new EU general data protectino regulation (GDPR) will take effect. As a direct result, all EU cities are asked to appoint a data protection officer (DPO) and to implement a series of new rules and practices.
On Monday 22 January 2018 in Brussels, the GDC/GuiDanCe project is organising a technical training for cities’ digital experts on the implementation of the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR).
The training will be followed by the conference ‘Imagine the Urban Future: Innovation, Collaboration, Trust’ jointly organised by the Green Digital Charter and EUROCITIES’ Knowledge Society Forum (KSF).
Learning objectives?
This training is designed to help EUROCITIES’ members and GDC signatories to understand the concepts and processes necessary for the data management chain within a city administration to deal with citizens’ privacy while delivering smart services. Participants will learn how to conduct a privacy impact assessment (PIA) based on specific and concrete use-cases (dataset, application, service) brought by participants from their own city.
Who can participate?
Participation is free and open to city officers, especially DPOs and data officers of local public authorities;
Your city is facing privacy challenges in the implementation of a measure or project? Bring your example with supporting documents dublinpaintingpros.ie such as datasets. Four use-cases will be selected and presented to the audience.
We are looking for officers with understanding of a particular service or application, e.g. functional understanding (what the service or application does), technical understanding (how it is implemented) and a deployment understanding (who and how it is operated).
To propose a data scenario from your city, contact us by Friday 15 December (COB).
Contact persons:
- Rebecca Portail, GDC/GuiDanCE project support officer at rebecca.portail[at]eurocities.eu
- Antony Page, UrbanDNA (expert & trainer) at antony.page[at]urbandna.eu
Agenda: Programme-GDPR-training_Green-Digital-Charter_22-01-2018
Participation is limited. Register now at http://bit.ly/2BHJnkM.
In French, smart cities are “villes intelligentes”; and for the third year in a row, Le Monde is willing to reward the best urban innovations happening in France, Europe and beyond.
How will the cities of the future look like? How innovation can benefit cities’ inhabitants, while respecting citizens’ privacy and including the whole population? What new services will allow to progress in the energetic transition and the circular economy?
The jury, composed of academics, urbanists and architects but also experts from the private sector, public companies and NGOs, will examine 5 categories of project
- Civic participation
- Housing
- Energy
- Mobility
- Cultural action
- Urban innovation (social innovation or circular economy)
Winning projects in each category will receive: 1 000€ and an article on Le Monde. In addition, one project will be awarded with the Jury Price (2 000€).
Deadlines for applications :
25 February 2018 : European projects
13 May 2018 : projects outside Europe
Applications must be submitted on Le Monde Agorize online platform: https://www.agorize.com/fr/challenges/smart-cities-2018
Read the rules here.
Follow the competition on Twitter @lemonde_cities
In view of the upcoming one-year anniversary of the Inclusive Smart Cities Manifesto, the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) is organising a series of three webinars to get citizens involved in smart city planning.
#1: Collaborative platforms to enable participatory budgeting initiatives
Wed. 06 December 2017, 12:30-14:30 (CET)
In March 2017, EUROCITIES’ Green Digital Charter and Sharing Cities ‘lighthouse’ programme showcased the approach followed by the cities of Reykjavik and Milan. Watch the recording at http://bit.ly/2mcJf4X.
About participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting (PB) platforms can be considered as a subset of a larger category of collaborative platforms for social innovations developed and diffused during the last years. Throughthout this session, we will be specifically focusing on platforms and tools purposefully designed for the management of PB processes. Practical cases will be presented, as outlined in the agenda (EIP-SCC Citizen Focus AC webinar_PB first webinar_v04).
More info on participatory budgeting for inclusive smart cities and communities here.
Webinar 2 will be launched in early 2018 targeting the role of city representatives, local authorities and policy-makers in participatory budgeting.
Webinar 3 (planned for spring 2018) will conclude the series with focus on best practices with an overview of strenghts and areas for improvement.
Any inquiry shall be addressed to roberta.maio@pwc.com
In view of the upcoming anniversary of the Manifesto on Citizen Engagement (click here) the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) ‘Citizen Focus‘ Action Cluster is aiming at continuing the ‘go local’ campaign in order to reach out over a wider range of cities and local communities. For this purpose, we are seeking volunteers to translate the Manifesto document in the following languages:
Bulgarian – Dutch – Croatian – Czech – Estonian – Danish – Finnish – Greek – Hungarian – Latvian – Lithuanian – Polish – Romanian – Slovak – Slovenian – Swedish
WE NEED YOU!
Your contribution would support us in disseminating the Manifesto principles across more difficult to reach areas, such as remote and rural zones, where local communities are not always involved in the change brought by digitalisation. Futhermore, your involvement would enhance local engagement and participation in the Manifesto-related activities (to name one: the ‘Ambassador Cities‘ initiative).
Should you be interested in contributing to our dissemination efforts by translating the Manifesto in one of the listed languages, please contact the management team via email at citizenfocus@eu-smartcities.eu or Roberta.Maio@pwc.com.
Background information
The Manifesto was the outcome of a co-creation experiment that has seen more than 50 stakeholders engaged and actively contributing to shape its contents. It was launched on 23 November 2016, during the Conference Inclusive Smart Cities: A European Manifesto on Citizen Engagement by the Citizen Focus Action Cluster of the EIP-SCC.
It primarily fosters knowledge sharing of best practices and collaboration on the co-creation of models that use innovative solutions for ameliorating the civil society, with a particular focus on weaker and excluded categories. In so doing, it calls for commitment towards the improvement of the quality of life by tailoring city measures on citizens’ needs. Visit https://radfordgaragedoor.com. It particularly urges cities to adopt inclusion policies to educate both city officers and citizens on this matter, to set up collaborative models, to enhance digital literacy, to promote open science and open data as well as to seek cooperation with other cities to strengthen the Smart Cities Network.
To date, the Manifesto has been endorsed by more than 120 private and public sector representatives, reaching multiple European and international stakeholders. It is currently available in six languages, namely French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian and Spanish and counting on your contribution, we hope to ensure wider linguistic coverage in the next months.
Twelve smart city projects covering almost 60 cities across Europe came together at the 7th Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona from 14-16 November – the biggest edition to date –to show how cities are leading the way in driving sustainable and smart innovation.
Christophe Colinet, Bordeaux Métropole
Under the conference theme ‘Empower Cities, Empower People’, these smart city projects, also known as Lighthouse city projects, presented how they are putting smart technologies to the test, and how these work in practice when it comes to reducing environmental impact and improving citizen’s lives.
‘The Lighthouse Projects Stand’ was part of the three-day international event on smart cities at the Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue which gathered 700 cities worldwide as well as 675 exhibitors and 420 speakers.
The Stand hosted a number of discussion sessions, ranging in topic from district heating solutions to smart waste collection, providing an opportunity to share experiences of mobilising the public sector, business communities, civil society and academia in the creation of smart cities and regions.
The twelve projects https://www.move-central.com/ have all received funding through the EU’s Horizon 2020 framework programme as part of the EU’s long term ambition to create a low-carbon economy and ensure continued competitiveness in the global market.
Head of Unit for new energy technologies and innovation at the European Commission, Andreea Strachinescu said: “Innovation drives Europe’s competitiveness and is the best way to transition to a low-carbon economy. Thanks to these projects and partnerships, high efficiency heating and cooling systems, smart metering, real-time energy management, or zero-energy buildings neighbourhood solutions can be tested and shared with other European cities.”
The European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities, also featured at the stand, was launched in 2012 by the European Commission to support the development urban technology solutions in and energy, transport and ICT and stimulate their uptake to enable the transition to a more sustainable Europe.
From 20 to 24 November 2017, the city of Genoa is hosting “The power of innovation”, the third edition of Genova Smart Week“, a week of conferences, technical and educational workshops, expo and networking events that will be attended by national and international players to share their views about innovations for the development of a livable city.
READ THE PROGRAMME
The week-long event is sponsored by the City of Genoa and the Association Genoa Smart City, in collaboration with local and European partners.
Twitter feed : #GSWeek2017 – @GenoaSmartWeek
The city of Genoa signed the Green Digital Charter. Visit their profile at http://www.greendigitalcharter.eu/signatory-cities/genoa
This news is an extract from ETSI.org
ETSI is pleased to announce the creation of a new Industry Specification Group “City Digital Profile” (ISG CDP) that will help accelerate the delivery of integrated citizen services and provide a technology road map for city leaders who will benefit from standardized solutions from their suppliers.
The City Digital Profile ISG will enable cities to procure smart solutions with confidence that those solutions will be extendable, configurable and interoperable with similar services from other cities and providers.
City administrators will therefore deliver advanced services to their citizens, whilst respecting essential environmental factors, sustainability objectives and reducing the overall cost of deployment.
Initial cross-domain city applications will include:
- Health and social care (disability entitlement; housing benefit and rent payment; housing condition, assisted living and vulnerability)
- Building management and connected homes
- Urban lighting
- Water and waste management and energy
- Transportation and mobility
- Environmental issues such as pollution and resource optimization
Other key issues such as citizen related data retention and privacy protection will also be considered, in cooperation with such groups as curry supply co, oneM2M, the ETSI founded partnership project and the ETSI Technical Committee Cyber.
Save-the-dates
- 14-16 November : ETSI will organise a dedicated session to present the ISF CDP concept alongside the Smart City Expo
- 20-21 November : Kick-off meeting of the ISG at ETSI headquarters where the group will elect its chair and vice chair and decide on the future work and priorities.
Contact:
Claire Boyer
Tel: +33 (0)4 92 94 43 35
Mob: +33 (0)6 87 60 84 40
Email: claire.boyer@etsi.org
EUROCITIES’ Green Digital Charter/GuiDanCe project is setting up an online training, for cities only, on ‘Energy Efficiency in Data Centres: Lessons Learned from Evaluating Over 200 Public Sector Data Centres in Europe’.
Tuesday 5 December
11:00-12:00 C.E.T (Brussels time)
The session will provide an overview of the lessons learned from the EU H2020-funded EURECA project (https://www.dceureca.eu/). Energy-saving opportunities, barriers to adoption and running cost of facilities are among the areas covered by the training. Some of the material presented will highlight for the first time some interesting results around average running cost of servers in the public sector, IT energy consumption distribution, and key factors affecting energy efficiency beyond PUE. Experience from a city involved in a project will be shared with the audience.
The training is suitable for civil servants including heads of IT’s, CxO’s, data centre managers, Energy managers/officers, sustainability managers/officers, as well as procurers.
Continuous Professional Development: Attendees of the training session will receive an official EURECA / GDC training certificate.
Agenda
11:00 – 11:05 : Introductory remarks, by Rebecca Portail (Green Digital Charter, EUROCITIES)
11:05 – 11:25 : ‘Making the Business Case for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres: Lessons Learned from Evaluating Over 200 Public Sector Data Centres in Europe’, by Dr. Rabih Bashroush, coordinator of the EURECA project.
11:25 – 11:45: ‘Northern Ireland exploit datacentre and cloud services to deliver better citizen services’, by Caron Alexander, Director of Digital Shared Services at Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)
11:45- 11:55 : Q&A
11:55 – 12:00 : Closing remarks
Our speakers:
Dr. Rabih Bashroush is the Coordinator of the H2020 EURECA project and the Director of the Enterprise Computing research group (http://bit.ly/2ruEu8b) at the University of East London. Before joining UEL, he spent 10 years at the Queen’s University Belfast in various roles. He held visiting scientist positions at Carnegie Mellon University (USA), Philips Research Labs (Netherlands), and Danfoss Power Electronics (Denmark). In 2016, he was appointed as the coordinator of the EU Commission DG CONNECT Smart Cities Research Cluster (https://www.smartcitiescluster.eu/) on Energy Efficiency in Data Centers.
He serves on the CEN/CENELEC/ETSI Coordination Group on Green Data Centers; the BSI TCT/7/3 Telecommunications; Installation requirements: Facilities and infrastructures – CEN/CENELEC TC215; and the BSI ST/46 ISO SC 39 Sustainability For and By IT standardisation committees. He served on the EU Commission Expert Working Group for Best Environmental Practice in the Telecommunication and ICT services sector and the EU Consultation Forum for the EcoDesign legislation for energy efficient Servers. Dr Bashroush has worked with a number of central and local governments in Europe on energy efficiency projects of varying sizes.
Contact: R.Bashroush@qub.ac.uk
Mrs. Caron Alexander is Director of Digital Shared Services at Department of Finance of the Government of Northern Ireland Government. She will share her experience in collaborating with the EURECA project from the public sector’s side.
Under the theme ‘Empower cities, empower people’, Barcelona Smart City Expo 2017 (14-16 November) will gather exhibitors, speakers and visitors around eight areas that make a city a ‘smart’ city: governance, mobility, safety, economy, sustainability, circular economy, society and data & technology. The event will focus on strategies to empower metropolises and their citizens through active participation.
EUROCITIES connects smarter cities across the EU, bringing them together to exchange, share and learn from each other. Our presence in the Congress contributes in raising visibility of what EUROCITIES is doing in terms of city-to-city cooperation. Although becoming smarter means different things to different cities, concerted and coordinated efforts from all levels of governance are essential to tackle broader challenges such as climate change.
Barcelona’s Agora welcomes EUROCITIES on ‘Cities working together to deliver smart solutions’ (Day 1, Tue. 14, 16:30 – 17:30 , Agora Stage)
Federica Bordelot, policy advisor, is actively involved in the Digital Transition partnership established under the Urban Agenda for the EU. Through her work, EUROCITIES contributes in strengthening an open dialogue at the EU level, enabling cities to get directly involved in the development of EU initiatives on smart cities, based on their needs and the challenges they are facing. Apart from this, Federica will also present the current and future work on data and standards developed by the respective knowledge society forum WGs. More information on EUROCITIES website.
Nikolaos Kontinakis, senior project coordinator, will present some of the most remarkable projects developed by city members in the area of energy efficiency, buildings, transport and governance to improve citizens’ quality of life.
‘Leveraging the Potential of City Networks’: EUROCITIES’ approach to international cooperation (Day 1, Tue.14, 17:30-18:30, Room 5).
What can city networks do to improve good governance at the global level and support an international urban ecological transition? EUROCITIES is already involved in two international cooperation projects on sustainable urbanisation with China. To which extent can European cities’ expertise and knowledge be transferred outside Europe to meet our commitments and sustainable development goals?
Speaker: Nikolaos Kontinakis
Networking area and short debates in the European ‘lighthouse’ stand (Pavilion 2, D450 booth)
Our Green Digital Charter/GuiDance and Sharing Cities projects will be glad to welcome you at the Smart Cities and Communities’(SCC) networking space. Several thematic sessions per day, and the opportunity to meet partners involved in all 13 current smart cities ‘lighthouse’ projects funded under the Horizon 2020 programme.
The eafip network of lawyers offers free assistance in the preparation and implementation of a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) or public procurement of innovative solutions (PPI). The assistance is financed by the European Commission, and comes at no charge to you. In particular, the eafip assistance can support you with :
- Scoping identified procurement needs that can be tackled with innovative solutions;
- Preparing and conducting an EU-wide published open market consultation;
- Drafting tendering documents;
- Launching an EU-wide published call for tender
Deadline: 15 November 2017 at 5:00 P.M (Brussels-time)
Go directly to the application form
or Find out more about the eafip Assistance
The eafip initiative has so far provided Assistance to seven success stories across the EU:
- Het Waterschapshuis (the Netherlands) with inter alia a change in the procurement strategy and the set-up of a market consultation
- Eurail Group Europe (the Netherlands) with support in the selection of tenders and the implementation of a negotiated procedure
- Department of Mobility and Public Works, Maritime Access division (Belgium) with procurement strategy, stakeholder approach and other aspects
- Gijon Impulsa Empresas – Asturias (Spain) including improvements brought to their business case and the preparation of market consultation
- Agency for Innovation, financing and development of enterprises – ADE in the Castilla y Leon Region (Spain) covering their procurement strategy and stakeholder approach
- Canal de Isabel II – (Spain) including support in the preparation phase including an open market consultation
- Dutch Ministry of Defense (the Netherlands) with best practices for innovation procurement, the development of a business case and contract management.
You too can be one of the public procurers to benefit from the eafip Assistance!
Fill-in the application form now for a chance to be supported with your PCP / PPI project. The deadline is 5pm (Brussels-time) on 15th November 2017
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or sign-up for updates.
If you are interested in conducting an innovation procurement and want to know more about it, the eafip Toolkit is the perfect guide to innovation procurement for policy makers, public procurers and legal services.
Iordana Eleftheriadou, Policy coordinator for Digital Transformation, alongside the First VP of the Committee of the Regions, Markku Markkula, at the launch of the Digital Cities Challenge
Launched at the European Week of Regions and Cities, the Commission Digital Cities Challenge is throwing down the gauntlet to city leaders and key stakeholders to make their cities more productive, more innovative, better places to live. They can do so by putting advanced technologies at the service of the citizens.
The challenge aims to select 15 cities with the will to change and unlock unreleased potential, to receive free-of-charge high quality policy advice, coaching and facilitation, from high-level experts with local and international experience. This tailored support will help them to develop and implement strategic plans addressing economic growth and social welfare, all in their local language.
Participating cities will also have access to intuitive assessment tools for digitalisation, innovative training, and a vast networking pool, including fellow cities, strategic stakeholders and Commission networks and platforms. This will help cities stimulate investments through joint cross-regional actions for digital transformation.
In addition to the selected 15 cities, the challenge will support a broader community of cities who wish to participate using their own resources and benefit from the knowledge and networking opportunities provided.
The result will be to give cities a well-developed strategy and action plan to move towards digital transformation and put them on the map as a beacon for future economic growth and improved quality of life.
The call is now open for applications.
To find out more about the Digital Cities Challenge and the call visit www.digitallytransformyourregion.eu
The Digital Cities Challenge is funded by COSME programme of the European Union. COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
In a discussion published on the new version of the EIP-SCC website, Graham Colclough (UrbanDNA) makes an attempt to answer a critical question for the ‘smart city’ market and yet, one that is quite impossible to get an easy answer to: How much does an urban data platform cost?
For the full article, click here.
What matters for us in this article are the definitions of ‘smart city’ concepts as used and understood within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), and in particular in its Action Cluster working on ‘Urban Platforms’.
Those definitions are being relayed in italics below and this article goes beyond them, to investigate the deeper costs (or societal challenges) that can be brought about by urban data platforms.
An ‘Urban Platform’ is …
… the implemented realisation of a loigcal architecture/design that brings together (we say “integrates”) data flows within and across city systems
… and exploits modern technologies (sensors, cloud services, mobile devices, analytics, social media etc)
… providing the building blocks that enable cities to rapidly shift from fragmented operations to include predictive effective operations, and novel ways of engaging and serving city stakeholders
… in order to transform, in a way that is tangible and measurable, outcomes at local level (e.g. increase energy efficiency, reduce traffic congestion and emissions, create (digital) innovation ecosystems, efficient city operations for administrations and services).
Why does Europe need harmonised standards for smart cities? Read the full interview with Dita Charanzová, a Czech MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee, published on euractiv.com.
City Data
‘City Data’ is that which is held by any organisation – government, public sector, private sector or not-for-profit – which is providing a service or utility, or is occupying part of the city in a way that can be said to have a bearing on local populations and the functioning of that space.
This initial part of the definition brings the question of data ownership. Who owns the data collected in smart cities? What impact on citizens’ privacy? On this issue, the European Parliament published in September 2015 a study for the LIBE committee untitled ‘Big Data and Smart Devices and Their Impact on Privacy’.
It can be static, near-real time or in the future, real time, descriptive or operational.
Further, in the future, data will be to a greater extent generated by individual citizens and this too (with due consideration to privacy and a strong trust framework) can be considered city data.
What can cities do to protect privacy?
While acknowledging that urban data platforms are engines for more efficient urban governance (in the area of energy and mobility especially), good governance implies the adoption of a clear data management scheme, in line with EU rules.
In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new EU legal framework on data privacy and security which attempts to deal with these challenges, adopted in April 2016. A dedicated portal has been created to prepare all actors collecting, processing and storing data in Europe, and that of European citizens. Visit the GDPR portal at http://www.eugdpr.org/
Earlier this year, the Green Digital Charter (GuiDanCe project) organised a webinar on ‘Data management and citizens’ privacy in smart cities’ and open governance. The speakers were Daniel Sarasa (Zaragoza City Council) and Antonio Kung (EIP-SCC ‘Citizen Focus’ Action Cluster on the implementation of the GDPR).
. You can watch the recording at http://bit.ly/2omBDO1.
This article is an extract from the original article published on buildup.eu (http://www.buildup.eu/en/node/54611).
Beginning in October 2017, IRIS, a new EIP-SCC project, will harness user-demand driven energy and mobility services; encourage more collaborative and effective urban planning and governance; as well as validate business model and technical innovations to fuel smart sustainable city aspirations across the continent.
IRIS: integrated and replicable solutions for co-creation in sustainable cities
These initiatives will be lead by lighthouse cities of Utrecht (NL, Project Coordinator), Gothenburg (SE) and Nice Côte d’Azur (FR) and their follower cities Vaasa (FI), Alexandroupolis (GR), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (ES), and Focsani (RO). Each city will draw upon a mix of universities and research organisations, local authorities, innovation agencies and private expertise to accelerate entire communities to adopt ambitious energy, mobility and ICT initiatives.
All three ‘lighthouse’ cities are signatories of the Green Digital Charter. Together, they will deliver on a key commitment: working together to promote the best applications and results of ICT solutions. Read the full text of the Charter here.
5 key challenges
- Energy positive districts
- Smart energy management
- Smart e-mobility
- Digital city innovation platform
- Citizen engagement and co-creation
Across all seven city locations, IRIS will work to apply their own winning mix alliedexperts.com/ with an ‘Open innovation’ approach embodied by the use of FIWARE to encourage professional collaboration and unlocking the collective intelligence of communities with co-creation techniques. At a European level, this open approach will ensure IRIS plays a proactive and full role in supporting the work of the nine existing SCC projects currently representing nearly 50 cities, as well as other projects and horizontal initiatives joining the smart cities community and thematic European Innovation Partnership.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 774199
twitter: @IRISsmartcities
EUROCITIES, in collaboration with the Sharing Cities project, is pleased to invite you to our annual brokerage event on the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities & Communities call.
This year the event is taking place on Thursday 25 October 2017, in Brussels, one day after the official smart cities info day organised by the European Commission and INEA.
This brokerage event will offer an opportunity for cities representatives to develop consortia and project ideas to respond to the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities 2018 call for proposals and to learn from the results of previous projects. It will also provide useful insights on how to develop a successful replication strategy and create investment possibilities that will continue beyond the end of the project lifetime. During the event, cities representatives are invited to present a project idea or their city activities in the area of smart cities, which could contribute to proactive matchmaking between potential actors.
Registration
Participation is free of charge and is reserved to city representatives only or organisations coming on their behalf. Participants need to register before 13 October here : http://bit.ly/2gKj97A.
More information (and detailed agenda) on EUROCITIES website or www.sharingcities.eu
https://www.mysmartlife.eu
Lighthouse project funded under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, mySMARTlife (https://mysmartlife.eu/) brings together 28 partners from 7 countries to build a new kind of environment-friendly cities by reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the use of renewable energies.
Objectives: Smart City – Smart Economy – Smart People
- Use of renewable energy sources
- Inclusive cities
- Involving citizens
- Digitalisation of cities through urban platforms
More than 150 actions are being demonstrated in 3 ‘lighthouse’ cities (Nantes, Hamburg and Helsinki). Their experiences will then be passed on to four ‘follower’ cities (Bydgoszcz, Varna, Rijeka and Palencia) to set up their own urban transformation plans.
Nantes, Helsinki and Rijeka are three signatory cities of the Green Digital Charter. Rijeka was awarded last year best GDC project on ‘Promoting open & interoperable solutions’ (for the iURBAN project).
Follow the project
mySMARTLife newsletter is published twice a year, giving you regular updates about the latest developments in the Lighthouse and Follower cities. To receive it automatically in your mailbox, register through this link: mysmartlife.eu/newsletter/
Discover the first newsletter at https://mysmartlife.eu/newsletter/newsletter-2017-1/
The project is also on Twitter (@mySMARTLife_eu) and LinkedIn (closed group).
This article was originally published (in French) here (copyright: Valérie Noriega, Les Petites Affiches)
The metropolitan area of Nice (in French : Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur) just won one of the new European projects funded under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. This new project, untitled ReUseHeat, will benefit from 4 million € to develop an experimental urban heating and cooling network in the new neighbourhood of Grand Arénas. The project will start immedialy in October 2017.
http://icapital.nicecotedazur.org/ – the official website for Nice candidacy to the iCapital Award 2017
“Nice Côte d’Azur, one of the ten finalist cities for the iCapital Award, a competition awarding the most innovative city in Europe, just won the European project ReUseHeat focused on energy efficiency. (…) Nice Côte d’Azur shares this new success with well-known partners at the European leael: the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, the London School of Economics, the University of Aalborg and the European network Euroheat and power.
Thanks to ReUseHeat, we will be able to go further on the ground of innovation and energy efficiency. With our industrial partner EDF-DALKIA and the scientific and technical centre on buildings (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment), we will develop a heating system exploiting the waste-water management public network in the Metropole. In parallel, we will generate locally a powerful digital tool designed to improve electric grids’ efficiency in the new neighbourghood of Grand Arénas. (…)”
– Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice and President of Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur
rauba capeu terrasses des ponchettes quai des etats unis
Since 1 January 2017, EUROCITIES is part of the URBAN-EU-CHINA Innovation Platform on Sustainable Urbanisation. Discover all partners involved in this international cooperation project, activities and events on the newly launched website at www.urban-eu-china.eu/en/, and follow the project on Twitter @UrbanEuChina.
In URBAN-EU-CHINA, 12 experienced European and Chinese consortium partners join forces to:
- Promote and develop Joint Policy Strategies for EU-China cooperation on sustainable urbanisation;
- Create a Nursery of Joint Projects, from a board range of low-threshold to a few high-performance projects. EUROCITIES leads work on matching cities and organising event clusters;
- Promote Brokerage of City-Industry-Science Partnerships using virtual and face-to-face meeting place
Next activities
- UEC 2nd Event Cluster 10-12 October 2017, Brussels – More information on www.urban-eu-china.eu
- 2017 China-EU Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation: Innovation-Driven Development in New Areas (focus on the Xiongan new area), 26 October 2017, Beijing
The conference will bring together urban planners, policy makers, industry experts, practitioners, and scholars from around the world to share their insights, experience and solutions to the Innovation-Driven Development in New Areas. Delegates will include representatives from the European Union and Chinese governments, European city mayors, distinguished urbanisation experts, and key decision makers who will discuss innovative-led recommendations for our future approach to sustainable urbanisation, EU-China joint strategies, co-funding, as well as an exchange of knowledge and facilitation of science-city-industry partnerships.
More information on JPI-UrbanEurope.eu
Two ways to register :
- Online registration tickets on EventBrite (here)
- Email registration : please RSVP before 25 September 2017 to Dr. Chang Liu at caupd_eu@163.com indicating the following information (First Name – Last Name – Email Address – Occupation – Company/Organisation – Number of Tickets)
19 October 2017 (08:30 – 16:00 CET)
Albert Borschette Congress Centre
Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels
How to replicate smart city solutions? Are standards the right tools for cities? Can the European Standardization Organizations be part of the cities’ journey towards a smart and sustainable future?
Cities are not always fully aware of what standards can offer, as they may not be familiar with the value voluntary standards bring and how to get involved in the standardization system. Hosted by the European Commission’s DG GROW, this conference will bring cities and standardizers together to debate on priorities and needs for cities in their journey to become smarter and more sustainable.
The results of the debates will feed into the CEN-CENELEC-ETSI Sector Forum on ‘Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities’ acting as advisory and coordinating body for European standardization activities in this field.
Registration is free of charge but please confirm your participation by registering online at actionsolar.net before 16 October 2017. The conference venue is the European Commission Congress Centre Albert Borschette. To gain access you will be requested during the registration process to provide details such as date of birth, Nationality, Identity card or passport number, ID valid date…
MORE INFO
Visit the event page at www.cvent.com/events/cities-set-standards-to-be-smarter-and-more-sustainable/
To learn more on how standards can help cities, visit the websites of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI.
CONTACT
For any further information, please contact Christine Van Vlierden.
Visit: www.citykeys-project.eu
ETSI – the European Telecommunications Standards Institute [1] – announced the publication of TS 103 463 that defines indicators for smart cities in Europe.
The Technical Specification, under the title “Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Digital Multiservice Cities”, uses indicators to express smart development at city level in terms of People, Planet, Prosperity, Governance and Propagation.
The set of indicators is based on the work delivered by the EU-funded project CITYkeys in the last two and a half years and especially the sets of KPIs that the project developed.
Benefits for multiple stakeholders are expected from the new Technical Specification:
- Cities will support their strategic planning and allow measuring their progress towards smart city goals. In addition, benefits are created from the enhanced collaboration within and between cities, providing the possibility to compare solutions and to find best practices;
- Policy makers will benefit from the indicators that help to set policy targets and monitor their achievement. ICT users KPI framework’s sub-themes are formulated as policy goals and therefore the indicators are especially useful to follow progress towards policy goals;
- Solution providers will benefit from better insight into business opportunities for their products and services and into the possibilities for replication in a different city or context so they will have satisfaction guarantee;
- Industrial stakeholders will benefit from the recommendations for new business, e.g. based on open data;
- Citizens will benefit from the indicators as they may help to get a better understanding of complex projects and their impacts.
The first version of TS 103 463 is publicly available and be downloaded from the ETSI online database [4].
(updated on 28 August 2017)
Four GDC signatories among finalists for the iCapital Award 2017
iCapital poster – European Commission website
Among all ten cities shortlisted for the iCapital Award 2017, four have signed the Green Digital Charter. Their strategy? Foster the use of digital solutions to improve quality of life in cities and increase participation in cities.
- Helsinki – for its world-class education and IT culture that fosters innovative collaborations among citizens and institutions to jointly tackle urban challenges such as air quality, maritime technology and health-tech.
- Nice – for its Smart City strategy that offers citizens to engage via the city Innovation Centre in decisions on climate change, healthy ageing, environmental risk and security innovation.
- Tallinn – for becoming a model of a true “eCity” by digitalising all the city services.
- Tampere -for its “Grow.Smart.Together“ urban development program, where citizens, universities and businesses are involved in creating smart urban solutions fostering new jobs in the city.
“Tampere is committed to the development of a “city-as-a-platform”-based urban innovation ecosystem. key aims of the new 2017 Tampere Mayoral Program are to strenghten communality and co-creation, and to make Tampere a model city of urban digital economy focusing on citizens’ wellbeing and urban economic competitiveness”. – Lauri Lyly, Mayor of the City of Tampere > More information on Tampere’s application at http://innovationcapital.fi/
After Barcelona (2014) and Amsterdam (2016) (two other signatories), which city will be recognised as the most innovative in Europe?
The European Capital of Innovation 2017 award and a prize of €1 million to scale up innovation activities will go to the city presenting the best innovation ecosystem, with two runners-up to receive a prize of €100 000 each. The winners will be announced on 7 November at the Lisbon Web Summit.
To win the award, cities must prove how they improved the quality of life by:
- Experimenting with innovative concepts, processes, tools and governance models as a test-bed for innovation
- Engaging citizens in the innovation process and ensuring the uptake of their ideas
- Expanding the city’s attractiveness to become a role model for other cities
- Empowering the local ecosystem through the implementation of innovative practices.
More information can be found at www.ec.europa.eu/icapital –
#iCapitalAwards
The prestigious World Smart City Awards are one of the key event of the annual international Smart City Expo World Congress taking place in Barcelona. The aim of these internationally-acclaimed awards is to recognize, promote and support pioneering city strategies, projects and ideas that can potentially change citizens’ lives through their outstanding innovation, impact and feasibility, as well as stimulating inclusive, equitable, safe, healthy and collaborative cities, thus enhancing quality of life for all.
Register now (and until 4 September) on www.smartcityexpo.com.
Who can participate?
Acteurs from both public and private sectors can apply for the World Smart City Awards, divided in three categories:
- The City Award for cities that demonstrate established strategies, initiatives and policies developed for its citizens
- The Project Award for implemented projects that are already benefitting inhabitants in a specific smart city area
- The Innovative Idea Award for innovative, bottom-up concepts that aim to achieve sustainable integrated development in cities and can demonstrate feasibility of implementation
Proposals should be related to one of the topics of the 2017 edition
8 themes for the 2017 edition
You have until 4 September to apply. Don’t miss the chance!
Winners will be announced at the World Smart City Awards on 15 November, in a ceremony that attracts an audience of more than 1,000 key public and private decision-makers, providing an excellent opportunity to gain prestige and visibility.
The annual General Assembly of the EIP-SCC will be held in Brussels on Thursday 12 October 2017, with a clear focus on stimulating joint investments in the smart city market, building towards a coordinated plan to make that real in the market at scale.
Cities, industrial players, investors and financiers of smart cities and communities projects will be joined by Commissioners from the sectors concerned, who will be actively involved in the debate to share their thoughts and to help making the Marketplace the arena where smart solutions are developed and implemented in European cities.
“Towards a Joint Investment Programme for Smart Cities” summarises the goal for the General Assembly: to stimulate scale deployment of digital solutions in all sectors involved in the Marketplace.
Registration
Number of seats are limited. As such, registrations will go through a validation process. After registering here, your participation will be confirmed in two steps:
- Your participation to the General Assembly will be advised in the week following registration submission,
- if you have shown an interest to attend one of the Marketplace’s breakfast (limited to 100 participants), your participation will be advised by mid-September
Some questions? Please contact EIP-SCC@mci-group.com
The European Commission continues its commitment to the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC Market Place), through the sponsorship of DG Energy, DG Move and DG Connect.
From 26th to 28th of September 2017, Stavenger will host Nordic Edge Expo, the largest smart city event in the Nordics. This international three-day conference will exhibit new technological solutions that will make cities and communities smarter and greener.
- Day 1: Edtech, community, DNB NXT & the Nordic model
- Day 2: Building the Smart City
- Day 3: Smart City Business Models
The main theme for this year is: Smart Happiness. Each year, the United Nates publish the World Happiness Report. For 2017, Nordic countries are ranked as follows: 1) Norway 2) Denmark 3) Iceland 4) Findland and 10) Sweden.
Other more traditional themes will be covered like: Mobility, Welfare Technology, EdTech, Energy & Environent, Big and Open Data, Business Models for the Public Sector, Smart Art, Efficiency and Improvement of Municipal Services, Citizen Involvement etc.
Full programme and registration at https://www.nordicedge.org/.
“Safaris”
Nordic Edge offers the opportunity to explore some great smart city-related projects in the region: the Lyse ‘smart-home‘ demo, the ‘Green Mountain’ data centre (a former NATO ammunition storage facility converted into a unique hgh-security collocation data centre) ; virtual reality at the Stavanger Art Museum ; the Ryfast tunnel (the world’s longest undersea road tunnel) and a test-lab where you can dive into the possible future city.
Places are limited. Register now at https://www.nordicedge.org/safaris-2017/.
data.amsterdam.nl
Since 2015, Gemeente Amsterdam (OIS) is managing City Data (data.amsterdam.nl / Dutch only), one data portal gathering all useful data collected by the city (data about pubic space, buildings and plots of land, traffic, healthcare, the environment, liveability, permits, subsidies and many others).
The (open) data portal contains big data collections, like the basic records, which include all addresses of Amsterdam, topographical and cadastral data. City Data also contains smaller collections, such as hits during World War Two or the number of dwellings in certain districts and neighbourhoods.
By opening data, Amsterdam get four main benefits:
- Transparency and access to government data and information
- Releasing social and commercial value, data being a driver for innovative business and services
- Participatory governance from better informed citizens who can thereafter get involved in decision-making
- Internal efficiency of the municipality’s departments
Data can be shown in a map, downloaded as a data-set, or linked automatically to systems via ‘web-services’ or APIs. Data included in City Data is not only the data collected by the City of Amsterdam. Everyone can and may offer data sets with no additional cost. Although Amsterdam City Data is openly accessible through the internet, some of the data is not open to the public and available for authorised city employees only (non-public data).
What’s next?
The project team will now work further on the “Three Layers of Data” approach, which envisions an integrated platform for internal, shared and open data within the City of Amsterdam.
A replicable tool
When developing the data portal, the project team uses open-source software whenever possible. The developed software, as well as the source code, are freely available for those who are interested (read more).
More information on amsterdamsmartcity.com.
On 21 September (an equinox day!), the EIP-SCC Action Cluster on Sustainable Districts and Built Environment is co-organising with the Tampere Smart City Program an exceptional field-visit of Tampere’s smart districts:
- The EU Gugle ‘deep-retrofitting’ project >> see Tampere’s profile at http://eu-gugle.eu/pilot-cities/tampere/
- The Vuores eco-efficient district, featuring nature-based solutions
- The Härmälänranta ‘near-zero energy’ district
Full agenda : TAMPERE EIP-SCC field visit invitation
Please note that travel and accommodation must be covered by participants.
Share your interest in participating to the field-visit ideally by 14 September at https://goo.gl/forms/Hf69hvSu05AOOZFz1
Register to MINDTREK, Tampere annual smart city event (20-21 September 2017)
Smart Tampere Program by the City of Tampere was launched at Mindtrek last year. At the same period last year (18 October), Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, mayor of Tampere, signed the Green Digital Charter at a ceremony organised alongside the EUROCITIES mobility and knowledge society forum meeting. [read more at http://bit.ly/2vLlvfV].
Consisting of workshops, inspiring speeches and lightning talks, the Smart City Event at Mindtrek focuses this year on themes such as Smart Mobility, Digital Learning, Smart Lighting and City of Things. Special emphasis is put on the citizen’s perspective.
Agenda and registration are available at http://www.mindtrek.org/2017/smart-city-event-tampere/. Benefit from early-bird tickets (-10%) until 20 August!
- More useful information about Tampere smart city at http://smarttampere.fi/news
- Tampere’s GDC profile : http://bit.ly/GDC-Tampere
This year the Energy Information Days will present the new funding opportunities and innovative schemes offered by Horizon 2020’s Work Programme 2018-2020.
Applying for funding is a competitive process, and only the best project proposals will be selected. If you would like to know more about the type of projects we will be looking for, save the date and join us in Brussels next 23, 24 and 25 October 2017.
This year’s Information Days will:
- update you on the European Energy Efficiency policy;
- present you the Energy priorities of the H2020 Energy 2018-2020 calls for proposals;
- provide you with guidance on how to apply for funding;
- offer you dedicated workshops for each funding area e.g. Energy Efficiency, with the opportunity to meet the EASME energy team and receive answers to your questions;
- give you an opportunity to network and find project partners through the National Contact Points Brokerage event.
Registrations will start in September.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/save-date-energy-info-days-2017
This article was originally published on the Covenant of Mayors website.
The calls for the European Green Capital 2020 and European Green Leaf 2019 awards are now open.
The European Commission has opened up the competition to large and small cities across Europe for these prestigious awards, which recognize high environmental records and an outstanding commitment to sustainable urban development. In these year’s editions, both winners of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf awards will receive for the first time a financial incentive to boost their environmental programmes!
The winner of the European Green Capital award will receive €350,000, while the winner of the European Green Leaf award will receive €75,000. Cities with a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants can apply to become European Green Capital, while the European Green Leaf accepts applications from smaller-sized cities (20,000 – 100,000 inhabitants).
Alongside the new financial incentive, winners of the European Green Capital and European Green Leaf awards gain numerous benefits:
• Increased tourism and investment
• International prestige and media coverage
• Membership of an exclusive network of previous winners and shortlisted cities to share ideas and experience towards furthering environmental sustainability
• Application process supports cities in evaluating their environmental progress and benchmarking themselves against their peers
• Boosts momentum to accelerate environmental actions
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella: “The European Green Capital and Green Leaf Awards are becoming increasingly important as we strive to manage our cities and towns against the challenges of population growth, pressure on resources and our responsibilities to manage climate change. European Green Capitals and Green Leafs provide vital inspiration and motivation to help other cities find solutions, on both a European and a global stage.”
• All information about the application process of the European Green Capital 2020 and European Green Leaf 2019 awards
• Applications to both awards can be submitted until 18 October.
Together with partners, the Ruhr metropolitan region is organising a day of conference on ‘How digitalization change cities – Innovations for the urban economy of tomorrow’. The conference, to take place on Wednesday 6 September in the city of Witten, will highlight the possibilities available for the region’s urban infrastructure and innovative business models compared with international benchmarks.
You can look forward to talks given by, among others, Dr Christian Ketels (Harvard Business School), Nikolaos Kontinakis (EUROCITIES) and Pr. Jan van der Borg (EURICUR, University of Leuven). Experts from the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and Germany will be giving their input during four workshop on the topics of:
- New mobility
- Digitalisation of healthcare
- Urban production
- Green technologies)
Full agenda of the day : Ruhr Metropolitan Region’s conference program ‘How digitalization changes cities’ – September 6th 2017.
Registration (39€) at this link : http://business.metropoleruhr.de/en/digitalization/
Contact person:
Inga vom Hagen-Hülsberg (Project Manager, Project Development), Wirtschaftsförderung metropoleruhr GmbH, vomhagen-huelsberg@business.metropoleruhr.de
www.urbact.eu
URBACT showcases 97 Good Practices for sustainable urban development, all accessible on a searching database providing city practitioners with a snapshot of the practice, why it works and who to contact for more details.
Among them, three GDC signatory cities stand out for investing in digital to impulse participatory change in their more disadvantaged neighbourhoods. For these local authorities, ICT are key enablers to inclusive urban regeneration and social innovation. For this reason, they deserve some attention.
The Bristol Approach to Citizen Sensing presents itself as a new of co-creating smarter cities, designed to tackle social exclusion, poverty and environmental problems by empowering disadvantaged communities with opportunities to develop new knowledge, digital skills and open source tools.
- In Bari, a former disused school has been transformed into a Creative Hub (Spazio 13) where digital communication and technologies play they part in regenerating the city’s suburb.
- In Murcia, granting free Internet to citizens (in classrooms, information-points and through municipal Wi-Fi) is a major measure. Technological innovation is also a pillar of the participative urban regeneration process of the district ‘el Barrio del Espiriti Santo’.
Access Edinburgh’s city profile by clicking here.
As one of the world’s leading capital cities, ranked second for quality of life in 2017, Edinburgh is experimenting with a number of smart city approaches to improve city sustainability, while driving innovation.
Edinburgh is experimenting with smart waste sensors to better understand patterns of litter across the city. An initial project focused on on-street litter bins, and looked to improve the placement and number of bins, and improve routing efficiency. This would help reduce fuel consumption, as drivers stopped making unnecessary trips to bins that did not need emptying, as well as raising awareness of waste volumes produced in Edinburgh to provide useful data for strategic decision making about waste management in the city. Edinburgh is currently expanding this smart approach to investigate the potential benefits of upscaling to city scale, and potentially to other waste types.
Edinburgh is also currently investing in lighting upgrades, that will replace every lighting column in the city with an energy efficient LED over the next 3 years, as well as providing improvements such as controllable dimming. This infrastructure will also provide an Internet of Things network where additional devices such as traffic or air quality sensors to further improve the city’s data-led approach to sustainability and innovation.
On 30-31 May 2017, Edinburgh hosted the first GuiDanCe ‘workshadowing’ visit. Among other activities, participants from the cities of Oulu and Reykjavik discovered innovative projects developed by the University and Edinburgh Living Lab. Get more insights and pictures through our Storify! Click here.
This is an extract from an article originally published in The Guardian (Gordon Darroch, 12.07.2017).
(…)
Crosswalk & CrossCycle : Tilburg pilots apps to encourage pedestrians and cyclers
Since April, Rommen [an elderly citizen of Tilburg] has been able to cross the road without dodging cars – with the help of his smartphone. He is one of 10 people in the Dutch city of Tilburg trialling the Crosswalk, an app that gives pedestrians with restricted mobility extra crossing time.
A sensor in the lights constantly scans the pavement on either side of the junction, and if it “sees” Rommen waiting when the button is pressed it adjusts the green-light time. The app comes pre-installed with one of four time settings, depending on the user’s level of mobility, to minimise delays to other traffic.
Dynniq, the Dutch company that develops intelligent traffic systems and is helping the city council with the trial, explains the app works in combination with GPS and the software that operates the traffic lights, so there is no need to install extra devices.
The company is also developing a spin-off for cyclists, the CrossCycle, which will sense when bikes are approaching a junction and change the lights sooner. Another version detects visually impaired pedestrians and activates the ticking sounds that tell them whether the light is red or green.
(…)
The pilot project is part of a 25-year plan to make Tilburg’s road network more pedestrian and cycle-friendly. “We want to do more with smart mobility and use technology rather than just putting down more asphalt,” says Mark Clijsen, urban planning specialist at the city council (https://www.tilburg.nl/).
(…)
Tilburg’s long-term mobility strategy, which runs up to 2040, aims to redress the balance in traffic and encourage people to walk or cycle. “For a long time pedestrians have been the neglected kids in traffic who get relatively little time on green,” says Clijsen. “What we want is to give the pedestrians more priority so the cars will have to cross from one side of the city centre to the other. It’s about thinking differently.”
The pilot is due to be assessed in the autumn, and if successful, Clijsen estimates that the traffic lights could be converted at a rate of around one every two weeks. There are still teething problems to iron out: the crossing Rommen uses is right next to a 16-storey block of flats, which makes it hard to pick up a GPS signal.
Tech for elders
Noud Rommen: ‘When it works it’s excellent. There are a lot of older people in my block. This means they can cross safely’. Photograph: Gordon Darroch for the Guardian
“In Tilburg, one of the main challenges in developing the Crosswalk app was finding people to test it”, says Clijsen. Most potential users are elderly and often wary of relying on unfamiliar technology.
“We had to approach them one-on-one and show them how the app worked on their phones. Once we did that they were keen to get involved, but the barrier was very high. We held a presentation and put an advert in a local newspaper with a circulation of 2,000 and 10 people came forward.”
The SCIS conference, untitled ‘Empowering solutions for better cities‘, will gather creative thinkers and decision-makers in the various fields of sustainable and smart urban planning. High-level city representatives will SCIS,
This conference seeks to encourage the replication of solutions, good practices and lessons learned among cities and businesses.
Have a look at the agenda and register at https://www.scisconference2017.eu/.
PRESS RELEASE – Brussels, 27 June 2017
Guimarães became the 53rd European city, and the second in Portugal after Lisbon, to join the community of Green Digital Charter cities.
Nathalie Guri, EUROCITIES’ project and knowledge-sharing director with Amadeu Portilha, deputy-mayor of Guimaraes
On the side of the 2020 European Green Capital Applicant (ECGA) workshop organised in Brussels on 27 June, the city of Guimarães demonstrated its commitment to using digital solutions with a view to creating a sustainable future for its citizens.
Amadeu Portilha, vice-mayor of Guimarães, signed the Green Digital Charter (GDC), a EUROCITIES-led initiative promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to reduce carbon emissions.
The revised Charter provides new commitments, such as citizen engagement and greening ICT equipments initiatives, from local authorities eager to collaborate towards an urban future which is smart, green and inclusive.
During the signing event, Amadeu Portilha said that “this commitment follows the path that Guimarães is making to combat the climate changes, decreasing carbon emissions through mitigation measures. The implementation of digital solutions in our territories and improvement of energy efficiency became one of the main focus in our governance. Cities can lead Europe for sustainability and should be inspired by the Digital Charter and other partnerships to a low carbon society.”
deputy mayor Amadeu Portilha signing the Charter
Visit Guimaraes website at www.guimaraesdigital.com
Follow us on twitter @GDCharter
ESPON 2020 Cooperqtion Programme seeks to get a better understanding of the urban dimensions of digital transition in Europe. This Europe-wide survey seeks to collect data on the level of digitalisation of cities based on the opinions and perceptions of local government authorities and organisations providing public services. Main target groups are city officials dealing with the provision of public services and ICT.
Participate in the survey by completing the online questionnaire (available in EN, FR, DE, ES, IT).
Closing date for submissions:
Friday, the 7th of July 2017.
The study will allow European, national, regional and urban authorities to better understand the level of digitalisation of public services, to learn from others through benchmarking and to design actions for the future.
The results of the study will be made publicly available in September 2017 and will be used as inputs for discussions during the key meetings of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU during the second half of 2017.
Contact : Martin Gauk, martin.gauk@espon.eu, ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme
This article was originally published on ICTFOOTPRINT.eu website.
12:00 – 13:00 CEST (Brussels time)
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu webinar
New GHG ICT sector guidance, Self-Assessment Tool for ICT Services (SAT-S) & Datacentres standards
There is a pressing need for the European ICT sector to become energy efficient, and more sustainable with lower levels of carbon footprint. This is an area where Data Centres have a major role to play. Data Centres alone are responsible for 3% of global electricity supply and for 2% of total greenhouse gas emissions (the same carbon footprint as the airline industry).
Making the ICT sector more sustainable should not only focus on data centres. It is crucial to also pay attention to life cycle GHG emissions of other ICT products and services, such has telecoms network services and desktop managed services. There are several approaches and methodologies to decrease ICT carbon footprint, which will contribute to global emission reductions and energy savings. The challenge is to make ICT players aware of them and help them understand why they are important. The ICTFOOTPRINT.eu webinar is all about giving you a helping hand.
Speakers
Alex Bardell (Sustainability for London) : How can datacentres standards help reducing energy and carbon footprint?
Silvana Muscella (CEO of Trust-IT services and ICTFOOTPRINT.eu project coordinator) : Introducing the Self-Assessment Tool for ICT Services (SAT-S). SAT-S is a useful, free, quick and easy-to-use tool to calculate the carbon footprint of ICT services. It is a practical tool for ICT-intensive organisations to position their ICT services footprint. Silvana is the driver behind the development of useful digital tools and services for smaller companies, in several ICT areas, such as energy efficiency, and especially useful for helping novices make their ICT more sustainable. The final version of SAT-S is planned for June 2017.
Andie Stephens (Carbon Trust) : Insights on ICT sector guidance for the GHG Protocol Product Standard, which provides detailed guidance for the footprint of ICT products and services in the following areas: Telecommunications Network Services – Desktop Managed Services – Cloud & Data Centre Services – Hardware & Software.
This article was originally published on CityLab.com (Richard Florida, 16 May 2017)
A report by a panel of leading experts on technology, business, and cities takes a deep dive into the changes that will come about as a result of one key new technology—artificial intelligence.
The panel was chaired by Peter Stone of University of Texas at Austin along with researchers from Rethink Robotics, Allen Institute for AI, Microsoft, and academics from Harvard, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, UC Berkeley, and other universities from around the world. Their study, Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030, outlines the dramatic impact artificial intelligence (AI) is having and will continue to have for our cities and the way we live and work in them over the next couple of decades.
It outlines the implications of several key dimensions of AI, including:
- Large-scale learning or algorithms that crunch ever-larger datasets
- Deep learning procedures that recognize images, video, audio, speech, and language
- Reinforcement learning that shifts from pattern recognition to experience-driven decision-making
- Robotic devices that can physically interact with environments and people
- Computer vision that allows computers to see and perform tasks better than people
- Natural language processing that does more than react to requests—it communicates through speech
- Collaborative systems, crowdsourcing, and human computation
- Algorithms and computational tools that can apply economic and social data to realign incentives for people and businesses
- The “Internet of Things” that networks appliances, vehicles, buildings, and cameras
- Neuromorphic computing that mimics biological neural networks to improve the efficiency and robustness of computer systems
The report outlines what these technologies mean for cities and raises deep policy (and downright philosophical) questions about their impact across several areas of urban life. Here are a few thoughts reflecting on what this new technological might promise for cities.
Transportation—more than driverless cars
E
veryone and their mother is talking about autonomous vehicles, or AVs, which are already being tested on the streets of several cities, including Pittsburgh. The potential relief from traffic congestion and the tragedy of human error on the road make this a top priority for the dream of personal transportation. But technical, economic, and ethical questions about our autonomous future abound—from the possible (major) glitch of pedestrian deaths to the potential job losses from automation to the possible fatal erosion of public transportation. We need to be ready for the next time the car transforms the city.
Artificial intelligence could also help systems be more dynamic. Real-time information, machine learning, and algorithms could turn public transportation into a much more vibrant public good, eliminating much of the current frustrations and frictions they generate now. AI could allow us to better allocate resources to make transportation more reliable and more equitable.
Public safety and privacy
Cities have already begun to deploy a wide variety of AI technologies for security purposes. Expect those trends to continue through to 2030. Analytics have successfully helped combat white collar crime, such as credit-card fraud, and could also prove useful in preventing cyber-crimes in the future. These technologies might not only help police departments solve crimes with less effort but also could assist crime prevention and prosecution by improving record keeping and automatically processing video for anomalies (including evidence of abusive policing).
But as we’ve seen with this kind of technology deployed for surveillance and predictive policing at the street level, the central question for cities is building trust and eliminating discriminatory targeting. The study argues that with proper research and resources, AI prediction tools could help remove or reduce human bias rather than reinforcing the current systemic problems. But these same powerful tools have a way of replicating the bias of the humans who create the technology in the first place. And techniques like network analysis, which can be used to disrupt criminal or terrorist plots, also have the potential for overreaching, threatening civil liberties, and violating the privacy of city residents.
Work and life
Artificial intelligence also portends major changes to health care, education, home care, and related services. AI may enable more efficient economic development of so called “low-resource communities” that have higher rates of poverty, joblessness, and therefore have limited funds for public programs and infrastructure. With data mining leading incentives and priorities, there’s promise to the idea that AI might unburden systems with limited resources and allocate resources better. Algorithms could connect restaurants to food banks to turn excess in to resources or connect the unemployed to jobs, for example. Harnessing social networks could also help distribute health-related information and address homelessness.
Predictive models could not only help government agencies put limited budgets to better use, they could produce more complex thinking to anticipate future problems rather than reacting to a crisis such as the lead poisoning in Flint. After a crisis hits, AI might assist in allocating resources, say by identifying children at risk of exposure or finding women who are pregnant that might need prenatal care to mitigate adverse birth outcomes.
A key caveat would be to make sure these tools act as a guard against discriminatory behavior—identifying people for services without baking racial indicators or proxy factors into the machine learning of these systems.
The way forward
AI brings a contradictory future to our cities. On the hand, tech-optimists see technology like autonomous vehicles, mobile healthcare, and robot teachers freeing us from mundane chores like commuting and waiting in doctor’s offices and making our cities better, more inclusive and sustainable places. On the other hand, techno-pessimists see a dystopian future where AI and robots take away jobs and we live in a state of perpetual surveillance.
The report takes a more measured approach. “AI will likely replace tasks rather than jobs in the near term, and will also create new kinds of jobs,” the authors state. “But the new jobs that will emerge are harder to imagine in advance than the existing jobs that will likely be lost.”
The study highlights a need for a new set of strategies and policies to guide the use of AI in the city, spanning legality and liability, certifications, agency control, innovation and privacy, labor and taxation. It also calls for more research, training and funding for cities and local governments to better understand and be ready for this coming revolution.
AI presents a complex set of considerations for cities. As with any big new technology, the possibilities are exciting—but mayors, policy makers, and urbanists must be vigilant to ensure that we set in place the regulations and institutions required to make the most of these new technologies while minimizing their downsides.
This year, digital was right on top of the agenda of this EU Sustainable Energy Week: from large-scale smart city projects to citizen-oriented digital services and apps, ICT assume an essential role in maximising energy consumption in our lives.
The Green Digital Charter welcomed participants at its stand of the Networking Village on Thursday 22 June morning (09:00 – 12:30, Résidence Palace). Signed by 52 European cities, the Charter sets energy efficiency as top priority for signatories.
Digital solutions to save energy
GDC signatories are compiling and implementing local and digital strategies to make the most efficient use of ICTs to improve the economic, social and environment wellbeing of their citizens.
This event was the occasion to discover policies and projects implemented by GDC signatory cities in the area of energy efficiency.
- Read our annual collections of case-studies
- Lisbon and Rijeka awarded for their approach to energy management (read more)
Environmentally-sound IT and digital applications
Already today, carbon directly emitted by the ICT sector (datacentres and telecommunication networks) reaches 2% and is expected to double by 2020. Among the priorities of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) is the establishment of a common methodological framework for the measurement of the energy intensity and carbon emissions arising from the production, transport and selling processes of ICT goods, services and networks.
On Wednesday (14:00 – 15:30), DG CONNECT organised a session on ‘nearly zero-emission’ datacentres, testifying of the Commission’s commitment to foster environmental-sound network infrastructures able to sustain the Digital Single Market (DSM). Laura Baracchi (from Trust-IT) presented the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu project and the self-assessment tool developed to raise awareness on the carbon footprint of digital service (SAT-S).
(Smart) cities are important consumers of digital goods and services, and sometimes even owners of IT infrastructures.Leading by example is one of the GDC signatories’ commitments. Indeed, cities can ensure the measurement, transparency and visibility of each city’s use of ICT infrastructure and digital services in terms of carbon footprint.
EUSEW Networking Village 7
GDC interactive board also approached the rising issue of energy consumption of ICT devices.
Participants were given the opportunity to self-assess the carbon footprint generated by ICT equipments they own. This small game enabled us to present projects, initiatives and alternative existing in European cities to foster a market for green, energy-efficient and environmental-sound ICT and digital solutions. The game sparked some interesting discussions with stakeholders present in the Networking Village.
This webinar is part of our series on ‘citizen engagement in smart cities‘. Watch the previous recordings on our YouTube channel.
Wednesday 7 June
11:00 – 12:00 CEST (Brussels time)
WATCH THE RECORDING
Part 1 : ChArGED, ‘Gamification for energy efficiency’
Part 2 : EMPOWER ‘Rewarding Change’ & hackAIR, ‘raising citizens’ awareness on air quality’
‘Gamification’ indicates “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts”. It involves using elements such as badges and rewards, challenges and leader-boards as well as the ability to ‘level-up’ and/or use an avatar.
Objectives range from raising awareness to motivating users to change their behaviours or engaging them to play a more active role in their environment.
This webinar will present three EU-funded projects using game features to support a shift in urban behaviours towards more sustainable and liveable cities.
hackAIR
hackAIR is developing an open technology platform for ‘citizen observatories’ on air quality. The project aims to raise collective awareness about the daily levels of human exposure to air pollution, an environmental issue with serious health and lifespan implications. Community-driven data sources are expected to complement official data.
A citizen engagement strategy is being developed by VUB, the research partner, including co-creation workshops from the early stages.
Speaker: Gavin McCrory (Smart City researcher, imec-SMIT-Vrike Universiteit Brussel)
Download the presentation here.
Website: www.hackair.eu
EMPOWER
EMPOWER aims to reduce use of conventionally fuelled vehicles (CFV) in cities by fundamentally changing people’s mobility behaviour. Citizens are encouraged to use more sustainable modes of transport through personalised positive incentives made available via a smartphone app.
Implementation of EMPOWER in the city of Enschede is part of a broader attempt to stimulate cycling.
Speaker: Marcel Meeuwissen (Senior advisor Smart Mobility and Cities, Municipality of Enschede)
Download the presentation here.
Website: http://empowerproject.eu
ChArGED
ChArGED (CleAnweb Gamified Energy Disaggregation) addresses the energy consumption in public buildings by using smart sensors and IoT-enabled devices. ChArGED gamified application aims to reduce inefficient consumption and thus improve the predictability of baseline energy spending.
Three pilot-sites are testing the app: the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN) in Barcelona, the General Secretariat of the Municipality of Athens and the Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art (MNHA) of Luxembourg.
Speaker: Stavros Lounis (Researcher and Director of Gamifico Ltd., Greece)
Download the presentation here.
Website: http://www.charged-project.eu
València offers, in real time, data of air quality, car parks, bicycles and buses in a public portal with citizen dashboards
Preview of València “Al Minut” dashboard
València al Minut
The new municipal portal “València in real time” (“València al Minut” the original name in Valencian) offers citizens and public servants real-time traffic information, car and bicycle parking places, bicycle lane, EMT bus network, meteorology, air pollution, road works and even , unemployment data.
Councilor for Electronic Administration, Pere Fuset, has said that it is “a commitment of the City Council for transparency and the best tool to bring services to the citizen”; and explained that it also offers news, cultural agenda and the different municipal social networks.
The website, available in Valencian and Spanish, presents “relevant and most interesting” indicators for citizens in the areas of sustainable mobility, social welfare, environmental sustainability and governance, including maps with different layers that allow access to this information in a geolocalized way.
This way it is possible for citizens to consult which bus stop is the closest and how long it will take the next bus to arrive, the free places of a public car park – soon to be included the private ones -, free Wifi access points, the public bicycle anchorages, the monthly unemployment data, thermal sensation or airborne particles.
València Smart City
Fuset has assured that this is a “first step” included in the strategy “València Valencia Smart City” which objective is to “provide citizens with more information on municipal services in real time and that will be permanently available.”
During the presentation of the platform www.valencia.es/valenciaalminut, the technicians who have developed it have shown that this tool places València “at the level of big smart cities with citizen dashboards” and have indicated that “it will grow as there is more information”.
Preview of València’ Geoportal
This information is also shown outside the maps, and is supplemented with socio-economic information on data and unemployment rate, news, cultural agenda and social network accounts, as well as having a link to the “open government” portal and the World Council on City Data website (www.dataforcities.org), to compare information with other cities.
According to Fuset, the portal is “very thought to be used with the mobile” and will go “enriching with more information” that they consider of relevance.
Besides, the municipal “Geoportal” (geoportal.valencia.es) has been presented: “a much more ambitious project to map all the city information order by neighborhoods and districts, for citizens and municipal employees”.
Learn more about València’s smart city approach by visiting its profile page
Pages 21-22-23 and 46 of our GDC 2016 collection of case-studies (http://bit.ly/GDC–case-studies-2016).
On 7 and 8 June 2017, Malaga will host the 8th ‘Green Cities’ Forum of Urban Intelligence and Sustainability ‘, a smart city trade-fair attended by more than 27 000 professionals between 2010 and 2016.
In this 8th edition, two main spaces will be allocated for round-tables and presentations:
- The “ICT & Sustainability Forum” space will stimulate an open debate on how the ICT industry contributes to optimal development of the information society in a sustainable world.
Round-tables and presentations will focus on Governance – Building – Digital Transformatin – Smart Cities – Energy – Finance – and Mobility.
- The “Green Lab” area will provide space for presenting commercial and institutional products and services
Participants registered in Green Cities’ Networking will have access to an online meeting tool allowing them to debate, cooperate, do commercial deals and raise initiatives and projects with cities, participantsd and exhibitors.
Municipal technicians of the main Spanish cities on sustainable development, energy efficiency and smart management will be present.
Have a look at the speakers here!
How to participate? Go to this page.
The EU Sustainable Energy Awards are a major feature of the annual EUSEW policy conference. Twelve finalists are competing for the title of most successful project for secure, clean, and efficient energy in four categories (public sector; consumers; energy islands; and businesses). A high-level jury will decide the winner in each category. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 20 June.
Citizens are invited to vote online to pick the winner of the 2017 Citizens’ Award at http://www.eusew.eu/awards-public-vote
VOTE HERE
Gothenburg’s CELSIUS pilot project shortlisted in public sector category
The CELSIUS project (http://celsiuscity.eu/) aims to make it easier for local authorities and energy companies to develop energy-efficient district heating and cooling systems.
District heating and cooling systems are a sustainable, low-carbon way of keeping buildings comfortable and providing hot water. They provide centrally generated heat to buildings via a network of pipes.
Gothenburg is one of the project’s partner cities, along with Rotterdam, Cologne, Genoa, and London (Islington Council). The seven replication cities are Athens, Gdansk, Ghent, Gdynia, Riga, Viladecans, and Warsaw.
The project brings together 65 European cities along with other stakeholders from industry, academia, and special interest groups. Projects to test the technologies developed by CELSIUS have already cut CO2 emissions in Europe by almost €100,000 per year.
Gothenburg, green and sustainable city
- Gothenburg signed the Green Digital Charter in November 2015. [read article]
- Learn more about ‘Green Gothenburg’ on the GDC website at http://bit.ly/2pNdpNq
More information on GDC/GuiDanCe training activities at http://bit.ly/GDC-training-activities.
On 30 and 31 May, Edinburgh hosted the first ‘work-shadowing visit’ organised under the Green Digital Charter/GuiDanCe umbrella. Delegates from the cities of Oulu and Reykjavik had the chance to discover Edinburgh’s sustainable policy and objectives, in which ICT play a central role.
Get insights from the visit in our storify timeline here!
Extract from Storify (bit.ly/2r8EGi5)
Day 1 : In-site visits
After a first meet-up in the historical City Chambers, participants headed to the University of Edinburgh, a pioneer in terms of IT research.
To achieve its ‘smart transformation’, the City Council relies on strong relationships with research partners. Edinburgh Living Lab (ELL) also established within the University, plays the essential role of ‘experimentalist’ in the field of social innovation.
By organising a visit to ‘Transport for Edinburgh’ in the afternoon, the host meets its Oulu delegates’ own priority in terms of urban development: the implementation of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).
Day 2: Sustainable Edinburgh 2020 [watch the video]
On the second day, participants were invited in the Council’s main offices to discuss over Edinburgh’s sustainable development policy and objectives.
ICT play there an important role : from reporting energy consumption and improving energy efficiency in public buildings to supporting the ‘open space strategy‘ developed by the Council to enhance citizens’ interaction and ownership with their environment.
Particularly innovative is Edinburgh’s use of ICT in its sustainable urban food policy. From interactive maps to food apps, how can ICT drive change in citizens’ eating habits and attitudes toward food in the city?
Your city has signed the Green Digital Charter and is interested in visiting one of its peers?
Contact Rebecca Portail (project support officer) at rebecca.portail@eurocities.eu
On Thursday 8 June 2014 (14:30 – 15:30 CET), the city of Copenhagen will present its innovation procurement procedure used to deploy an Intelligent Street Lighting system throughout the city.
REGISTER HERE
Copenhagen’s comprehensive carbon-reduction plan targets a 50% decrease of the energy consumption of its street lights. A 250 million Danish krones (about 33 million euro) contract was awarded for installing a new LED street lighting system and 12-year maintenance.
To finance the project, the tender used innovation procurement procedures to ensure appropriate products and systems being purchased. Louise Rathleff (Program Manager) and Stine Ellermann (Contract Manager) will give detailed description of the procurement procedure and share their knowledge and lessons learnt from the procurement.
Moderated by Anja De Cunto (EUROCITIES), this webinar is organised by the SPICE project, in cooperation with EUROCITIES and the EIP-SCC initiative.
For any enquiry, please contact y.li[a]mail.ertico.com
More information on www.spice-project.eu
With the building of a new university campus (Tampere3), students will increasingly need to move between the campuses. In most cases, students commute using public transportation, but also walking or by bike or by car.
To answer this mobility challenge, SCIL (the Smart Campus Innovation Lab, a “living lab” and open-source development community gathering students, IT and university professionals) organises a Challenge to develop an application that can ease the life of Tampere3 students, thanks to open data and public transport data made available online.
Curious to learn more about this initiative : Visit MINDTREK website here.
‘Smart Education’ and ‘Smart Mobility’ are two pillars of Tampere’s approach to smart city.
Read more on Tampere profile page.
This infographic was originally published on the European Commission website
Three signatory cities of the Green Digital Charter are in the final race for winning the European Green Capital Award (EGCA) for the year 2019. Ghent, Lisbon and Tallinn are among the five main European cities selected by the jury for their efforts towards environmentally-friendly cities.
To win the price, they must convince the jury of:
- their overall commitment to ongoing environmental improvement and sustainable development;
- their capacity to act as a role model;
- their strategy for communicating with the public
After Stockholm (2010), Nantes (2013) and Bristol (2015), will another GDC city be awarded greenest city in Europe in 2019?
SAVE THE DATE – Essen will host the award ceremony on 2 Jun e2017
To know more, visit the “European Green Capital” webpage. Would you like more information about it, please send an email to: info@europeangreencapital.eu
On 7-8 June 2017, Bordeaux will host a workshop on ‘Making Smart Cities Sustainable, from large-scale pilots to real-life deployment‘.
REGISTER NOW
The event is organised by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) in partnership with Bordeaux Métropole, eG4u, the Sharing Cities project and SDBX365 and supported by EUROCITIES and the European Commission.
The workshop will provide an opportunity to hear from various city representatives who will share their views on how to move beyond trials and pilot project to wider implementations of standards based solutions.
Please see the online programme together with the list of showcases that will take place during this event.
Participation to the event is free of charge and open to all upon mandatory registration. Please note that Bordeaux will be very busy at this time of the year, attendees are advised to book their hotels as soon as possible. Information is available on the site.
Contact : events@etsi.org
[This article was originally published on ICTFOOTPRINT.eu website]
Last week ICTFOOTPRINT.eu attended SMARTGREENS 2017, in Porto, Portugal, a conference that brought together researchers, designers, developers and practitioners interested in the advances and applications in Smart Cities, Green Information and Communication Technologies, Sustainability, Energy Aware Systems and Technologies.
This provided an excellent forum to showcase the project with an exhibition booth, where SMARTGREENS attendees got more detailed information about ICTFOOTPRINT.eu services, represented by Trust-IT Services (project coordinator) and EUROCITIES (project partner).
Smart cities as a key factor in ICT sustainability
A 20 minute presentation on “green insights” was also given explaining how ICTFOOTPRINT.eu services help cities reducing their ICT carbon footprint, by making informed decisions on how to make their ICT services sustainable and energy efficient.
The audience was made aware of why “green IT” is important for cities and why they have a key role in making the ICT sector more sustainable. ICT can save up to €600 billion & decrease 15% of carbon emissions in 2020, by becoming energy efficient (The Climate Group). Cities contribute to 70% of the world’s greenhouse gases (GHG), where +50% World Population lives.
Thanks to a policy of ‘low-carbon’ eco-labeled IT equipment, Malmo city saved over 500.000 € in one year, while Linkoping decreased energy consumption by 30% (80.000 €).
In addition, some cities favouring green IT ecosystems, such as Nantes (France), where the city has organised demos of green IT projects, developed a Green Code Lab and a global eco-design certificate for an energy-efficient website, among other examples.
Getting familiar with tools & services for sustainability in ICT sector
Attendees were also made aware of ICTFOOTPRINT.eu tools which have been carefully developed to face the most common reasons why organisations do not become sustainable in ICT: lack of knowledge and expertise, lack of time, and low awareness of the benefits.
The Webinars give training and information to those who do not have expertise and want to make their organisation more sustainable. The free marketplace is the online meeting point to find sustainable ICT suppliers with services and products that help stakeholders achieve lower levels of ICT carbon footprint.
The Self-Assessment Tool for ICT Services, known as SAT-S is a useful, free, quick and easy-to-use tool to calculate the carbon footprint of ICT services, which helps users make informed decisions on how to make their ICT services sustainable and energy efficient. The multilingual online help-desk (English, French, Spanish, Italian & German) gives customised support on sustainable ICT standards.
New audiences to promote energy efficiency in ICT
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu is happy to have showcased the project to new audiences and to find new synergies with different stakeholders, from researchers to Standard Development Organisations, which will support Europe in becoming more sustainable in its ICT.
Download the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu presentation here
Get the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu Flyer customised for Cities & Public Administrators here
Access the photo gallery on Flickr
Wednesday 26 April
14:00 – 15:00 CEST (Brussels time)
WATCH THE RECORDING
Thanks to smartphones and apps, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, networks and sensors deployed throughout public spaces, cities are collecting vast amounts of data beneficial for the ‘public good’. This data enables municipalities to develop better-informed decision-making and improve public services (waste management, traffic prediction, energy efficiency).
This webinar intends to show how data management processes by city administrations and use of privacy-by-design standards are key to build trust and resilience in smart cities and open data.
Interested in the topic? The Future of Privacy Forum offers an interactive infographic on smart cities’ technologies and their implications for privacy [click here]
Speakers
- Daniel Sarasa (Smart City Program Manager’, Zaragoza City Council) will present his “Guidelines for urban big data sharing” (*full text available here*).
Co-author of ‘Zaragoza’s Open Government Strategy 2012-2015’, Daniel collaborates with EUROCITIES on various smart city initiatives and projects.
Zaragoza received the Green Digital Charter (GDC) 2016 Award on ‘Citizen Engagement and Impact on Society’ for the Zaragoza Citizen Card (watch the interview) and contributed to the CITYkeys project
- Antonio Kung (CTO, Trialog) will bring his expertise how privacy management should be integrated in smart cities.
Partner in the EIP-SCC ‘Citizen Focus’ Action Cluster, Antonio is leading the initiative on ‘Citizen-Centric Approach to Data – Privacy by Design’. Antonio chaired a series of workshops aiming at defining measures supporting the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Download/preview the presentation: Data management in smart cities – protecting citizens privacy Trialog Antonio Kung
This webinar is part of GDC/GuiDanCe series of webinars on Citizens in Smart Cities. It is co-organised with the ESPRESSO project, currently developing a conceptual Smart City Information Framework based on open standards.
Digital technologies are key enablers in reducing the carbon footprint of cities and improving energy efficiency. ICTs have a significant role to play vis-à-vis greening our urban spaces as they can provide energy savings to the building stock, improve the functioning of the electrical grid and water management systems etc.
Nonetheless, the ICT sector has a responsibility to reduce and minimise its carbon emissions. In pursuance of such ambitions, ‘smart cities’ are expected to incorporate the environmental impact of digital technologies which are deployed into their strategic thinking and planning*.
The Green Digital Charter and ICTFOOTPRINT.EU projects are seeking cities which are implementing projects, policies and activities aimed at measuring and/or reducing energy consumption of digital technologies.
The Swedish cities of Malmö and Linköping are prime examples of cities prioritising carbon-neutral technologies when approaching the marketplace.
All best practices shall be showcased during the SmartGreens conference in Porto (22 April) and the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) in June.
Share yours with us at Rebecca.Portail[at]eurocities.eu
(*) see: ICTFOOTPRINT.EU 5th webinar on Solutions for energy management & Life Cycle Assessment)
Thursday 27 April 2017
12:00-13:00 (CEST)
Becoming sustainable in ICT does not necessarily mean that we should only focus on the energy consumed by ICT.
We shall also take into account the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of all ICT components, which is about analysing the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life : from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, as well as disposal or recycling[*].
Agenda
Jean-Marc Alberola (Group Energy Strategy leader at Airbus & vice-chair of ETSI Industry-Specification-Group on Operational Energy Efficiency for Users, ISG-OEU) – Presentation of KPI DCEM (Key Performance Indicators on Data Centre Energy Management) and how to implement them in an industrial area of corporate ICT sites.
Fadri Casty & Tereza Lévová (EcoInvent) – Presentation of the world’s most consistent & transparent Life Cycle Inventory database, to help you make truly informed decisions about ICT products’ environmental impact.
Berina Delalic (multEE) – Introduction of the Monitoring & Verification Platform (MVP), a web-based tool calculating and storing data about energy and CO2 savings resulting from implement energy efficiency measures.
Silvana Muscella (ICTFOOTPRINT.EU project coordinator) monitored the webinar.
[*] Curious about e-waste? Watch ‘Ghana Digital Dumping Ground‘ (2009), a short documentary on Agbogbloshie, the world’s biggest wasteland for electronic devices.
The Smart Cities Information System (SCIS) published recommendations on how to improve European policies and funding opportunities in the areas or urban innovation and smart cities projects.
They can be consulted at http://bit.ly/2oqDrsb.
Recommendations, developed by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) are classified into four main types:
- Specific recommendations for Horizon 2020
- Recommendations for stakeholder engagement and communication of projects’ results
- General policy recommendations
- EU Support Coordination
What comes next?
SCIS is building on this initial assessment by collecting more lessons learned from projects, by conducting studies on replicability of projects and by identifying additional experiences from local, national, regional, and EU level.
Sharing your story will help providing recommendations to policy-makers to address market gaps in the smart city sector. Please contact igor.taranic@ceps.eu
This article was originally published on Covenant of Mayors website.
ELENA – European Local Energy Assistance:
Inspiration from successful projects
27 April 2017 11:00 – 12:00
Online, Belgium
This webinar will focus on the ELENA eligibility requirements and application process, and will also provide some examples of successful projects that have benefitted from an ELENA grant. One of these projects is BRITE – Bristol Retrofitting – Innovative Technologies for Everyone, which has enabled UK Covenant signatory Bristol to implement a number of sustainable energy projects.
Since 2009, ELENA has awarded around EUR 95 million to support an estimated EUR 4.5 billion of investment in local and regional authorities across Europe.
This webinar is particularly destined for municipalities and local authorities that are planning to deliver a project with an investment volume of at least EUR 30 million.
Organiser: Covenant of Mayors Office
Website: http://www.eumayors.eu
5 days @CeBIT
Dr. Lutz Heuser, from the Urban Software Institute [ui!] presenting the Cockpit pilot
This year, the CeBIT show lasted between 20 and 24 March, and was entirely dedicated to the digitalisation of the world economy. From cloud technology and cybersecurity to robotics, drones and the Internet of Things (IoT), this gigantic fair showcased the latest and best products and services in the digital market.
The Smart City Forum’s stand was located in one corner of the Public Sector Parc. Coordinated by the Urban Software Institute [ui!], the whole area was dedicated to smart city projects being developed in collaboration with German cities, universities, and/or companies.
Also represented were private partners from Cologne and Munich involved in the Smarter Together and GrowSmarter ‘lighthouse’ projects, and in the Hamburg-centred Horizon 2020 funded MySmartLife and reTHINK projects.
EIP-SCC point of demonstration (Halle 7 – A14)
Under the ‘EUROPA’ banner, another stand was allocated to the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), where three Horizon 2020-funded projects introduced themselves:
- the Green Digital Charter (GDC/GuiDanCe) initiative
- the CITYkeys performance measurement framework
- the ESPRESSO project (the acronym stands for systEmic StandardisationapPRoach to Empower Smart citieS and cOmmunities)
Over five days, visitors (mostly from industry) could obtain information on the EIP-SCC market place in general and the urban platforms in particular. Urban platforms are technological infrastructures by which cities manage data flows across their systems (sensors, cloud services, mobile devices, analytics, social media and many more). These networks help European cities manage the vast amount of data collected by public service operations and sensors (Internet of Things)[1].
Scores of flyers were handed out at that stand to explain the Green Digital Charter/GuiDance, CITYkeys, and ICTFOOTPRINT.EU projects. The 2016 collection of GDC case studies and our two handbooks on the CITYkeys framework were also available to inform visitors.
We need common and open standards
On 19 March, the opening ceremony was attended by Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, partner country of CeBIT 2017, and Angela Merkel, chancellor of host country Germany. In his keynote address, Abe emphasised the importance of education and of common technology standards. “Together, let us develop common curricula and common standards”, he said.
Japan was the partner country of this 2017 edition
Common standards are key to the interoperability of different systems, and they make all smart city solutions scalable, replicable, and efficient. The CITYkeys project offers a measurement framework based on open standards and formats, which is an invaluable tool for cities aiming to improve their local decision making processes and to cooperate at European level. The key performance indicators (KPIs) developed by the CITYkeys partners have been endorsed by the ESPRESSO project, which develops a standardised integrated framework for smart cities.
Smart Cities Focus
CHORA project “Conscious City” (TU Berlin)
Just around the corner, where a humble lamp post offered visitors free wifi access, students from the Technische Universität of Berlin presented a simulation table designed to visualise patterns for collaborative urban planning. Through its ‘Conscious City’ project, the university’s architectural design and urban planning group CHORA intends to demonstrate how games and other platforms can help us co-create our urban environment.
Visitors could attend a number of conferences and sessions on ‘smart urbanism’, where the speakers elaborated on the concepts and technologies behind the drive to develop safe, clean, and efficient cities. Most of these, however, targeted German speakers only.Those curious to know what ‘smart city’ means outside the EU’s borders could attend a lecture delivered by Andrey Belozerov, deputy CIO of the city of Moscow. The recording of his thought-provoking address, entitled ‘Cities – new key drivers of digitalisation’, is available at http://www.cebit.de/event/cities-new-key-drivers-of-digitalization/KEY/74913.
Digital technologies provide great opportunities for cities to improve their local urban planning practices, and help them go a long way toward becoming sustainable, green, and inclusive. What this year’s CeBIT has confirmed again is that much depends on how we use these fast-evolving and omnipresent technologies, tools, gadgets and gizmos.. The event also left visitors wonder if the ‘rest of the world’ is ready to catch up with Europe just yet.
[1] For a more detailed explanation of urban platforms, click here to download a presentation on Vivienne Avery (Greater London Authority) or at http://bit.ly/2obDYyw.
The press release can be downloaded here.
The city of Tilburg is the 52nd European city, and the 5th Dutch city, to sign the Green Digital Charter[1], a EUROCITIES initiative promoting progress in tackling climate change through the innovative use of digital technologies in cities. The municipality of Tilburg is committed to carrying out five pilot projects based on information and communications technology (ICT) and aligned with the Charter’s themes over the next five years. The aim of these and other actions is to reduce the direct carbon footprint of the ICT sector by 30% over the next ten years.
Nathalie Guri (EUROCITIES project and knowledge-sharing Director) and Berend de Vries, (deputy mayor of Tilburg)
Deputy mayor Berend de Vries signed the GDC on 17 March 2017 at the occasion of EUROCITIES’ Environment Forum spring meeting in Antwerp, on the same day of a political debate gathering eight deputy mayors on “Localising the energy transition”. The forum meeting gathered 145 participants from 57 cities to debate the recently launched EU ‘clean energy for all Europeans’ package and energy transition in cities.
One example is the involvement of Tilburg in the Open Data – Smart Neighbourhoods (ODSN) project commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment to implement the FP7-funded IREEN roadmap[2] in Dutch cities. Along with four other Dutch municipalities, Tilburg works on advancing its open data strategy and on adopting novel digital infrastructures to facilitate the implementation of local climate policy.
“There is an interesting dilemma: With increasing ICT applications, we can create flexibility, avoid mobility and thus reduce CO2. On the other hand, ICT is growing to be a large user of energy.
The city of Tilburg will support the network of 52 signatories of the Green Digital Charter in looking for ICT-solutions which reduce the carbon footprint”
Deputy mayor Berend de Vries
Tilburg is an active member of EUROCITIES’ Environment Forum, in particular the working-group on ‘air quality, climate change and energy efficiency’. Signing the Green Digital Charter testifies of the city’s commitment to implement the Europe 2020 Energy strategy, especially in terms of energy efficiency.
Tilburg is one of the municipalities of BrabantStad, one of the six Dutch cities being full members of the EUROCITIES network. The purpose of EUROCITIES is to improve the quality of life of the residents of its member cities by facilitating cooperation and networking, encouraging knowledge sharing, and jointly influencing the EU’s relevant policies and practices.
[1] www.greendigitalcharter.eu
[2] http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/1 loading map - please wait...
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Tilburg
This article was originally published on the Raconteur.net website
Daniël Termont is the mayor of Ghent and EUROCITIES president.
Daniël Termont, Mayor of Ghent and EUROCITIES’ rotating president
“In Ghent, we combine our historical façades with a forward- looking vision. By 2020, I want my city to be open, inclusive, smart and child friendly. Key to this vision are our citizens – we want to build the Ghent of the future together.
Discussions around smart cities are too often driven by technology and industry. I believe cities, and their citizens, are at the core of the smart city transition. Technology is an important ingredient of course: we are looking to innovative solutions to manage our energy and transport systems better, manage, process and visualise data, and make life easier for all.
But we’re not overlooking the low-tech solutions that complement these: well-organised bike paths, for example, and vertical farming.
Technology for us is a means not an end and becoming smarter is about a whole lot more.
We need to find new ways of working together so we can make the most of everyone’s expertise. Public administrations, citizens, businesses and research institutes: we are all part of the same urban ecosystem and we all have something to offer. By pooling our resources, we can create better solutions that truly address our challenges and are owned by the entire city.
In Ghent, we have several tools to make this happen, such as the Ghent Climate Alliance, which is behind our vision of becoming climate neutral. Our Ghent Living Lab is an innovative platform where citizens, developers, researchers and businesses can co-create their city.
Smart cities rely on data, so opening up data is an important initiative for Ghent. Students and developers can use it to work on new solutions, including apps that make life easier for residents, such as a waste collection calendar and an app, ‘Parkmobile‘, to locate available parking spaces in real time.
We’ve even turned it into a competition: our annual hackathon, Apps for Ghent, invites developers to turn our open data into exciting new apps, such as Studio Dott’s PopBike (video), which enables users to calculate the best bike route and share bikes, and Ghendetta, a game that encourages users to explore city districts.
One of the challenges many cities face with opening data is protecting privacy. Citizens need to be able to access, use and manage their data, and for this they need adequate digital skills. This is a priority for Ghent as we want to make sure technology is accessible to everyone.
It is essential then that we create a level playing field. We need common and open standards and better interoperability between systems. This would open the market to more actors and would also bring down costs, and maximise the release, accessibility and usability of data, helping businesses grow.
Working together on projects is a must for testing and scaling up new solutions. Ghent is involved in several, including the Green Digital Charter, through which we commit to reducing our carbon footprint with smart ICT. We also need direct dialogue with European Union decision-makers.
With the Urban Agenda for the EU and the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities, we see new work processes that support the joining up of different levels of government and different sectors. This is a step in the right direction to address European and urban challenges together.
I am looking forward to the journey ahead and I am pleased to be sharing it with my colleagues at EUROCITIES, the network of major European cities. This is where I can bounce off ideas, discover new solutions and find ways to address shared challenges.
As a mayor, I know every corner of my city and have daily contact with citizens. This knowledge is crucial for making smart city solutions work. Working with cities means working with citizens, so by strengthening the links between EU institutions and cities, we are building a stronger Europe.
In February, the SELECT for Cities Initiative launched its call to support the development of an Internet-of-Everything (IoE) platform for open innovation in Europe.
Selected organisations will get contracts from 36,000€ to 800,000€ each. The procurement is financed by three cities – Antwerp, Copenhagen and Helsinki – with support from the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme.
To learn more about the innovation competition and access the tender documents, please visit www.select4cities.eu/tender
On 28-29 September, Heraklion will host the second annual Smart Blue City Euro-Mediterranean conference on ’Smart, inclusive and resilient small and medium-sized cities and island communities in the Mediterranean: exploring current research paths and experience-based evidence’.
Combining a scientific conference with an exhibition, the event will bring together city and regional authorities with representatives of industry, SMEs, academics, and professionals to discuss smart solutions to the challenges faced in the region and to explore new market opportunities.
For more information, visit www.smartbluecity.com/ – [leaflet] –
European Innovation Partnership – Smart Cities and Communities
The conference is organised in the frame of the EIP-SCC ‘Smart Cities in the Mediterranean’ strategic partnership (SMART-MED action cluster).
It will focus on areas where ICTs, energy and mobility policies overlap, and will seek to identify transferable solutions.
At 14:00 CET on 14 March, EUROCITIES hosted a public webinar on citizen participation and co-creation in smart cities, where the experiences gathered from the Sharing Cities and Green Digital Charter projects were shared with the participants.
WATCH THE WEBINAR
Reykjavik
Reykjavik
Magnus Y. Josefsson presented the Better Reykjavik collaborative online platform, through which citizens can submit policy proposals to the municipal government. ‘Better Reykjavik‘ was among the shortlisted projects in the “Citizen participation & impact on society” category of the 2016 edition of the GDC Awards.
Find out more about Reykjavik’s SMART projects and priorities here.
Milan
Milan
During a recent peer-learning visit organised in Milan in the frame of the Sharing Cities project, ‘fellow’ city representatives heard a presentation about the host city’s civic crowdfunding practices.
Find out more about Milan’s SMART projects and priorities here.
About Sharing Cities
Sharing Cities (www.sharingcities.eu) ‘lighthouse’ programme is a proving ground for a better, common approach to making smart cities a reality. By foestering international collaboration between industry and cities, the project seeks to develop affordable, integrated, commercial-scale smart city solutions with a high market potential. The project partners work in close cooperation with the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) and with other ‘lighthouse’ consortia. Sharing Cities offers a framework for citizen engagement and collaboration at local level, thereby strenghtening trust between cities and citizens. The project draws on €24 million in EU funding. It aims to trigger €500 million in investment and to engage over 100 municipalities across Europe.
Ⓒ URBAN-EU-CHINA
Within the framework of the existing cooperation arrangements between the EU and China, a new H2020 project (URBAN-EU-CHINA) with a consortium of 12 European and Chinese partners will soon be launched. The project will develop an evidence-driven, bottom-up approach to complement the existing top-down strategic approach to cooperation in sustainable urbanisation.
The partners will develop a coordinated series of actions that include a research and innovation agenda; networking events; benchmarking; monitoring; and peer learning activities. The underlying ambition is to address the disconnect between strategic visions and operational realities. The expected results of this 36-month, €1.5 million support action include joint policy strategies, a nursery of joint projects, and city-industry-science partnerships.
EUROCITIES will lead work on matching cities and organising event clusters.
The kick-off of the platform will take place from 19 to 21 March 2017 in the Chinese city of Putian, at the occasion of the 2017 EU-China Forum on Sustainable Urban Development. The partnership will then be officially launched at the occasion of a ceremony hosted in Brussels at the end of March.
URBAN-EU-CHINA is a Cooordination and Support Action (CSA) funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme. CORDIS
OpenYourCity.com
This article has been originally published on OpenYourCity.com under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
“If I were to decipher the message that 2017 is bringing, I would say that data sharing and co-creation will certainly boost urban innovation in the forthcoming years. And that, in Zaragoza, we have some interesting tools to make it happen:
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our smart Citizen Card, our “de facto” digital platform upon which we can build all sorts of services, from gamification to citizen participation
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our Open Urban Lab, the co-creation lab of the city, located at the very core of Zaragoza’s flagship innovation hub “Etopia Center for Arts and Technology”
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a thriving civic and innovation ecosystem and a program “100 Ideas ZGZ” conceived to set bottom-up ideas in motion, using the city as an innovation platform
The good news started in Luxembourg. After pitching the Citizen Card in late January on the Big Data Info Days on Horizon 2020 we are overwhelmed by the number of agents from either industry and research arena that have proposed to partner with us in big data-related H2020 calls. Almost simultaneously, four groups of design students from the University of Zaragoza presented four innovative ideas for new services on the Citizen Card. They had been working on them for three months both in the classroom and in the Lab.
A week later we took a plane to Brussels: on Jan, 25th Zaragoza’s Citizen Card received the Green Digital Charter (GDC) 2016 Award on ‘Citizen participation and impact on society’. During the conference ‘Cities in Transition – the role of digital in shaping our future cities’ held in Brussels we had the opportunity to present our current and future data policy and discuss it with an engaged audience from government and academia. Take two concepts already developed in these blog’s pages: Big (open) Data, and Data Sharing.
From left to right: Daniel Sarasa, Carlos Alocen and Gerardo Lahuerta after receiving the Green Digital Charter (GDC) 2016 Award on ‘Citizen participation & impact on society’, Brussels, 25 January 2017
We need European funding to materialize these and other ideas, so we’ve been working very hard with the team on several European proposals for using data to spark and guide the co-creation of new public services. We have already tested this principle within the project CITYkeys, where data has allowed us to identify gaps and opportunities for new transport services: that’s how the future network of bicycle parking spots started to be designed. A path, that of the co-creation of new public services based on data insights, that we intend to develop further.
On Feb, 6th we enrolled on a learning trip to beautiful Cascais (Portugal) to join the “Smart Life Incubator” think tank. We were ‘locked’ by the outstanding TM Forum staff alongside other city policy makers from Tokyo, Liverpool, Nice, Porto, Saint Quentin, Cascais and Utrecht. It was an intense 3-day working session focused on addressing urban challenges through innovation and cooperation between stakeholders. We dealt with problems such as mobility, talent attraction, unemployment, on-line services,… We shared strategies to bring deprived public space back to life, or to improve city response in case of catastrophe. Surprisingly, data sharing was identified as a common enabling vector for most of the challenges. The bad news is that no one seems to know how to make it happen without compromising, either legitimate organization assets or personal privacy: the relationship between big data and governments is still heavily cluttered.
So while everybody talks about co-creation, there is an astonishingly small number of succes stories out there. Most projects, like the “Co-creating responsive urban spaces” initiative in Amsterdam, are just starting. And data sharing is something we all think should be happening (for the sake of humanity, right?) but that no one has seen yet. In my Master on City Sciences’ thesis I pointed out that there are gigantic organizational and behavioural (psychological) barriers that block the way. As more projects on co-creation start in the following years, and small scale urban data sharing examples are being built, we expect that a whole new body of knowledge about the subject will appear. This knowledge, of course, will blossom on the urban ground, since it is the natural environment where people’s ideas and big (urban) data can turn into solutions.
The story of co-creation and data sharing is just beginning. We’ll be here to write it.”
Daniel Sarasa Funes is urban innovation planner and Smart City Program Manager at Zaragoza City Council. He is co-author of Zaragoza’s digital agenda 2012-2015 “Towards a Smart Citizenship” and co-editor of OpenYourCity.com
The 4th ICTFOOTPRINT free webinar held 23 February 2017 focused on ICT energy efficiency Calculation tools and sustainable ICT insights on energy services.
Agenda
speakers of ICTFOOTPRINT.eu 4th webinar – 23 February, 15:00 CET
- Thomas Corvaiser (CEO of Greenspector) introduced the concept of software eco-design, and told us how it helps lowering the consumption of IT resources while preserving performance and user experience.
- Frédéric Croisson (Deloitte Sustainability) showcased the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu Self-Assessment Tool for Services (SAT-S), a useful, quick and easy-to-use tool that calculate the carbon footprint of your ICT services. The tool helps users not only to make informed decisions about how to make an ICT service sustainable, but also discover the impact of ICT devices & activities in terms of Green House Gas emissions and primary energy consumption. (SAT-S will be launched very soon).
- Karen Robinson shared some sustainable ICT practices and presented the save@work initiative, which encourages public sector employees to come together in teams to reduce the energy consumption of their building by making small changes to their everyday energy consuming behaviours.
The webinar was moderated by Silvana Muscella, project coordinator of ICTFOOTPRINT.eu and CEO of Trust-IT Services.
WATCH THE WEBINAR
More information on ICTFOOTPRINT.eu website.
The year, Eindhoven‘s annual Beyond Data Event will be held on 30 March 2017.
This edition will see a swift from pilots and trials to real life cases. Cities are asked to come forward with their best practice cases, however small or big, and share them with other cities.
Beyond Data Event, Eindhoven, 30 March 2017
During this year’s ‘On the Edge’ edition, inspiring speakers, critical players, strategists and policy makers will take you on a journey to connect data organisations and data users.
Some of the topics to be discussed on 30 March 2017 include:
- Innovation in data, Smart Cities & Internet of Things
- Developments in the use of personal data: healthcare, social care and more
- Embedding smart cities as a backbone of infrastructure, equipment, protocols
- HELPDESK of cities and data science labs
- Connecting Tech to Reality: how do we match technology with the needs of society
- Pilots are good, but what’s next? What’s real?
- Help needed: sharing user cases & best practice. How can you help? What are the challenges?
Discover the full programme and register now at http://www.smart-circle.org/beyonddata/.
This article was originally published on the ICTFOOTPRINT.eu project’s website
ICT is one of the most powerful instruments to face today’s greatest threats including climate change and exhaustion of resources. Taking a closer look, however, ICT has its own responsibilities in terms of carbon emissions, in particular due to the huge amount of energy needed to keep data centres up and running, and the underlying infrastructure and networks working. We live in an highly interconnected world where issues and solutions are often intertwined.
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu is a unique one-stop-shop for finding all the simple, accessible information you need for reducing your ICT environmental impact. ICTFOOTPRINT.eu is also a lively marketplace where sellers showcase their sustainable ICT solutions and meet with potential buyers.
In order to understand the environmental impact of a product it is necessary to consider its whole lifecycle from the extraction of raw materials, design and production, down to the development, usage and final disposal and recovery. Have you ever wondered what the environmental footprint of an apple is? Are electric cars eco-friendly all over the world? ecoinvent offers a Life Cycle Assessment tool based on the world’s largest transparent Life Cycle Inventory database with over 12.800 datasets from reliable sources. The ecoinvent association is a not-for-profit organisation, whose vision is to help people all around the world do high quality environmental assessments more easily and therefore make truly informed choices.
E-waste is polluting drinking water and harming ecosystems around the world. By 2017, the total annual volume of e-waste is set to rise by 33% to 65.4 million tons, the weight equivalent to almost 200 Empire State Buildings (Stepinitiative.org 2014). The manufacture of one PC requires about 1.7 tonnes of raw materials and water and consumes over ten times the computer’s weight in fossil fuels: 75% of PC fossil fuel consumption has already happened before the computer is even switched on for the first time (Kuehr & Williams 2003). E-waste contains toxic chemicals such as arsenic and lead.
Re-use is the best way to recycle used ICT: Circular Computing, with its Circular Remanufacturing process, closes the loop on waste and extends the life of computers, creating positive environmental, economic and social impact on a micro and macro level. Circular Computing turns used ICT equipment into as-new, high quality products, extending their useful life cycle and allowing users’ satisfaction together with considerable savings.
One of the biggest challenges for switching to a sustainable future is the required cultural and behavioural change. Some even small changes in our daily habits can trigger relevant improvements on the global level. 86% of ocean debris is plastic: we have created an extra continent the size of France! Half a million cups are used every year: on average it is estimated that corporate employees use three plastic cups a day, causing harmful and long-lasting pollution. Think of the collective impact if we all recycled our plastic coffee cup or better still used a non-disposable one. The same reasoning applies for instance for the energy that can be saved by switching off monitors during lunch breaks.
GreenGoWeb, with its “Green Team Building” mobile app, turns saving energy and reducing your environmental impact into an amusing game. Set your goals, keep track of the energy you are saving in a fun and entertaining way and challenge your friends: who will achieve the highest sustainability scoring?
Visit ICTfootprint.eu website to register to their newsletter or to join the marketplace.
The EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum (KSF) and the Green Digital Charter (GDC) jointly hosted the conference ‘Cities in transition – the role of digital in shaping our future cities’ on 25 January 2017. The event, held in the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brussels, brought together over 100 participants, including civil servants, smart city experts, delegates from the EU institutions and partners and representatives from the private sector.
The role of cities in the digital transition
From left to right: Dorthe Nielsen (EUROCITIES), Eddy Hartog (European Commission), Flavia Marzano (Rome), Mary-Ann Schreurs (Eindhoven), Eero Halonen (Oulu) and Roberta Cocco (Milan)
The opening plenary session, moderated by Dorthe Nielsen, EUROCITIES policy director, enabled local politicians to share their ‘smart city’ visions and expectations of the recently-established Urban Agenda partnership on digital transition. This session included an exchange of views between the cities of Eindhoven, represented by Mary-Ann Schreurs, deputy mayor for innovation; Milan, represented by Roberta Cocco, alderman on digital transformation; Oulu, represented by Eero Halonen, chairman of the economic development board; and Rome, represented by Flavia Marzano, alderman on smart city and innovation. The discussion enabled participants to better understand cities’ priorities in this new urban partnership, especially with regards to data management issues, including the opening of data, data privacy and security, standards and interoperability of systems within as well as between cities.
Eddy Hartog, head of unit for smart mobility and living at European Commission DG CNECT, described the future solutions that need to be developed – including a one-stop-shop for cities – in order to improve multilevel collaboration on urban policies within the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC).
Kaja Kallas (MEP, EST, ALDE) delivered a a keynote speech in plenary, during which she stressed the importance of the digital economy in Europe’s development.
What came out of the parallel sessions?
The political debate was followed by two parallel series of technical workshops. Each workshop addressed opportunities and challenges, examples from cities and open questions, and each delivered a small set of takeaway points and next steps for action. Posters have been designed for workshops’ moderators to write down key take-aways. They can all be consulted online by clicking on the links below.
- Workshop A – Data (Moderator: B. Rosseau, Ghent)
- Workshop B – eGovernment (Moderator: F. Bordelot, EUROCITIES)
- Workshop C – IoT and the future city (Moderator: A. Slatcher, Manchester)
- Workshop D – Standards (Moderator: C. Colinet, Bordeaux)
- Workshop E – Urban platforms (Moderator: G. Colclough, Urban DNA)
- Workshop F – Performance Measurement of smart city projects (N. Kontinakis, EUROCITIES)
- Workshop G – Connectivity (Moderator: S. Ingvarsson, Stokab, Stockholm)
- Workshop H – Procurement for innovation (Moderator: B. Zuiderent, Eindhoven)
Bart Rosseau from the city of Ghent (signatory of the Green Digital Charter) and chairman of KSF Data working-group
Pictures of the day, including of the GDC Awards ceremony, are shared on Flickr (bit.ly/2kqnKj3).
The agenda of the conference is available at bit.ly/Agenda-CitiesInTransition.
Connected Smart City Conference 2017 in Brussels
The Connected Smart Cities Conference 2017 organised by OASC (Open & Agile Smart Cities) took place on 12 January in Brussels. After a plenary session with high-level keynotes, among whom Mary-Ann Schreurs (Eindhoven’s vice-mayor for innovation) and Anna-Kaisa Ikonen (Mayor of Tampere), participants were invited to attend parallel sessions on various smart city-related topics.
In the morning, participants got the opportunity to attend four parallel workshops on ‘Innovation ecosystems’, ‘Market creation & policy issues’, ‘Mobility’ and ‘Platforms & data models’. In the afternoon, four other workshops were organised, respectively on ‘Cities by and for people’, ‘Assisted living & aging’, ‘Digital Water’ and ‘Standards for real-time urban services’.
Missed it? #CSCC2017 is online
The full programme of the day, including slides from the speakers, can be found on oascities.org website.
A recorded video-stream allows you to watch keynotes and the parallel sessions on ‘Innovative Ecosystems: Open innovation between small and large, public and private‘ and ‘Cities for and by People: co-creation, ethics and privacy’.
Finally, pictures and tweets of the day are available at this link: bit.ly/2jPW4CZ.
For more information: www.oascities.org
The Green Digital Charter (GDC) aims to improve the quality of life in cities through the use of digital solutions. Its annual collection of case-studies presents actions and projects associated with green digital developments implemented in signatory cities to meet their commitment in tackling climate change and improving citizens’ quality of life.
2016 collection of GDC case-studies
The 2016 edition gathers 32 projects and actions, implemented in 22 cities. Innovative solutions either cross-domain or specifically related to buildings, energy, transport and e-participation are included. The pdf version of our 2016 catalogue is now available for download at this link: http://bit.ly/GDC–case-studies-2016.
Out of this publication, three projects have been awarded during the GDC 2016 Awards ceremony that took place in Brussels on 25 January 2017.
- Zaragoza (Zaragoza Citizen Card) is the winner of the GDC Award on ‘Citizen participation & impact on society’
- Lisbon (BESOS project) is the winner of the GDC Award ‘Creation of European added value’
- Rijeka (iURBAN pilot) is the winner of the GDC Award ‘Promoting open & interoperable solutions’
Work-shadowing visits
Is your city a GDC signatory and you are interested to visit one of the projects presented in the catalogue? Each city profile includes relevant web links and contact information to help you plan and organise your own work shadowing visit and learn from each other. We have prepared a practical guide (bit.ly/GDC-A-practical-guide-for-training-visits), in which you will find all the information you need. The annexed documents can be consulted at bit.ly/GDC-training-activities.
For more information about technical training visits, feel free to contact the GDC/GuiDanCe team at Nikolaos.Kontinakis@eurocities.eu or Rebecca.Portail@eurocities.eu
On 25 January 2017 at the occasion of the conference ‘Cities in Transition‘, the cities of Zaragoza, Lisbon and Rijeka were awarded for their innovative contributions to the objectives of the Green Digital Charter.
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Citizen participation and impact on society
Carlos Alocen, Daniel Sarasa and Gerardo Lahuerta received the award on behalf of Zaragoza in this category, in recognition of the impact of the ‘Zaragoza Citizen Card’. This multi-purpose smart (RFID) card is part of Zaragoza’s collaborative approach to facilitate citizens’ access to public services. Runner-up cities for this category were Reykjavik (Better Reykjavik and My Neighbourhood) and Utrecht (Traffic Lights Hotline).
Creation of European added value
Lisbon’s integrated management system for energy efficiency developed under the FP7-funded BESOS project was recognised in the ‘European added-value’ category. Implemented in Lisbon and Barcelona, the project is a perfect example of how digital technologies can help in the global fight against climate change. The project’s coordinator, Francisco Goncalves, received the award on behalf of the city of Lisbon. Runner-up cities for this category were Bristol (REPLICATE) and Zagreb (Zagreb Energy Week).
Promoting open and interoperable solutions
Finally, Tatjana Perse from the city of Rijeka received the award on ‘Promoting open and interoperable solutions’ for the iURBAN smart Decision Support System (DSS) project. This integrated, multilevel and scalable tool has been designed for cities’ administration to critically analyse energy consumption patterns and increase energy efficiency in public buildings. Runner-up cities for this category were Amsterdam (Open Data – Smart Neighbourhoods) and Valencia (Valencia Smart City Platform).
The jury was composed of Miimu Airaksinen (VTT, Finland), Peter Bosch (TNO, Netherlands), Jan Dictus (GOJA Consulting, Austria), and Cristobal Irazoqui (European Commission, DG CNECT).
In total, 21 projects, implemented in 14 cities, were submitted for this second edition of the GDC awards. All nominated projects represent the best in urban innovation – judge by yourself by leafing through our 2016 collection of case studies (bit.ly/GDC–case-studies-2016).
Follow us on Twitter @GDCharter
Digital innovation is a driver of sustainable urban development all over the world. Approaches to becoming ‘smarter’ may differ, but open and interoperable solutions arguably play a key role in ensuring the sustainability of smart infrastructures.
Public authorities collect and produce reams of data, which can be used to design and deliver innovative services and applications. From a governance perspective, public data also has the potential to contribute to more transparency in municipalities’ urban planning. This is why open data strategies are at the core of smart city initiatives all over Europe.
The third GDC award category will recognise the project that has adopted and implemented open data and/or interfaces; has deployed and/or promoted interoperable solutions; and has tried to promote urban platforms or the better use/re-use of infrastructures, services, tools, etc.
The three finalists are:
- Amsterdam region’s Open Data – Smart Neighbourhoods (ODSN) project
- Rijeka’s iURBAN intelligent urban energy tool
- Valencia’s Smart City Platform
Amsterdam region’s ODSN project uses IT to achieve urban climate targets
Commissioned by the Dutch ministry of infrastructure and environment, the Open Data – Smart Neighbourhoods (OSDN) project implements the IREEN roadmap, which was developed by Green IT Amsterdam under the FP7 funding programme between 2011 and 2013. This roadmap for energy-efficient neighbourhoods aims to promote the development of a comprehensive Europe-wide innovation strategy and the take-up of ICT-based energy efficiency solutions in urban districts and neighbourhoods.
The ODSN project builds on Amsterdam’s expertise and experience in open data management and in supporting new data-driven projects in five municipalities of the Amsterdam region, namely Haarlem, Tilburg, Zaanstad, Lelystad Airport Business Park, and Heerlen.
The project encourages the participants to learn about the benefits of open data and also about the challenges involved in monitoring, as well as in engaging and protecting the privacy of residents.
More information is available at at Green IT Amsterdam website.
Contact person: Jaak Vlasveld, director of Green IT Amsterdam: jvlasveld[at]greenitamsterdam.nl
Rijeka’s iURBAN: intelligent tool for an energy-efficient smart city
Just like all other local and regional authorities, the city of Rijeka must pay the energy bills of public buildings, such as schools, kindergartens, public libraries, and the city council itself.
An open access research book was published online in November 2016, just after the end of the project. Entitled iURBAN: Intelligent Urban Energy Tool, the book introduces this tool that integrates different ICT energy management systems (both hardware and software) in Rijeka) and Plovdiv. This system provides useful data to a novel decision support system needed for the development of associated business models.
The iURBAN smart Decision Support System (smartDSS) addresses a growing market demand for cheaper and cleaner energy services. It enables municipalities to analyse consumption patterns within buildings, detect sources of inefficiency, and identify power-hungry devices that weigh heavily on the municipality’s energy bill. It also helps building managers identify areas where investment is needed.
Interested to know more? Visit the iURBAN website at http://www.iurban-project.eu.
Contact person: Tatjana Perse, head of the city of Rijeka’s e-government unit: tatjana.perse@rijeka.hr
Valencia Smart City Platform (VLCi)
The Spanish city’s 2020 strategy emphasises innovation, sustainability and environmental quality; promotes entrepreneurship; foresees the emergence of a civic-minded political culture; and aims for the creation of spheres of excellence in promising sectors such as design, renewable energies, health, technology, and arts.
The Valencia Smart City Platform (VLCi) enables the municipality to efficiently manage its public services through the compilation and use of urban, citizenship and service management-related indicators. These enable the city to accurately measure urban behaviour and resources, and offer an integrated view of its operations and management. The indicators also enable Valencia to check itself against other similar cities and to improve its strategic and operational decision making processes over time.
By using some of the 600 indicators integrated in the VLCi platform, the municipality can also provide better services to its citizens. VLCi’s control panel display encourages the use of public open data by citizens, technicians and council officials for urban service management purposes.
To improve interoperability between its municipal services, Valencia has also developed an urban management platform based on FIWARE, an open standard recommended by the European Commission, which smart city developers use to ensure Internet of Things (IoT) compliance.
Further information is available at http://vlci.inndeavalencia.com (in English)
Contact person: Anna Melchor-Pérez, smart city specialist at Las Naves (previously InnDEA Valencia Foundation), Valencia city council: anna.melchor[at]inndeavalencia.com
A ‘smart city’ is a place where digital technologies translate into better public services for citizens, better use of resources and less impact on the environment. With this vision in mind, the EU has been investing in ICT research and innovation (in particular through its Horizon 2020 funding programme) and developing policies as well as partnerships, such as the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC), to speed the deployment of innovative solutions.
Sixteen cross-domain projects are presented in our 2016 collection of case studies. Three of these have been shortlisted by our jury of experts, and one will win the 2016 GDC Award ‘Creation of European added-value’on 25 January.
The three shortlisted projects in this second category are:
- Bristol’s REPLICATE pilot
- Lisbon’s BESOS (Building Energy Decision Support Systems for Smart Cities) project
- Zagreb’s Energy Week
Bristol’s REPLICATE project engages citizens in achieving sustainable goals
In 2015, Bristol was the first UK city to receive the European Green Capital Award in recognition of its impressive investment plans for transports and energy, in particular renewables, by 2020.
Bristol is one of three
lead cities (’lighthouses’) of REPLICATE (REnaissance of PLaces with Innovative Citizenship And Technology), an EU research and development project aiming to deploy integrated energy, mobility, and ICT solutions in city districts. Bristol has chosen the Ashely, Easton and Lawrence Hill neighbourhood partnership area as its target district.
Bristol’s approach focuses on citizens and addresses a broad range of socio-economic and environmental challenges faced by the city. First, its core innovation is the development of an energy demand management system that can holistically monitor and control energy use in 150 connected homes.
The city is developing a number of other projects and measures that would help increase energy efficiency, promote sustainable mobility, and encourage citizens to change their behaviour.
More information at http://replicate-project.eu/bristol/
Contact person: Luke Loveridge, programme manager: luke.loveridge[at]bristol.gov.uk
Lisbon’s BESOS project fosters public-private energy efficiency cooperation
Lisbon, capital of Portugal and one of the oldest cities in the world, is very active in European cooperation initiatives and smart city projects. A ‘lighthouse’ member of the Sharing Cities project, Lisbon’s smart city strategy has proved that bringing stakeholders together can provide considerable support for efforts to ensure the sustainability and replicability of solutions developed in pilot projects.
Between October 2013 and September 2016, the BESOS (Build Energy Decision Support Systems for Smart Cities) project developed an advanced, integrated energy management system.The project targeted two main groups of stakeholders: infrastructure owners (e.g. municipalities) and operators. This public-private partnership developed a trustworthy open platform, through which partners can share data and services among themselves, as well as with third-party applications.
These valuable data flows enable the design and development of higher-level applications capable of processing data in real timeand feeding analysed data analysis to the city’s energy services.
Lisbon and Barcelona have already tested the BESOS approach.
More information at http://besos-project.eu/
Contact person: Francisco Gonçalves, project coordinator, franciscogoncalves[a]lisboaenova.org
Zagreb Energy Week: “Development we don’t want to stop but pollution we can”
Over the past seven years, Zagreb Energy Week has become of the city’s flagship events. Held in the month of May under the slogan ‘Development we don’t want to stop but pollution we can’, the organisers call for joint actions that contribute to the implementation of sustainable urban development projects and the preservation of natural resources for future generations.
Financed by the city budget, Zagreb Energy Week is jam-packed with conferences, expert meetings, open-door days, seminars, classes, and workshops dedicated to energy and the environment. These activities allow for rich dialogue and interaction among the experts, and raise citizens’ concern about the environment.
Contact persons: Vlatka Samarinec and Maja Sunjic, expert advisors: vlatka.samarinec[at]zagreb.hr and maja.sunjic[at]zagreb.hr
Since there cannot be a smart city without smart citizens, the award winner in the first category will be a project that has successfully involved citizens and/or other civil society stakeholders; has adopted a bottom-up approach; and is expected to tackle, or has already tackled, local societal challenges.
Of the 14 projects nominated in this category, three stand a good chance of winning the award:
- Reykjavik’s Better Reykjavik and My Neighbourhood e-participation projects
- Utrecht’s Traffic lights hotline
- Zaragoza’s Citizen Card
‘Better Reykjavik’ and ‘My Neighbourhood’ online consultation tools
Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, aims to enhance citizen participation by developing two dedicated online platforms.
Better Reykjavik is an online consultation forum where the locals can submit, discuss, and prioritise ideas about the municipality’s public services and administration. Each month, the top-rated ideas are processed by the council ‘s standing committees.
Once the feasibility and costs of each project have been assessed, citizens are invited to vote on them in My Neighbourhood, another tool that enables them to participate in the annual budgeting process.
Since its launch in 2010, Better Reykjavik has inspired more than 70,000 people to propose and discuss over 4,500 ideas. To date, 420 ideas have been approved by citizens via My Neighbourhood.
The city of Reykjavik operates these websites jointly with the Citizens Foundation (www.citizens.is), a non-profit organisation dedicated to encouraging citizen participation in governance.
Further information about Reykjavik’s cooperative initiative is available at http://reykjavik.is/en/better-reykjavik-0.
Contact person: Kristinn Jon Olafsson, project manager, Reykjavik smart city: Kristin.jon.olafsson[at]reykjavik.is
Utrecht’s smart mobility project: ‘Traffic lights hotline’
Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, is often referred to as a cyclist’s paradise. This rapidly growing city faces new and unexpected challenges directly linked to its bike-friendly policies. Every day, upwards of 100,000 cyclists ride across the city, sometimes even causing traffic congestion … for their fellow cyclists! Many of them feel that the city’s traffic lights could be better configured, and that some are actually not necessary at all.
Pursuing a smart approach to mobility, Utrecht municipality launched, in February 2015, Traffic Lights Hotline, an online service asking residents to report traffic lights that could be deactivated (for part of the day) or reprogrammed. Nearly 5,000 reports have been received.
The hotline has since become a permanent service, enabling intelligent traffic flow management and improving traffic safety.
The hotline is available at http://mobiliteitsdata-utrecht.nl/verkeer/vri/ (in Dutch only).
Contact person: Muriel Pels, advisor international cooperation and EU funding affairs; m.pels[at]utrecht.nl
‘Zaragoza Citizen Card’
Zaragoza, capital of the Spanish region of Aragon, is located halfway between Barcelona and Madrid. It counts among Europe’s first open-source cities. Zaragoza Citizen Card is a multi-service smart card that can be used for accessing public services and facilities, including payment processing services.
To date, over half of Zaragoza’s a
dult population have already applied for such an ’all-in-one’ digital key to more than twenty municipal services, including public transport, parking, public libraries, swimming pools, and wifi.
This card is only one example for Zaragoza’s collaborative approach to smart city transformation. In addition to saving costs and making citizens’ life easier, the card comes complete with an open public API (application programming interface), which can be used by citizens to ask questions, and which generates data that can be fed into the city’s innovation ecosystem.
Contact person: Daniel Sarasa Funes, smart city programme manager: dsarasa[at]zaragoza.es
