Centering Sustainability in Smart City Efforts

We recently hosted our second panel of our Smart Cities Virtual Panel Series, Centering Sustainability in Smart City Efforts, where we had a fantastic opportunity to host Mr. Albert Engels, Senior Process Manager at the Smart Cities Program in Rotterdam Netherlands as well as Mr. Calum Handforth, Advisor at UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development.   

Moderated by Eden’s Senior Sustainability Consultant, David Berger, the panel which took place on 22 July 2021 at 1500 SGT, sought to explore how cities are taking bold steps to address global warming and the role they can play in creating a better, more sustainable future. 

While technology and innovation play a role in smart cities, a holistic strategy embraces a much larger definition of the term. Eden’s view is one that embraces thoughtful planning and utilises co-creation strategies to develop solutions that address economic, environmental, and social sustainability. 

Numerous interesting insights arose from the discussion on how cities can frame, bolster and maintain their sustainability efforts:

• Cities should ensure that their sustainability initiatives are tailored to the realities of all their different stakeholders such as residents and businesses. By doing so, such cities will be better positioned to address the specific needs and contexts of their target audience

• The success of sustainability initiatives may require micro and macro-behaviour change from such stakeholders. Aside from understanding the specific behaviours that need to change, city officials should strive to measure behaviour change and perhaps most importantly, determine how sustainable some of these behaviour shifts might be. Tools such as the EAST framework, which combines behavioural economics with other sciences and psychology to truly understand and influence behaviour change, have been commonly used to encourage such change

• Successful collaboration between public and private players entails clear dialogue between both sides to understand balance of power as well as roles and responsibilities of each party. Asian countries in particular have excelled at this, where applied research from academia has been translated into actionable sustainability initiatives. Such research has been used to build ecosystems and landscapes that target specific issues 

• Sustainability projects are inherently challenging and there is always the risk of failure. Cities need to accept this risk and recognise that missteps are inevitable. However, they should learn from these experiences and those of other cities, so as not to repeat the same mistakes twice

• The panellists also shared that cities should view the idea of being "smart" as a tool for accomplishing a goal, rather than an end. Adopting such a perspective enables cities to thus focus on the real challenge that smart cities must be equipped to tackle;—becoming resilient

Although climate change can be feel like an overwhelming issue for cities to tackle, our panellists shared that they are optimistic as they witness the keenness, collaboration and shared learning between cities from around the world, coupled by the efforts of young people who have been key in driving a sense of urgency.

Stay tuned for the last panel of our series which will focus on creative models in Smart City Financing!

You can also catch our previous panel here. 

In case you missed the event, you can catch it here:

Smart Strategies to Tackle COVID-19

Our first panel in the Smart Cities Virtual Panel Series on Smart Strategies to Tackle COVID-19 featured two insightful panelists, Alexis Wichowski Deputy CTO at NYC Mayor's Office's Smart Cities + IoT Lab, and Takehiko Nagumo, Executive Director of Smart City Institute Japan, and was moderated by Co-Lead Investigator of Eden Strategy Institute’s Smart Cities practice, Rachel Tan.

The panel, which took place on Friday, 30 April 2021 (0900 SGT) aimed to uncover insights around how cities have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic across the world and discover the innovation behind the variety of strategies employed by smart cities globally in tackling the biggest health crisis of our generation.

Technology may have helped smart cities deal with COVID-19 more effectively, but there are many social, ethical, and political issues behind handling a pandemic that are less explicit. How exactly has technology enabled cities to better tackle the pandemic? Will smart cities be able to balance citizen data privacy protection with public health needs? How can cities build trust and strong community networks, and ensure that no citizen gets left behind?

Several key insights emerged from this fruitful discussion on what cities like New York and Tokyo have learned from COVID-19:

• COVID-19 induced changes across Japan have include the diversification of land use, recognising that high population density contributed significantly to the virus’ spread. Rebalancing populations instead of concentrating populations in the urban centre will be a likely development trend moving forward, creating what Takehiko referred to as ‘mini urbanisation’ in areas surrounding the city.

• Creative solutions emerged in New York City to address the gaps which were made apparent by COVID-19, such as the digital divide and unequal Internet access which became central to connectivity and access for schooling and work. Mobile vans would support Wi-Fi connectivity efforts and tablets were also distributed to communities in need.

• The pandemic highlighted the importance of continually investing and developing relationships with hyperlocal communities and organisations, instead of doing this in a crisis, to rapidly share information and activate resources required. City governments must be prepared with knowledge of which communities are experiencing the greatest need.

• Cross-learning across cities was critical to shaping an effective response. Estonia, Denmark, and Germany were cited as excellent case studies for their use of electronic or digital identities for their citizens which would enable city governments to effectively distribute resources efficiently and transparently (e.g. electronically distributing cash handouts during the pandemic)

• Takehiko also highlighted the importance of developing a single digital platform for city services to improve access and clarity of information, especially in a crisis context. This might also be made interoperable across cities within a given country.

As cities chart their course towards a post-pandemic future, it is worth exploring what the modern citizen needs to have a more fulfilling life and broaden the definition of ‘smart’ beyond technology to consider sustainability, resilience, liveability, and loveability of cities as well. As Alexis shared, it is necessary to rebalance and reorient ourselves based on our values.

We closed off the event with an intimate networking session, allowing audience members to engage directly in a discussion with the panelists and one another and share their smart city challenges, ideas, and questions as a community of smart city practitioners.

Stay tuned for our upcoming panels on:

• Achieving Carbon Neutrality at City Scale (end May)

• Creative Models in Smart City Financing (June)

In case you missed the session, a recording of the panel has been made available below: