Tag: Smart Cities

Cities & Clean Growth: ‘Future of Infrastructure’ in The Times

New writing… Pleased to say I have had another article published in The Times newspaper, as part of a special Raconteur report on the Future of Infrastructure.

The piece looks at the fight to accommodate more and more people, plus deliver on promises of prosperity, whilst still safeguarding our current and future needs on the planet. It is an urban dilemma. Caught in the crossfire between the forces of urbanisation and decarbonisation, cities are the clean-growth battlegrounds of the 21st century – where booming populations need their demands met, but impacts mitigated.

Clean growth is doable, but difficult. To meet climate goals, PwC has calculated carbon intensity of the global economy needs to fall by 6 per cent a year, twice as fast as ever before. With infrastructure always the solution, but often a problem, cities are where this war on carbon will be won or lost.

You can read the full story (with no paywall) here:

• ‘Cash-strapped cities are battlegrounds for clean energy’.

The full 16-page Future of Infrastructure report is available to view/download here.

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What Being ‘Smart’ Means… ‘Smart Cities’ in The Times

New writing... Pleased to say I have another piece published in The Times newspaper today, as part of a special report on Smart Cities, by Raconteur. It looks at why business, the built environment and wider community must embrace constant change and lifelong learning to benefit fully from intelligent and responsive digital cities of the future:

• ‘What being ‘smart’ means for cities’.

The full 16-page Smart Cities report is available to view/download here.

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‘Public Sector Technology’ in The Times

pstNew writing… Pleased to say I have had another piece published in The Times newspaper, as part of a special report on Public Sector Technology by Raconteur. It looks at the emergence of Bristol as a leading advocate and achiever in smart city thinking and doing, tacking challenges and pioneering solutions:

• ‘Why Bristol’s a city of the future’.

There is also a short footnote box-out (please scroll down) on smart traffic management in the city where cycles outnumber cars – ‘Copenhagen’s Intelligent Infrastucture’.

The full 16-page Public Sector Technology report is available to view/download here.

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The Future in 5 Words… #1: ‘Sensorsational’

Why Cities will be… ‘Sensorsational’ 

#1V2Mushrooming urbanisation has already seen us race past the halfway point for the proportion of people living in cities (with estimates reaching 54% in 2014) and is predicted to hit 2 in every 3, by 2050 (66%). With the boom in mobile and digital technology exploding alongside, driven by smartphone ubiquity, we as people are becoming increasingly connected by sensor technology to the physical environment around us. In effect, the Internet of Things has been creeping up on us by stealth; and that creep is fast turning into a gallop. Already, the forecast date for hitting the one trillion sensors mark has been brought forward from 2030 to 2025. Sensors will connect us to the buildings in which we live, learn and work, the shops where we buy goods, and all modes of transport in between. Within 10 years, that degree of connectivity will see the equivalent of around 120 sensors in operation for every human in existence.

Tomorrow: Why Business will be… ‘Sociable’

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@SustMeme will be publishing a global Who’s Who on Social Media for Future Cities, with the launch of a new weekly ranking for 2016. If you would like to Sponsor, please see the full Top 500s Menu for details. 

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‘Sustainability: Say the Words!’ is a series of aphoristic ‘thoughts and shorts’ appearing regularly throughout 2016 – feedback welcome via Email, or Twitter: @SustMeme.

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