Interview

New York City has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by over 80% by 2050, as part of its Green New Deal plan for a more sustainable future. The New York City Housing Authority—the largest provider of public housing in North America—is fulfilling this pledge by retrofitting its huge portfolio of housing units, which is no easy task. Its approach can serve as a blueprint for other cities.

Achieving these goals will not be simple for The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Its residential footprint covers over 500,000 tenants in some 335 housing developments, and buildings are the largest source of greenhouse emissions. Under Local Law 97, all buildings that exceed 25,000 square feet must meet new energy efficiency and emissions standards. The city also has banned the use of natural gas for heating and cooling in new buildings.

As a result, NYCHA is pushing hard on several fronts to decarbonize its buildings and convert to beneficial electrification where possible, says Gianluca Galletto, former managing director for technology and innovation partnerships at NYCHA.

“The New York City government plans to decarbonize before the end of the decade—that includes all the buildings that belong to the government, which, if you include NYCHA public housing, goes up to 600 million square feet,” says Galletto. “The only difference is that for public housing the reductions apply to the portfolio on average, not for each single building, so it’s a little more flexible.”

Following a sustainability roadmap

NYCHA is following a Sustainability Agenda that it published in October 2021 that sets out a decarbonization and a climate mitigation roadmap comprising a variety of solutions. These include rooftop solar panels, which NYCHA is installing on public housing facilities to achieve 30MW of power production. On others, it is putting in small wind turbines for additional power, and green roofs to reduce heating and cooling needs. The agency is also assessing feasibility of installing solar plus storage on two of its buildings.

Another measure is transitioning from fossil fuels to clean, electric powered systems for heat, hot water, and cooking in housing units. Improvements include electric induction stoves and ovens and highefficiency heat pumps to provide space heat and hot water. Domestic water and space heating—and cooling—account for 85% of energy needs for New York public housing, explains Galletto. However, while this will reduce emissions from buildings, the full decarbonization effect will depend on New York State converting to carbon-free energy sources for its electricity generation.

Heating and cooling adjustments

NYCHA is also digitizing building heating and cooling systems to better manage distribution. “There are huge quality of life problems because of how old buildings were built,” says Galletto. “One apartment is super-hot in the winter, so they open windows or turn on the air conditioner, while another part of the building is too cold. By changing the architecture of the heat production and distribution, you start to affect the way it is distributed by units.”

This includes installing smart meters and sensors in each apartment. As part of this effort, up to 30,000 families will receive broadband service at a greatly reduced rate, which permits remote management of heating and cooling. “That means no one can put the heat up too high or the air conditioning too low,” he says.

Transformative technologies

NYCHA is looking to Scandinavia for ideas for district heating and thermal networks to ensure that heating and cooling can be shared among buildings and that energy is not wasted. Copenhagen and Stockholm have thousands of miles of heat networks, piping that connects underground, Galletto points out. “Buildings can become prosumers of energy because the heat that they don’t use can be used by the building beside you. It’s a little bit like the cloud, or like network storage for different computers, where you can share some of the free hard drive.”

Getting these heat networks and geothermal heating and cooling units built won’t be easy in New York, with its high population density and streets with a huge underground network of pre-existing piping and wiring. But Galletto says NYCHA will draw on new technologies to build on existing piping—and much older district heating using steam that dates from more than 100 years ago.

These technologies include heat exchangers, geothermal capabilities, and heat pumps, which offer a potential for a more than three-fold increase in efficiency and reduction in energy, Galletto says. “With heat pumps, and with the difference in temperature between inside, outside, underground, and above ground, you can also provide cooling,” says Galletto.

In partnership with the New York Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, NYCHA issued a request for proposal seeking a heat pump that can be installed through a window. The three agencies are currently evaluating six proposals and hope to award a contract in 2022.

He adds that NYCHA is looking to replace all gas boilers over 15 years old—those that are the least energy efficient—with heat pump technology. In other NYCHA developments—10 at present—the plan is to move to geothermal heating and cooling that will replace use of natural gas completely, with a single plant serving up to 10 buildings.

 

Innovation is challenging for a city when the national government controls many of its urban domains. Dublin, Ireland’s capital, sets an example of how a municipality can make good progress toward becoming a future-ready city geared to meeting citizen needs, even without total authority, by working with higher levels of government and optimizing the power it does have.

Ireland’s central government retains authority over important domains that municipalities in other countries normally control, including education, health, policing, and many aspects of transportation. Irish cities have chief executives, but not directly elected mayors.

“That makes it much harder to set a big, audacious vision, but there’s a lot within our remit that we can do,” says Jamie Cudden, manager of the smart city program for the Dublin City Council. Areas Dublin does control include infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks, parking, fire and rescue, streetlights, libraries, social housing, waste and wastewater management, the environment, and hundreds of typical city services.

“There can be a disconnect between national bodies and what citizens think,” says Cudden. “We serve as the interface, with a closer ear to the ground, particularly when it comes to areas of social inclusion.” The city has its own plan for “future-proofing” itself. “We look to become a dynamic, sustainable, future-ready city built on inclusive neighborhoods and communities, a strong economy, a vibrant cultural life, and connected growth,” says Cudden.

A greener future

Sustainability is a major theme for Dublin, which seeks to meet national and EU goals for a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 while it works to improve the city council’s energy efficiency by 33%. One initiative is the retrofitting of social housing to make it more energy efficient. That includes using national funding to offer incentives for installing solar panels and insulation.

Sustainable mobility is another goal. “The pandemic spurred a massive change in mindset regarding making the city more attractive for cycling and led to a huge investment in cycling infrastructure. Many quicker and more temporary deployments stayed sticky, including a significant pedestrianization in the city center,” says Cudden. “There’s an acknowledgement that the city is a different place post-COVID.”

Dublin is starting to see a pickup in shared mobility, such as car clubs and bike-sharing programs, including Dublinbikes, Moby, and Bleeper, says Cudden. The city supports these organizations by allowing licenses to operate on its streets. In addition, it is encouraging development of mobility-as-a-service apps that allow users to make account-based payments for all legs of a multi-modal journey.

The city is also working to expand the number of EV charging stations, in cooperation with other regional authorities. However, Dublin’s Georgian architecture and narrow streets makes this challenging. “There’s a lot of competition for curbside space, so we are likely to see EV charging in car parks and at petrol stations play a significant transition role,” says Cudden.

Harnessing digital technologies

Dublin is embracing the latest technologies and innovative working practices to improve the quality of life for its citizens in the region. With three other councils in the region, Dublin City Council established the Smart Dublin initiative in 2016 that set up four “smart districts” in the city to act as testbeds for new technologies to solve urban problems in partnership with a range of global technology firms, SME’s, academia, public bodies and local communities.

One area where its work has paid off is telecommunications. The sudden upsurge in remote working, online shopping, and digital communication during the pandemic put tremendous pressure on telecom networks. “It showed us the need for much more consolidation and leadership from the city council to support rather than block telecoms investment,” says Cudden.

As a result, the city council set up a new telecoms unit earlier this year as a “one-stop shop” to help speed the rollout of 5G and high-speed connectivity. “We did a lot of experimentation in our Smart Docklands District from 2017 to build a 5g test-bed and deploy a network of small cells, and realized quickly that it’s hard to find poles, power, and fiber that can be easily accessed,” he says.

The telecoms unit provides a single point of contact for the council to get permits and navigate the planning process to put equipment in ducting, on buildings, and on street furniture.

“This is critical for the future of the city and will help us deliver 5G more quickly than other cities in Europe,” Cudden says. The council is working with companies to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum and that all parts of the community have connectivity.

Cudden notes that the pandemic’s lasting effects are still unclear. One unknown is how hybrid working will affect office space in business districts. Another is the effect of ecommerce on retail shops in the city, whose business has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Data partnerships

Data is vital for monitoring these trends. The council keeps its finger on the pulse of Dublin’s economic performance— and on its environment—through data partnerships with the private sector. Partners include MasterCard, which provides consumer spending data insights; Standard & Poor’s, which supplies purchasing manager index data; and Google and DPD, which use electric cars and delivery vehicles to collect street-by-street air quality information. Also, the city has developed Dublinked, an innovative non-personal data repository and network freely available to anyone, that includes more than 500 datasets on a wide range of economic, environmental, health, and cultural areas.

Dublin is using this data to support policy decisions and feed into new digital twin technology. It has six different projects in development with multiple industry partners, including piloting the use of digital twins to better manage high-risk sites across the city, for use in emergency response.

In June 2021, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) adopted a new strategic plan designed to revamp the city’s streetscape to address longstanding issues of equity. It offers an example of a future-ready approach to infrastructure and mobility—one that is smart, safe, and inclusive.

The opportunity to reimagine the CDOT’s strategy arose from the pandemic, economic, and racial justice crises of 2020, which increased receptivity to social change. According to CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi, the new plan, developed in consultation with a coalition of community and activist groups, helps to move the city forward in tackling fundamental problems of generational poverty and structural inequity.

“In a city like Chicago, where past practices that negatively affected racial minorities are stitched into the landscape of streets and infrastructure, we need to begin unwinding this so we can become a more prosperous, equitable, and inclusive city going forward,” says Biagi. “Communities of color in Chicago often have the fewest transportation choices, the longest commutes, the highest concentration of industrial centers and truck traffic in their neighborhoods, and the worst pollution from cars and trucks.”

CDOT will look to make improvements in all the areas it oversees, which include Chicago’s roadways and bridges, sidewalks, bike lanes, traffic signals and signage, streetlights, the citywide bike share system, and policies focused on complete streets.

Much of the funding for the plan will come from a bond-supported  plan for infrastructure investment over five years, passed by the City Council in 2020. Some will come from a $188 million bond issue earmarked for environmental justice and climate investments.

Micro-mobility in focus

Micro-mobility as a key component CDOT’s future vision. Many of its  current initiatives center on bikes and bikeways. Since the pandemic began, it has built an extra 125 miles of bike lanes, many protected with concrete barriers. It also has expanded its bike share program, Divvy, to underprivileged neighborhoods, offering significantly discounted memberships to low-income residents. Divvy is one of the largest bike-share programs in the country, and now includes both electric bikes and scooters. Divvy is also the first US bikeshare system to incorporate ebike charging stations, according to Biagi.

The environmental bond issue also has enabled the city to give away 5,000 free bikes to qualified low-income recipients. “We have seen a huge response to the program,” says Mary Nicol, director of policy at CDOT. “We set a goal of distributing 5,000 bikes over four years, but we received over 19,000 applications in year one. We are looking to partner with bike brands and other companies to figure out how we can reach even more residents and provide them with a low-carbon way to get around the city, access jobs, and meet their basic needs.”

Biagi says that 60% of those who applied for a free bike are from areas that experience mobility hardship because of less access to public transportation. A bike may provide the last-mile mobility they need to easily travel to a job. “With partners at a nonprofit think tank, we created an index correlating mobility and economic hardship, and that has become a quantitative criterion for where to invest,” she says. “This has become a lens on everything, from which bridge project we’re going to do and where we will do additional work on repairs, to making sure our scooter program has an equity component that rebalances the system—every neighborhood in the city is getting scooters, not just downtown.”

New tech supports future vision

CDOT’s long-term plans include improving safety for all road users and rebuilding streets, sidewalks, and bus stops to create more walkable, livable neighborhoods. The department is exploring a variety of new technologies. For example, through the Chicago Smart Lighting Program, CDOT has replaced more than 270,000 outdated light fixtures with new energy-efficient LED lights that improve the quality of nighttime visibility throughout the city.

The agency also is piloting smart connected traffic signals that indicate to buses and other vehicles when a pedestrian is in a crosswalk and can control green lights and redirect traffic lanes when needed.

Another major sustainability initiative is expansion of the electric vehicle charging network, particularly in low-income areas. Biagi and Nicol point out that while, currently, most policymakers think of EVs as a technology chiefly within reach of higher-income people, this is changing. “Right now, EVs have been targeted to wealthier people, and the charging stations follow the cars,” says Biagi. “We are looking to ensure that we deliver those same opportunities to marginalized parts of our city.”

Nicol explains that in some neighborhoods that historically have not had reliable public transit, having a car to get around can be a necessity. “For those trips, we want to incentivize people to transition to electric vehicles where possible.”  Recent state funding for beneficial electrification, as well as tax incentives, will help.

As part of its EV framework, CDOT is reaching out to stakeholders in these communities to educate people about electric vehicles. It is also piloting curbside charging stations in some areas, working with community groups and the electric utility to find locations and setups most helpful for those living in multi-family dwellings.

CDOT’s vision for the future is one with no “red zones” of mobility hardship, and a wide range of sustainable transportation available to all, says Biagi. But an overarching goal is to make traveling along Chicago’s streets and public ways a pleasant experience.

“The question in making these investments is about the tolerance people have for a journey that might be a little slower, but is also safer,” Biagi says. “It’s all about their conception of time—if you feel like your journey is a positive one, and your destination as a positive place, that changes your perception, and you are willing to tolerate a longer time on that journey.”

Cities around the world are increasingly focused on adding green spaces to promote environmental sustainability and improve their citizens’ quality of life. But some cities like Chengdu, China are pushing their ambitions to a higher level by blending technology, economic development, and sustainability. ​

With its “park city” plan, Chengdu, a city of 20 million located in southwestern China, also wants to become world famous for being a city within a park, instead of building parks within the city.  ​

Chengdu sees its future as a metropolis that considers the natural environment in all aspects of life. Since its launch in 2018, its park city initiative has aimed to sustainably improve Chengdu’s urban layout, environmental protection, and industrial development. Rather than simply creating green spaces and parks in an urban setting, Chengdu intends to generate a new type of development model based on a balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth, while improving the living quality of residents.  ​

Fostering a greener economy​

To advance towards this goal, in 2019 the Chengdu municipality established the Bureau of Park City Construction and Management to lead planning of the initiative. Already, between parks, gardens, and other protected areas, green zones cover 43.5% of the city. ​

Yet while urban beautification is certainly a main objective of the park city initiative, another is to foster a greener economy. The plan is designed to strengthen innovation-driven green industries, develop a clean and efficient green resource system, revamp traditional industrial models for rural revitalization, and develop new business models based on the environment. For example, Chengdu developed the Tianfu Greenway, which spans 4,000 kilometers and is intended to eventually reach over 16,000 kilometers. The city has also advocated for low-carbon lifestyles and has built a green mobility network.  ​

Taking nature to brand-new cities ​

Chengdu is taking its vision for the future even further by developing a new satellite city. Like many metropolises in China, Chengdu is struggling with an overgrowth of population. To address this, government officials are investing in the creation of new cities, located next to large urban centers, that can welcome millions of people. The Chengdu Future Science and Technology City will be positioned as a hub for innovative international universities and companies to build a world-class sustainable science center.  ​

In February 2021, OMA, an international architectural firm, and Germany-based GMP Architects were selected as the winners of the Chengdu Future Science and Technology City Masterplan and Design competition. The plan is divided into three stages, with the initial stage expected to be completed in 2025 and full completion slated for 2050. The total area of the future science city is expected to reach 362 square kilometers.  ​

The new city will include five major academic centers: three major universities and two research spaces. Officials are accelerating the promotion of the city’s industrial development, and by the end of 2022, they estimate that they will have chalked up 62 projects with a total investment of 123.3 billion yuan. ​

Building around nature ​

A main goal of the Chengdu Future Science and Technology City is to create a city that doesn’t destroy natural spaces but is instead developed around it. The new city will be home to industry and technology centers as well as nature preserves to combine urban spaces with the pastoral beauty of the countryside. Located in a small rural zone near the Tianfu International Airport, Chengdu Future City will rise in the middle of a valley. Fully embodying the concept of a park city, digital plans show most of the buildings surrounded by green areas and rooftops with gardens. Architects also plan to build large park areas throughout the city.  ​

Another important goal is to make the city free of cars, to encourage sustainable mobility and public transportation. All buildings in the initial phase of construction will be accessible by foot within 10 minutes and a network of autonomous vehicles will connect residents to surrounding cities. Indeed, already in Chengdu citizens can ride in AI-enabled autonomous vehicles and buses, ordered via a mobile app. ​

Other new cities rising  ​

Chengdu Future City is not the first satellite city being developed next to large Chinese urban areas and will certainly not be the last. As the national government projects that over 1 billion people will be living in cities by 2035, China will have to continue to look for solutions to reduce the burden of rapid urbanization.  ​

In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the creation of Xiong’an, a 38-square-kilometer area located to the southeast of Beijing. Much like Chengdu, the new city’s pillars are economic development, technology, and sustainability. Another example is in the province of Shenzhen, where Net City is being built. Focused on renewable energy, this urban center’s energy is entirely supplied by solar panels.  

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Cary, North Carolina sits just outside the research triangle of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. With three major universities and a wealth of tech firms operating nearby, Cary is taking advantage of partnerships to support its efforts to become a smart, data-driven city and to achieve the goals laid out in its 2040 Community Plan.​

Cary uses partnerships as well as technology and data to optimize city services, drive economic growth, and improve the quality of life for its citizens.  “In Cary, in terms of innovation, we are able to take risks, and partner and try things out easier than other municipalities,” said Nicole Raimundo, Cary’s chief information officer. “We have higher expectations because of the makeup of our population, most of whom work in technology, and we have companies like Apple, Google, and Epic Games in our backyard.”​

Cary draws on a network of partnerships with entrepreneurs and businesses, from start-ups to larger established companies like Microsoft and SAS. The relationship with SAS, a global analytics firm located in the city, has helped its police force, for example, utilize data and analytics to solve complex crimes. The SAS Visual Investigator system has helped detect criminal networks, accelerate information sharing, and facilitate investigations.  

In 2021, Cary and SAS, together with Semtech, a global supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced a collaboration to build a Center of Excellence focused on technology solutions, including the development of edge-to-cloud IoT solutions. Cary is also collaborating with Cisco to capture and manage data on a single pane of glass for parking, traffic, facility usage, crowd counting, and other use cases.​

2040 Plan ​

Since establishing it first city-wide plan in 1991, “Cary… Growing with a Vision,” Cary has been using such policy documents to guide decisions related to investments and novel initiatives. In 2010, Cary began revising its existing plans, which only covered a few geographic areas, to create a single, comprehensive policy roadmap.   ​

The 2040 Community Plan was adopted in January 2017 and consolidated individual plans across domains like mobility and transportation, preservation, housing, and safety. It covers seven main elements of citizens’ lives: live, work, shop, engage, shape, move, and serve. It was developed using a robust public engagement process. The city sought public input using both traditional and innovative web-based methods to educate and engage the community, including dozens of meetings and workshops.  ​

City leaders employ the plan to inform projects and to set metrics to assess progress. Making data-driven decisions is a priority. The plan guides project proposals, planning for future service needs, and qualifying for grants. It is also used to showcase key initiatives. For instance, after it received requests from citizens to allow the use of eBikes in certain parts of the city, Cary developed an eBike pilot program. “Cary Greenway” provides citizens with over 80 miles of car-free space and helps to promote sustainable outdoor living. 

Using data and technology to inform future plans ​

Cary has set up a “Town Hall,” an experimental campus where it can test smart city initiatives before implementing them on a large scale. Testing new applications on a small scale has allowed the city to capture data and understand how initiatives will work. Building out a test lab in its Town Hall campus also has permitted Cary to involve citizens in the testing and decision-making process and to gain their trust. The city also has a small citizen committee that meets once a month to discuss the topics of technology and communication.  ​

Citizen involvement, data, and partnerships are key to Cary’s plans. The city is expanding this approach by working with nearby towns and cities, particularly on stormwater impacts. In another collaboration with SAS, it has installed water-level sensors to monitor stream activity during storms and to act as an early warning system during flooding—a critical use of technology as climate change generates stronger and more frequent flooding conditions globally. The data Cary collects is shared with its surrounding towns.  ​

Data-sharing and collaborations related to floods have proved to be a “break-through model” for the future that can help Cary achieve its goals in other areas, such as transportation. “We said, let’s start small, figure it out, get a win, get everyone’s buy in and move forward. And that’s what we did with the floods,” says Raimundo. I think that was a good model for us to move forward with.”  ​

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Like many others in emerging markets, Bucaramanga is an unplanned city that has evolved organically and rapidly without the benefit of central coordination. The city has expanded on unstable mountainous ground, often threatened by natural disasters like landslides and floods. How does such a city prepare for the future? By harnessing data and technology.

Located on a small plateau of the Andes, Bucaramanga has a sprawling population of around 1.4 million, with a quarter living in remote areas of the city with limited mobility and connectivity. As urban leaders strive to improve the daily life of residents and make Bucaramanga a more resilient, sustainable, and digitally enabled city ready for the future, they are leveraging data and technology to achieve their long-term plans.

“Data is gold for this administration,” says Wilfredo Gomez, digital transformation officer of the City of Bucaramanga. “We have a completely data-focused vision. Our goal is to understand every aspect of a citizen’s life, while respecting their privacy, of course. We want to know whether they have been vaccinated, whether their kids are going to school, whether they are paying taxes, and whether they are using public transportation.”

Tech solutions

Bucaramanga has incorporated all types of data—including geospatial, behavioral, and social media data—along with smart technologies into its future-ready initiatives. The city has invested heavily in security: it has set up over 600 CCTV systems to provide real-time surveillance and is now installing facial recognition technology to fight crime. In addition, as part of its smart city strategy, Bucaramanga has implemented a remote management system for public lighting, with about 14,000 streetlights covering 10 districts of the city.

The environment is another urban priority. Using IoT sensors, Bucaramanga has optimized trash collection routes and automated waste management, which has helped make streets much cleaner. In five to 10 years, the city plans to utilize AI to find further efficiencies in waste management. It also plans to use AI for predictive modeling to be able to forecast and mitigate natural disasters in future years.

Because of the city’s rocky terrain and unplanned development, mobility is a thorny challenge. Data and technology again offer a solution. The city uses traffic data to reduce congestion and accidents, and it has installed smart traffic lights in seven intersections, with plans to scale this system across the city. In addition, the city has developed shared mobility areas where citizens can access bicycles, e-bikes, and e-scooters for free.

The future revolves around smart citizens

Transforming urban domains through data and technology is just part of the plan. Bucaramanga’s goal is to ensure that its residents trust and embrace digital technologies and data analytics—and know how to use them to significantly improve their daily lives.

“We want our residents’ quality of life to be improved by technology,” says Gomez. We want them to feel safe when they see surveillance cameras in the streets, and we want them to feel comfortable paying their taxes online.”

The importance of digital knowledge is paramount for the city, which is striving to become an IT talent hub in Colombia. With over 40,000 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students, Bucaramanga is nurturing local talent to achieve that goal.

However, retaining that talent is challenging due to nearby competition from larger cities like Bogota or Medellin. Bucaramanga is betting heavily on the rise of remote working to keep talent in the city, where the cost of living is lower.

“The pandemic gave us the possibility to have the best of both worlds. Our plan is to retain and attract talent, who can in turn help develop local startups.”

To encourage citizens’ acceptance of technology, Bucaramanga has put in place multiple “digital points” across the city. These are technology centers that offer residents free computer and internet access, as well as free lessons in computer science, robotics, digital design, English, web platforms, and related skills. Almost 100 free Wi-Fi zones are also spread across the urban center.

“The digital infrastructure that we need to develop our long-term plan is already in place and it has the capacity to scale over the next five to ten years,” says Gomez. “Our focus is on improving our data acquisition and infrastructure. We want to develop our data centers and clouds to ensure the quality and availability of data everywhere. That will be our main goal to become future-ready.”