copenhagen cleantech journal

COPENHAGEN CLEANTECH

JOURNAL

The only inTelligenT answer for an urbanised world

Building tomorrow’s city:

sTrong visions and smarT alliances

Page 4

the most promising smart city project in europe?indusTrial symbiosis wiTh inTelligenT energy soluTionsPage

the crucial question: whaT’s sTopping ciTies from geTTing smarTer?Page

14

34

2012Issue #2

SmARt citieS:

Issue #2 · 2012 | 3

contents

THE ObsTACLE rACE TOwArds smArT CiTiEs the world’s cities are growing and the potential to make them smarter is enormous. But even the smartest cities in the world don’t exploit the pos-sibilities to the fullest, according to leading experts. Page 4

THE wOrLd’s smArTEsT mETrOPOLisEs? Five global snapshots Page 10

THE PATH TO A smArT CiTy the danish municipality of Kalundborg is highlighted as one of the most promising smart city projects in europe. the main ingredients are intelligent energy solutions and industrial symbiosis. Page 14

bridGiNG wOrLd-LEAdiNG CLEANTECH CLusTErsthe international cleantech network Page 18

A sysTEm Of sysTEmshow smart is the smart city? 0

mAkE CLimATE AdAPTATiON smArT ANd sOCiALan open invitation to smart urban development Page 22

GrEEN CONsENsus sTrENGTHENs LONG-TErm iNvEsTmENTsa perfect framework for smarter cities Page 25

AN AmbiTiOus CLEANTECH rEGiON Five copenhagen-based innovators Page 28

NEw busiNEss mOdEL fOr COmPLEx CLEANTECH sOLuTiONs danish foundation supports pioneering project Page 32

THE fLEdGLiNG yEArs Of THE smArT CiTy we need a sharper focus on vision and value creation as well as better busi-ness, finance and management models. But first and foremost, we need to engage politicians and citizens at a human level. accenture’s simon giles on the potentials and obstacles on the path to smarter cities. Page 34

AddiTiONAL rEAdiNGsmart city websites and publications Page 38

COPENHAGEN CLEANTECH CLusTErmission, methods and partners Page 40

hei

ne p

eder

sen

T is becoming more and more evident that smart cities are the key to com-

bining a sustainable future with continued economic growth and job creation. this is the conclusion that many leading experts, companies, researchers and city managers express in this edition of the copenhagen cleantech Journal.

buT what exactly is a smart city? What does it take to create a smart city? And what ex-pectations can we have to the city as a key to solving climate issues and creating jobs?

The copenhagen cleantech Journal is an initiative of key players in the copenhagen cleantech cluster and, as such, is an exam-ple of how companies, knowledge institu-tions and public-sector organisations can join forces to address a specific issue. the same type of cooperation which is the foundation for a smart city.

The ciTy can only play its role in the green transformation if all of its stakeholders across organisational and industrial bound-aries focus on cooperation. We need new solutions, new ways of combining existing solutions and new types of partnerships to get there, and ultimately we need to involve every citizen in co-creation processes in or-der to reach the full potential of a liveable and smart city of the future.

in copenhagen we have embarked on this journey with the set target of becoming co2 neutral by 2025. We invite you to join us for cross-city inspiration and innovation.

in The meanTime we hope that this edition of the copenhagen cleantech Journal will give you inspiration and food for thought.

Enjoy!

Towards a green fuTure together!

publishercopenhagen cleantech cluster

addresscopenhagen cleantech clusternørregade 7 BdK – 1165 copenhagen Kdenmark

+45 3322 0222www.cphcleantech.com

execuTive direcTormarianna lubanski

concepT and ediTingKontrabande and Klartekst

ediTorial Teamola jørgensensøren schultz jørgensenrune rasmussenhans peder wagner

conTribuTorssune aagaardsigne tonsbergchristian mohr Boisenjesper andersennina Vinther andersen

Special thanks tosimon giles, accenture

graphic designmattias wohlert

TranslaTioncls communication

prinT5000 copies

prinTing houseclausen grafiskclausen grafisk holds the nordic ecolabel

paperccj is printed on 100% recycled 170g cyclus offset paper. the cover is printed on chromolux 700.

issn2245-120X

copenhagen cleantech cluster (ccc) is at the core of the cleantech eco system in denmark with a mission to foster cooperation between cleantech companies, research institutions and public organizations worldwide. join us for a green future – together!

copenhAgen cleAntech JournAl

NO

RDIC ECOLABEL

editorial

I

mAriANNA LubANskiexecutive director,copenhAgen cleAntech cluster

4 | Copenhagen Cleantech Journal Issue #2 · 2012 | 5

The compounding effecTs of climate change, lack of sustainability, inefficient and obsolete infrastructure and continued population growth represent the complex of challenges cities all over the world are facing, and to which many see only one effective response: smart cities. The cities are the indisputable epicentres of globalisation: more than 5 billion people will live in cities by 2020. In 1900, only 13 per cent of the global population lived in cities, by 2050 that fig-ure will be 70 per cent. And as expressed in the report Information Marketplaces – The New Economics of Cities: “Cities now represent the core hubs of the global economy, acting as hives of innovation in technical, financial and other services.” Cities are therefore also the essential place

to take action if we want to do something about many of the key global challenges. Economic, living conditions, health, resource, environmen-tal and climate issues – they are all inextricably linked to the ever-increasing urbanisation pro-cess. But this should not only be viewed as some-thing negative. The high population density in cities is actu-ally an important prerequisite for the ability to develop many of the intelligent sustainable so-lutions that sort under the concept of smart cit-ies. For example, the dense populations in cities make mass transit possible, and multi-storey housing consumes less energy per occupant than a single-family dwelling does. But even the world’s smartest cities are far from smart enough. There are still a number of obstacles to tap-ping into the enormous potential in developing really smart cities. One reason for this is that the players who could and should be driving the transformation to smart cities are in practice in-clined to prioritise more traditional initiatives. “On the surface, there is keen interest among the world’s leading cities in smart cities, and when asked directly, most would probably claim that they have a strategy for this kind of devel-opment. But when I look at the seniority of the people working in the area and at the funding levels, I have to conclude that this agenda is not

being taken seriously enough – even though it is the only option that consistently addresses the problems we are facing,” says Mark Watts.

smarT invesTmenT during a crisisMark Watts is Director of Climate Change and Energy at Arup, a UK consultancy firm. He is in charge of Arup’s partnership with the C40, a group of 40 of the world’s largest cities. He has also served as advisor to former-Mayor of Lon-don Ken Livingstone on climate change and sus-tainable transport. So he knows what he is talk-ing about when he emphasises the logic of the political system as perhaps the biggest obstacle to accelerating the development of smart cities. “Superficially, it seems logical during a reces-sion for politicians to resist the investments that can make smart cities a reality. They feel pres-sured to prioritise welfare in a traditional sense. But by investing in smart cities, they would be able to achieve much greater savings and even boost efficiency. In fact, it’s in times of crisis, like what we’re experiencing today, that smart cities make most sense,” explains Mark Watts. The quicksand of piloT projecTsSimon Giles heads the consultancy firm Accen-ture’s global Intelligent Cities Strategy team, which specialises in the development of smart cities. He is one of the experts who points to

the lack of political com-mitment as one of the main reasons why smart city thinking has still not evolved from pilot pro-jects to the large scale. He compares it to invest-ments in cleaner technol-ogy and fears that projects may stall at pilot stage and never progress to full scale implementation – despite all the good intentions. “If the words are not

The obsTaCle raCe Towards smarT CITIes

the obstAcle rAce toWArds smarT ciTies

In order for the cities of the future to handle the monumental social, environmental and economic pressures they are facing, it is

imperative to make them smart. The potential for smart cities is enormous, but without a strong political vision and close cooperation among the business community, researchers and decision-makers, it will be nothing but empty words, according to a number of leading

experts and players in the field.

Focus

big cities growing

number of cities with more than 1 mio

citizens

1900

1950

2011

12

83

+500

source: un: World ur-banization prospects, the

2009 revision.

“smarT CITy has beCome a buzz word ThaT’s Thrown abouT freely. There’s

an awful loT of PaPer-PushIng as CITIes are sTIll TryIng To fIgure ouT whaT The Term smarT CITy

means for Them and whaT sPeCIfIC aCTIons To TaKe.”

kurT OTHENdAL NiELsEN, siEmENs

Illustration by stuart Campbell


backed up by investments, both the people and the political stakeholders will be disappointed: Were smart cities just a fad? It’s imperative that they articulate a strong and coherent vision and demonstrate the value proposition in terms the average citizen can understand,” says Simon Giles. See also Simon Giles’ contribution “The fledg-ling years of the smart city transformation” on page 34.

daTa is The new oil…Despite the obstacles to the spread of smart city solutions, the players and experts whom Copen-hagen Cleantech Journal has spoken to are unan-imously optimistic about the future of smart cit-ies – at least in the somewhat longer term. One of the biggest sources of optimism is the rapid technological development that opens up a continuous flow of new possibilities for intel-ligent solutions. And there can be no question-ing the fact that the smart city of the future is technologically founded on data as the new, es-sential raw material. As Mark Watts puts it: “Either the city of the future will run on information or it won’t run at all.” It is first and foremost the spread of technol-ogy that will play the most crucial role. In a few years, even the poorest people in the world will have mobile phones, and today more than 2 bil-lion phones are already “smart”, that is, linked to the Internet. At the same time we are seeing enormous growth in the number of sensors that can send data to other systems via what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). Digital real-time data on how the city’s inhabitants act is a vital prerequisite for many of the solutions people re-fer to when they talk about smart cities.

... buT where is The business model?Data can’t do it alone, however. Kurt Othen-dal Nielsen who is City Account Manager at Siemens, is involved in smart city thinking on

several fronts. He uses parking as an example to illustrate the essential role data plays in the development of smart cities, pointing out the environmental strain and inefficiency of drivers circling around the city in search of an empty parking space. If parking spaces could be distrib-uted efficiently among the drivers, there would be less traffic and pollution. “Basically, parking is just another form of in-ventory control. We know from cities like San Francisco that by placing sensors in parking spaces and inserting certain logarithms in the parking ticket machines, it’s possible to distrib-ute the spaces more efficiently and reap more benefits. But who should pay for the establish-ment of this kind of infrastructure? Should the city own, collect and manage the data or should they flow freely? Some car parks are privately owned, so what is their motivation to share data? What is the business model?” asks Kurt Othen-dal Nielsen.

climaTe TargeTs and economic incenTives A number of cities have set ambitious climate targets for the next few decades. Consequently, they will have a strong incentive to drive the transformation process. Kurt Othendal Nielsen

expect that pressure on the cities to become so heavy, that change will be inevitable: Every week 1.3 million people move to cities, and while there were only 83 cities with over a million inhabit-ants in 1950, today there are more than 500. The economic motives will also be decisive, according to Kurt Othendal Nielsen. The need for smart solutions within areas such as energy, tranportation, waste and healthcare will become so overwhelming, that they cannot be ignored. In the old economies in the West, the pressure on welfare will also be a driving force for change. In the healthcare sector, for instance, the possibil-ity of cutting costs by working smarter is a very strong incentive. But as things now stand, he shares Mark Watt’s view: too many words, and limited action.

evoluTion like ThaT of The inTerneT“Smart City has become a buzzword that’s thrown about freely. There’s an awful lot of pa-per-pushing, but not very many genuine changes along the way,” says Kurt Othendal Nielsen. While the 40 largest cities in the organisation do represent 18 per cent of the world’s GNP, they are only responsible for 10 per cent of global car-bon emissions. Still, as the 2011 report Informa-

tion Marketplaces – The New Economics of Cities concludes: “The connected, technology-enabled ‘smart city’ is today more vision than reality”. “We can’t get out of adressing the challenges. I re-alise that at the moment, it’s extremely difficult to progress beyond the project level, but I predict an evolution similar to that of the Internet. Twenty years ago, it hardly existed, but one advance led to the next and now it’s infinite. If we take all the small steps we can, I be-lieve that in 20 years we will

smart cities in brief

The basic premise for the development of smart cities is understanding the city as “a system of systems”: data, energy supply, waste management, infrastructure, transport etc. The individual systems can be more or less smart or intelligent – and more or less intelligently integrated.

Smart city thinking is currently top-ping agendas for several reasons:

• our cities are growing, and all these people are straining the existing infra-structure.

• larger cities result in larger problems, for instance, with waste management, consequently increasing the need for sustainable solutions on a larger scale.

• the high population density of our cities also opens up for new opportu-nities for more efficient solutions and synergies within, among other areas, transport and energy.

• the combination of climate change and economic crisis has called the world’s attention to how we create more growth and prosperity while re-ducing our impact on the climate and environment.


third world urbanization

urban population in developing countries

2009-2050

2009

2050

5.2 bio.

2.5 bio.

source: Who: urban population growth.

“suPerfICIally, IT seems logICal durIng a reCessIon for PolITI-

CIans To resIsT The InvesTmenTs ThaT Can maKe smarT CITIes a

realITy. buT In faCT, IT’s In TImes of CrIsIs, lIKe whaT we’re exPerI-enCIng Today, ThaT smarT CITIes

maKe mosT sense.” mArk wATTs, AruP


have leapt to a smart city,” concludes Kurt Oth-endal Nielsen.

The vanguard of new urbanismThere are, of course, frontrunners among the world’s big cities. Some cities have taken huge steps towards realising the concept of the smart city, either out of bitter necessity or driven by visionary leaders, or both. Cities like San Fran-cisco, Singapore, Barcelona and Copenhagen are spotlighted by experts. See selected examples in Global Snapshots on page 10. The cities that are leading the way do so be-

cause they have come to realise that the eco-nomic benefits of succeeding as a smart city are enormous. Perhaps the complex of problems the cities are facing represents a threat so serious that smart city thinking is in fact the only possi-ble path to future economic growth. “Certain cities already are, or soon will be, the vanguard of new urbanism. They will develop the methods that inspire others to develop differ-ently. The message of fiscal austerity has limited political longevity, at some point the discourse has to change to sustainable growth. There is a need to tell a compelling story about growth, but in many cities the demands placed on the lo-cal ecosystem is so onerous that the only growth possible is resource efficient, green growth. The smart city will enable the 21st century’s new sus-tainable urban growth paradigm,” concludes Si-mon Giles from Accenture.

waiTing for The firsT To move In many ways, however, the cities are pushing and vying at the starting line as they wait for someone to make the first move. This is a well-known mechanism – as seen in the efforts to reduce traffic in city centres. Mark Watts from Arup has closely observed this development. “Ten years ago, doing something about traffic in major cities topped the agenda at every con-ference, but no one did anything. Then London took the first step, and it turned out that was all that was needed. Then came Stockholm and af-ter that the other cities followed suit in a kind of knock-on effect,” he explains. For Mark Watts there is, however, one factor that is decisive for whether a city will be a front-runner or will throw on the brakes. “It might sound a bit boring, but what really matters is whether they are tackling it at a stra-tegic level. Those cities that have formulated binding strategies and appointed someone to be strategically responsible are streets ahead of the others. But unfortunately, it’s also easy to stand out. At the moment there is typically a confer-


ence a month on smart cities – often organised by a major technology supplier. But of the 40 cit-ies in the C40, only four have installed smart me-ters in their own buildings,” says Mark Watts.

The eye of The world on copenhagenThe cities that are farthest along generally have an efficient cooperation among the many play-ers who are able to see beyond their own vested interests. In the energy sector, Greater Copen-hagen including more than 20 local authorities is a pioneering metropol thanks to a unique co-operation among authorities at all levels, sectors and across the political spectrum in parliament. The integration of power, gas, district heating and waste management is unique. This is why Copenhagen regularly receives visits from all over the world, explains Anders Dyrelund, chief advisor at the engineering and consultancy firm Ramboll. “Since 1985 Copenhagen has been the place to go if you wanted to learn how to heat cities. Back then, they came from Beijing, and now they have developed a heat supply based on the Copenha-gen model. Most recently, Milan, Seoul and Lon-don have come to visit, and last week we started new activities in Moscow where they also need help,” says Anders Dyrelund. David Overton Chabre Holm, business de-veloper at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), confirms that silo thinking is poison to smart city ambitions. Smart thinking is about thinking across slios – a prime example, in his view, is the public tender system. In his view ten-ders are generally written so restrictively that they preclude any possibility of thinking smart. “If the tender requirements defined the func-tions to be performed, however, it would be possi-ble to overcome the problem that each building or each project is planned separately. If the tender is for a super hospital and a childcare centre is to be located next door, a number of smart gains could be realised by planning the two projects together, but this is very often not the case,” he says.

a cenTury of ciTiesLike many others, David Overton Chabre Holm emphasises that the urbanisation which triggers the pressing need for smart, sustainable cities is actually a good thing, partly because the cities can lift a lot of people out of poverty. And there is every indication that cities will play an even bigger role in addressing many glob-al challenges. Or as the former mayor of Denver, Wellington Webb, puts it: “The 19th century was a century of empires, the 20th century was a century of nation states and the 21st century will be a century of cities.” A great deal depends on whether it is also a century of smart cities.

the end of the rural era

percentage of world population: urban vs.

rural

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

2050

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

rural urban

source: un: World urbanization prospects, the 2007 revision.

five obstacles

the experts whom copenhagen cleantech journal has spoken to all paint the same picture of the ob-stacles to accelerating the develop-ment of smarter cities:

• POLiTiCAL sHOrT-siGHTEdNEss: politicians are much too focused on the immediate future.

• siLO THiNkiNG: each sector, administration and industry knows too little about what the others are doing, making it difficult to realise the necessary cross-sectoral cooperation.

• LACk Of mANAGEmENT: the development process is primarily driven by commercial players – without a coherent and guiding political vision.

• HiGH COmPLExiTy: especially in established cities, the number of stakeholders is overwhelming, and the existing infrastructure often represents an effective defence against change.

• OrGANisATiONAL iNErTiA: complex, interdisciplinary solutions require organisational versatility – including more flexible partnership models between the public and private sectors.


bilbao has undergone a dramatic change in recent decades. The worn-down Basque metropolis has been reborn as a city with the Guggenheim museum at its heart and innovation as a driving force and brand. By virtue of comprehensive urban renewal and brand new buildings, the area has be-come the hub of the Spanish cleantech industry and green growth movement. Bilbao’s positive image as a place where new and comprehensive urban thinking has reinforced the trend, and the area has done a good job attracting international top names within archi-tecture and design, further contribut-ing to the positive development.

The stations along the city’s metro system, Metro de Bilbao, are famed for being designed by the architect Sir Norman Foster. Like the rest of the city centre, the entire approach has been holistic in nature: the architec-ture, engineering and even construc-tion are all integrated in a holistic vi-sion. What the locals call Fosteritos – the dramatically shaped, futuristic street-level entrances to the metro – are made from glass and have become just as much an icon for Bilbao as the famous art nouveau metro entrances are for Paris.

The holistic approach embodies more than architecture and aesthetics, however. As an example of Bilbao’s comprehensive cleantech-thinking, the Metro de Bilbao only uses sustain-able energy supplied by a local com-pany. This saves the atmosphere from 46,000 cubic tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. The Metro de Bilbao is also equipped with efficient braking sys-tems that use one-third less energy.

singapore has made a virtue of ne-cessity. With no traditional energy resources to draw on, the country has always had to import all of the energy it consumes from other countries. Add to this Singapore’s limited size and constantly rising urbanisation, and you have a country that is forced to look for alternative solutions and new directions. Consequently, it is no coincidence that Singapore is one of the top global leaders in the cleantech area.

A perfect example of Singapore’s focus on cleantech is Treelodge@Punggol – the first public housing complex in the world to earn the Green Mark Plati-num Award – as well as a number of

other awards. This new “eco-precinct” comprises seven blocks of flats with 712 units and is designed to promote energy conservation, reduce mainte-nance costs and ensure efficient re-source consumption.

The buildings make use of passive strategies. For instance, the housing blocks are strategically placed so the glass facades face the prevailing wind direction: northwest. This ensures the flats maximum benefit from natural light and ventilation.

To cool down the surrounding air tem-perature in the humid heat, each hous-ing block has a green roof and vertical greening three stories up along the facade. This reduces the need for pow-er-guzzling air conditioning systems. The buildings also have low-energy lighting fixtures in common areas, so-lar panels over the car park, improved heat insulation, outdoor clothes lines and energy-optimised lifts.

all over the world, the concept of the smart city is gaining ground. and it is not only big, newly established cities that are thinking in terms of large-scale intelligent solutions. journey with us to five classic metropolises that are now using innovative cleantech solutions on their path to a sustainable future.

The world’s smarTesT meTropolises?

Holistic changes in bilbao

The greenest housing blocks in singapore

amsTerdam’s posiTion as a global leader within cleantech and smart city thinking is well established. The city’s brand is often associated with the green future. But the value of the city’s sustainable projects is not necessarily apparent to all residents of the city be-cause many of the projects are not yet visible in street life.

Amsterdam’s Zonspots, however, are a big exception. The word means sun-spot, and these very striking, flower-like sculptures are popping up all over the Dutch capital. Zonspots is a pub-lic-sector project that focuses on sus-tainable solutions and green thinking. A Zonspot in itself is a giant advertis-

ing pillar for sustainability. It consists of a table surrounded by little bench-es, and above them rises a five-metre-high metal pole mounted with solar panels on large plates. These “roof plates” also provide shelter from the elements to the people sitting on the benches. In this way, residents are in-vited and encouraged to move out into the daylight and fresh air to relax – or work, as it is also possible to link up to the Zonspot’s wireless Internet con-nection for free.

The aim is for this bright idea to spread to other cities in the Netherlands, and over time to the rest of Europe. And even though the Zonspot project seeks to provide residents of the city with good opportunities to log onto the In-ternet out of doors, its primary objec-tive is to call attention to sustainabil-ity and green solutions in general. The

aim is to increase people’s awareness of energy consumption and alterna-tive energy sources. Zonspot is one of many green initiatives that have been realised with the support of the Ams-marterdam City Project.

Amsterdam – A spot in the sun

gloBal snapshots

rich

ard

dav

ies

surb

ana

Zons

pot


downTown forT collins, Colorado, USA, will be the largest area in the world to run solely on the energy it is able to produce itself – known as a zero energy zone. FortZED, as the vi-sion has been dubbed, is the result of a collaboration between researchers, Colorado State University, local busi-nesses and authorities, as well as the local government. To achieve its goal, FortZED is counting on smart grid, re-newable energy technology, as well as on the active involvement of the resi-dents of the city.

The development of smart grid tech-nology is a vital part of the FortZED project. With traditional power grids, electricity always moves in the same direction, for example from a coal-fired power plant to businesses and homes. Smart grids, on the other hand, allow power to flow in more than one direction, making it possible to draw

on energy sources like wind or sun. FortZED uses a variety of renewable energy technologies, including solar photovoltaics, rechargeable hybrid vehicles and micro-wind turbines.

Active participation by everyone in-volved is key to the success of the project. This especially applies to the residents who will be consum-ing and co-producing the energy. The FortZED team has therefore joined forces with local media to call atten-tion to the relatively radical changes in energy consumption habits which the new initiatives will entail. For example, a TV campaign was carried out to encourage the 6,200 residents within the zone to reduce their energy consumption and increase the num-ber of renewable energy installations.

The project is financed by local pri-vate and public-sector grants in the order of USD 5 million in addition to a grant of USD 6.3 million from the US Department of Energy. In exchange, the Department of Energy’s nation-wide programme, Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration, ben-efits from FortZED’s experience and research findings.

Colorado’s zero energy zone

over The years, Vancouver has been an extremely active and growing base for the cleantech industry – thanks to a great extent to the region’s targeted investment in sustainability and green growth. Vancouver is currently home to a quarter of all cleantech companies in Canada, and the cleantech sector is a vital economic driver for the entire province of British Columbia.

One of Vancouver’s most notable green projects is Southeast False Creek, a new community under de-velopment on the waterfront close to the city centre. Southeast False Creek, once the site of the Olympic Village during the 2010 Winter Olympics, is now being transformed into a residen-tial area to house up to 16,000 people. The flats are affordable and the neigh-bourhood will feature child care cen-tres, a park, a public plaza and much more.

Southeast False Creek has become a role model for sustainable urban plan-ning for all of North America. The dis-trict is designed with a visionary in-frastructure, strategic energy savings,

buildings of the highest quality and easy access to public transport. Along the waterfront there are wide cycling and pedestrian paths, and the “vil-lage” also has its own island and urban sanctuary with a rich native marine habitat.

By collecting and recycling rainwa-ter, Southeast False Creek has halved water consumption compared to traditional neighbourhoods. And an environmentally friendly energy sys-tem running through every flat pro-vides heating and hot water to the entire area. The neighbourhood even features an area devoted to urban ag-riculture and, of course, the housing blocks have grassy rooftop gardens.

vancouver’s sustainable super-community

gloBal snapshots

phot

os c

ourt

esy

of r

yan

Bur

ke, c

ity

of F

ort

col

lins

josé

Fus

te r

aga


meeT kalundborg – a large Danish provincial municipality situated 100 kilometres from Copenhagen. Its population of around 50,000 lives in close proximity to the blue sea, green woods and Denmark’s second-largest industrial estate with a sustainable environmental and energy profile. To all these excellent qualities, they are now adding the ambitious vision of becoming Denmark’s – and perhaps Europe’s – smartest city. In a few years, what seems at the moment like a wild idea from a futur-istic urban vision should be a reality in Kalundborg. The ingredients include:

1. Intelligent buildings that care for their occupants.

2. Intelligent, remote-controlled energy solutions, e.g. heatpumps adjusting room temperatures to grid peak loads or electric cars act-ing as energy storage and peak load buffers.

3. Intelligent planning of energy systems that help the end users to be “intelligent consumers”.

“Smart city Kalundborg is not a pro-ject. It’s a long-term concept designed to ensure that our cities and society

are planned efficiently with renew-able, fossil-free energy solutions and the end user in focus. For the same funding, we could choose to invest in the future rather than renovate the past,” explains Martin Andersen, the driving force behind the smart city Kalundborg concept and head of the Municipality of Kalundborg’s EU of-fice in Brussels. Kalundborg has developed its unique interpretation of the Europe-an Commission’s overall aspiration to concentrate on cities and focus on the intelligent end consumer. “Living in a smart city should be fun and enriching. Partly because you’re part of a green solution and partly be-cause you find that your good energy behaviour is rewarded with a bonus check at the end of the year,” says Martin K. Andersen.

The inTelligenT consumerThe Municipality of Kalundborg has formed an ambitious alliance with three players for development of the smart city Kalundborg concept. The partners are the commercial and pro-fessional organisation Dansk Energi, the energy company SEAS-NVE and Spirae, which supplies solutions for

the pAth to A smArt city goes viA

iNteLLigeNt eNeRgy

the danish municipality of Kalundborg is highlighted as one of the most promising smart city projects in europe. the main ingredient in smart city Kalundborg is the three-way commit-ment to intelligent energy solutions from the local authority, residents and the private sector.

creating intelligent electricity grids. The idea is to create a sustainable district where the residents are flex-ible “prosumers”. This means they act both as consumers who can “ad-just their electricity consumption” and as suppliers of electricity back to the grid. For example, it is possible to intelligently control the charging of electrical appliances such as heat pumps and electric cars with surplus electricity from wind farms, usually at night when pressure on the grid is lowest – and electricity is therefore cheaper. Another scenario will allow the utility companies to pay the end-users in order to apply intelligent manage-ment and turn down the ventilation or heating system, e.g. in a sports centre or a house. This eases pressure on the

solutions

IndustrIal symbIosIs over 40 years

Kalundborg Symbiosis is a unique cooperation between public and private-sector enterprises in Kalundborg. The stakeholders buy and sell each others’ waste products from industrial production – in-cluding steam, dust, gases, heat and slurry. One company’s waste products represent a (cheaper) raw material for production for another. For instance, a plasterboard manufacturer uses a residual plaster product from the desulphurisation system at the local power plant. Another example is agriculture, which can replace costly fertiliser with a waste product from the sewage treatment plant at Novozymes, a biotech company. A total of 30 different residual product flows are exchanged in this way between the companies in the symbiosis and the results speak for themselves. The environment is spared hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions and the companies’ industrial water and a wide range of other materials are reused, thus reducing total consumption significantly. The symbiosis has existed as a business model since 1972 and can thus celebrate its 40th anniversary this year.

source: www.symbiosis.dk

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power grid without being a problem for the end users because the suppli-ers guarantee that the temperature will remain within a specified range. This can reduce the need to invest in increased grid capacity, which the end users would ultimately have to pay for out of their own pockets. “The municipality is a catalyst for creating a market directed at the in-telligent and sensible user. At the same time, as a municipality we want

our industries and private citizens to save money with this concept. In the long term, it ought to be cheaper for the intelligent consumer or business to live or establish operations in smart cities like Kalundborg rather than in the next town over,” explains Martin Andersen.

common iT plaTformThe specific solutions and ideas are diverse. In order to implement them, Kalundborg has joined forces with Spirae, a company that supplies the software and hardware that makes a smart electricity grid, comprising

power from wind, sun and biomass, possible in practice. Spirae has developed a technology that can easily be hooked up to the dif-ferent services on the electricity grid. For instance, a service provider can help consumers control their elec-tricity consumption. An electric car company can use electricity prices to advise consumers on when it is least expensive to charge their vehicles. And solar energy companies can make

sure that the consumers are compensated by the electri-cal company when their so-lar energy systems produce more electricity than they use. These are just a few of the concept’s many potential applications.Renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings and heat pumps already exist, as we know, and electric cars are just around the corner. Un-fortunately, they are all used independently of each other and without coordination

with power grid operation. Conse-quently, the individual elements are not yet exploited optimally. In smart city Kalundborg, Spirae’s technical solutions create the necessary con-ditions that allow a wide range of sustainable energy services to work together and react to the electricity grid’s needs and limitations – benefit-ting both end users and suppliers. “We have the technical platform that makes these ideas possible,” ex-plains Spirae’s Director of Business Development in Denmark Peter Kel-ler-Larsen, who has high expectations of the cooperation with Kalundborg.

“We want to show that smart grid is not just about energy and electricity, but about creating entire ecosystems and sustainable business models around sustainable energy – also for the con-sumer. We want to inspire people to do this on a variety of fronts. For smart city Kalundborg, it’s not just about meet-ing an energy need but about creating growth and new jobs,” he says.

energy can do a loT – buT noT everyThingIn smart city Kalundborg the initial focus is on the energy solutions of the future. But the results are about so much more than just electricity consumption and electricity bills, em-phasises Martin K. Andersen from the Municipality of Kalundborg – time and again. “By creating intelligent buildings, it’s possible to imagine, for instance, that the municipality’s home care pro-fessionals receive a message if there is an ‘irregularity’ in a client’s electric-ity consumption. For example, if Mrs Smith doesn’t turn on her coffee mak-er one morning as usual, this could mean she has fallen and the home care professional can give her a call or send someone right away to check up on her,” explains Martin K. Andersen. One of the watchwords when im-plementing the smart city concept is cooperation. It requires cooperation across professional boundaries at city hall, but also between the public and private sectors and with the power companies. The synergies will be readily visible in the form of financial incentives for everyone, according to Martin K. Andersen.

iT doesn’T have To cosT The earThEveryone should have the incentive to invest in these solutions, and in Kalundborg smart city, “commercial” is not a bad word. “If we think as a municipality in new and unconventional ways, we don’t have to go cap in hand asking for money,” explains Martin K. Andersen, who goes on to emphasise that public-sector operation, procurement and facilities have a value for many stake-holders which could be worked to far better advantage. He gives the following example: If a grid operator finds that the power grid in one area of the city is so overloaded that new cables need to be laid to in-crease capacity, then the company has a huge financial interest in reducing electricity consumption and avoiding the costly process of digging trenches and laying cables. If, at the same time, the municipality has plans to, say, make the town’s schools more energy efficient, then the grid operator clear-ly has an interest in making sure this process begins with the reduction of electricity consumption at the school located in the overloaded area. “The service that we as a munici-pality provide by making strategic energy changes in relation to grid ca-pacity has an exact value for the grid operator in money terms, because they can avoid having to spend huge sums digging trenches for new cables. In a smart city context, this kind of grid-friendly behaviour is rewarded in cash,” he says.

inspiraTion isn’T far awayKalundborg doesn’t have to look far for inspiration on alternative approaches

in order to find the smartest and most sustainable solutions. For many years, the city has been renowned for having the world’s first industrial symbiosis where the municipality and a number of industrial companies have joined forces on reusing industrial waste products. Basically one industry’s waste becomes another industry’s re-source. See box. The collaboration is financed and driven by the stakehold-ers themselves without public-sector subsidies. From this day on, residents and companies in Kalundborg will gradually feel the change towards the smart city vi-sion. Among other things, Kalundborg will in coming years be participating in a large number of commercial pro-jects involving sustainable and intel-ligent energy solutions. Much of the focus will be on ensuring that energy and grid-friendly behaviour results in lower prices for the “intelligent con-sumer”. “But this is about much more than just energy. In other areas as well, it’s important to have a significant driv-ing force for the business community, the municipality and citizens to find smarter ways to solve the municipal operations tasks,” points out Martin K. Andersen.

DiD you know

… that Denmark is the European leader in intelligent electricity grids? A survey con-ducted by the European Commission shows that 22 per cent of all development projects within smart grids are located in Denmark. In second place is Germany with 11 per cent, followed by the Netherlands with 8.8 per cent of projects.

spIrae – experts In smart grIds

Spirae is a research-based company that supplies infrastructure for the energy solutions of the future. The company was founded in Colorado, USA and has been in Denmark for five years. Spirae has been involved in, among other things, the leading Danish smart grid project in Holsted, near Billund, in associa-tion with EnergiNet.dk, which owns the transmission networks in Denmark.

solutions


when hundreds of Danish and inter-national companies, researchers and policymakers meet in mid-March to discuss smart city solutions at the Open Smart City Conference in Co-penhagen, it will be the result of ten cleantech clusters’ ongoing commit-ment to sharing business opportuni-ties among the 2000+ ICN stakehold-ers. ICN was founded in Copenhagen in 2009 as a collaboration between CCC and the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster with the mission to connect the world’s leading cleantech clusters and exchange competencies so as to add value and knowledge to the com-panies and research institutions in the partner clusters. However, as obvious as this idea might seem, it has never been attempted before: “ICN is the

first initiative to link cleantech clus-ter organisations around the world and is, as such, quite unique,” says Stephan Skare Nielsen, head of the International Cleantech Network. He explains that ICN is challenging the assumption that cleantech commer-cialisation and internationalisation is a tedious and time-consuming task: the network works according to the philosophy that success in the global business environment is “all about who can grant you access to the right people, projects or local expert knowl-edge. We call it face-to-face interna-tionalisation.”

a doorway To inTernaTional collaboraTionMarianna Lubanski, Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster, explains why be-

ing part of ICN is a valuable asset to the Danish cluster: “The strength of ICN is that all ten partner clusters are so deeply committed to utilising this exclusive partnership. To CCC this means that we can provide our mem-bers with contact to over 2,000 clean-tech stakeholders within all sectors in ten of the world’s leading cleantech clusters. Let’s say, for example, that a Danish company is looking to ex-pand to North America. Then we can instantly put them in touch with the right people in two of the economi-cally strongest regions in the US – and the same goes for companies from the USA, Spain, Singapore or Austria who want to set up in Denmark. In fact, there have already been cases of com-panies internationalising between ICN regions. Using ICN as a doorway simply makes international collabo-ration, investments and export easier and expands our companies’ reach.”

reThinking global parTnershipsThe idea for ICN first came about in 2009, when the recently founded Co-penhagen Cleantech Cluster – born to strengthen the local cleantech indus-try – saw great potential in creating an international platform. “We figured that by being a young triple helix or-ganisation linking over 500 cleantech players in Denmark, we had an oppor-tunity to rethink the traditional bi-lateral export/import campaigns. We wanted to find a way to help our stake-holders get entry points to a whole ar-ray of the strongest cleantech regions in the world, and simultaneously at-tract cleantech talent and competen-

cies from abroad,” Marianna Lubanski explains. CCC got in touch with Colorado Clean Energy Cluster based in Fort Collins, USA, and the North American cluster was immediately keen on the idea of a global network of cleantech clusters. As founding partners, Colo-rado Clean Energy Cluster and CCC started mapping cleantech clusters around the world and welcoming se-lected new clusters. The first official ICN meeting was held in Copenhagen in 2010, and as of March 2012 the net-work now comprises ten clusters from North America, Europe and Asia. The aim for ICN is to reach 15 clus-ters, especially leading clusters from emerging markets – i.e. Brazil, China and Russia – where it can be difficult for foreign companies to gain a foot-hold, explains Stephan Skare Nielsen explains. And ICN provides the per-fect foundation for this. The network’s services for its member companies and knowledge institutions span from initial market insights and opportuni-ty spotting in each cluster through ed-ucation, research, exchange programs and entrepreneurship and incubation collaboration to tailor-made partner-ship building.

a branding Tool for clusTersA recent example of how these ser-vices have been used by stakehold-ers is the Colorado-based smart grid company Spirae Inc., which was look-ing to establish activities in Northern Europe. Through ICN, the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster was able to work with the Copenhagen Cleantech

Cluster to connect the company with key players in the Danish smart grid industry. This valuable information about potential partners and the Dan-ish market resulted in the company deciding on choosing Denmark as their European hub. Apart from the concrete activities conducted by the network, ICN is also becoming a great branding tool for the partner clusters. Lee Anne Nance, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initi-atives at Research Triangle, explains: “The advantages in terms of market-ing resulting from being part of ICN were shown recently when we heard North Carolina’s Senator Hagan men-tion the Research Triangle Region Cleantech Cluster by name at the ICN conference in North Carolina. This means that people are realising that the cluster is very important to the region and that we are beginning to attract the attention of governments and companies.” To ICN, the next big challenge is to help even more of the local cluster stakeholders see what a useful tool the network can be for them. To Rune Rasmussen, the advantages are clear: “Even though CCC is one of Europe’s largest cleantech clusters, it is essen-tial that we internationalise, and we believe that ICN really helps us do this. When our partner clusters are strengthened, so are we.” The next ICN conference takes place in November 2012 and will be hosted by Singapore Sustainability Al-liance.

bridging world-leading cleantech clustersbeing the first network of its kind, the international cleantech network (icn) is connecting selected clean-tech clusters around the world and creating a whole new way for companies and knowledge institutions to go international.

networK

The inTernaTional clean-Tech neTwork (icn)

… was founded in 2009 by Co-penhagen Cleantech Cluster and Colorado Clean Energy Cluster. As of march 2012, the network’s partners are:

• renewable energy ham-burg (germany)

• lombardy energy cluster (italy)

• tenerrdis (France)• aclima (spain)• eco world styria (austria)• oreec (norway)• singapore sustainability

alliance (singapore)• research triangle region

cleantech cluster (north carolina, us)

• colorado clean energy cluster (colorado, us) and

• copenhagen cleantech cluster (denmark).

more information is available at www.internationalclean-technetwork.com


Smart city grafik Smart city grafik

ElEctric cars

Serve as buffers that can add and absorb electricity in relation to over and under-consumption, recharging at night, consuming and emitting electricity during the day.

intElligEnt charging stations

Electric cars report available capacity to electric car owners via apps.

WastE managEmEnt and district hEating

Collection, sorting, incineration and recycling of waste reduces the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill, producing in the process wa-ter and heat as well as by-products that can be reused in new products.

A system of systems– how smArt is the smArt city?

The smart city concept is based on a number of guiding principles that per-vade all of its systems and circuits: All the solutions are integrated, they have several functions at once – and they are based on collaboration between companies, authorities, knowledge institutions and citizens.

Illustration Jens-andreas dolberg Elkjær

linkEd rEcycling systEms

In which all waste in the city is recycled or upcycled and used over and over again within the city’s closed circuit – from businesses to households and back again.

intElligEnt parking tickEt machinEs

Sensors – transmitters and receivers – wherever you find people or traffic. Transmit, receive and exchange information.

smart grid pErmEatEs thE EntirE city

The basic supply and distribution systems for electricity, water, heat, waste, data etc. are interconnected in intelligent ways, can serve as buffers to each other and, in many cases, make it possible to send the flows in both direc-tions. Centralised supply stations linked to the grid connect every building and infrastructure hub, which supply power to trains, cars, trams, buses etc. Dis-tricts serve as decentralised clusters of consumers and production units – called combined prosumers – which in the districts can even out peaks, thereby minimising the total input of heat, cool-ing, electricity etc.

outdoor arEas

Outdoor areas such as football pitches are multifunctional and can serve as important reservoirs during times of flooding.

hEating

Heating of domestic water in houses during the day from surplus production of electricity ensures flexible utilisation of electricity production around the clock.

thE data-linkEd city

Sensors – transmitters and receivers – wherever you find people or traffic. Transmit, receive and exchange information.

grEEn roofs d

Green roofs on the city’s buildings help divert water locally.

rEnEWablE EnErgy

Wind turbines, solar collectors etc. – are integrated in the city’s spaces and on the city’s buildings.

mobilE sEnsors

Register and measure important elements of the city’s infrastruc-ture, such as pollution and traffic congestion. They may by mounted on bicycles, trams etc.


on 14 augusT 2010, when the town of Kokkedal, situated north of Copenha-gen, was hit by torrential downpours, it soon became clear that the low-lying suburb had a serious problem. Hun-dreds of the town’s inhabitants could do nothing but watch as the river that flows through the town burst its banks and quickly flooded their homes. The damage was so extensive that it can still be seen and felt today. The situation prompted Mayor Thomas Lykke Pedersen to promise to protect the town from similar situ-ations in future. The initial response was to widen the river and build a new dyke. But the ambitions stretch much farther than that. The rainwater is not just to be controlled but actually exploited to make the town a better place to live, for instance by having excess rainwater flow into canals or ponds and thereby improving the rec-reational opportunities in the town.

suburbs face The same challenge Many suburban areas in Europe face the same situation as this Copenha-gen suburb: an ageing building stock in need of comprehensive renovation. And many of these urban spaces need developing so that they better meet modern demands – including showing more consideration for the diversity of needs of the many ethnic groups that often reside in suburban districts. This has inspired a group of local and national stakeholders to join forces on

an innovative project with the aim of uniting smart climate adaptation with green and social urban development in the same process. The project will not only have local advantages, but also point the way forward for “Inte-grated climate adaptation” as a Dan-ish cutting-edge competence. “Instead of viewing rainwater as a threat to be removed as quickly as possible, we have chosen to embrace water as a valuable resource. In our town, the river flows through an area that has a genuine need for more func-tional urban spaces and recreational opportunities. So it makes perfect sense to link climate adaptation with quality of life for the community” says Christian Peter Ibsen, head of plan-ning and climate in the Municipality of Fredensborg. Technologically, there are many similar projects to look to for inspi-ration. However, coupling the tech-nology with all the social and recrea-tional aspects of developing an entire surburban district is a trailblazing project, according to Christian Peter Ibsen.

Technical soluTions already exisT No two towns are alike, and the same holds true for climate adaptation ef-forts. Even though the solutions are developed using the same sub-com-ponents, each town requires its own unique combination, according to Director Jacob Høst-Madsen from

mAKe climAte AdAptAtion SmARt ANd SOciAL

2.5 billion litres of rain water in one hour – that is how heavy the torrential down-pours in two copenhagen suburbs were in August 2010. local and national sta-keholders are now joining forces in the search for innovative new ways to protect people from flooding and improve their quality of life. the solution is to be found through an international competition.

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the international consultancy and research institution, DHI, which pro-vides global consulting services on water in urban areas. “There are all kinds of reasons for preparing our cities for more torren-tial downpours in future. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be par-ticularly expensive or complicated. There is already a large catalogue of viable solutions, so it’s mainly a ques-tion of finding the right combination,” explains Jacob Høst-Madsen. With regard to Kokkedal, he highlights, among other things, the following op-tions:

• Delay the water – e.g. farther up the river. More green roofs and local di-version of rainwater can also have a delaying effect.

• Intelligent real-time management and monitoring of the water’s move-ment in rivers, sewers and overflow systems.

• Diverting rainwater to natural de-pressions in the landscape or over-flow systems.

• Utilising different elements in the urban space, e.g. roads, football pitches, wide river sections, green-ways etc. to divert and store water during torrential downpours.

Jacob Høst-Madsen sees no real prob-lem with using the surplus water from

the river for recreational purposes. It is already of good quality, and the right solution would have to ensure that the river does not become polluted with sewage water anyway.

The Task requires an inTerdisci-plinary soluTionIn order to bring brand new thoughts and ideas to the table, the municipality north of Copenhagen decided to hold a competition for the project. Within the given framework, the project team behind the competition is prepared to give free creative reign across profes-sional groups and competencies. “Because our ambition is to estab-lish brand new synergies, we need alternative perspectives on the issue besides our own. It’s one thing to man-age pumps and water movements. It’s something else entirely to create functional urban spaces and improve quality of life,” says Christian Peter Ibsen. Against this background, the par-ties behind the project believe that the best model is to be found at the convergence of a variety of knowledge areas: urban planning, technology and architecture, culture and daily life. “We want to gather this breadth of competencies around the table, so our brief for the competition is very focused on interdisciplinarity,” con-cludes Christian Peter Ibsen.

Over more than 100 years, an extremely strong tradition has developed in Denmark for continu-ously involving NGOs, politicians and trade or-ganisations in the democratic decision-making process, thereby establishing a foundation for stable framework conditions and coherent, long-term solutions. In the labour market, this “Dan-ish model” is recognised throughout the world. Now it is also becoming known in the climate and cleantech sector as well. Denmark’s goal is to be independent of fossil fuels by 2050. Last year, the Danish government published its strategy for achieving this goal, and since then the negotiations have picked up speed. All major organisations, from NGOs like SustainableEnergy through Local Government Denmark to the Danish Wind Industry Asso-ciation, were consulted and involved prior to the negotiations. In spring 2012, major political agreements are on the way in a variety of areas, including energy,

and like the major agreements in 2004 and 2008, there are strong indications that this agree-ment will have the backing of a relatively broad political majority. Time and again, broad politi-cal agreements have been achieved after many stakeholders with opposing interests have been consulted during the decision-making processes.“Our climate policy is distinguished by a high degree of consensus,” says Professor Ove K. Pedersen from Co-penhagen Business School, who is one of the leading observ-ers of the political culture in Denmark. He is supported in this assessment by Professor Asb-jørn Sonne Nørgaard, Department of Political Science and Public Management at the Univer-sity of Southern Denmark.

green consensus strengthens long-term investmentsinvolving all relevant stakeholders in the political decision-making process and achieving broad support for long-term solutions – this is the essence of a long political tradition in denmark that has also spread to danish climate policy. the benefits are clear for cleantech companies and investors who rely on stable framework conditions far into the future.

The kokkedal projecTthe Kokkedal climate adaptation project targets the urban area situ-ated closest to the low-lying river. the affected district includes a school, shopping centre and 1,300 public housing units. today, the dif-ferent areas stand as isolated and disconnected elements. the orange colour marks the area covered by the competition.

resource or ThreaT?Flooding in the outskirts of copenhagen August 2010.

challenge decision maKing

in order to survive as a small country, we need to adapt. we do so by constantly involving as many parties as possible in our political decisions.oVe K. pedersen, proFessor, copenhagen Business school

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“It’s difficult to imagine a Danish politician say-ing that he or she doesn’t want a sustainable so-ciety or doesn’t support green growth. Even the politicians who don’t believe in the greenhouse effect think that energy conservation is a good idea, if for no other reason than to save money. So overall, it’s a political area characterised by stability,” he explains.

conTinuiTy: aTTracTs invesTmenTs The high degree of consensus is an advantage for businesses, according to Anders Eldrup, former CEO of DONG Energy.

“Energy policy is characterised by broad political agree-ments. This ensures continuity and sta-bility. For a company like us, with signifi-

cant investments in Denmark, it’s important that we know the framework conditions pretty far into the future. That we know that a new constel-lation in parliament won’t upset processes that have already been decided upon. I see, both po-litically and outside parliament, a higher degree of consensus here than in other countries, and I consider that one of the strengths of investing in Denmark”, says Anders Eldrup. danish consensus is an inTernaTional inspiraTion At the green think tank Concito, Director Thom-as Færgeman sees the think tank as a manifesta-tion of the fact that the special Danish decision-making model also applies to cleantech. Its board comprises representatives from the business community, consumer organisations and poli-

ticians, while its members range from private individuals to trade unions, cyclist associations, researchers and businesses. “Obviously they can’t agree on how much and how fast carbon emissions should be reduced. And that’s where their cooperation could end. But when we ask them: “Since we have to re-duce carbon emissions, how can we go about it?” – then the discussion can continue from a more constructive point of departure,” explains Thomas Færgeman. Concito’s international advisory board con-sists of high-ranking representatives from inter-national think tanks and foundations. “One of the reasons they even bother spend-ing time on such a little think tank in such a little country is because we have a reputation for es-tablishing broad consensus across many stake-holders. And they can clearly see it working in practice. Even countries like Norway and Swe-den, which resemble us in so many ways, have major conflicts in the green area,” says Thomas Færgeman. “Until recently, we have concentrated on the story of how we have, in Denmark, seen 30 years of economic growth with no increase in energy consumption. Now we are telling the story about how Denmark, as the first nation in the world, will be independent of fossil fuels by 2050. A lot of people from abroad are curious to hear more about that,” says Finn Mortensen, who heads the dansih State of Green Secretariat. Politically in Region Zealand, Regional Chair-man Steen Bach Nielsen (Social Democrat) en-joys strong support from all players to take ac-tion on climate solutions. “The Danish political culture is generally characterised by consensus. And this is also evi-

dent when it comes to the climate, where there is broad acceptance that we have to do something about the problems,” he says.

adapTaTion is essenTial One of the advantages of this kind of neo-corpo-ratist society is the certainty of stable framework conditions far into the future. Over the years, the players grow to feel certain that all the key stake-holders, such as the industrial organisations that are involved, are capable of disciplining their members, which ensures that they actually can deliver on the pledges they make during the po-litical negotiations. The process of involving many parties in the decision-making process is also seen in other countries. But what makes the Danish approach unique is the number of parties who are involved in the democratic decisions, and that it takes place so continuously, explains Professor Ove K. Pedersen. And in his opinion, there is a good ex-planation for this: “Denmark is a small, open economy. In order to survive as a small country, we need to adapt. Geopolitically, we are flanked by powerful coun-tries like Germany and Russia, and historically, this has forced us to learn to adapt. We do so by constantly involving as many parties as possible in our political decisions,” says Ove K. Pedersen. In his view, the historical tradition for adapta-tion is also evident in our approach to technolog-ical developments. “We are very experimental in the climate area in Denmark, but it takes place against a back-ground of prior knowledge. In Denmark, we don’t build our solutions based on fundamental research and we won’t see huge leaps in tech-nological advances. We adapt the solutions that

already exist to suit a new reality,” says Ove K. Pedersen.

denmark has made cleanTech aTTracTive His colleague Professor Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard also has an idea about why it would be especially rewarding for a cleantech company to establish operations in Denmark. “Danish politicians have directly and indi-rectly invested a lot of money in the green sec-tor over the years. For instance, we have given wind energy and Vestas a great deal of support. If people know that a country has supported a sec-tor for a long time and with relatively large investments, they will also view Denmark as a good place to set up shop. Or at least less risky than, say, the USA where the oil lobby has a very powerful voice. So the willingness of many green companies to establish operations in Denmark is, to a great extent, due to the fact that we are a rich country with good framework conditions and a tradition for supporting green growth,” says Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard. But even though the cleantech, energy and cli-mate sectors are generally characterised by sta-bility, you don’t have to dig too deep to find areas where not everyone agrees on everything, says the Professor. “Vestas would like Denmark to invest more in wind energy. Danfoss does a lot to bring wave energy into play, and other companies support solar energy as the right way to go. There is, of course, a lot of vying for political and financial at-tention,” concludes Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard.

decision maKing

even countries like norway and sweden, which resemble us in so many ways, have major conflicts in the green area.thomas Færgeman, director, concito

energy policy is characterised by broad political agreements. this ensures continuity and stability. anders eldrup, Former ceo, dong energy


on 15 march 2012 powerlabdK was inau-gurated and declared officially open and ac-cessible to researchers from universities, re-search institutions and private companies. With a long invite list and a great turnout, the inauguration was a big day for the pow-erlabdK consortium partners, Østkraft, co-penhagen university college of engineering, intelligent energy system – dtu, risø cam-pus and the centre for electric technology – dtu, lyngby campus. powerlabdK has been established based on an eur 18-million up-grade and extension of existing facilities. powerlabdK is one of europe’s most advanced research sites for experiments with distributed control architectures for

large-scale power systems, as well as one of europe’s most powerful real-time power system simulators coupled with a state-of-the-art fully-equipped research power system control room. it includes the world’s only full-scale, sustainable electric power system laboratory with more than 25,000 consumers and more than 33 per cent wind power penetration. powerlabdK’s strength lies in the fact that tests and experiments can be per-formed on different scales, ranging from flexible fundamental research laboratories to the unique feature of full-scale tests at the power distribution system at bornholm. this makes powerlabdK ideal for testing

and demonstration of new electric compo-nents and apparatus performance, smart grids based on information and communica-tion technology (ict), electric vehicle (ev) integration, demand response technologies and power system monitoring and control solutions.

for more information, please visit www.powerlab.dk

to learn more about the possibilities available at powerlabdk, please contact professor Jacob Østergaard or innovation coordinator lea lohse.

for the ambitious vinge development, northwest of copenhagen, the vision has been to activate the collective brain trust of the copenhagen cleantech cluster, pool-ing advisory board resources and members from local authorities, national agencies, specialist cleantech professionals, indus-try leaders and research institutions. this combination of competences has proven to be efficient in driving and stimulating new business partnerships and promoting viable cleantech solutions. the vinge area is being developed as a full-scale case of symbiotic co-existence between urban and business estate de-velopments. the adjacent business estate areas, including the copenhagen cleantech park, are well underway. here the global cleantech player, topsil semiconductor ma-terials plc., will be inaugurating their new silicon wafer production plant in ccp in mid-2012. the vision has been to plan and imple-ment a future-proof structure based on danish building block principles. the imple-mentation plans encompass flexible solu-tions based on modular processes, com-ponents and implementation regarding: energy supply and end-use, water – preser-vation & recycling, traffic patterns and foot-print considerations. vinge is one of denmark’s largest urban & business developments, designed to ac-commodate 12,000 new inhabitants and hold 6,000 jobs. major infrastructural invest-ments made by the local municipal authori-ties have catalysed the development of this area, located a 30-minute metro ride from the capital and close to the scandinavia’s largest international airport, only 40 min-utes away. the combination of close prox-imity to the many attractive offerings of an

international metropolis, the natural assets of the fjord landscape and the business and employment opportunities in the adjacent copenhagen cleantech park area, is build-ing the expectations of inhabitants and business communities. the vinge/ccpark development is expected to have a posi-

tive impact on job creation and retention, as well as attracting new investors and skilled green-collar workers to the greater copen-hagen region. for more information: www.cphcleantechpark.com

POwErLAbdk – wOrLd-CLAss ExPErimENTAL PLATfOrm fOr POwEr ANd ENErGy is NOw OPEN

powerlabdK is an internationally unique collection of facilities that will play a crucial role in the development of technologies for the energy sector and an energy system with a large amount of renewable energy, says professor Jacob Østergaard, chairman of the partners’ coordination group.

A smArT buiLdiNG bLOCk CiTy?

how can sustainability ambitions be balanced with commercially viable solutions? this is a challenge that most policy makers, planners and developers face when planning cities and business estates.

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since the 1973 oil crisis, denmark has almost doubled its gdp while energy consumption has remained at the same level. this is an impressive achievement, built on a visionary energy policy, an inven-tive private sector and the commitment of the danish public. nevertheless – in denmark we think we can do even better. denmark has decided to lead the transition to a green growth econ-omy and, as the first country in the world, to develop an energy sys-tem that is entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050. this transformation means significant investments in renewable energy, with strong involvement by energy companies and the pri-vate sector – through both innovation and production but also pri-vate investors. danish companies are in the global elite in many areas within cli-mate adaption, energy efficiency, water and environment and are therefore also well-equipped to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to the processes ahead. An important aspect of the danish vision is to inspire the world and show that it is possible to create a low-energy society a coun-try’s energy consumption is based on renewable energy and that it is possible – with relative limited means – to increase energy efficiency in buildings considerably. state of green, founded by climate consortium denmark, gathers all leading players in the fields of energy, climate, water and envi-ronment in denmark. it is a public-private partnership that supports the vision and encourages political and commercial decision-makers worldwide to ‘Join the Future. think denmark’. there should be every reason to do that.

copenhagen aims to become the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025 while at the same time increasing employment and spurring growth. in the action plan for 2005-2015, 50 projects were initiated and the city is well on the way to reaching the sub-goal of a 20 per cent reduction in co2 from 2005 to 2015. taking transport as an example, the aim towards 2025 is for the majority of growth in total traffic (at least two thirds) to be in the form of green modes of transport, i.e. walk-ing, cycling and public transport, in order to gradually develop more sustainable traffic patterns. compared to 2011, the number of passengers on public transport in copen-hagen should increase by 2 percent in 2015 and by 20 per cent in 2023. For cycling, the target is for half of all trips to and from work or educational institutions to be by bike in 2015. Finally, the aim for pedestrians is an increase of 20 per cent by 2015. in autumn 2012, the new 2015-2025 action plan will likely be approved by policy makers at copenhagen city hall. While the details are being discussed, the current plan comprises 15 projects within the following four themes:1. green energy consumption 2. green energy production 3. green mobility 4. Adaptation

for more information, please see www.kk.dk/greengrowth or www.kk.dk/climate

scion dTu has very high ambitions for their newest science park, which is going to be situated on the dtu risø campus. this location will provide a unique environment for the companies that join the sci-ence park to test and develop their cleantech technology and draw upon the highly skilled research expertise at the dtu departments already located on campus. in addition, dtu’s reputation continues to improve internationally, which means that more and more international companies will get wise to the competences dtu possesses. scion dtu wants to ex-ploit this by attracting research and development departments from major international companies.the objective is to establish a science park that focuses on clean-tech, especially wind, energy conversion and other areas in which dtu has world-class competences. development of the park will be carried out proportionally to the demand; however, in a long-term perspective, our ambition is to reach a capacity of no less than 50,000 square metres. the project is being developed in associa-tion with dtu, the municipality of roskilde and region Zealand and roskilde university. We expect to cut the first turf in spring 2013.

AmbiTiOus dANEs TAkE furTHEr sTEPs TO COmbiNE GrOwTH ANd susTAiNAbiLiTy

the danish government has launched an energy plan to make denmark independent of fossil fuels by 2050. An important part of the plan is to create economic growth and green jobs in the private sector, which foresees huge opportunities in the transformation to a green economy.

COPENHAGEN As A CArbON-NEuTrAL smArT CiTy

by 2025, copenhagen aims to be the world’s first carbon-neutral capital. political ap-proval for the 2015-25 action plan is expected this autumn, paving the way for coopera-tion on implementation.

sCiON dTu EsTAbLisHEs dENmArk’s NEwEsT HOTsPOT fOr CLEANTECH dEvELOPmENT

A new science park exclusively for cleantech companies and research is now a reality in den-mark, located outside roskilde on the dtu risø campus. residents from denmark and abroad will be neighbours to the technical university of denmark and be able to draw upon their world-class know-how.

copenhagen cleantech

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danish companies generally develop and sell their own products to their own clients in competition with other players in the market. This is a stand-ard and thoroughly tried and tested approach. With a large-scale investment, the Danish Industry Foundation, a pri-vate-sector, non-profit organisation, is seeking to find new ways to promote development and growth for Danish companies. “We have invested EUR 1.5 million to identify the potential and create a model for generating business for Danish companies. This is the goal of our investment in Complex Cleantech Solutions,” says Mads Lebech, CEO of the Danish Industry Foundation. The foundation has chosen to make such a significant investment in Com-plex Cleantech Solutions (CCS) be-cause it makes good sense to home in on international challenges which Danish players in a cluster can then work to solve. “We need to establish a platform, which is why we are financing a basic element which would normally be fi-nanced by the companies themselves. Doing so enables us to document that there is the potential to develop com-plex solutions to complex challenges – and to create a model that can also be used by and generate growth for

companies in other clusters, such as medico and IT, ” explains Mads Leb-ech. “The Danish Industry Foundation does not need to turn a profit, but we do need to see GNP strengthened. That’s the criterion. So when the first companies – via the CCS – sit down with clients, that’s where the founda-tion’s involvement ends,” says Mads Lebech.

business opporTuniTies in complex challengesCCS is a project under the Copenha-gen Cleantech Cluster and Copen-hagen Capacity, the Danish Capital Region’s official inward investment agency. The initial objective of the investment in CCS is to explore the opportunities for establishing a new model for how Danish companies, public-sector authorities and educa-tional institutions can work together and engage in dialogue with stake-holders and clients from all over the world. The aim of this dialogue is to join forces and couple challenges with existing products and, in so doing, in-novate and develop user-oriented so-lutions and products that are not yet available on the market. Mads Lebech explains: “The client or user might, in this context, be an entire city, a country or

a specific segment. What they have in common is that they face a challenge that can’t be solved by, say, buying a couple of wind turbines or a thousand litter bins. However, the investment does not seek to motivate Danish play-ers to team up and each supply their own contribution to a solution that already exists. Complex Cleantech Solutions is about exploring the busi-ness opportunities inherent in more complex challenges which require the development of brand new products and services in brand new contexts.”

global markeT research CCS has existed since 1 October 2011. The preliminary knowledge gather-ing has been carried out and the initial contacts have been established. In au-tumn 2012, the findings of the market research on potential collaborative partners from cities, institutions and projects, both national and global, will be available. The first formalised and established contacts will also have been formed by them. CCS has deliberately taken a step back in order better to see who might be promising to partner with on a global scale. The project is already in contact with a number of cities and projects in Brazil, China, East Africa, India, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

industry foundation seeks to create new business model for complex cleantech solutions danish companies usually develop and supply products that meet existing demand. With a large-scale investment in the complex cleantech solutions initiative, the danish industry Foundation is seeking to develop a brand new model for how danish players can work to-gether to solve the world’s complex challenges.

“So far, we have visited a number of areas, cities, companies and universi-ties – all potential partners facing a variety of challenges, such as increas-ing waste-management problems as a consequence of the huge migration of people to the cities. The response has been extremely positive, and many have expressed an interest in using what Denmark has learnt over the years when it comes to complex so-cietal solutions,” says Neelabh Singh, head of CCS and responsible for es-tablishing the right international con-tacts.

puTTing denmark’s subsTanTial experience To good use Neelabh Singh refers specifically to Danish experience with what is known as the Triple Helix model, in which universities, industry and the public sector cooperate on innovation. [See also the article on page xx.] “Denmark is a small, homogeneous geographical area with a strong tradi-tion for Triple Helix cooperation. We have many valuable experiences, and with Complex Cleantech Solutions, we are currently in the process of de-termining whether there is an interest in and the potential for players from all over the world to work together with Danish companies, universities and public-sector institutions on in-

novating solutions,” says Neelabh Sin-gh. At the same time, it is perfectly clear that these cities and potential partners from other countries are not interested in simply buying or copying an existing solution. “The people we have spoken to all say the same thing; they don’t want to copy a Danish model, a Danish solu-tion or a Danish product. Because it simply can’t be done. Their problems

and challenges often manifest them-selves in very different ways, are on a different scale and exist in a different political climate. It is our experience, even at this early stage, that interna-tional cities and potential partners are interested in using experiences from Denmark to find their own solu-tions or develop their own system, for example in cooperation with Com-plex Cleantech Solutions,” concludes Neelabh Singh.

the danIsh Industry foundatIon

The Danish Industry Foundation is a private-sector, non-profit founda-tion. Its purpose is to develop and support innovative, inspirational and economically sustainable projects and initiatives that strengthen the competitiveness of Danish business and industry.

The foundation develops its own strategic initiatives while simultane-ously supporting applicant-driven initiatives and projects within three main areas:

• Knowledge and competence• Entrepreneurship and innovation• Internationalisation and openness

The Danish Industry Foundation is headed by Mads Lebech, CEO and former Mayor of the metropolitan local authority, City of Frederiksberg.

complex challenges complex cleantech solutions

seeks to promote new solutions to complex challenges facing en-tire cities, countries or segments,

such as waste handling.

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34 | Copenhagen Cleantech Journal Issue #2 · 2012 | 35Issue #2 · 2012 | 3534 | Copenhagen Cleantech Journal

hen hisTorians look back on the first half of the 21st Century they will ei-ther tell the tale of how we innovated

to maintain sustainable urban communities or how we failed to do so and in the process created a social and environmental maelstrom. The chal-lenge is clear: we face the unprecedented chal-lenge of maintaining or raising living standards for a growing population with only one-tenth the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions we emit to-day. As one million rural people resettle in cities every week, cities will become home to almost 5 billion people by 2020, with more than 3 bil-lion people moving into the burgeoning middle class. Such explosive growth will require massive investments in infrastructure and a paradigm shift in the way services are delivered to citizens and businesses. Furthermore, this will somehow need to be achieved within a risk-averse funding environment. In recent years we have seen the emergence of the smart city as a response to this challenge. Technology and infrastructure companies have been active in developing and marketing ‘Smart’ responses to the sustainable urbanisation para-dox. We have seen the development of Smart Transport, Smart Grid, Smart Water and Smart Buildings to name but a few. In some cases they are new technologies; however, often they are existing products that are simply repackaged in a new ‘smart city’ marketing wrapper – a new channel to market. Much time and money has been invested in developing a market for these products and ser-vices, and yet we are still a long way from the uto-pian vision of the smart city. Why are city admin-istrations reticent to invest in this new wave of Smart Technologies? In my view we are approaching the problem from the wrong angle. We have missed a number of critical steps in the formulation of the solu-tion by jumping straight to the technology. Most importantly, as an industry, we have not placed enough emphasis on articulating the:

vision What problems are we addressing and how will life be different in the future?

value proposition What are the measurable outcomes that will be delivered as a consequence?

business model innovation How will we deliver the service?

finance model How will we finance the delivery of the service given constrained public-sector balance sheets?

governance model Who will be responsible for delivering the ne-cessary outcomes?

While the technology integration challenges are significant, much of the technology already exists. The technology challenges relate to en-gineering challenges such as scalability, inter-operability, security and resilience. The primary barrier to more rapid adoption of smart techno-logies is political and can be overcome by focus-ing on addressing the challenges outlined above. My team’s work with cities around the world seeks to deal with these challenges head on and to answer the key questions on the lips of every city leader: What is a smart city? Why is it valua-ble? How do we fund it? When we have answered these questions we will have earned the right to design and deliver the technological solution.

ow smarT is your ciTy?The reality is that there is no “one size fits all” definition. Different cities have

different legacies driven by their historic eco-nomic and political development, geographical form, energy mix, demographic structure etc. A city’s legacy will drive the type of frustrations that average citizens and businesses experi-ence, and which a smart city project should at-tempt to mitigate. Even cities with similar lega-cies will differ as their political administrations have differing political priorities. For example, Copenhagen has the ambition to become carbon neutral by 2025 and to create a world-class hub for clean technology. This is something that will be prioritised to a greater or lesser extent and will therefore define the nature of the smart city strategy. In a city like Madrid, on the other hand, the emphasis may be on water conservation and therefore the smart solutions will see a bias to-wards water conservation. Cities are constantly trading off priorities and addressing legacy chal-lenges; as such, they will define their smart city agenda in necessarily differing terms. Given the inherent diversity in the definition of the smart city, we have tried to define rela-tive maturity by looking at a number of ‘hard’

and ‘soft’ factors that suggest greater or lesser maturity. While it is easiest to describe the com-mon elements in levels or stages as shown in the framework set out in Figure 1, in practice, imple-mentation may not necessarily be a linear pro-cess. For instance, infrastructure development may progress before the management is in place. Alternatively, the management and leadership capabilities may be more advanced than the technological infrastructure.

haT’s sTopping ciTies from geTTing smarTer?Many cities are keen to articulate their

Smartness to the world, and yet few cities have moved beyond the pilot scale to widespread adoption, and those that have are struggling to integrate solutions at platform level. Singapore is leading the way in relation to city-wide sens-ing and control platforms with LIVE Singapore, but it is still in the early stages of maturity. In our experience working with cities around the world, we see a number of recurring issues:

1 · clarity of visionIt is not always clear to administrators how smart technologies will resolve the issues faced by the population on a day-to-day basis. The technology descriptions can be quite abstract (cloud computing, data analytics etc.) and can often obscure the true impact of the technol-ogy. The challenge is to explain to stakeholders in the city how an average day in their lives will change with the adoption of smart solutions.

2 · inability to articulate valueMany cities adopt a myopic view of value in economic terms. While this may simplify invest-ment decision-making, it lacks the richness and diversity of life in the city. Economic value is only one of the many ways public invest-ments create value. The challenge is to establish a framework for measuring and expressing value that resonates with citizens and enables politicians to articulate how they are enriching everyday life in many ways.

3 · developing economies of scope and scale Cities tend to focus their technology invest-ments on optimising a single infrastructure layer like energy management, transport or water supply, for instance by implementing a smart traffic management system to reduce congestion or a smart energy grid to reduce loss

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The fledgling years of the smart city transformation

much time and money has been invested in developing a market for smart city products and services, and yet we are still a long way from the utopian vision of the smart city. Are industries as well as city administrations ap-proaching the problem from the wrong angle? Simon Giles asks just that.

He recommends a clearer focus on vision and value creation as well as better business, finance and management models. There is a risk of over-hyping the potential and failing to engage politicians and citizens at a human level, he states.


from the network. However, tackling infrastruc-ture in isolated silos keeps cities from achieving the resource efficiency potential that ICT can offer. A truly smart city would use technology to integrate across infrastructure silos, enabling the city to operate as a single system.

4 · business model and finance innovationIn an era of austerity, especially in European and US cities, investment funds are scarce. In order to invest in the new technologies that will make the urban information economy possible, cities will need to take an innovative approach to how they deliver services (operating model), how they charge for them (business model) and how they finance it all.

5 · governance & coordination of multiple stake-holdersCities are complex organisations and decisions that involve multiple departments tend to take time and are often at odds with the sales cycles of companies. Procurement cycles for cities can take up to three years from initiation to sale, which can prevent innovative, under-resourced companies from participating in smart city de-velopment opportunities. Coordination within the city’s operational silos can be challenging; introducing the private sector to that equation compounds the complexity.

haT needs To be in place To accel-eraTe smarT ciTies? In order to address the challenges out-

lined above we see a number of responses emerg-ing which, when coordinated in a broader strat-egy, can significantly change a city’s ability to implement a smart city strategy.

a clear vision supported by metricsOne of the first steps in a successful smart city programme is the development and communi-cation of a “smart city vision”. This vision will concisely articulate the ambition, intention and imperatives of the programme. It will depict the type of value which the city is aiming to create through its smart city investments, whether it be human, environmental, intellectual or financial capital. The vision will depict how the smart city will look and feel – what a day in the life of the average citizen will be like. In the most advanced cases, it will segment the citizen base and articu-late how different behavioural segments will ex-perience change (pensioners, family units, chil-

dren etc.). This common vision will help unite multiple government departments, the public and private sectors and civil society around a common view of the art of the possible. The vi-sion will also be grounded in a detailed suite of metrics that will form a performance framework to aid capital allocation decisions, maintain in-tegrity to the core vision over time and demon-strate the added value of investments. Most im-portantly, this multifaceted view of value should resonate directly with citizens, enabling politi-cians to articulate the value of public sector in-vestments in terms that matter.

a strategic and entrepreneurial approach to icT The first step is for city leaders to recognise the potential of ICT to drive value for their citizens and businesses. It is important that city leaders take a more integrated approach to city planning that shifts focus away from the physical real estate and re-balances the strategic planning process to focus on the economic, social and digital aspects of city development. The most progressive cities cultivate business model innovation in their cit-ies – helping the public and private sectors gener-ate value from their data sets and putting in place the foundational infrastructure (both hard assets, such as physical data stores, and softer aspects, such as legislation on data privacy issues) to en-able the digital economy to flourish.

innovation in business and governance models Perhaps the most important ingredient to a smart city is an innovative approach to govern-ance. Smart city projects have enormous poten-tial, but it can only be realised if the programme is set up to succeed with the right capabilities in place and sufficient authority to be able to man-age a complex ecosystem. We expect to see sig-nificant innovation in operating models, busi-ness models and governance structures. One particularly exciting development is in the use of non-traditional enterprise structures (co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises) to bridge the gap between public and private. These entities could be supported by the city but kept free from the institutional bureaucracy of gov-ernment and nurtured as entrepreneurial start-ups. Such an entity could attract funding from multiple sources, and operate as a not-for-profit enterprise, reinvesting any revenue generated through its provision of data services back into its core mission of creating socio-economic and environmental benefits for the city region.

a culture of citizen engagementAs the citizens are the primary reason for the existence of city policy, engagement can sup-port cities to define and achieve their goals. This is particularly relevant in a world where citi-zens have become ‘prosumers’ (producers and consumers) rather than passive consumers of services. The idea that the city vision should be co-designed by government and citizens is par-ticularly pertinent to the smart city ideology, which holds transparency and inclusivity as cen-tral tenets.

We are still in the fledgling years of the smart city transformation, but we run the risk of over- hyping the potential and failing to engage politi-cians and citizens at a human level. In order to

redress the balance, the discourse needs to shift from being technology-driven to outcome-driven. We believe that the steps presented here would form a solid foundation for this transition.

LEvEL 1 LEvEL 2 LEvEL 3 LEvEL 4

sOfT iNfrAsTruCTurE

vALUE ASSESSMENt individual project business cases

some non-financial value added

holistic value assessment (social/environmental/financial)

holistic value assessment supporting diversification of funding sources

GOvErNANCE departmental governance structures

some cross-departmental collaboration

cross-departmental ’smart city’ management positions in place

city-wide governance structures and shared performance targets combined with international collaboration

StrAtEGIC ICt FOCUS limited ict capability some strategic focus on ict ict vision for the city ict vision and strategy overseen by dedicated city cio

CItIzEN ENGAGEMENt wItH SErvICE DESIGN

limited citizen engagement project-level, basic needs analysis, pilots

citizen feedback loops established

citizen participation in integrated service design

HArd iNfrAsTruCTurE

It prOjECt FOCUS little or no ict projects targeted ict project (e.g. smart grid)

integrated ict investments (including embedded sensing, control and actuation)

real-time city operations optimisation

INtEGrAtION OF DAtA StrEAMS

no data integration small-scale data integration creative data mash-ups pulling data to a common platform

open data and crowd-sourcing initiatives

DIGItAL SErvICE prOvISION

little or no digital service provision

handful of digital services integrated digital services around the city environment

Variety of cloud-based citizen services

smart city proJect implementation

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simon gilesAccenture’s global lead for Intelligent Cities Strategy.

His expertise spans sustainable economic development strate-gies, governance, finance strategy, citizen engagement and digital master planning.

Simon Giles works with city governments and developers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, as well as advis-ing the world Economic Forum on smart grids and green growth strategies. He has recently completed a study of Copenhagen as a smart city.

38 | Copenhagen Cleantech Journal

addItIonal readIngcopenhagen cleantech cluster’s recommendations for further reading on smart cities

to find this page with active, deep links visit our website: www.cphcleantech.com/ccjlinks/2

citizens

Technology is an important element of smart cities. the main goal however is to create better and more liveable cities for people. politicians, city planners, archi-tects and researchers are joining forces to create better cities for the people who live in them:• miT sENsEable City Lab• sustainable Cities Collective

data

daTa forms the core of the smart city. however, col-lecting and using data often presents a challenge due to the numerous physical, political and legal barriers. For a more in-depth exploration of these challenges and examples of solutions, please see:• information marketplaces:

The new economics of cities • The battle for Control of smart cities

energy

ciTies are responsible for 80 per cent of global energy consumption and over half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. With the emergence of technologies that make smart grids possible, smart cities have many dif-ferent ways to vastly reduce energy consumption: • Case: Amsterdam • smart cities have smart backyards• Case: smart Grid market report denmark

water

waTer demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the world and as the global population continues to grow, so too does the demand for water. Water man-agement in smart cities is about planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources: • sustainable Cities: water• smarter water management

waste

Today, many nations face a looming waste manage-ment crisis as their landfills reach capacity and continue to degrade the environment. but smart and innovative waste-collection and construction techniques can help to reduce waste volumes and minimise environmental and health impacts: • Talking Trash:

The world’s waste management Problem • sustainable Cities: waste

transport

a very tangible challenge associated with urbanisation is congestion due to increased transport. smart cities utilise a number of different solutions to this problem, including modern mass rapid transit systems, conges-tion control, electronic road pricing, parking guidance and increased smart public transport. • sustainable Cities: Transport• ibm: Transportation

buildings

by Thinking outside the box and using architectural & technological innovation as well as integrated solutions, it is possible to ensure that new and existing buildings in smart cities keep their energy consumption to a mini-mum. see these sites to learn more about green con-struction:• smart buildings• sustainable Cities: buildings

or scan The qr-Tag

CleanTeCh Is all abouT CollaboraTIon

so leT’s mInd eaCh oTher’s busIness

dENmArk has a long tradition for producing and developing clean energy and environmental tech-nologies, solutions and businesses. Alongside this tradition a robust ecosystem around sustainabil-ity has emerged. danish universities have a strong focus on environmental, climate and energy re-search, our businesses produce many strong global brands within cleantech and the regulatory framework in denmark is supportive of green and sustainable ways of thinking and doing. As A rEsuLT the danish cleantech industry gen-erates just over eur 40 billion in revenue a year and employs 120,000 people. no other country in the world exports more cleantech relative to gdp than denmark. THE COPENHAGEN CLEANTECH CLusTEr (ccc) is at the heart of the cleantech ecosystem in denmark with a mission to foster cooperation between cleantech companies, research institutions and public-sector organisations. We facilitate partner-ships, build test & demo facilities, boost innovation and entrepreneurship, host events, conduct anal-

yses, support internationalisation activities and much more to underpin our goal of becoming the most innovative cleantech cluster in the world. frOm THE OuTsET, ccc has sought a strong inter-national outreach. As the initiator of the interna-tional cleantech network, we work closely with like-minded clusters in germany, Austria, singa-pore, the usA, italy, norway, France, spain and many other international partners. THrOuGH Our international network, we can in-troduce danish cleantech stakeholders to com-panies and universities outside the region. We can also bring you closer to the cleantech players in the greater copenhagen region and beyond.

COPENHAGEN CLEANTECH CLusTEr is looking for-ward to introducing you to our unique cleantech community!

For more inFormAtion, pleAse visit www.CPHCLEANTECH.COm

COPENHAGEN CLEANTECH CLusTErNørrEGAdE 7bdk-1165 COPENHAGEN vdENmArk

T: +45 [email protected]

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