Sharing Cities

Project Information

Sharing Cities

Grant agreement ID: 691895

DOI

10.3030/691895

Project closed

EC signature date 21 December 2015

Start date 1 January 2016

End date 31 December 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 28 000 515,97

EU contribution

€ 24 753 944,98

Coordinated by

GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Sharing Cities (Sharing Cities)

Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

To be a part of the solution to reduce carbon emissions and support clean, green and healthy cities, six Lighthouse and Fellow cities collaborated on Sharing Cities – a five-year challenge to deploy green technologies at key locations in participating cities.

The major international programme aimed to create an agile and collaborative smart cities ecosystem, supporting the transition to more liveable, attractive and resource-efficient cities. It aimed to prove the potential for environmentally focussed technologies to positively impact cities by addressing some of the most pressing urban challenges. Ten technologies were deployed across the cities to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and encourage people to make more sustainable choices.

Partnerships between city municipalities, private industry and academia helped to build a strong network of EU cities working together with to tackle the climate emergency. In total, 34 partners were involved in exploring the potential of smart, low-carbon technologies – such as sensors, e-mobility and data integration. These efforts helped to improve city services, support innovative new business models and deliver a better quality of life for local citizens. This network will extend beyond the lifespan of the programme, with new city-driven collaborations taking shape for climate action.

All 10 technologies tested over the life-cycle of the Sharing Cities programme are replicable smart solutions that can be deployed within other cities, meeting the needs of different urban contexts while also improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. Collectively, partners generated a further €265m investment in the smart city marketplace to accelerate the shift to greener and more energy efficient cities.

Partners also worked closely with the EIP-SCC Marketplace along with other Lighthouse programmes to explore further collaborative approaches to reducing the carbon footprint of cities. By focusing on shared opportunities, the programme co-designed innovation, aggregated demand to attract investment to the smart city marketplace and developed scalable smart solutions for the cities that we live in.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The measures implemented focus on three themes - people, place and platform. We adopted a ‘digital first’ approach to all three themes. To develop scalable solutions, we made sure all technologies were designed around the needs of participating cities, and importantly, the people who inhabit these cities. This was achieved through engagement and collaboration (such as co-design), and co-creating use cases that are applicable to a variety of stakeholders. We have carried out user-centred design activities that explore how the end user will interact with the smart measures we are creating, and we have co-designed the measures with a range of partners, including city governments, businesses and citizens.

Some highlights from implementation of our measures include:

16 buildings retrofitted with energy efficiency measures in Milan, Lisbon and Greenwich saves 1,713 tonnes of CO2 per year.

6,124,500 kWh/m2 decrease in building energy needs as a result of energy efficiency measures retrofitted to buildings across Milan, Lisbon and Greenwich (across an area of 67,612 sqm)

4,514 tons CO2 emissions saved as a result of shared mobility measures across London, Lisbon and Milan

London Data Store – This now has the capability to accept live data from smart infrastructure, which will feed into the design of the next iteration of the world’s leading city-led open data platform. ​

Digital community engagement and behaviour change

2,400 Smart Lampposts in Milan, Greenwich and Lisbon upgraded with smart features to provide energy management, mobility, environmental monitoring, and other services centred around citizens’ needs.

€265 million leveraged in smart technologies to accelerate the shift to greener and more energy efficient cities. 110 investment opportunities identified across 40 cities with an investment potential of €1billion

10% - further energy savings on top of other building retrofit measures. Monitoring of the SEMS measure shows that it can achieve a further 10% energy savings on top of the retrofit measures, generating significant interest from other city authorities.

4,233 Digital Social Market users in Milan, Lisbon and Greenwich participating in local sustainable behaviour change actions

Up to 50% energy savings from retrofits to buildings in Milan, Lisbon and Greenwich

150 cities engaged and used Sharing Cities tools

80 cities have used Sharing Cities playbooks

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Strategically Sharing Cities had four key objectives, all of which have been achieved, and often exceeded. These objectives have been realised through an excellent partnership that placed collaboration at its core, including a good relationship with the European Commission. Importantly, these objectives have genuinely had an impact on the lives of ordinary people in our cities while also reducing carbon emissions.

Objective 1 – achieve scale

We have worked hard throughout the course of the programme to ensure that all successful measures are scaled up and replicated. We have managed to identify more than 110 investment opportunities with a total investment potential greater than €1 billion, more than doubling our €500m target. What is more, over €265 million investment has been captured (i.e. the initiatives are implemented or committed and in the implementation process) through the activities of Sharing Cities in the lifetime of the programme, far exceeding our expectations.

Objective 2 – digital first approach

Our digital first approach was developed early on in the programme with all key digital technologies in place during implementation phase. Our Urban Sharing Platform was designed, tested and built in London (by the Greater London Authority) and then closely followed by the platforms in Lisbon and Milan. We explored how data is interpreted and managed by operational officers, city planners and decision makers through a range of dashboards, complimented by the WP2 service layer. At the programme end all of our measures are generating data that is being consumed by these platforms and utilised to make strategic and service-led decisions.

Objective 3 – accelerate the market

Progress on this objective has been strong. On a programme level, a series of tools have been developed that support partners and city decision makers to engage with the relevant stakeholders, aggregate demand locally and develop their business models. Through packaging, we have not only tested a series of measures that have accelerated our understanding of smart cities, but we have also captured the learning in such a way that others can learn and, importantly, use in order to accelerate their own procurement processes (Over 150 cities have been engaged).

Objective 4 – share and collaborate

Across all the measures developed in the local cities we have engaged with citizens in the design and implementation of the innovative technology and sought out ways to engage with their citizens. This has led to every city embracing and utilising user-centred design methodologies, collaboration and developing much closer sharing bonds with the citizens and stakeholders. In all of the Lighthouse cities this has led to the development of further opportunities for collaboration.

Milan ebike scheme

Lisbon ebike scheme

Milan ebike scheme

Lisbon ebike scheme