Municipal Financing Tools for Smart City Projects

The Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition to improve the livability, workability and sustainability of the world’s cities, recently announced the Smart Cities Financing Guide. This new resource helps cities understand the financing options available for investments in smart technologies. Developed for the Council by the Center for Urban Innovation at Arizona State University, the Financing Guide outlines 28 of the most promising financing tools for urban infrastructure enhancements, including some techniques that do not require any upfront money from a city. It “Knowledge of financial instruments and the processes to engage in sustainable financing of technologies is vital, yet few know how to navigate these complexities”offers criteria for evaluating financing options and allows city leaders to differentiate which approach is best for their project and community.
 

The Financing Guide is part of the Council’s premium resource library, which also includes the Smart Cities Readiness Guide that provides 27 best practices for launching a smart city initiative. Both Guides are available on the Smart Cities Council website for free, following a very brief registration.

Schneider Electric, which acquired Invensys in January 2014, is an Associate Partner of the Smart Cities Council.

Smart Cities Readiness Guide Advances Smart City Development with First-of-its-Kind Tool for City Leaders Around the World

Readiness Guide is the first vendor-neutral comprehensive roadmap for smart city development

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (November 18, 2013) The Smart Cities Council today released version 1.0 of the Smart Cities Council Readiness Guide, the first comprehensive, vendor-neutral smart city handbook for city leaders and planners. Designed with input from leading smart city and urban planning experts as well as top global technology companies, the Guide enables city leaders to assess their current state of technology and its readiness to become a smart city. It is available for free download at www.smartcitiescouncil.com/readinessguide.

The Guide was unveiled in Barcelona, Spain, the day before the Smart City Expo World Congress begins there, at a smart cities workshop and press announcement with the renowned ESADE Business School’s Institute of Public Governance and Management.

The Guide is a collection of guidelines, best practices and case studies. It helps a city create its own customized "wish list" with the confidence that it has not left out anything essential and that all the pieces will work together even if they are built in stages. The Guide outlines proven principles to follow in order to be successful and avoid pitfalls.

The Guide includes vendor-neutral technology recommendations on all eight of a city’s most important responsibilities: the built environment, energy, telecommunications, transportation, water and waste water, health and human services, public safety, and payments.

About the Smart Cities Council - The Smart Cities Council is comprised of the foremost companies in the smart technologies sector. Its goal is to accelerate the growth of smart cities worldwide by providing city leaders and urban planners with tools and resources, such as a Readiness Guide, financial guides, policy frameworks, and "mentoring" sessions. For more information, visit www.smartcitiescouncil.com.

Today's full Smart Cities Council press release is available here.

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Invensys is an Associate Partner in the Smart Cities Council. Invensys is participating again this year at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona, November 19-21, and is present in the Wonderware Spain stand (D421), our Wonderware software distributor, and also in the Microsoft stand (D415) as a Partner supporting their CityNext initiative. For more information about Invensys' Wonderware software solutions for smart cities, visit www.smartcitiessoftware.com.

Europe's Covenant of Mayors - Increasing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Use

The Covenant of Mayors (CoM – www.covenantofmayors.eu) is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities voluntarily committing to increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources in their territories. By their commitment, Covenant signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union’s (EU’s) 20% CO₂ reduction objective by 2020. They prepare a Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) and submit, within the year following their signature, a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) outlining the key actions they plan to undertake.

Signatory cities vary in size from small villages to large metropolitan areas like London and Paris. Over 3,000 SEAPs have been submitted to the European Commission, and that number is expected to increase as some 5,000 local authorities have now joined the Covenant of Mayors, representing over 170 million people or roughly one-third of the EU population (Covenant in Figures).

In a press release last month, the CoM referenced a recent study by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission noting CoM signatory cities release approximately eight tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per capita. However, through the implementation of their SEAPs, cities commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by about 28% by 2020, thus voluntary exceeding the EU’s 20% reduction objective. On average, 44% of the overall CO₂ reduction is expected to result from actions addressing the buildings sector (retrofitting of building stock, energy audits, etc.), 20% from the transport sector (introduction of cleaner vehicles, congestion charges, etc.) and 16%  from local energy production actions (production of biogas or solar energy, for instance).

Worldwide Smart City 2013 Top 10 Predictions by IDC Government Insights

The Smart City movement is increasingly a force of innovation and investment at all levels of government. To help government organizations, IDC Government Insights has identified the key trends and business drivers in IT and related technologies that will influence Smart City development for the next 12–18 months.