118R_Smart sustainable cities – Exploring ICT solutions for reduced energy use in cities (research summary)

Are you interested in ICT solutions to reduce urban energy use?  Our summary today works with the article titled Smart sustainable cities – Exploring ICT solutions for reduced energy use in cities from 2014 by Anna Kramers, Mattias Höjer, Nina Lövenhagen and Josefin Wangel, published in the Environmental Modelling and Software journal.  Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how ICT – information and communication technology – can help reducing urban energy use. This article presents an analytical framework for ICT opportunities to be combined with household functions that use energy. As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects: A city can become smart and sustainable by having climate targets and using ICT strategically to help achieve those targets – because ICT has great potential in highlighting potential issues with energy use for example. In order to turn the potentials into real savings, cities need to explore the opportunities thoroughly and investigate how they can best support the implementation of different ICT. Businesses need to learn how best to design and implement ICT solutions that decrease energy use. You can find the episode through this link. Abstract: This article explores the opportunities of using ICT as an enabling technology to reduce energy use in cities. An analytical framework is developed in which a typology of ICT opportunities is combined with a typology of household functions, i.e. all the activities that require energy. The energy used for household functions is calculated using a consumption-based lifecycle perspective. The analytical framework is intended to be of use to researchers, city and regional authorities and ICT companies interested in acquiring a better understanding of how ICT investments could contribute to reduce energy use in cities. Connected episodes you might be interested in: No.008R - What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities? No.120 - Interview with Matt Ferrell about urban energy use, among others; You can find the transcript through this link. What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter @WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the shownotes are also available. I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in. Music by Lesfm from Pixabay