Background & Urban Challenges

European cities face common sustainability challenges regarding housing, mobility, and infrastructure. While rapid urbanization becomes an inevitable trend, cities need to become smarter to respond to citizen needs and to reduce their environmental footprint. As the population grows, urban mobility must address issues such as increased congestion and air pollution. There is a burning need to shift transportation habits from private cars to public transport, cycling or walking. The changing of the demographic structure requires not only more housing but also the adjustment of the existing ones to meet the new needs of the increasing elderly population and more single families. Another factor to consider during urban development is construction, which uses massive amounts of resources and energy to tear down and rebuild infrastructure and housing. As a result, it's important to consider how to most effectively renew infrastructure and housing with the smallest environmental impact. 

Objective

GrowSmarter's vision is to "transform cities for a smart, sustainable Europe" through smart technology. The goal is to ultimately reduce Europe's ecological footprint while continuing to modernize its cities. An important value in the GrowSmarter project is sustainability, which entails not only concern for the environment, but also economic and social factors too. Regarding environmental impact, GrowSmarter is committed to reducing energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. Even more, this project improves the lives of people by providing more jobs, a greater selection of transportation, and a more efficient waste disposal system. At the same time, GrowSmarter contributes to a sustainable economy with increased cost efficiency while fostering economic growth.

Solution Descriptions

The GrowSmarter project demonstrates twelve smart solutions to be implemented in the three Lighthouse cities of Stockholm, Cologne, and Barcelona. These solutions are split into three overarching themes. The categorization and brief summaries of each of the twelve solutions are outlined below: 

1. Low Energy Districts

a. Smart building shell refurbishment:

• Problem: ⅓ of Europe's housing was constructed between 1950 and 1970. 
• Solution: refurbish old housing buildings with smart building technology to reduce their energy usage by up to 75%.

b. Smart building logistics

• Problem: the transport of construction materials account for a high percentage of emissions.
• Solution: the implementation of a centralized logistics depot for more efficient transport; introduction of eco-friendly transport vehicles.
  

c. Smart energy-saving tenants

• Problem: residents struggle to measure their energy usage and waste habits.
• Solution: provide real-time information regarding energy usage and waste levels through smart technology; charge waste disposal, energy bills, etc. based on the amount each household pollutes, which encourages residents to be more environmentally conscious.
  

d. Smart local electricity management

• Problem: national grids aren't responsive and are too dependent on changing weather conditions.
• Solution: Local energy production and storage investments. Such as vehicle to the grid for EV:s and better control of demand for electricity.

2.      Integrated Infrastructures

a. Smart street lighting

• Problem: traditional lamp posts consume too much energy. 
• Solution: implementation of LED lights with smart motion sensors that only light up when needed; dual purpose as EV charging centers and communication hubs. 

b. Waste heat recovery

• Problem: excessive energy usage from heating systems. 
• Solution: circular energy system in which waste heat is reused to heat apartments. 
  

c. Smart waste collection

• Problem: waste trucks contribute to congestion and are not eco-friendly nor efficient.
• Solution: automated waste collection service using color-coded waste bags and smart technology to vacuum waste bags through underground collection portals. 
  

d. Big data management

• Problem: no central data infrastructure exists to monitor cities' environmental status.
  
• Solution: open data platform that monitors and analyzes patterns for city activities. 
  

3. Sustainable Urban Mobility

a. Sustainable delivery

• Problem: the increasing popularity of online shopping results in more delivery trucks on the road. 
• Solution: a smart integrated delivery system that reduces traffic, uses clean delivery vehicles and gives residents live information about delivery

b. Smart traffic management

• Problem: traffic congestion, increasing pollution, and worsening air quality.
• Solution: smart sensors that monitor traffic patterns and inform residents about travel times; offerings of more transport alternatives.  
  

c. Alternative fuel-driven vehicles

• Problem: too many vehicles rely on fossil fuels.
  
• Solution: investments in charging points and infrastructure to encourage alternative fuel usage. 
  

d. Smart mobility solutions

• Problem: personal trips are a hassle with public transportation. 
  
• Solution: tests to compare bike sharing, shuttle services, carsharing, and taxis to determine which is most effective. 
  

The GrowSmarter project is run by city governments. Stockholm coordinates the work, while the other cities follow the project as take-up cities. However, a multitude of different institutions and organizations contribute to the success of the project:

• Twenty industrial partners provide the technologies and help showcase these smart solutions.

• The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm validates the results and ensures that the solutions save the expected 60 on climate gas emissions.

• The Business school of Navarra, IESE, ensures that the solutions have short payback periods and create new jobs.

• ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, helps disseminate the results.

Results & Reflections

The GrowSmarter Project has already received €25 million in funding from the European Commission as a Smart City and Community project within the Horizon 2020 research and innovation initiative. As a result, GrowSmarter has signed a common manifesto which lays out a framework and a timeline for its smarts solutions, up until December 31st, 2019.

Already, many of the 20 industrial partners in the project have received orders from other cities thanks to the project. All solutions are up and running. Moreover, approximately twenty new cities have joined as take-up cities. There is a huge international interest in the project.

So far, the project has also encountered and overcome numerous problems. Several legal issues have also been identified for some of the smart solutions as European law is lagging behind technical developments.