Special Report 18

Erin James Jo Jeffreys Tawny Chritton Keene Zoe Haseman Adam Liddle

“The Evolve trial was made very easy for our team to participate in. A primary objective was to enable us to better communicate the impact of our projects. The Evolve tool helped us better understand how we could map our projects to the many elements of the SDG’s. We can see potential for usage by many public authorities to map their project portfolios to the SDG’s and therefore demonstrate impact.”

Alan Murphy, Smart Dublin Regional Manager

Cities are similar to businesses in that there are growing demands being placed on them as populations grow. According to UN Habitat, cities are major contributors to climate change, accounting for more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions and consuming 78% of the world’s energy. Cities can’t stand still: they need to change and adapt to respond to the needs of their citizens and be economically competitive and it is now commonplace for cities to have their own vision for the future, and to have this underpinned by a sustainability strategy encompassing clear targets and route map of how to meet them. The City of Edinburgh is joining a growing movement of cities around the world that are progressively introducing measures to transform their centres.

Edinburgh has a target to become a net zero city by 2030 and will be publishing its final strategy in October, ahead of COP26 taking place later this year in Glasgow. City strategies not only need to set out a clear vision for how to achieve its aims, but also how to innovate effectively by creating the right conditions for stakeholder collaboration, how to support sustainable communities, and how to influence individual behaviours. All of these measures combined will deliver positive impact quickly, if successful.

It is fundamentally important that businesses, large or small, can relate to city strategies and deliver impact locally. The opposite is also true and city strategies must resonate with businesses and other stakeholders in order to drive collaboration.

Working closely with the City of Edinburgh Council and a wide range of key stakeholders, the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation strategy laid out an approach that puts people and wellbeing at the core of the thinking, by promoting active and sustainable travel and accessible public spaces. The city now promises to be largely vehicle free within a decade and we have already seen the pedestrianization of certain city-centre streets to great success. Also recognizing our global commitment to create a fair and inclusive future for all, we partnered with Jacobs-Simetrica to conduct a social value benefits assessment that quantified the economic and well-being benefits to the city versus the estimated delivery cost of the programme. We showed that accident prevention, enhanced public spaces, reduction in air pollution, enhanced public spaces, and increased accessibility all contribute to the overall social improvements that can benefit the city. The legacy we all want to create for future generations is one of betterment. How can we collectively leave both the planet and society better than we found them? To start, we must all evolve from the focus on minimizing negative impacts to maximizing positive outcomes. This is not always as simple as it sounds. With development often comes unintended consequences. The more we understand and face these challenges – in collaboration with our stakeholders – the more sustainable future we will create.