SDG 11: CITIES AND STARTUPS RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

BY MICHAEL LAKE

What does it mean to be a smart city, and how can local governments leverage today’s innovative solutions to achieve sustainability and resiliency goals for communities? National governments continue to set goals and make promises to combat climate change and limit global warming; however, cities are the lever that can tip the scale toward a more sustainable future.

There’s no shortage of challenges for cities to solve, but one of the greatest challenges is climate change. Approximately 95% of the world’s cities are coastal, so sea level rise alone threatens most cities. If your city is underwater, none of the other issues—crime, education, waste collection, affordable housing, and all these important issues for day-to-day life—exist anymore. We have to deal first and foremost with climate change.

Leading Cities

Leading Cities plays a critical role between cities and startups. We connect communities with the solutions of the future. It’s now one of the top GovTech accelerators in the world. This year, we started with over 550 innovative solutions from 70 countries. These innovations are being created every day all over the world. Our network of experts vets those solutions that can help advance the adoption of innovative solutions in communities across the globe.

Smart Cities = A Sustainable Planet

Every threat to the status quo is an opportunity in disguise. We need to take responsibility to think about the opportunity we will create from this threat to humanity. Smart cities equal a sustainable planet because we don’t achieve global sustainability when 70% of our carbon emissions come from our cities, which occupy only about 3% of the world’s land mass.

The challenges that smaller cities face in terms of adopting new solutions are different from the challenges larger cities face. If cities aren’t aware of the options and solutions available, how do they have the faith and confidence in choosing the best, most innovative solutions for their community? That’s where Leading Cities comes into play. Our AcceliCITY program, through our network of experts, sources and vets innovative solutions to help cities better understand what’s out there and have more confidence in those existing solutions.

Government Action

We’re on the right trajectory, but from 20162040, an estimated $94 trillion in global infrastructure investments are needed. At $3.7 trillion a year being spent, there’s at least a $15 trillion gap. And that’s just replacing and maintaining existing infrastructure.

We can help close this gap through public-private partnerships; but first, there’s a missing P, and that’s the personal piece. We cannot achieve global change if everybody doesn’t adopt their own behavioral changes. We need to recognize that the KPIs we use in government and the private sector have to measure our impact on the planet, not just now but for generations to come.

When 21st century technologies are being developed at light speed, you can’t have a decision-making process that takes 18-24 months. Most startups will be out of business waiting two years for a client to decide if they will receive the contract.

21st-Century Procurement

Innovation in procurement systems is an amazing way to connect a city’s needs while also empowering and challenging innovators to create the solutions of the future. We can’t expect the government to do everything. Entrepreneurs are the great innovators. Bringing them into the fold so that they better understand the problems is a perfect way to match the skills of the city and entrepreneurs. By approaching procurement in a more challenge-based way, we can better define the problem and get the government out of the way of prescribing the solution.

Smart & Sustainable City Possibilities

Leading Cities partners with cities to help them define their challenges. They put forward a prize of a paid pilot program, and we globally source and expert-vet the solutions, building both a city’s awareness and confidence in new solutions. We connect the dots.

Street Lighting+

Approximately 66% of the world’s energy is consumed in our cities. One of the best examples of deployed smart city solutions is LED lights. Just reducing the energy consumption is a step in the right direction.

But to take it a step further, some technologies turn those poles into smart poles that use wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity and battery storage to create virtual power plants.

Biodiesel Fleets

Cities are responsible for 70% of the world’s carbon emissions. Two of the biggest emitters are vehicles and buildings. One challenge for cities in tackling these emitters is that they don’t control most of the vehicles or buildings in their city. This is where the private sector comes into play, as they control large fleets, and there are plenty of opportunities to convert existing vehicles, not just new ones, into biodiesel fuel.

Plastic Waste

About 60% of the plastic in our oceans originates in cities. Some project that we will soon have more plastic in our oceans than fish; and even more concerning is that, on average, each person consumes about a credit card worth of plastic each week. Fortunately, one solution is filtering and collecting microplastics of the water. Another solution destroys plastic waste by using worms to eat the plastics and convert them into fertilizer.

Then there’s repurposing of plastic waste, whether it’s turned into fertilizers or building materials. One solution turns everyday plastic waste into 3D printing material to produce new objects from the same plastic. Finally, there are innovative solutions that create alternatives to plastic using organic waste to generate materials that simulate how we use plastics but are organic and fully biodegradable.

Water Conservation

Only 1% of the Earth’s water is drinkable, and yet we are wasting that water. Think about how much water we use to flush our toilets and water our lawns. I want to highlight this because not all these solutions have to be high-tech. An innovative grass seed mixture produces grass that grows 4- to 6-foot roots. This results in a 75% reduction in water needed to maintain it. It also sequesters 10 times more carbon than traditional grass. And you only need to mow it once a month. To give you a sense of the impact this can have: If one-third of the lawns in the U.S. used this grass, it would produce the carbon offset equivalent of removing every vehicle from the road in America.

Michael Lake President & CEO, Leading Cities Boston, Massachusetts

Water Treatment

The other issue that we have in our water treatment is organic micropollutants. Over 100 pharmaceuticals can be found in our water, whether expired or unneeded pills that have been flushed down the toilet. It ends up in the water, and current wastewater treatment facilities can’t filter that out. An enzyme-based, sand-like material can be used as a plug-and-play solution for any water treatment facility.

The point is that we have a plethora of problems, but because of the entrepreneurs and the people passionate about solving these problems, there are also many innovative solutions. We need to act, and that means connecting the government with these startups and deploying solutions to generate the change the world needs. It’s time to get past our rhetoric and focus on action. Sustainable cities begin with all of us. It’s all about the partners you engage, the strategies you’re creating, the investments you’re making, and the opportunities you choose to seize. Together, we can continue to advance today’s solutions to overcome tomorrow’s challenges.

Michael Lake is the president and CEO of Leading Cities, which globally sources, expertly vets, and connects municipal and industry leaders with solutions, best practices, and expertise needed to develop smart communities. Lake establishes and develops relationships with municipal governments, businesses, nonprofits, and universities, creating a global network dedicated to implementing smart and resilient city solutions. AcceliCITY, a signature program, is now ranked among the top three GovTech accelerators in the world—providing pilot projects, startup funding, and curriculum to entrepreneurs globally.