Bristol contributes to Smart Cities Initiative

Bristol City Council has recently responded to a EUROCITIES-led consultation on the Smart Cities & Regions Initiative that has been proposed by the European Commission as part of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET). The initiative outlines the Commission’s vision towards investment in the development of low carbon technologies and the role that cities and regions will have in delivering this. The Commission aims to choose between 25-30 European cities, to pioneer green technologies in Europe. As a signatory of the Green Digital Charter and the first city to calculate the carbon footprint of ICT use within the city, Bristol proposed the addition of the following objectives to the initiative;

• To support cities to establish their carbon footprint of ICT in order to set a baseline by which they can monitor and measure progress on reducing their emissions
• Support cities with the development of strategic initiatives that will deliver cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020 and enable the development of smart cities.
• To ensure that citizens and communities are enabled to take an active role in using ICT to reduce their carbon emissions.

Connecting Bristol, the city’s digital partnership and the Sustainable City team within Bristol City Council will be working closely together to build a greater synergy between Green and Digital sector,s to ensure that Bristol is recognised as a leading Smart, Green and Digital City.