The service he is using is called Autolib, an electric-car sharing scheme that has been operating in Paris for about a year. It simplifies his life and he absolutely loves it. There is always a car available fairly close-by and there are no more stressful, endless searches for available parking spots, as Autolib has plenty of dedicated parking spaces with charging poles. Most surprising is, perhaps, his claim that the cars are always left clean by prior users.
Last week-end I was in Paris and could see people getting in and out of the shared cars. The few vehicles I peeked into were, indeed, neat and tidy.

The fact that more than two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050 has not gone unnoticed by car manufacturers. Toyota for instance, is looking into car sharing and car-as-a-service possibilities for cities. San Francisco is one of the cities where BMW is offering its car sharing program DriveNow. It has started small, with some 70 electric vehicles in nine garages around the city. Car sharing should have a positive impact here as one-third of the city’s weekday traffic is made up of drivers looking for parking.

Common among car sharing programs is that all cars are connected and that ICT is used to track cars and convey details of their location – and of parking spaces – in real time. To be useful and convenient these services depend on smart phone applications that allow users to check the availability and location of cars and free parking spaces.

In the long run, it is not sustainable to have car parks full of unused cars all day, taking up space. I think that fifteen years from now most cars in city centers will be shared on a subscription basis. What do you think?

The post Shared mobility in Paris appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

It also reminded me of another city, Pančevo in Serbia. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the deputy mayor of Pančevo. This city also has a violent past, with the bombing of its petrochemical plant a little more than a decade ago. Having a significant chemical industry, along with increasingly environmentally aware citizens, the deputy mayor told me that they needed to take action. In order to ease the residents’ concerns about air pollution, the city, together with Ericsson and Telekom Serbia, has deployed environmental sensors on the city’s connected buses, turning them into mobile environment monitoring stations.

The system not only provides public transport fleet management and tells the citizens of Pančevo when the next bus will arrive, but it also provides real-time environmental data straight to their mobile phone. A green light, which appears on the city map on their phone or web application, reassures residents’ that air pollution levels are low, before stepping out of the house.

It makes you wonder if similar city issues could be overcome by embracing innovation and connectivity. What other real-time information could be collected or transmitted to improve our quality of life in the city?

The post Real-time environmental data sent to residents’ mobile phones appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

I think many in the audience were a bit puzzled by the setup of the panel; what could these four have in common that could lead to anything interesting? But as soon as Richard took the stage and the panel debate started, it was all very obvious. The discussion that followed was by far the best panel discussion I have ever attended. Members of the audience were kept on their toes for 60 minutes as the urban planner, the academic, the government minister, and the industry leader discussed how cities can and will evolve in the future, and how stakeholders will all need to support this growth in a collaborative way.

I hope we will also be able to link to the panel debate as soon that becomes available. It is worth seeing.

Summarizing the first day, it is clear that the technology evolution in ICT, urban development and growth are completely intertwined. Panelist Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director of Gateway House, stated: “Innovation happens at the intersection of different sectors.” I can only agree with her; this summit is another step in getting the necessary collaboration under way.

The post Future cities depend on industry collaboration appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

Every hour the global urban population grows by 7,500 people, due to migration, urban sprawl and natural population growth. That is more than 5 million new city dwellers every month.

With growth like this, a number of environmental, economic and social challenges will undoubtedly arise in our cities. But cities are not only generating problems, they are also the places where solutions to many of the global challenges will be found. This is what we’re here to discuss: through industry cross-collaborations, what solutions can be generated to create more sustainable and innovative communities?

It will be interesting to see how the fundamental forms of the Networked Society – broadband, mobility and the cloud – can contribute to supporting these solutions.

I look forward to sharing what I learn with you.

The post Building networked cities appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

Over three days, April 23-25, the business sector, civil society, researchers, decision-makers and young people shared their perspectives on what we can do to achieve solutions in the areas of sustainable innovation, production and living. These three areas are of fundamental importance for the Rio+20 theme, “Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication”.

I participated at the event by speaking about “Shaping sustainable cities in the Networked Society.” This discussion took place on the “Infrastructure, business support and communication for sustainable societies” panel. My colleague Olle Isaksson and I, also facilitated a roundtable on Transportation in Sustainable Cities together with Volvo Group and Scania. 

It was important for me to be involved in these discussions as Sustainability Director at Ericsson, because very few industries have the same potential to create a sustainable, low-carbon economy as the ICT industry does. While the ICT industry itself is responsible for 2 percent of global emissions, it has the potential to help significantly reduce emissions in the sectors responsible for the other 98 percent - up to 15 percent to 2020 according to the Smart2020 report.

The transport sector alone represents about 13 percent of global CO2 emissions – and this figure is set to rise. The problems of increasing congestion and emissions won’t be solved solely by new infrastructure. By applying ICT-based innovation to all transport modes – air, water, road and rail – intelligent transport systems can optimize how we get around and help to make transport cleaner, safer and more seamless. Intelligent transport offers gains in efficiency: for example, by reducing travel time, or monitoring metering of traffic, logistics and route flow. It also enables the connectivity required to support infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Today more than 50 percent of the worlds population live in cities, by 2050 this is projected to be 70 percent so the importance of city management in areas as diverse as employment, environmental management, public security, healthcare and education, becomes even more critical. Cities will increasingly require effective ICT strategies to be implemented across a multitude of industries in order to ensure sound social, economic and environmental development.  Broadband will be a key enabler for the delivery of these numerous services, such as access to healthcare, education, e-governmental services, virtual meetings and building smart grids.

The results from Stockholm+40 will be presented in side events and in an exhibition at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development from June 20-22, providing examples and solutions in the areas of sustainable innovations, sustainable production and a sustainable lifestyle.

The post Mobile broadband a key enabler for a sustainable future appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

In the Networked Society City Index, we say:

“Today more than 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and by 2030 the proportion is expected to top 60 percent. There is a steady stream of people moving from the countryside to the city every day. Urban population increases by more than 5 million every month. Today more than 20 cities in the world are classed as megacities, cities with more than 10 million inhabitants. Tokyo, Mumbai and Mexico City are all examples. By 2020, the world will have at least eight more megacities, with half of all future megacities located in the developing countries of the world.”

Cities are historically founded and grow on particular sites because of various reasons such as habitat, trading, resources, defensive position or administrative requirements.

Today, people are moving from the countryside to cities to find jobs, education, better living conditions and greater opportunities. Large concentrations of people make life more dynamic, with a rich cultural life and more possibilities to choose an individual lifestyle. But the city often also brings congestion, pollution, loneliness, security issues and segregation.

Accommodation, administration, construction materials and technologies, religion, transport, industry/business, media and defense are all areas that determine the city plan. Examples from the past illustrate how the blueprints for cities have evolved. Before the invention of artillery, the city wall was there to protect the city. But the arrival of artillery meant the city wall was too weak to protect its inhabitants, so cities built bastions. When long-range artillery was introduced, and then airplanes, these made traditional defense systems for the city obsolete and the plans changed again. The introduction of the railway not only brought competition for the horse and carriage as a means of transportation but more importantly connected cities, regions and countries, spurring economic expansion. The list of historical examples is a long one. For more on the topic, I can recommend the book Form and Meaning: The Role of Creativity in Societal Patterns by János Kleineisel.

We are now standing on the brink of a Networked Society where broadband, mobility and the cloud are fundamental forms of infrastructure. The question is how this shift will change city plans and everyday living conditions as well as giving people in the countryside the same opportunities as people in the cities.

To address the needs of the city dweller and city challenges such as transportation and environmental issues, we need solutions for sustainable lifestyles: local job hubs, telecommuting, smart public and private transport systems, e-education and so forth. Such solutions will change the city plans and the type of buildings being built. Any space could potentially become a workplace or a classroom, so we will see new patterns emerging in how people move around within cities. Ultimately you might not have to live in the city where you have to work or study.

The post The changing cityscape appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

Well, possibly. However I expect it’s going to get a whole lot simpler. The latest ConsumerLab report shows that consumers are ready to “mobilize” their everyday activities by integrating their daily routines in to the mobile phone. This means it’s possible to perform activities such as shopping and making payments while on the move.
 
Or alternatively you can find the most suitable traffic route, or find a great restaurant close by.

The convenience of being able to carry out relevant day-to day tasks over the smartphone means they can be completed faster and with less effort, which means the flow of daily life, is enhanced.

It is clear to me that mobility is becoming key to living a more simplified urban life.

Yet there are so many objects and tasks that are part of our daily lives that have not yet been added to the mobile experience, but could be…
So what’s next to go mobile?

The post Convenience is king appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

The Transformative Step of the Day initiative, which was supported by Ericsson and other industry and governmental partners under the umbrella of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), aimed to advance earlier discussions at COP 17 on the role transformative solutions can have in regards to climate change to more concrete action plans at local levels.

For three days, starting December 5, the GeSI, together with the UNFCCC, ITU and UN Global Compact, presented an award to leading  government initiatives that recognize low-carbon transformative solutions.

A transformative step can be a solution, activity or policy decision that supports transformative low-carbon solutions. Transformative solutions often provide emissions reductions to 80 percent or more compared with ‘business as usual’ and frequently depend on an underlying energy-efficient broadband infrastructure.

All delegates on site at COP 17 in Durban were able to participate in the initiative by submitting their ideas through the mobile app or web portal, which was then opened to anyone in the world for voting.

The first Transformative Step of the Day award went to the Green Commuting Fund, championed by the popular Chinese actor Feng Shaofeng. The Green Commuting Fund received the prize for the innovative and carbon-neutral transport solution that already has been used for example in Shanghai.

The second award was a different type of initiative, the 3GF ‘Public Private Partnership for Green growth’ which is a partnership that includes the governments of Denmark, South Korea and Mexico. The initiative sets up a new public-private partnership with a focus on transformative solutions that can deliver a zero-carbon economy and linking them to key processes such as the EU presidency (which Denmark is heading now), the G20 summit (taking place in Mexico in 2012) and the COP/CMP conferences. The 3GF is an especially impressive task because it links government bodies and processes. Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Buildings, Martin Lidegaard, was there to receive the diploma on behalf of the Danish government.

On the third day, the winner was quite a surprise.  Until about 30 minutes before closing the votes, the winner was expected to be the BASIC expert group, encompassing leading thinkers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China. But, at the final moments of voting, Su Wei from the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) passed the BASIC experts.

Su Wei and the NRDC received the prize for their event about policies and measures, which highlighted the need to shift focus from growth to quality of life. They emphasized the need for innovation in key areas such as buildings, transport, grids and industry.

All in all, it was a very exciting journey with a variety of winners and initiatives, which are all needed to put us on the path to a low-carbon economy. I will follow the winners and many of the other initiatives that were nominated to see the progress at COP18 in Qatar next year as well as the lead up to the Rio+20 meeting in June. Truly inspiring work!

Here I am talking to the Danish Minister Martin Lidegaard. Anders Kristoffersen, Public Affairs Manger at Novozymes is on the left and Lila Karbassi, Issue Leader, Environment, UN Global Compact is on the right.

The post Towards a low-carbon economy: the transformative steps appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

At the launch event of the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change initiative, 10 inspiring examples of projects that help reduce CO2 and improve society were named – and the intelligent buses of Curitiba, our project with Brazilian operator Vivo, was among them. The event was moderated by Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics and Government at London School of Economics, and one of the leading voices on the economics of climate change.

One of the reasons this project was chosen was that it not only helped reduce fuel consumption in the city, but also helped the community by improving the efficiency and quality of the public transport system.

By naming such ‘best practice’ cases, UNFCCC secretariat seeks to build momentum for the evolving climate regime and recognizing projects that improve quality of life and have the potential to be replicable.

The Curitiba project did both these things, and shows us the possibilities of connected transport in the cities of the future.

The development towards ever-larger cities creates additional challenges in providing for the evolving needs of citizens. For example, cities need advanced transportation and construction solutions to connect the urbanized surroundings to the core. A high concentration of people can, if unmanaged, create serious traffic congestions, pollution, widespread health problems and soaring crime rates.

Intelligent transport systems will be adopted by the citizens especially if they reduce feelings of frustration. Frustration with buses that do not arrive, buses that pass by and are filled with people, trouble with tickets or buying tickets, different types of transportation modes that are not synchronized, the feeling of wasting the time…

Systems need to be predictable, efficient, convenient, for us, as citizens, to enjoy or be productive. This will create trust in new ways of moving around, to and from the city and increase the usage. The personal citizens’ perspective is vital in making this change happen.

I hope to see more projects like the connected buses of Curitiba in the future.

The post Buses of Curitiba – how technology is leading change appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.

The ICT industry itself is responsible for 2% of global emissions, yet has the potential to help significantly reduce emissions in the sectors responsible for the other 98%

According to the Smart2020 report,  produced by the  The Climate Group on behalf of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), with independent analysis by McKinsey & Company, ICT solutions can help to reduce up to 15 percent of the global emissions by 2020.

At Ericsson, we believe in the power of such transformational solutions and we are active in several areas during COP17/CMP7:

• We are part of the Swedish Pavilion, where we have set up a stand, participate in speaker corners and in Symbiocity seminars, where we share how the Networked Society and how ICT can be a key enabler solving global challenges and enable progress of people, business and society.
• We support the Transformative Step of the Day initiative, which was launched in conjunction with the global climate negotiations to increase focus on transformative low-carbon solutions and how they can be supported in the climate negotiation process. This is a online voting competition that will recognize a winner every day of the conference.

In order to meet the needs of the 9 billion people estimated to populated the world by 2050, there must be a shift from incremental to transformative solutions to solve the climate change.

The opportunity for the transformational power of ICT to put us on the path of a low-carbon economy and spur socio-economic development and has never been greater.

The post Ericsson at COP 17: presenting the power of broadband appeared first on The Networked Society Blog.