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Learning from Cities— The 2nd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation
project stakeholders are engaged with
increase efficiency. Then the government
the goals of the program is to formulate
has provided a more effective service for
and devise an effective dissemination and
Bristol’s citizens.
communication strategy. By linking the smart city agenda to Bristol’s status as Green Capital, the profile of the various projects has been raised significantly
Practice and Innovation
on a national level. At a local level, the
1. Progressive and Revolutionary
election of a directly-elected mayor has
Innovation
helped distil messages about the necessity
Smart City Bristol is remarkable
for a “smart city” approach to carbon
in that it combines evolutionary and
reduction.
revolutionary aspects.
When it comes to the employment of
Smart city Bristol is evolutionary
innovative technological solutions, there
in that it builds upon the lessons learned
are a number of political sensitivities
from previous projects. A good example
to consider, especially in the context of
of this is the “smart metering” suite
decreasing authority budgets and the
of projects that has been deployed in
perception that smart city projects are
Bristol, beginning with a project called
somehow non-essential expenditure. This
“DEHEMs” (2008—2011) and further
cynicism has been largely overcome by
developed in “3E Houses” (2011—
establishing successful links with other
2014). Both projects were funded under
internal council departments, securing
European Commission funding initiatives,
buy-in from senior managers as to how
with DEHEMs trialling the use of smart
the technology in question can actually
meters in council-owned properties. The lessons from this project were used to inform the 3e houses work, which used smart metering in combination with a user “interface” to enrich the user experience and increase levels of participation and engagement. Again, the learning from this project has been used to develop a bid for a further smart metering project which
□ Bristol former mayor George Ferguson drives the electric vehicle for energy conservation and environment protection
aims to develop smart metering “apps”. It is hoped that this project will be funded