ICLEI Member Stockholm (Sweden) was named the world’s smartest city during the Smart City Expo World Congress in ICLEI Member Barcelona (Spain) on 20 November. The City’s leadership in the European Smart Cities and Communities project GrowSmarter, in which ICLEI Europe is a partner, was the deciding factor for Stockholm to take home the award.
Gustaf Landahl, Project Coordinator for GrowSmarter and Head of Department for Planning and Environment in the Environment and Health Administration at the City of Stockholm, said when accepting the award, “As a representative of the City of Stockholm and also the GrowSmarter project, this award acknowledges what we have done in Stockholm for many years.” He went on to thank the staff in Stockholm, the cities of Cologne and Barcelona for their partnership as GrowSmarter Lighthouse Cities, and all the GrowSmarter partners.
GrowSmarter’s project coordination team of Gustaf Landahl, Lisa Enarsson and Sigrid Granström accepted the award on behalf of the City of Stockholm and the GrowSmarter project.
“Stockholm is proof of what a connected, smart and sustainable city is. Winning the World Smart City Award is a testament to the huge journey we have been on both in the GrowSmarter project and in the city as a whole. That journey is never ending, but GrowSmarter has taken us an important step on the way,” project managers Sigrid Granström and Lisa Enarsson highlighted.
The World Smart City Award recognises projects, ideas and strategies that promote sustainable urban development. This year, more than 450 nominations were submitted from 54 different countries. The City Award is given to a city with global strategies combining project initiatives and policy implementations for their citizens. The other finalists in this category were Bristol (United Kingdom), Curitiba (Brazil), Montevideo (Uruguay), Seoul (South Korea) and Tehran (Iran).
Stockholm has been leading the GrowSmarter project since the beginning of 2015. The project is funded by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme and brings together cities and industry to integrate and demonstrate 12 smart city solutions in energy, infrastructure and transport. GrowSmarter has renovated more than 130,000 m2 of building stock with energy efficiency and smart technologies, has deployed sustainable mobility solutions, and accomplished much more to improve sustainability in its Lighthouse and Fellow Cities.
The solutions developed by Stockholm, Barcelona and Cologne together with the industry partners of the project, have been replicated in ICLEI Members Cork (Ireland), Graz (Austria), and Porto (Portugal), as well as in Suceava (Romania), and Valetta (Malta). Experiences from implementation and replication within the GrowSmarter project have been detailed, and will be used to inspire similar action in other European cities.
The project will present its results at a final conference in Stockholm on 3 December.
For more informaiton on GrowSmarter, click here.