Fast.Co Exist published a ranking this week identifying the top 10 smart cities worldwide, with Vienna, Austria, topping cities like Toronto, Tokyo and Berlin. Smart cities remain a key part of making the planet more sustainable, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will play a huge part in making cities use resources more efficiently while improving quality of life for people. Compiled by Boyd Cohen, co-author of Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change, the ranking is based on the Innovation Cities Top 100 Index, quality of life rankings from Mercer, the Siemens regional rankings of green cities and a Rutgers University study on the digital governance of global cities to understand how cities use ICT.
Vienna, Austria was the only city to rank in the top 10 in all four categories. Vienna has staked out a number of smart-city targets and is actively consulting stakeholders for its carbon reduction, transportation and land use planning. Other cities rounding out the top ten list include Toronto, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Barcelona. We’re also proud to note that Microsoft’s hometown of Seattle was listed as a runner-up, the only other U.S. city cited in Cohen’s post.
Elsewhere on the sustainability front, GreenBiz looked at the benefits of getting buildings to talk to one another through system integration, another reminder that IT solutions have an important role to play in making buildings more sustainable. The Guardian posted an article on significant growth in U.S. wind energy. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says the U.S. wind energy industry has passed 50-gigawatts of capacity, which is equivalent to the generating power of 44 coal-fired power stations or 11 nuclear power plants. The growth in wind energy is good news for companies looking to invest more in renewable energy sources.