SUPPLY CHAIN

progress . Environmental Insights Explorer provides data on building emissions , on real-time transport emissions , and on the opportunity to deploy things like solar .”

“ One example is Dublin city : it has set a target to increase cycling trips by 20 % and used real-time transport data to see what ' s happening in the city today . That ' s helped it develop plans for the infrastructure changes and policy changes needed to improve cycling . And it ’ s using that real-time data to track progress , to see if it ' s really having the impact that is desired ,” Elman adds .

How will our mobile phones fit into this ? The ongoing development of mobile technologies , facilitated through the use of AI and IoT , demonstrates that connectivity can indeed be done sustainably .

Within smart cities , this will be achieved both at the macro level of governments and global corporations , and the micro of individual users of increasingly sustainable devices .

“ Looking into the future , smart homes will become more sophisticated ,” Houssein asserts .

“ There will be a shift in how we view smart devices – they will no longer just be a ‘ nice-to-have ’ add-ons , but integrated elements of a home . Rather than a collection of unconnected smart devices , homes in the smart cities of the future will use IoT to become an interconnected ecosystem that seeks to improve efficiency , reduce running costs and make life easier and more comfortable for residents .”

And , thanks to the net-zero commitments and landmark sustainability developments of mobile giants like Google , sustainability will automatically be embedded in the smart city technologies that we will use .

142 May 2023