Johannes Nuutinen, Principal Consultant of Demos Helsinki, Finland
We are living through an era, where we must significantly be able to cut our carbon emission due to climate change. A big proportion of our carbon footprint is made in cities, and global cities seem to have taken a key role in fighting climate change with ambitious targets.
It is, however, unclear how cities will meet these objectives. Transforming already built cities into sustainable ones is a fundamental challenge – how can our infrastructure be updated without building it from scratch?
Demos Helsinki tackled this challenge in Smart Retro. Smart Retro was a two-year project, which involved 13 partners in three Nordic cities to develop new urban solutions that lower climate emission while improving the lives of city inhabitants. Focusing on smart building, mobility and production services, Demos Helsinki was able to test different services together with citizens.
The outcome was a development model for cities, that wish to reduce carbon emissions through designing smart services – together with their citizens.
