LIFE GreenTIC PROJECT PRESENT IN THE I SMART CITIES CONGRESS

23/03/2015 - 08:45

LIFE GreenTIC PROJECT PRESENT IN THE I SMART CITIES CONGRESS

I Congreso Ciudades Inteligentes
The paper “Reducing the carbon footprint of smart cities” will be presented in the Plenary Session of the Congress organised by the RECI (Spanish Network of Smart Cities) on Tuesday 24th March with the aim of presenting to cities the tools developed by the LIFE GreenTIC project that help reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions of cities and organisations.

The LIFE GreenTIC project will present on Tuesday the paper “Reducing the carbon footprint of smart cities” in the framework of the first Smart Cities Congress that will take place in Madrid on the 24-25 March.

The GreenTIC proposal competed against 170 papers evaluated by the Technical Committee of the Congress. This group of experts selected a total of 20 that will finally be presented during the celebration of the event.

The presentation will be on Tuesday 24 at 10:30 a.m. by Jesús Díez, the Programmes Director of Fundación Patrimonion Natural de Castilla y León and coordinator of the European project. Climate change, carbon footprint, ICT and energy efficiency will be the structural concepts of the presentation next Tuesday. The speed at which certain technological innovations and big data development are taking place has caused a “smart” frenzy and many cities are joining in, causing the proliferation of devices, transmission and process of data and the subsequent increase in electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Smart cities development, their data networks and ICT infrastructure required, must be done following a careful planning that takes into account the minimisation of ICT energy consumption associated.
LIFE GreenTIC project, co-financed by the European Union through the LIFE financial instrument for the environment, wants to contribute to this approach and get a neutral or, even better, positive balance for ICT carbon footprint in the smart cities development by putting into practice and available for cities different tools.

This first edition of the Smart Cities Congress is an initiative that emerges with the aim of enhancing the transference of knowledge and experiences on smart cities in Spain although open to stimulus and experiences from other countries.

The LIFE GreenTIC project is coordinated by Fundación Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León and the other members of the partnership are Fundación San Valero (Aragón) and the Logroño city council (La Rioja).

With a duration of three years, the main objective is to demonstrate and quantify the great potential of information and communication technologies to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in the planet, both reducing their own carbon footprint by promoting a better and more intelligent use of ICT and contributing by themselves to get better environmental services.

According to some recent studies, the ICT use was in 2008 responsible for about 2% or 3% of total greenhouse gases emissions in the planet and this proportion is constantly increasing since that moment. It is estimated that in 2020 it could be 6%, similar figures to the ones of aviation at a global scale.

The ICT carbon footprint is mainly due to the necessary energy consumption for their operation, but also during the whole life cycle from the manufacturing of devices and equipment until their management as wastes.

On the contrary, ICT can also contribute to develop important services for a better environmental management and governance, for example when managing transport and energy, for industrial processes or for the management of buildings and cities.

The LIFE project wants to demonstrate that it is possible to improve the positive impact of ICT on the environment and to reduce their carbon footprint through an adequate planning and the selection of the more adequate equipment and services, the application of green procurement criteria and the implementation of good practices by citizens.

You can access the text of the paper and the presentation in the following links:

http://www.lifegreentic.eu/es/documento/comunicacion-reducir-la-huella-de-carbono-de-las-ciudades-inteligentes
https://www.esmartcity.es/comunicaciones/i-congreso-ciudades-inteligentes-reducir-huella-de-carbono