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Monday, October 17, 2022
Energy efficiency Sostenibilidad e Inclusión

Sustainability (also) of Smart Cities

Now we know that our cities must be inclusive and technologically adapted. We want the city to provide us with what we need to live, and we don't want it to pollute our water or our air. Something like the futuristic cities of the Manga of the '80s. It is what we call Smart Cities, and the applied sustainability that its technology allows us.

Who didn't devise the drawing of their "ideal" city in elementary school. Far from knowing the change that was coming, we considered how we would like people to be able to walk, interact and live in public and private spaces. By then there were plenty of smoke and antennas. Do you remember? ;)


Now we know that our cities must be inclusive and technologically adapted. We want the city to provide us with what we need to live, and we don't want it to pollute our water or our air. Something like the futuristic cities of the Manga of the '80s. It is what we call Smart Cities, and the applied sustainability that its technology allows us.


One of the great concerns of the new generations it is in fact, the power to generate new models of economy where at the same time that you improve health and mind you reduce pollution. Green and slow life models, cooperative environments and eco initiatives are growing and gaining strength.


We want to live in a healthy environment, and good for everyone: adults, children, with mobility problems, sick or with any kind of condition that complicates people's use of public spaces.


Sustainability in Smart Cities is gaining more and more strength

Despite the fact that in the field of sustainable architecture we have already had a 40-year career since the appearance of the first passive and green construction techniques. Smart technology in terms of cities is relatively very recent. In order for our city to be able to supply us sustainably in matters such as basic needs, consumption and mobility, we need adapted urban settings... And the current high levels of pollution do not make it easy.


COP27 has just ended, in a world marked by pollution and with increasingly pressing supply problems. Where technology must be used again to ensure our evolution as a species. COP27, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has as its main mission the rapprochement between countries to achieve compliance with the Paris Agreement.


Sustainability and climate change: The Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change active since 2016. Its objective is to reduce global warming of the planet to pre-industrial levels. Because as we know (or they explain to us everywhere without understanding how we fit into the puzzle as citizens) environmental pollution brings with it a global warming that is already guilty of numerous natural disasters. Increased water levels and pronounced droughts that only increase the social and economic differences in the world. In short, it concerns us as consumers.


Sustainable growth: the cities of the future

But change also concerns us as citizens. Because as we often say, the city is ours. So why isn't it adapted to you, me, the neighbor or his mother? What on a large scale translates into natural disasters, hunger, and wars, on a local scale translates into good social, economic, and consumer practices. A really important fact in Spain, where 80% of homes are no longer energy efficient.


A situation that many experts already predict will not be solved with Next Generation funds. Where since 2020 new constructions must guarantee almost 0 energy consumption. Safire is at this point, really proud of our new constructions smart homes.


It is unknown whether within European policies we will comply with the minimum established in the 2030 agenda. But what is real is that currently cities do not respond to the real needs of their inhabitants. And applied technology can do a lot to change it, also in terms of sustainability.


The smart transition is not easy, but it is not difficult either

We must not forget that we live in the plane of a globalized world economy. An economy tragically fragile to political and warlike changes in any part of the globe. From a pandemic world where we will be eaten by plastic or a permafrost virus. Because we do know and understand that: we are abusing planet Earth and she returns the damage caused in the same way.


Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the carbon footprint. But it is not that companies have just woken up from their lethargy. Big enterprises nationals and multinationals take years, if not decades, to adapt to the change that is now coming to us. At a technological level to improve, above all, its energy consumption and its productive efficiency.


The tin man finally humanized

In In this context, a child recently asked, let's call it G-Alpha, when robots “like the ones now” appeared. The subject came up after summarizing the book of The Wizard of Oz very briefly, where, as you know, the figure (humanized or dehumanized?) of a tin man appears. 


a lot"... To which any child in our environment would answer... "But now robots do everything for us"...


Whoah. The adult could have argued with the metaverse, but again G-Alpha wins, who knows more about Minecraft and Roblox than most adults, showing that the city where I would like to live is smokeless, has many trees : I grow my garden there, I only have the food animals I need (of course, there are no fish or peas) and I don't get in trouble.

So, the technological revolution that comes to us, so comfortable with the apocalyptic theories of the end of humanity and Terminators (fear already comes from the time of "the Turk") no longer pursues adaptation to the environment, not even natural selection. look for change. And governments that support it. Only then will the best prepared survive.


At the moment we continue to be inspired by the digital utopia of the metaverse. We celebrate events such as the Smart City Expo World Congress, which seeks to respond to how technology can be put at the service of our species. More environmentally friendly and autonomous cars, better use of waste or efficient buildings... These are some of the main measures that are already being applied to improve mobility and sustainability in cities.


Smart cities and real current progress

Technology It makes our task much easier if it adapts to our needs and limitations: from the creation of smart meters that save us extra energy consumption to facilitating travel without a car, the creation of more and better charging stations for electric vehicles, access public to green spaces or improve water conservation and wastewater management with applied technology to control water systems.

Sustainable architecture also benefits from technological progress through air conditioning systems, the use of renewable energies, recycled and/or natural materials, the use of water in the construction itself, and the use of intelligent materials from little maintenance and high efficiency, not only energy but also of great durability in the medium and long term. We will be there.