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The world’s population is growing fast, and is expected to increase by 2 billion people in the next 30 years. With the UN predicting almost 11 billion people on Earth by 2100, it comes as no surprise that the creation of smart cities has become a pressing issue. There are many factors influencing this dramatic rise in population growth, with increased longevity, international migration, and improvements in quality of life being only a few key factors. With our current economic system reliant on the continued use of fossil fuels and the promise of never ending population growth, the question becomes whether our cities can sustain this population growth and the rapid urbanisation.
What is a smart city?
A smart city (or ‘digital city’) aims to utilise technology to address the sustainability issues that arise from rapid urbanisation. This can involve using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to address and develop sustainable practices. For example, one of the main aspects that comes from the creation of a ‘digital city’ involves the implementation of an intelligent network of machines that is able to transmit large amounts of data wirelessly through the cloud. The idea here is that citizens will be able to engage with smart city ecosystems using smartphones and other smart devices, helping to create large stores of data that can then be used by the government and community to make better informed decisions that improve everyone’s quality of life.
This idea sounds fantastic in theory. However, in reality, we know that using technology can involve consuming large amounts of natural resources. This is an extremely pertinent consideration, particularly when we consider the rapid nature of the technology refresh cycle in this modern era. Furthermore, networking services and software also contribute to environmental degradation. Current estimates suggest that the IT industry could consume 20% of all electricity produced by 2025 and contribute to up to 5.5% of the world’s carbon emissions. All this brings us to the question: how can a city truly be sustainable if it does not monitor the environmental output of the technology it is using?
This is where we come to the potential of Green IT.
What is “Green IT”?
Green IT, or green computing, aims to minimise the adverse effect of technology use on the environment. This includes not only the environmental effects of manufacturing such technology, but maintaining its use and disposing of it. This is important as the better a city’s resources are managed, the more sustainable and efficient it will be. Thus, the adoption of green IT can help address sustainability challenges faced by smart cities and help them produce and use hardware products and software applications that consume fewer resources. For example, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors use more power and energy than liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors. While such a substitution may seem small, every decision ultimately adds up.
There is also considerable scope to distribute energy more efficiently across cities. This is seen in the process of undervolting, by which the central processor in a computer can turn off components (e.g. the hard drive and monitor) if they have been inactive for a period of time, which serves to reduce wastage and increase energy efficiency. Furthermore, Brisbane has been called one of Australia’s most sustainable cities for its ‘Brisbane Smart Poles’ project. This involved the installation of location-specific sensors that collected data on air quality, pollution, and waste, in order to ascertain which locations needed the most improvement in waste reduction. A more impressive example is seen in Sweden, which was awarded the World Smart City Award in 2019. Stockholm is aiming to be climate positive by 2040, which will involve the adoption of smart technologies to measure and optimise energy efficiency in areas of waste and water management.
The future of city planning
Whilst most of us have benefitted from the comfort that technology has given us, it is time to consider its other uses. With population growth and urbanisation unlikely to subside in the short term, we must radically rethink our approach to city planning to avoid the fallout from climate change. The world needs green IT if it is to sustain itself in the near future.
