Think "smart" and "smart" in the same sentence and you're more likely to think of Paris than Utrecht, the Netherlands.
That's because the European Union's Smart Cities and Communities project has turned the Dutch city into "a beacon guiding the way to more sustainable European cities with stable, secure, and affordable energy and mobility services for citizens with broad-reaching and tangible impact on our planet's well-being and that of its inhabitants," per a press release.
In fact, Utrecht is the first city in the world to implement "bi bidirectional vehicle-to-grid" charging, allowing electric vehicles to both charge from the grid and deliver energy back to it, supporting renewable energy integration and helping to balance the grid, per the release.
The project also led to the world's first retrofitted positive-energy high-rise residential building.
In Nice, a demonstrator "smart" building includes smart lighting, ventilation, and EV charging systems, as well as opaque glass that prevents direct sunlight from heating it.
In Gothenburg, the co-operative housing company Riksbyggen proved the success of their decision not to include private parking spaces in their innovative housing concept, Viva.
"By using the EC2B app for Mobility-as-
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.