Government Technology

San Francisco, Amsterdam Work Toward Sustainability


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December 1, 2009 By

Photo: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom/Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Cisco Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink, along with Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen, presented the latest developments in the Connected Urban Development (CUD) initiative in Bangalore, India, on Tuesday. They discussed the Urban EcoMap, the newest piece of the CUD program.

The EcoMap is designed to allow citizens to make informed decisions regarding the effect that their actions -- or inactions -- have on their environment. The online application's aim is to help foster healthy competition between cities as they lower their environmental impact. It's is also meant to serve as an example of how to incorporate technology into a city setting so that it encourages citizen participation.

"We look at sustainability as three elements: economic, environmental and social. Some cities are aging and need to reinvent themselves; some cities are exploding like Bangalore. Competition will be around cities," Elfrink said. "If the citizens are not buying into the concept, nothing will happen. We still build cities the same way we did 100 years ago. Technology in a lot of urban planning is still an afterthought. We have to start thinking out of the box."

The CUD, an offshoot of the Clinton Global Initiative, aims to demonstrate how incorporating technology into the foundation of urban development can enhance sustainability and diminish a city's carbon emissions. San Francisco, Amsterdam and Seoul, South Korea, are the founding CUD cities.


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