WASHINGTON — As part of Smart Cities Week in Washington, D.C., Siemens formally launched its City Performance Tool, a data-driven modeling tool that helps cities calculate the environmental and economic impacts of building, transport and energy technologies.
“We see the need for smarter use of data to help inform cities as they make sustained and targeted investments in order to improve city infrastructure,” said Siemens USA President and CEO Eric Spiegel. “Our City Performance Tool allows city managers and planners a unique view of their city’s impact and helps identify the areas of greatest need and effectiveness for better resource allocation.”
Already, a growing list of North American cities are implementing the City Performance Tool to develop data-driven infrastructure decision-making, plans and programs as part of their broader sustainability initiatives. The tool is designed to reduce environmental impact of everyday activities, evaluate job creation in installing, operating, and maintaining city solutions. Other cities currently testing or using the tool include New Bedford, MA; Riverside, CA; Minneapolis, MN; San Francisco, CA and Mexico City, Mexico.
The tool offers city managers and planners a unique look at their city infrastructure and can be used in a variety of different decision-making scenarios. It can measure and compare technologies that provide win-win solutions for unique urban challenges, and works on pre-existing infrastructure.
For example, the City of Riverside, CA has begun implementing the City Performance Tool, analyzing infrastructure investments based on growth and sustainability targets. The software provides extensive insight into what improvements can have the greatest impact on a city’s goals. Rusty Bailey, the Mayor of Riverside, CA, says the performance tool “helps us make better decisions.”
Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance
Siemens has also signed on to support the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), an effort launched earlier this year by mayors of 17 international cities across nine nations. CNCA is a collaboration of global cities committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 or sooner—the most ambitious GHG emission reduction targets undertaken by any cities across the globe. By making the Siemens’ City Performance Tool available to CNCA, alliance members will be able to leverage the software model to evaluate how specific building, transport, and energy technologies can help them achieve their environmental goals.
“Siemens is proud to support the efforts of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance with its CyPT – City Performance Tool by providing an integrated simulation IT platform to accurately forecast the impact of urban infrastructure technologies on environmental care targets of cities in the areas of urban mobility, energy management and resource efficiency services,” said Pedro Miranda, Corporate Vice President and Head of the Siemens Global Center of Competence Cities.
U.S. alliance cities include:
- Washington, D.C.
- Minneapolis, MN
- Boston, MA
- New York City, NY
- Boulder, CO
- Portland, OR
- San Francisco, CA
- Seattle, WA
International alliance cities include:
- Berlin, Germany
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Sydney, Australia
- Oslo, Norway
- Vancouver, Canada
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- London, United Kingdom
- Yokohama, Japan
- Melbourne, Australia
Intelligent Infrastructure Investments
Investing in intelligent and sustainable infrastructure solutions provides both environmental and economic benefits. In a recent study conducted by the Economic Development Research Group and Siemens, investing in technologies like smarter energy-management, building technologies and sustainable transportation yielded new business development and jobs in the broader communities and regions around Salt Lake City and Louisville.
Siemens is serving as a technology partner for other cities, delivering similar results and investing in smarter technologies that bring both direct and indirect benefits to residents in New York, who will soon see technology making their electricity more resilient to increasing weather-related risks; and in Portland, San Francisco and Minneapolis, where public transportation riders are benefitting from better monitoring, fewer breakdowns and more efficient energy usage throughout.
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