Skip to content

News

District heating

Flood prevention

Nature based solutions

+5

New White Paper: Urban Innovation for Liveable Cities

image
20 September 2016

Our cities are growing and so are the challenges to make them liveable. Creating a liveable city means taking a holistic approach through public-private partnerships and cross-sector collaboration, enabling smart, urban solutions that not only make cities prosperous, but also healthy, safe and attractive places to live in. Danish cities hold a long tradition for implementing urban development projects through holistic planning where the concern for the environment, people and businesses go hand in hand. 

This whitepaper highlights sustainable approaches across urban mobility, water, climate adaptation and intelligent energy, demonstrating how long-term planning across sectors are key elements in creating liveable cities built on holistic, sustainable solutions.


Download white paper: Urban Innovation for Liveable Cities

Launched at Climate Week NYC
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (presenting State of Green's new white paper together with executive director Finn Mortensen) yesterday in his closing keynote speech at the "Urban Innovation for Livable Cities" conference in New York pointed to Copenhagen as an example that cities around the world can and should go green.

-We need to act now, and we need to do it together. We can learn from one another and engage in partnerships, Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, underlining that Danish companies are more than ready to contribute to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The conference, which also featured a number of Danish companies,  was arranged by Danish Cleantech Hub in cooperation with a number of partners. More than 200 high-level participants from both sides of the Atlantic discussed how the public-private dialogue can deliver innovative solutions to urban challenges. 

Urban Mobility
When you live in a city, you need to get around, but environmental concerns about emissions and endless car queues on the roads are challenges that demand solutions of mobility. The Danish approach to mobility management integrates different modes of transportation while also addressing climate and environmental concerns, such as decreasing private car use and congestion and increasing the use of bicycles. The key to successful mobility management is to incorporate several levels at the same time where collaboration between both public and private actors is paramount to success.

- Read more about: Urban Mobility

Water
Just a decade ago, most cities in Denmark saw water as something to hide and remove in sewers. Today, the harbor water in Copenhagen is clean enough to swim in and the area around the Harbour Bath has flourished. This has been achieved through an integrated approach to urban water management, combining a broad range of environmental, economic and social strategies. Although initially more complex, it is ultimately more cost-efficient from an overall societal perspective. When investments in blue infrastructure are integrated early in the urban planning process, synergies can be achieved and costs reduced. 

- Read more about: Water

Climate Adaptation
Danish experience shows that climate adaptation can also present an opportunity to rethink urban development and gain greater value from investments. Rather than coming at the expense of urban living, climate adaptation can contribute to greener and more liveable cities. For instance, instead of expanding the underground sewage system, surplus water can be led to structures above the ground such as green beds, canals or lakes around the city. These serve a dual purpose as they – in addition to increasing the stormwater drainage capacity – also function as recreational areas, which help cool the city and increase biodiversity.

- Read more about: Climate Adaptation

Intelligent Energy
The homes of the future are intelligent, energy-efficient and energy producing buildings. A smart home can use and produce resources intelligently, incorporating sensors for lighting, climate control, smart metering, energy management and communication systems to control production and consumption of resources. Incorporating intelligent buildings into the energy system – grid-connected, energy-producing buildings – saves energy costs and reduces CO2 emissions, and helps balance increasing shares of electricity produced from fluctuating sources such as solar and wind. Here, district energy provides an answer to power tomorrow’s urban communities and smart cities in the most intelligent way possible. Copenhagen is a good example. Here it all started with one small local system in 1903 and now 98% of the city is supplied by district heating.

- Read more about: Intelligent Energy

White Paper Content
- Creating Green Liveable Cities: The human dimension in sustainable city planning

Urban Mobility:
- Collaboration for a Transition to Sustainable Transportation: Creating synergies and exploiting opportunities through collaboration between different stakeholders

- Alternative Modes of Transportation Create Socio-Economic Benefits: Measuring the socio-economic benefits of alternative modes of transportation

Water: 
- Rethinking Urban Water for New Value in Cities: Developing visions, common goals and integrated solutions

- The Importance of Public Awareness and Political Targets: Creating public awareness of the value of water and political focus on NRW reduction

Climate Adaptation
- Creating Resilient and Liveable Cities with SUDS: Using rainwater as a resource to create green urban spaces with added benefits

- Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration in Climate Adaptation: Creating synergies and saving costs through collaboration between different stakeholders

Intelligent Energy
- The Future of District Energy: Realising a strong global potential

- Smart Buildings: Automation makes buildings a flexible part of the energy system


Download white paper: Urban Innovation for Liveable Cities

-SEE THE TOTAL LIST OF THE TOP 24 GREEN NEWS FROM 2016

You should consider reading

District heating
Flood prevention
Nature based solutions
Smart buildings
Smart cities
Urban infrastructure planning
Urban mobility
Urban water management

Perspective

Wind energy

+32

10 green news stories from Denmark in 2022

22 December 2022
With a significant focus on energy transition, 2022 has been buzzing with new climate pledges and cross-border initiatives. In this recap, we serve the ten most popular news stories published in 2022.

News

Living labs

+61

Danish companies obtain the most green patents

16 January 2023
Known to be among the globe's most sustainable, Danish companies are number one in obtaining green patents in both Europe and the US over the past ten years.

News

Job creation and transition

+101

Sound of Green, a podcast series with insights from Denmark’s green transition

27 January 2023
From managing cloudbursts to setting up climate partnerships, we examine how Denmark has turned acute climate challenges into new opportunities. In our podcast series Sound of Green, experts convey how Danish experiences can push the needle toward global green transition. Find it on Spotify, Apple Podcast and stateofgreen.com.

News

Green financing

+101

New Danish models assess the economic and fiscal impacts of climate policies

31 January 2023
Economists from the University of Copenhagen have developed green models to calculate environmental and climate effects on Denmark's entire economy. The models can have a major impact on how we view and measure economic growth and green transition worldwide.