The sustainable city can no longer be merely a utopian idea — it can and must become a reality, as some cities are already demonstrating. When Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York for 13 years and now a UN special envoy, was asked to define the city of the future, he placed the emphasis on "new models of construction, transport, land use, and energy production and consumption. By providing cities and nations with the tools to build an urban future that realises a model of a sustainable city, which can thus become a laboratory for change." According to Bloomberg, the world's cities could reduce emissions by more than one billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030 — provided they become clever, or rather, intelligent. Smart cities, in other words.

The solutions available to administrators for making a city sustainable within urban centres are truly numerous, ranging from the application of the very latest technologies to encouraging changes in habits. There are many good ideas, but some are absolutely essential if we want a sustainable city.

A sustainable city: what it cannot do without

Wi-fi across the whole city

Checking emails, reading the news online, looking up bus timetables becomes easier when there is a public wi-fi area, as already exists in Milan and Rome.

Coworking

These are spaces available to freelance workers, equipped with everything needed at a professional level. The latest development is coworking spaces with on-site nurseries, already set up in Bologna, Milan and Rome. Some coworking spaces are focusing on new technologies such as 3D printers, design and the use of open-source software/hardware like Arduino. Here is a list of coworking spaces in various Italian cities.

Zero land consumption

Redeveloping and modernising existing structures using the latest available technologies. Tuscany was the first region to adopt a law against land consumption, and it will progressively become an increasingly prominent issue in major urban areas. Parliament approved, in May 2016, a regulation to contain land consumption.

Long live home automation and the internet of things

Here is how a home — or even an entire neighbourhood — becomes "smart": electronic systems for controlling temperature, pollutants and humidity, fire prevention, security and intrusion detection, baby monitoring, and remote control of various household appliances. Remote control has now reached the new phase of the internet of things, which will make it possible to manage, control and schedule the operation of objects via the web.

Green roofs and urban allotments

Encouraging greenery in cities, both to absorb CO2 and for beautification. Rooftops covered with vegetation help reduce heat in buildings during summer and provide partial insulation in winter, while urban allotments offer a small antidote to stress that also saves money compared with buying everything at the shops — a growing phenomenon embraced by many local authorities as well.

Teleworking

Alarm, breakfast, and straight to work without leaving the house. It may have its pros and cons, but working from home and via the web is certainly a way to reduce traffic and vehicle pollution. This is confirmed by several studies, including those by Asstel and the European Telework Development initiative of the European Union. Teleworking also means managing work from various locations rather than from the usual office desk — an additional opportunity that encourages new organisational and personnel management approaches for companies.

Electronic queuing

The hi-tech version of the numbered ticket, which allows people to avoid physically standing in a queue. With this app, bookings are made remotely, so before paying bills you can go shopping or grab a coffee.

Digital documents in public administration

Paper, paper and more paper. The third millennium should put an end to paper documents when they can easily be replaced by electronic files that can be downloaded and saved on a smartphone.

Schools as cultural and service hubs, open in the afternoons too

Envisioning school buildings as community gathering places after lessons, with open courses, social spaces and areas for sport, reading, information and culture. The Ministry of Education has in the meantime decided to keep schools open during the summer season as well, in precisely this spirit.

Social collaboration between citizens, the administration and law enforcement

Social networks and applications are an incredible aid for improving decorum and respect for rules in cities: from the Io Segnalo system created by Roma Capitale to allow citizens to submit priority reports, to the application for eliminating urban decay.

Mini-renewables and energy-saving technologies

The future of energy is small-scale. Photovoltaic, solar thermal, and also micro-wind installations on buildings are architectural solutions that use little space to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Further assistance comes from technologies that reduce energy waste through dedicated software for homes and offices.

Smart waste sorting to reward/penalise citizens and businesses

Already widespread across numerous Italian municipalities, this concept sees the American city of Chicago pushing for "smart" innovation: bins with built-in waste compactors, powered by solar energy from panels fitted on the lid. They can hold up to five times the standard amount of waste, and an alert system notifies the control centre when they are full, reducing the number of collection vehicle journeys.

Micro-payments via smartphone and web

Mobile phone systems or apps could be used for payments faster than a credit card: this would make all transfers between modes of transport far quicker. In France, they have trialled Twitter in place of cash, for a social payment as quick as a snap of the fingers.

Planning home-to-work commutes in large companies and organisations

Comprehensive measures to manage home-to-work commuting can be planned through the role of the mobility manager. This is a role that arises from the need to act on the most systematically recurring reason for travel within the framework of urban mobility; it involves developing and fine-tuning a set of measures and tools for reorganising the commuting patterns of staff at large companies and organisations, as well as rationalising travel to and from shopping centres, hospitals, universities and auditoriums.

Incentivising low-environmental-impact vehicles, starting with taxis

Local authorities can encourage the purchase of vehicles powered by eco-friendly fuels at a local level and promote the spread of energy distribution points, as Japan has done, where there are more charging points for electric cars than petrol stations. A sustainable city must transform both the public and private vehicle fleets, with incentives for purchasing new electric and hybrid taxis and new freight vehicles. Of the eight thousand vehicles that make up Rome's taxi fleet, two (two!) are electric cars.

Raising awareness of "mobility vouchers"

Italy too, following the French example, has introduced "Mobility Vouchers". A particular form of incentive aimed at all those who demonstrate that they travel to their workplace, or accompany their children to school, using sustainable means of transport (one example is the municipality of Massarosa).

Intermodal mobility systems for the "last mile"

Through collaboration between the public and private sectors, between large companies and public administration, it is possible to envision systems that make it easier for citizens to reach public transport and cover the fateful "last mile", as demonstrated by the Grenoble experiment.

A single card

Some cities are experimenting with the creation of a card that allows the use of the underground, trams, buses, car sharing and bike sharing, also enabling the use of shared vehicles, which would significantly facilitate the use of different modes of transport.

Protected home-to-school routes

One of the main causes of morning traffic slowdowns is the school run. To reduce it, protected routes for home-to-school journeys on foot or by bicycle must be created — such as the bike bus and Bike to school — but children must also be taught how to get around through workshops and educational outings using sustainable means of transport.

Banning polluting vehicles: how long will Euro 3 diesels keep circulating?

It is a shame about the recent failure to approve the ban on Euro 3 diesels in the Lombardy Regional Council — already planned for October 2015 and instead unexpectedly suspended. If there is no change of heart, more than half a million highly polluting vehicles will continue to circulate in Lombardy in 2016 as well, over one hundred thousand in Milan alone.