Smart cities are becoming increasingly achievable, but they require commitment, determination, planning, public-private collaboration and, sometimes, support from Europe as well. In the case of Milan, €8.6 million in European funding is heading to the city to create a zero-emissions smart district. The Lombard capital, together with London and Lisbon, has won the tender "Solutions for smart cities and communities integrating the energy, transport and ICT sectors through pilot projects", included within the research and innovation programme "Sharing cities" under Horizon 2020. What convinced Europe was the plan presented by the city administration for the Porta Romana-Vettabbia neighbourhood, which aims to cut CO2 emissions from buildings and transport and thereby improve air quality.

The planned areas of intervention will include energy efficiency improvements to buildings (two in mixed ownership and two publicly owned) totalling 25,000 sq m of residential units, and the installation of 300 smart street lamps equipped with sensors and wi-fi. As for sustainable mobility, residents of the district will have access to 60 electric car-sharing vehicles on the road and two residential car-sharing cars, 150 electric bikes across a total of 14 new stations, 76 electric charging points (of which 20 rapid-charge), 125 smart parking spaces and 10 shared electric vehicles dedicated to freight transport. "The Porta Romana-Vettabbia area will be the pilot zone on which we will work with a series of actions that could in future be extended to other districts of the city," said Cristina Tajani, Councillor for Labour Policy and Economic Development, at the project's launch conference. "We will collaborate with our project partners to make the identified district increasingly smart, and we will do so by actively involving citizens." The regeneration of the area cannot therefore happen without the support of associations, universities, businesses and residents: among those who have already signed up are Legambiente, Fondazione Politecnico di Milano and Atm.

Five years is the time available to turn plans on paper into reality — three years of interventions and two of monitoring results. London's plan will concern Greenwich, with smart parking, bicycles and electric cars, solar panels on homes and the use of the Thames as a source of renewable energy. Solar panels and electric mobility are also planned for part of the historic centre of Lisbon, which will use information technology above all to improve the public transport service. If the pilot projects in Milan, London and Lisbon prove successful — 25 million euros have been allocated in total by Europe for the consortium of the three cities, which are required to share know-how and results — three "follower" cities are already ready to replicate the smart practices: Bordeaux, Burgas and Warsaw.