In 2020, Espoo signed a global commitment on circular economy and stated co-operating in all divisions of the city as well as more than 40 partner and companies. There are also circular and sharing economy experiments for citizens, such as neighbourhood marketplaces and tool shares. However, the partnerships also look above and beyond the city borders: the innovations created in Espoo could spread across the globe.
Lahti, with its population of 120,000 inhabitants and located in Southern Finland, is the smallest and northernmost European Green Capital ever. Lahti has worked on environmental issues for decades and is continuously developing as a city with a sustainable future, a pioneer of smart, sustainable solutions.
Located in the heart of the sunny Mojave Desert, just 30 minutes from Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada, on BLM-managed federal land, Primergy is building Gemini, a solar farm capable of generating 690 MW of AC power and a battery energy storage facility capable of 380 MW. The project will be carefully sited and will produce enough reliable, clean energy to power 400,000 homes during peak periods.
XZERO is a planned sustainable community that can provide a low-carbon lifestyle for 100,000 residents in balance with nature.
The separation of organic waste is often not an optimised public service, so most of the bio-waste ends up in municipal waste. This is the problem that a couple from Newton, Sydney, have addressed and have come up with the idea of Share Waste.
Ten years ago, the Stockholm region set an ambitious target to run all land public transport on 100% fossil fuel-free fuel by 2025, but buses powered by ethanol and RME (rapeseed methyl ester) contain some percentage of fossil ingredients, therefore, the total number of buses will not be 100% fossil fuel free, as fossil components are needed to start the engine or enter the production process. However, buses that run on electricity, biogas or HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil) will use 100% fossil fuel-free raw materials.
The China Railway Research and Development Corporation (CRRC) has introduced the autonomous guided, track- and wireless tram, a major advance in the design and technology known as Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART), a LiDAR-guided articulated bus system for urban passenger transport. It was developed by CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co Ltd and was unveiled in 2017 in Zhuzhou, Huan Province. The product was described as a cross between a bus and a tram, commonly referred to as a "tram without tracks".
Toyota has begun construction of Woven City, its prototype city of the future, at the foot of Mount Fuji, on the site of its former car factory in Shizuoka Prefecture. Woven City will serve as a living laboratory and intellectual workshop for the scientists working there to develop the technologies of the future.
One of the key goals of building the city is to test new system and service ideas that expand mobility and unleash human potential. The planned city will cover a total area of 708 000 square metres, with a planned housing capacity of 2 000 people.
The main objective of the 3x30DebrecenMob initiative was to promote active and sustainable transport. In partnership with the City of Debrecen, the project was initiated and led by the Barcelona Region and funded by EIT Urban Mobility.
At the 2019 Solar Decathlon house building global competition for university students (organised in Szentendre, Hungary), four prizes were awarded to the Hungarian Nest+ project, a model house designed by a consortium of the University of Pécs (Hungary), the University of Miskolc (Hungary) and the University of Algiers Blidai Saad Dahlad University (Algeria).