*EPCA:* You will be one of the jurors of the *European* *Finals of the
European Youth Debating Competition* *(EYDC) *and we are very grateful for
your contribution. Your work as the Head of the *Smart City Agency Vienna*
provides you with front-line experience in city planning and therefore, can
you please tell our readers what this year’s topic for the debates *“Living,
learning, working and moving in Smart Cities of the future: with or without
plastics and petrochemicals?”* means to your work and to Vienna?
*DW:** Our goal is not to abolish Plastics and Petrochemicals, the question
is more about how “to use them in a more sustainable way” in the mid-term,
because they are an integral part of our life. In the long-term, till 2050,
there will be new ways of moving and living and as we are not experts in
chemistry, we are expecting to have discussions with representatives from
the petrochemical industry to learn more about the added value of newly
developed materials, share with them our projects and work together
otherwise we don’t know which type of product to choose Vienna will change
rapidly, and we have also to educate our citizens on environmental
awareness and how to handle plastics for example in a more sustainable way.
*
*This links itself well to the topic of the EYDC debate: in Viennese school
classes, the kids learn how to handle plastics in a more sustainable way
and to recycle them, which we hope will influence consumers’ attitudes. *
*Vienna is also supporting the local companies “to go green” through
several programs: **Ökobuisnessplan**, is an office that supports companies
through education and financial support to help them save energy and
supports companies as well to develop greener processes. And m**aybe more
interesting for your reader, **Ökokauf Vienna, **which* *is the sustainable
procurement program of Vienna. With a yearly volume of three billion EUR
procurement Vienna has a strong role in this context. These services are
free of charge for all local companies and are provided by different
agencies that are all owned by the city of Vienna. *
*EPCA:* Both the renowned consultancy *Mercer* and *The Economist *placed
Vienna in the *top position* in their ranking regarding the theme “*Quality
of Life*” in 2018 and Vienna is continuously performing well on multiple
indicators. For example, Vienna also reached first place in *Roland
Berger’s* “*Smart City*” index in 2017 and in the category “*Mobility*”,
where Vienna received the *European Commission’s*, EUROPEAN*MOBILITY*WEEK
Award 2017.
*“Smart City”*,* “Mobility” *and* “Quality of Life”* are often linked
together. Could you please give the reader an insight how the work of your
office is *connecting* *these three topics in Vienna*?
*DW:** The connection of these three topics is actually the basis of our
“Smart City Vienna framework strategy”. This paper connects the topics of
innovation, resource conservation mainly in the areas of mobility and
energy and quality of life. Other cities focus only on the topic of
mobility in relationship to digitisation. However, we believe that being
truly “smart” lies in the interaction and cooperation between the
above-mentioned topics. Factors like climate change and urbanisation will
have a major impact and budgets are getting tighter. This is why it is
essential to use the potential of the interconnection between these topics.
*
*My work is to connect and enable the cooperation between energy, mobility
and many more relevant issues – always with the focus to strengthen the
quality of life for all our citizens. Topics like digitisation,
technological competencies, public-private partnerships are still something
new for most of my colleagues and that is why collaboration is needed, also
hand-in-hand with the citizens and private companies themselves. Governance
is a major issue for all “Smart Cities” and is one of my main
responsibilities because it is sometimes not easy to encourage established
actors to talk to each other. Representatives of the city, citizens,
scientists and private businesses need to communicate effectively, and this
is where we had the largest improvements. Even smaller projects take time,
which means that the benefits of your effort materialize only years later.
Therefore, you need the right basic strategic framework to guide your
actions. *
*It helps that the Major of Vienna has endowed us with the necessary power
to drive change, but it is important to note that if you force someone to
act, it will never be as fruitful as the result of a collaboration between
the various actors. You have to find a win-win situation because the effect
is remarkably higher when everyone sees herself/himself as a winner in a
situation. *
*The Smart City Agency, created 5 years ago, a city owned consultancy, is
part of the Urban Innovation GmbH. Our budget is financed by different
departments and the General Directors office, but we have the freedom to
act mainly on our own. We are “city owned” but not “civil servants”. The
political support of the Major is crucial. However, the Smart City Vienna
Framework Strategy on which our work is built on is not just a marketing
tool, it is signed by the Major and the city council, (about 100 signatures
of politicians), and therefore is a guideline for the strategy of the city
until 2050. This means that there are around 60 goals, ranging from culture
to energy, that have to be fulfilled. *
*Furthermore, we receive the feedback from citizens through digital as well
as traditional channels. I have to say that in the past it was mostly a
one-way communication and Vienna was not the showcase city for
interactivity. But times are changing, there are now hundreds of digital
channels opening up from all of the cities agencies. But we also use the
traditional channels as well, we organise big events and workshops every
two months, which are always linked to the topic of “Smart City”. But
communicating with 1.9 million citizens is hugely complex and our agency is
not the only one involved in this! *
*EPCA:* Being “*smart*” is *not* only about the *data itself. *It is also
about how to take into account the expectations of all stakeholders through
a *participative* and *integrated* approach towards a city that is as
sustainable as possible. Can you please share with our readers, the
challenges, opportunities and lessons learned as a result of such an
approach?
*DW:** We have already touched upon these topics, but a major challenge is
that Vienna is very good in writing strategic papers but to get it into
practice is the challenge. How to motivate people to change and how to
connect all the projects is still a problem. For example, civil servants
see that the city is highly ranked for ten years in a row and think that
this is enough. But the world is changing rapidly, and you could fall
behind incredibly fast, like with a bicycle, you will fall eventually when
you stop paddling.*
*Therefore, we have to work on it constantly. I often encounter closed
doors because people say, it is working perfectly fine, why do we have to
develop more digitisation and bring in new IT? But these are exactly the
cases where you will see the fruits of your labour 10 years down the line.
An example is the potential of the Smart Energy Grid System. Everything is
city owned in Vienna and we are unique in that way. We are responsible for
the city infrastructure, the waste management and gas and electricity
distribution. Therefore, changes like digitisation can be initiated
internally, but it must happen now to see results in ten years. *
Dominic Weiss concluded by saying that for him a *“Smart City is a city
that protects resources and uses innovation and digital components to offer
the highest quality of live for its citizens**. These challenges can be met
if we tackle change actively and make Vienna a place that fosters
innovation even more than it does today”.*
