Written by Mary Scott Nabers
President and CEO, Strategic Partnerships Inc.

Recognizing that two heads really are better than one, governmental officials nationwide are taking the very old adage to the extreme as they work toward “smart city” status.

In what is already a major trend, cities are partnering with private-sector businesses, corporations, educational organizations, civic groups, private individuals and non-government organizations.  The partnerships then work together in planning, designing and implementing innovative smart cities projects that will promote sustainability and improve the quality of life for citizens.

One of the first such alliances was launched by the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance. The group focused on issues such as transportation, public housing and environmental quality. The goal was to bring together leaders from a variety of private- and public-sector jurisdictions to develop and institute ways to cost-effectively manage and improve the areas of focus.

The initiative was statewide and the impetus was partly because of the state’s population explosion, which experts say could result in more than 3 million new residents moving to the state by 2050. The alliance quickly attracted the attention of a number of major cities in the state, including Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins.

The cities were joined by several research partners, including two federally funded laboratories.  A state technology association that connects public organizations, academia and the private sector is also on board and the University of Colorado is the alliance’s academic partner. A private-sector technology company was named to serve as technology advisor for the alliance to help design and pilot projects undertaken by cities.

Another similar group, the Dallas Innovation Alliance, was launched in 2015 during the nation’s first Smart Cities Week.  This effort began with an announcement of its goal – to “create the most consumer-focused Smart City strategy in the world.” The initial kickoff included partners such as the city of Dallas, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, numerous private-sector partners such as telecom businesses, computer and technology corporations and the Texas Research Alliance.

Using experiences and successes from other smart cities projects, the city hopes to create a plan for implementing smart cities innovations that can be replicated throughout the city. More than three-dozen partners in the public, civic, private and academic sectors of the city and 20 city departments participate in the alliance.

Earlier this month, the Dallas Innovation Alliance released a year-end case study of its Smart Cities Living Lab. In one four-block corridor in downtown Dallas, nine smart city projects were implemented. One LED lighting project resulted in a 35 percent energy reduction indicating that millions in savings are possible if the city moves forward to integrate LED bulbs in all of its current 85,000 lights.

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Mary Scott Nabers is president and CEO of Strategic Partnerships Inc., a business development company specializing in government contracting and procurement consulting throughout the U.S. Her recently released book, Inside the Infrastructure Revolution: A Roadmap for Building America, is a handbook for contractors, investors and the public at large seeking to explore how public-private partnerships or joint ventures can help finance their infrastructure projects.

Tags: Colorado Smart Cities Alliance, Mary Scott Nabers, Smart Cities, Smart Cities Week, Strategic Partnerships Inc.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2018 at 9:37 am and is filed under Guest Post, Smart Growth, Technology, The Infra Blog, Urban Planning . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.