Peter Torrellas is the vice president and partner for Digital Cities and Infrastructure at Siemens Advanta, the digital transformation consultancy and professional services arm of the global technology powerhouse. In this role, he leads a team of diverse innovators and visionaries in consulting,  professional services, solutions, and software development to enable the vision of our public and private sector clients on their digital journeys.

This open letter was written to the communities around the world that make up our network.

Dear Friends and Members of the Intelligent Community Network,

One of the strengths of community is the ability to bond and support one another, especially in times of challenge, crisis or good fortune. As you are aware from your own experience the COVID-19 Pandemic has brought hardship to most places and is one of the most difficult public health challenges in a century. Most of you have been managing well and using the principles to keep your family and friends safe.  Today, I am writing to you because one of our Intelligent Communities has found itself struggling with COVID.

Will you be living on an Intelligent Street?

In a post Covid world I anticipate a much different respect for the hyper-local aspects of communities than we exhibited before the pandemic. Over the time we stayed closer to our homes we discovered our neighborhoods, local markets and restaurants and the street in front of our homes. We got to know our neighbors, the local store clerks, and our postal service delivery representatives. I am certain that once we feel confident to once again travel further than our neighborhoods, we will explore cities, regions and international destinations once again.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dublin, Ohio CIO Doug McCollough about how social media can be used not only to communicate with citizens, but to measure sentiment and learn about current demeanor in your communities.

“Our police are more trusted in our republic than our president.”

Here’s a “pop” quiz: name the source of that quote.

Hint: It does not come from an authoritarian leader of a country. Nor does it come from the United States in 2021.

It comes from representatives of the world’s most Intelligent Community: Tallinn, Estonia. It is part of a new podcast series that is my attempt to begin to get to the raw, poignant and seemingly intractable issues our communities continue to grapple with in this Era of COVID.

In this special episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Robert Bell speaks with Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger about leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs directs the project, “Smart City Taiwan,” as part of Taiwanese government’s goal to promote industrial upgrading and transformation and digital technologies. The central and local governments and industries work together to introduce smart, innovative applications covering “health,” “governance/safety,” “traffic,” “agriculture,” “education,” and “tourism/retail” to 22 cities and counties across Taiwan. So far, the project has yield remarkable results. About 300 companies have released more than 220 smart services accessible to 8.54 million people. These smart services are designed to address local issues and are also being exported to foreign countries. 

Environmental sustainability and energy transition: Taiwan steps up battle to cut carbon emissions and achieve Net-Zero by 2050

While the world is experiencing the Covid-19 outbreak since 2020, the most searched keyword in 2021 is net zero emissions. This implies that climate change is going to be another battlefield, because no one is immune to its effects. For this reason, U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to invest US$2 trillion in the next four years to build a green energy economy and promote the development of clean energy in the United States. Governments around the world have also actively promoted net-zero emissions to stop climate change from getting worse.

In April 2021, 131 countries including the European Union, the United States, South Korea, and Japan made more active emission reduction commitments at the Leaders Summit on Climate. The United Kingdom and the European Union both updated their mid-term (2035) carbon reduction targets to reduce carbon emissions by 78% and 55%, respectively, and reach a net-zero carbon emission target by 2050. As a member of the global village, Taiwan jumps on the bandwagon to get to zero carbon by 2050.

There is a children’s book, which became an animated movie, about a town destroyed by giant pieces of food falling mysteriously from the sky. It turns out a similar thing can happen when the objects falling from on high are big bales of cash.

In 2015, ICF named Columbus, Ohio, USA as its Intelligent Community of the Year. The very next year, the city beat out 77 other small and midsize US cities for a grant of $50 million from the Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge. (Its status as IC of the Year helped.) Its winning bid called for many cool projects: Wi-Fi-enabled kiosks to help residents plan trips, apps to pay bus and ride-hail fares and find parking spots, autonomous shuttles and sensor-connected trucks.