Humans are the masters of Earth when it comes to energy. We reap it from fossil fuels, the sun, wind and waters, even from the atom. You are using it now to read these words. Yet we waste most of it in the form of heat, whether it’s the blazing temperatures inside the engine of your car or the heat pouring out of the smokestack of a factory. By most, I mean up to 70 percent. That’s ridiculously bad for both our wallets and our environment.

What if there was a technology that could harvest the waste heat from factories, power plants and data centers and turn it into electricity? Well, there is – and it is being born at a startup housed at a university in an underappreciated corner of Ontario Province called Durham.

In this series with mayors, police chiefs and other leading thinkers on the topic of policing and collaborative leadership, we ask how Intelligent Communities are responding to the issue and what advantages and best practices they might offer others.

In this series with mayors, police chiefs and other leading thinkers on the topic of policing and collaborative leadership, we ask how Intelligent Communities are responding to the issue and what advantages and best practices they might offer others.

In this episode of The New Abnormal series, ICF Co-Founders Lou Zacharilla and John Jung speak with Cyrus Tehrani of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Paddy Harrington of Frontier Co., and Institute without Boundaries at George Brown College graduate students Hardeep Kaur and Madalynne Lawrence. Their "Transforming into Ethical Smart Cities" playbook, website, and video launches this Friday, May 29 at 4pm EST - more information can be found at www.ethicalsmartcity.com

In this #NoPlaceButHome discussion, we move away from the topic of physical space and density in communities and move to another topic: privacy. ICF Co-Founders Lou Zacharilla and John Jung speak with Kristina Verner, Monique Crichlow and Jean-Noé Landry in the third discussion of The New Abnormal series.

(May 20, 2020 - New York City) – The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) today released Investment-Ready Abbotsford: The Story of an Intelligent Community. The new research report details a multi-year program developed by ICF and the leadership of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada to deepen understanding of today’s economic development challenges and opportunities, and to contribute to the evolution of new strategies and programs.

“Abbotsford is typical of small-to-midsize cities around the world in having a legacy industry – agriculture in their case – that cannot provide job growth today. It is not typical in its ambition to change that situation and build a dynamic, job-creating economy on the solid foundation of its agricultural strengths. Investment-Ready Abbotsford tells its story.”

Free report from ICF Canada details how communities turn their broadband and other digital assets into economic growth and better quality of life

December 19, 2018 – New York City, USA and Toronto, Ontario, Canada –ICF Canada  released a free report, From Connectivity to Community, developed by the Intelligent Community Forum to help communities turn their broadband and other digital assets into economic growth, stronger social and com­munity bonds, and better quality of life.  The report, which is free to download, can be found on ICF’s Website.

I have to explain the PLUS! in the title right away. As you can tell from the title this blog is intended to talk about the TOP7 announcement in Taipei on February 9, but so much more went on that week in Taiwan that needs to be discussed here. For instance, ICF Canada took a business delegation to Taiwan; ICF Taiwan was announced on February 9 at a special ICF-related conference focusing on the Internet of Cities; and ICF-related delegations from around the world attended the conference and TOP7 announcement from the Netherlands, Vietnam, Estonia and Hong Kong. And Lou Zacharilla and I came from ICF, the global headquarters of the ICF Think Tank in New York to officially announce the 2017 TOP7 at an event associated with Taiwan’s Lantern Festival. It was an incredible week. Where to start?