#149 Sønderborg & Danfoss: How Public-Private Partnerships Drive Net Zero
In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025, Allan Pilgaard-Jensen, Managing Director of ProjectZero for the City of Sønderborg, Denmark, and Drew Turner, Director of Global Decarbonisation Solutions at Danfoss, share how Sønderborg is working towards carbon neutrality by 2029 through a long-standing public-private partnership.
The conversation explores why successful energy transitions are “80% people and 20% technology,” highlighting the importance of governance “hotspots,” stakeholder ownership and clear business cases for every project. They discuss Sønderborg’s “lighthouse” initiatives that link hospitals, data centres and industries through district energy and heat recovery systems, showing how concept designs and shared master plans avoid silos and build momentum.
Allan and Drew also reflect on replicating this model in larger cities, the economics of the final 10% of decarbonisation, including carbon capture, and why collaboration and realistic payback are crucial to scaling climate action. Throughout, they stress that Smart Cities thrive when plans turn into projects with shared benefits for people and business alike.
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#148 Lund: From District Heating to EnergyNet
In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, Markus Paulsson, Energy Strategist at the City of Lund, Sweden, walks us through how Lund couples visible delivery with system change. District heating supplies around 90% of demand and went fossil-free two years early, helping halve emissions from 1990 to 2020.
We unpack EnergyNet, a bottom-up, digitally controlled, self-steering architecture that links building to building and pushes capability to the edge. We also explore CoAction Lund, an ecosystem model bringing property owners, employers, infrastructure operators and solution providers into shared action beyond the city’s formal mandate.
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#147 Lodz: Looking Beyond the Bubble of Green Politics
In this episode recorded live at the ReThink Cities Summit 2025, we hear from Deputy Mayor Adam Pustelnik about the next moves of the city of Łódź, Poland: uncovering a historic river segment in the city centre to catalyse place-making, with works already underway, and visible momentum on reindustrialisation as factories and industrial parks rise on large sites. At the same time, the team confronts urban sprawl: an area where benefits are long term while the near-term impacts are often political and socially sensitive. The discussion also tackles the green transformation head-on, arguing that the greatest obstacles are political and that leaders must reach beyond their familiar bubbles to build broader support.
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#146 Trondheim: Fair Hubs & Data for Clean Freight
In this episode recorded live at the RethinkCities Summit 2025, Sunniva Fossen Haugen, Climate Advisor at the Municipality of Trondheim, Norway, shares their journey from offshore oil and gas into climate policy and city logistics. The discussion tackles why commercial fleets lag behind passenger EVs (touching on incentives, payload limits, charging logistics and grid constraints) and how consolidation hubs guided by the ABC localisation principle can cut urban mileage. Sunniva outlines Trondheim’s six focus areas for zero-emission logistics, explains new procurement requirements (zero-emission/biogas vehicles in municipal contracts), and stresses the need for shared data platforms and co-operation with industry. A municipal pilot combining local food purchasing with low-emission deliveries shows how to align multiple sustainability goals. Throughout, they argue for fairness, predictability, and holistic Avoid-Shift-Improve planning to embed freight into mainstream mobility strategy.
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Bu podcast bölümümüzde, Şanlıurfa’nın iklim dirençli kent olma yolculuğunu Şanlıurfa Büyükşehir Belediyesi İklim Değişikliği ve Sıfır Atık Daire Başkanı Mehmet Demir Bey ile konuşuyoruz. Genç nüfus yapısından hareketle şehrin fırsatlarını ve kırılganlıklarını masaya<...
Hop on the journey toward a better urban life and hear from top actors in the Smart City arena about stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
At BABLE, through our platform and services, we enable processes from research and strategy development to co-creation and implementation. Visit us at www.bable-smartcities.eu
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