This week, Clean Edge ranked the San Diego region as #3 in the nation for cleantech leadership. Every year, the research firm Clean Edge grades the 50 largest metropolitan regions in the country on their involvement in cleantech. Clean Edge determines the scores by looking at four categories: green buildings; advanced transportation; clean electricity; and carbon management. California swept the podium led by San Francisco (#1), San Jose (#2), and San Diego (#3). Read Full Report
How did San Diego climb to the top so quickly?
Just a few years ago, San Diego didn’t even rank in the top 10. Just one day after Clean Edge published its report, Cleantech San Diego hosted a Smart Cities San Diego event where a group of local sustainability leaders showed how San Diego is improving not only its clean energy economy, but also holistically transforming the region. The first half of the conference focused on public efforts to make San Diego a smart city and featured speakers from the City of Chula Vista, the City of San Diego, the San Diego International Airport, and the Port of San Diego. During the second half, speakers from private companies including General Electric, Pristine Environments, OSIsoft, Black & Veatch, and Qualcomm illustrated how businesses are working together with the public sector to provide the technology necessary to build a smart city.
The idea behind a “smart city” is to engage the government, the private sector, and the public in an effort to make an urban ecosystem run more efficiently, sustainably, and economically. Leaders must work together in new ways to use existing telecommunication, energy, efficiency, transportation, and water technologies to improve security, pollution, energy access, and quality of life for all residents. A city won’t become a smart city overnight, and in fact, 75% of smart cities are still in the planning phase. San Diego, however, launched its smart city initiative in 2011 and has entered the implementation phase. All of the panelists gave concrete examples of pilot programs that epitomize key elements of a smart city, but one of the best stories came from the Environmental Affairs Director at the San Diego International Airport, Paul Manasjan.
San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Leads the Way
If you’ve ever flown in or out of the San Diego, you know that its airport is pretty neat. In addition to serving some of San Diego’s best local brews, the San Diego International Airport also strives to be one of the most sustainable airports in the country. In 2003 the airport created the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to oversee the airport’s operations, transportation, and land use. Under the guidance of the Authority, the airport adopted one of the first sustainability policies for a major US airport and became the world’s first LEED Platinum certified airport terminal. However, the airport didn’t earn these accolades in a vacuum.
The Airport’s Environmental Affairs Director Paul Manasjan presented three key variables to building a smart city: smart technology, interdepartmental collaboration, and external data sharing. Even though smart technologies exist, that doesn’t mean cities will be able to implement them effectively. Manasjan explained, “It’s not because we’re stupid…it’s because we don’t share information.” The San Diego International Airport chose to tackle that problem by hosting a “Hackathon” during which the airport allowed external users to access some of its operational data to analyze trends, reveal correlations, and propose solutions. At the end of the 24 hour challenge, the hackers created phone applications that could pair drivers with available EV chargers, explained how the airport could identify areas that were being overheated, and showed how special floor tiles could generate energy from passenger foot traffic. In addition to improving business at the airport, the Hackathon also developed a long-term relationship between the Airport Authority, academia, and local businesses. The Hackathon provides just one example of the many ways the San Diego Airport team is thinking outside the box to create a smart airport.
The presentation about the airport emphasized a key component of any “smart” initiative: collaboration. According to another presenter, every city has on average 40 different planning departments. If those departments are not talking to each other and sharing data, there is no way the city will successfully transform into a smart city.
San Diego has done a great job so far, but what else can we do to go from third place to first?
OneRoof Energy is a proud member of Cleantech San Diego.
