Smart and sustainable cities and communities

Over half of all humans now live in towns or cities. By 2050 the world population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion people and 80% of these will live in urban areas.

Urban dwellers have therefore logically been identified as major players to get involved in international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN 2030 Agenda and the UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda. Governance of communities is organized around the six pillars of sustainable urban development: attractiveness, resilience, preservation and enhancement of the environment, responsible use of resources, social cohesion and well-being.

By focusing on these six goals, standardization offers an integrated and systemic approach to the governance of communities, regardless of their scale. It takes into consideration all the component parts of a community and their interactions while making it possible to place citizen users at the heart of concerns. Standardization also promotes the development of sector-based or subject-based tools for addressing multiple challenges: mobility, inclusiveness, security issues (public safety, counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, protection against malicious acts, etc.), resilience to natural hazards (flooding, heatwave, etc.) and technological hazards, integration of digital technology, energy efficiency, etc.

OBJECTIVES

Establish adequate coordination between the ISO technical committee for Sustainable cities and communities (ISO/TC 268), the French secretariat, and other international structures and sector players including the IEC systems committee on Smart Cities and the ISO/IEC joint working group on smart cities.
Promote the use in France of the ISO/TC 268 standards, in particular voluntary standard NF ISO 37101 “Sustainable development in communities – Management system for sustainable development – Requirements with guidance for use” and its related documents on implementation by players in the field. Propose their reproduction at European level.

RESULTS

In 2019, ISO/TC 268, under French leadership, successfully published two voluntary standards, included in the AFNOR collection:

NF ISO 37104 “Sustainable cities and communities – Guidance for practical local implementation of ISO 37101” (November 2019)
NF ISO 37122 “Sustainable cities and communities – Indicators for smart cities” (August 2019)

INFLUENCE

Develop partnerships with certain countries around the challenges of the smart sustainable city. Leverage privileged relations with the countries in the RNF (French-speaking standardization network).
Raise awareness at national level among public authorities and influencers (think tanks) about the valuable role played by voluntary standards in developing smart and sustainable communities and the importance of supporting export of French expertise.

> Order voluntary standard NF ISO 37101 “Sustainable development in communities…”
> Order voluntary standard NF ISO 37120 “Sustainable cities and communities – Indicators for city services and quality of life…”