New roles at WBCSD and WCCD

The former head of sustainable cities at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Matthew Lynch, has taken up a new position as Vice President of Global Partnerships and Initiatives at the World Council on City Data (WCCD).

Lynch will focus on expanding the growing network of cities that are reporting the new global standard ISO 37120 on city data. The new standard has established methodologies for any size city to track and measure its social, economic and environmental performance in relation to other cities.

“Comparable data is such an important driver for helping cities become more liveable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient,” Lynch told Cities Today from his new Toronto office. “We now have over one hundred cities that have expressed interest. We are also formalising our strategic partnerships with key organisations and corporates that will form our international advisory board.”

The move coincides with the WBCSD merging its two ‘sector projects’, sustainable buildings and sustainable cities, into one, now led by Roland Hunziker, previous director of sustainable buildings.

“Sustainable buildings and cities is a cross-cutting area in the WBCSD matrix,” said Hunziker. “The two main projects under this newly merged area are: Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Zero Emissions Cities (ZEC).”

Hunziker’s priority in his new role will be to ‘kick-off’ the ZEC project. Ten council member companies will work on three pilot city engagements, two in Europe and one in Asia. The council has partnered with ICLEI, local governments for sustainability, to help cities move to zero emissions, based on the Urban Infrastructure Initiative, launched by the WBCSD last year.

“The ZEC project will identify and demonstrate how innovative partnering and financing models can deliver action and investment,” he added.

A document will present best practices emerging from WBCSD and ICLEI’s projects as well as member initiatives to then identify key lessons and success factors from the case material.

Lynch added that he will take powerful insights from his five years spent at the WBCSD. “It was exciting to be part of building the sustainable cities programme through the Urban Infrastructure Initiative (UII),” he added. “The UII demonstrated how it is possible to build effective models for early collaboration between city governments and private sector solutions providers for sustainable development.”