Digital twins can help cities win the Race to Zero

Digital twin technology pioneer Cityzenith launched its Clean Cities – Clean Future programme earlier this year, donating its SmartWorldOS software platform to up to 100 cities over the next three years to help them become carbon-neutral.

Cities produce more than 70 percent of greenhouse gases and the use of data and artificial intelligence (AI) can cut this dramatically as well as producing huge commercial benefits for developers and building owners.

Digital twins are virtual replicas of buildings, infrastructure and physical assets, fully interconnected with the data in and around them to optimise project performance and help predict and visualise future outcomes.

Growth of digital twins

A recent report by ABI Research expects more than 500 urban digital twins to be deployed by 2026, and forecasts digital twins will  save city planners US$280 billion by 2030.

The Clean Cities – Clean Future initiative is now onboarding the first US cities and will help cities learn from each other and share best practices. Development of the platform for developers, architects, and building asset owners aims to realise savings of up to 35 percent in operating and maintenance costs, as well as 20 percent increases in productivity and 50-100 percent reductions in carbon emissions.

Cityzenith CEO and Founder Michael Jansen explained: “We will provide a digital twin model of all or most of the city, integrated with relevant data sources ranging from public data portals, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, Geographic Information System (GIS) layers, and others. Cities will not pay us for any application development related to strengthening climate resilience, reducing carbon consumption or other sustainability functions. However, these applications are being accelerated with the participating cities, channel partners, energy providers and building asset owners who will be able to realise huge savings with the help of the new $3.5 trillion US Infrastructure Bill as we ‘build back better’.”

He added: “In our conversations with cities, we have heard from leadership that cities would like to develop on top of this platform, using their own internal resources as well as resources of local university institutions that support them. This is what we are doing. Within a year or two years, we will have gleaned the best climate-friendly practices from multiple cities to become the platform technology for the built environment as well as energy resilience.”

“Today we are helping partners all over the US and around the world leverage digital twin power across their district, infrastructure, campus and real estate projects to transition from fossil fuel dependency to carbon neutrality,” Jansen commented: “We are now helping cities to implement this technology, and that’s why we decided to step in and make our pledge.”

Digital twins: Q&A

Cityzenith has announced a new webinar series in partnership with Cities Today, which starts on 7 September at 1pm CT (7pm BST). This will be a unique opportunity to hear from Michael Jansen, CEO and Founder of Cityzenith, during his interview with Cities Today editor, Sarah Wray.

During the exclusive interview, Sarah will be probing Michael all about the exciting number of major cities now joining the Clean Cities – Clean Future programme from Cityzenith, as it continues to roll out across the US and internationally.

You can register for the free webinar on Tuesday 7th September here.