A new free-to-use industry resource serves as a focal point for all those involved in the use of smart technologies and big data to create cleaner, greener and more sustainable city environments.
A new Sustainable Smart Cities website has been launched and hopes to act as a central point of information and expertise on cleverly connected cities.
It's the brainchild of the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC), a UK trade association for the environmental technologies and services sector, and the site aims to pair those influencers and promoters looking for solutions with those who are already delivering.
To this end at www.sustainanablesmartcities.org you'll find a raft of cast studies and best practice examples that are sure to prove indispensable - helping industry and city leaders quickly get up to speed with what works (and what doesn't) to underpin investment and decision making.
The site, acting as a 'neutral broker', aims to connect a myriad of stakeholders (from technology providers, policymakers and academia) through regular networking events, roundtables and seminars.
It's also a shop window for thought leadership, market intelligence and investment insight and aims to lobby policymakers for a regulatory framework that supports and encourages innovation in the area of smart cities.
The Sustainable Smart Cities website at www.sustainablesmartcities.org
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NBS and BDP join forces to improve generic carbon data in construction
Today, NBS (part of Hubexo), the platform for connected construction information, announces a long-term strategic partnership with BDP, a major global multidisciplinary practice of architects, designers, engineers and urbanists. The partnership recognises BDP's integral role in the development of NBS LCA, a new life-cycle carbon assessment platform providing professionals with high-quality, reliable and easy-to-use carbon data to ensure accurate tracking as construction projects evolve. BDP's primary contribution to NBS LCA has been the development of more than 1,300 pre-calculated generic assemblies, covering the most commonly used building fabric elements alongside key concrete and steel structural elements. These assemblies provide whole-element carbon data, giving designers consistent, UK-relevant carbon benchmarks from the earliest stages of project design. Users can easily and instantly apply carbon rates to a range of pre-configured common building elements, including walls, floors, and roofs. Developed by BDP and NBS, the assemblies remove the need for designers to manually build up material layers or calculate individual components at the concept stage. This saves significant time and effort, enabling proportionate and responsible carbon evaluation early in the design process, when decisions have the greatest impact on a project's overall carbon footprint. BDP also participated in collaborative workshops that directly informed the development of NBS LCA, helping to shape a tool that is practical, accessible and aligned with real-world UK construction workflows. Dr Lee Jones, Head of Sustainability at Hubexo, said: “BDP's contribution to NBS LCA has been invaluable. Their depth of project experience and technical knowledge has directly shaped the generic assemblies at the heart of the platform. These assemblies give designers a reliable, UK-relevant starting point for carbon assessment, without the burden of building everything from scratch. This is exactly the kind of collaboration that moves the industry forward, and we're proud to be working with BDP on a long-term basis.” Julia Yao, Associate, Sustainability Consultant at BDP, said: “Carbon assessment needs to be embedded in design from day one, not bolted on at the end. Working with NBS to develop its LCA product has been a genuine opportunity to put that principle into practice. The generic assemblies we developed draw on real project data and are designed to give designers meaningful, actionable carbon information at the concept stage. We're delighted to see them at the core of a platform that will be used across the industry.” With the UK Government outlining its commitment to responsible carbon reporting through its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, professionals need reliable, easy-to-use tools to assess and report embodied carbon. NBS LCA addresses this need by integrating carbon calculations with live design work, drawing on structured data from Circular Ecology's ICE Database and more than 12,500 verified, specification-ready construction products with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) from NBS Source and ECO Portal. Over the coming months, NBS and BDP will continue to develop their partnership, with a shared commitment to improving the quality and accessibility of carbon data for construction professionals across the UK. NBS LCA is available now, with flexible subscriptions designed for all professionals. For more information, visit the website here.
The Sustainable Smart Cities website at www.sustainablesmartcities.org
