Creating smarter, more sustainable cities prepared to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is one of the main challenges governments face today. The SDGs for Smart Cities emphasize air quality and climate change, and advocate for a reduction in carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, it is clear that governments will have to seek new tools, technologies, and strategies; supply chains can be one of them, playing a key role in significantly reducing carbon footprints. This has been confirmed by a study prepared by a group of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) which has highlighted the important role that the modernization of Supply Chains, beyond individual factors such as transport, can play in meeting the SDGs in cities.
“Despite the growing interest in Smart Cities, most research has focused on reducing Supply Chain emissions through individual factors. This study examines emissions reduction across the entire city Supply Chain and sustainability solutions to address this 'research gap',” explains Seyed Behbood Issa Zadeh, from the Department of Hydraulics, Energy and Environment at the UPM School of Civil Engineering and lead author of the study.
Smart Cities can reduce their dependence on fossil fuels by using technology, management, and infrastructure integrated into their energy supply networks. “This study was motivated by a comprehensive review of the literature on supply chain management within cities, which provides relevant guidelines for reducing the carbon footprint among the different actors and systems within a Smart City. It shows how, through each attribute or part of the chain, there are key elements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” continues the UPM researcher.
Government, businesses, and citizens must work together
The article examines several characteristics of Smart Cities. It also highlights how contemporary advances in the Supply Chain relate to governance within cities that are incorporating technology, and more importantly, real-time information that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their carbon footprint. In this way, it proposes that by providing guidelines and strategies for reducing the carbon footprint in contemporary digital Supply Chains, Smart City projects worldwide can establish public policies, regulations, practices, and processes that advance sustainability, environmental protection, and economic development, ultimately resulting in Smart Cities.
The key, for researchers, lies in the existence of hybrid components applied to Smart Cities, or in other words, in governments, businesses and citizens working together to manage contemporary Supply Chains, including sustainability and digitalization.
“Smart management and governance are necessary to optimize the supply chain and minimize waste, energy consumption, transportation, and emissions from the daily distribution of supplies. Although smart cities offer cutting-edge technologies such as smart grids for energy, services, and products, green buildings, smart transportation, and renewable energy sources, their implementation requires a comprehensive approach that includes advanced supply chain management,” adds Claudia Lizette Garay-Rondero, Academic Delegate of Tecnológico de Monterrey at the Polytechnic University of Madrid and co-author of this study.
For the researchers of this work, which has recently been published in the international journal "Smart City Journal", its relevance lies in the fact that it provides valuable tools to decision-makers – government officials, managers in service and manufacturing companies, as well as the citizens themselves – to choose the most appropriate procedures and activities when managing their communities in the transition towards Smart Cities that allow efficiency towards compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals set for them.
“The target audience for this work includes academics and researchers in sustainability, logistics and supply chain management, urban planning, managers, entrepreneurs, government officials, and legislators, among others. Consequently, Smart Cities can benefit from policymakers and professionals in sustainable urban development who reduce supply chain emissions,” they conclude.
Issa Zadeh, S.B.; Garay-Rondero, CL Enhancing Urban Sustainability: Unraveling Carbon Footprint Reduction in Smart Cities through Modern Supply-Chain Measures. Smart Cities 2023, 6, 3225-3250. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities6060143
