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CITyFiED project consortium hosted by MATS HELMFRID, Mayor and Chairman of the City Executive Board, City of Lund

Lund is the location of one of three CITyFiED demonstration sites critical to the development of a replicable, systemic and integrated strategy to adapt European cities and urban ecosystems into the smart city of the future 

The CITyFiED project’s first periodic meeting took place in Lund, Sweden this 24-26 September 2014. This medium-sized university town with a research-intensive industry is the location of one of three demonstration sites critical to the development of a replicable, systemic and integrated strategy to adapt European cities and urban ecosystems into the smart city of the future. 

During the meeting, Mayor Mats Helmfrid took time out of his busy agenda to welcome more than 60 participants at the town hall to warmly endorse the project and give a platform for the City of Lund and its partners working closely with the demonstration site to express their ambitions and reasoning behind their drive for smarter, more energy efficient districts.

"CITyFiED is an important project for both Lund and for Europe. If we are serious about sustainable housing, we must address new houses as well as the housing of 15-20 years ago" said the Mayor. “with greater urbanization, the number of inhabitants has grown greatly during the last century and a large stock of the buildings from the 1960s and 1970s now needs retrofitting.”

"This project plays an important role for Lund and further afield in refining our approach and solutions to this challenge. Measuring energy performance, increasing effectiveness of our renovation works and adopting new techniques and technologies are central to making our housing stock desirable for the future"

Bertil Lundström, Technical Manager of the municipally owned housing company Lunds Kommuns Fastighets (LKF) underlined the local and European aspect of CITyFiED "This project gives us the opportunity to learn even more about our intentions to renovate a host of 60-70s buildings, develop a range of cutting edge technologies – on a par with the very best projects in Europe”

Almost 90% of the heat demand in the city is supplied by the district heating network, and consortium partner, energy company Kraftringen is central to the demonstration site and many more homes and buildings beyond. The company’s goal is to replace all fossil fuels by 2020 and so it was apt that business manager, Anders Möller said "The future may seem distant, but it's just around the corner. CITyFiED provides us with good opportunities to develop the next generation of efficient district heating, which can lead to even more environmentally friendly and sustainable energy solutions.” He added, “In addition to this, the development of smart power grids, as well as a visualization tool which clearly illustrates the tenant's energy use, are important components in the smart city of the future”

Project Director for the City of Lund, Markus Paulsson refocused the minds of those present on the human element of the project: "At the most fundamental level, the project is about delivering an improved environment and better quality of life for the citizens of Lund.” “The retrofitting of the Linero district will focus on reaching a higher energy standard with maintained affordability for the tenants.”

Finally, Anna Jarnehammer, Director at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, IVL and CiTYFiED consortium partner spoke of the importance of another type of innovation critical to the project and Europe’s challenges: "One of the most important elements of CITyFiED is bringing cost effective improvements for tenants and authorities through innovative business models". “Through the project, our work with the Lund demonstration site and focus on a CITyFiED model for evaluating the replication potential across a further cluster of 11 cities, we hope to help multiply the number of near zero energy districts in Scania and beyond.”