It sounds a bit like Big Brother, but many leading cities and organizations around the world are looking to “Intelligent Urbanization” as a blueprint for using technology to more efficiently integrate city management, ensure a better quality of life for citizens, and spur economic development.

Considering that the majority of people on this planet live in urban areas, and cities consume 75 percent of the world's energy and are responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, there is no question that cities must learn how to decrease their effects on the environment.

Traditional approaches to reducing carbon emissions have included using less energy, using alternative forms of energy, and capturing and storing carbon. Building upon the principles behind connected urban development (CUD), intelligent urbanization takes a different approach by using information and communications technology (ICT) to supply a broadband infrastructure that will increase the efficiency of traffic flow and increase efficiency and service offerings of public transportation. It will also create sustainable real estate models that incorporate energy efficiency and new work environment models (such as remote working, collaboration and shared space) and enable residents services so they can self-manage their carbon footprints.

Cisco, MIT and the Clinton Global Initiative have partnered with cities such as San Francisco, Seol, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Madrid to restructure city infrastructures so as to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and waste. By closely examining cities’ ecological footprints, CUD hopes to create a blueprint that can be used globally to create sustainable cities. The blueprint must be ICT-based, replicable for use by other cities, able to deliver tangible and operational projects and able to deliver measurable results.

Right now 50 percent of San Francisco’s carbon dioxide emissions come from transportation, 32 percent from building energy and 18 percent from waste. By using ICT, the city will be able to track emissions data and performance metrics, and create solutions for urban sustainability.

One example of technology used for this purpose is San Francisco’s EcoMap – a geo-mapping based, collaboration, visualization and measurement tool for citizens, businesses and the city authorities to measure their carbon emissions and to see the collective results of their individual climate change behaviors. It is a proof of concept of an application that could be used globally to track cities’ carbon dioxide output and allow residents to interact with each other about how to improve their city’s ecological footprint.

The EcoMap lets people compare information by zip code, such as average number of vehicles per person, number of specialty vehicle types (hybrid, SUV, electric, etc.) per capita, number of people who recycle per capita and average amount of waste generated per capita. Then users will be able to use and share this information via a social networking functionality to foster a community based on working together to reduce carbon dioxide. People can upload a personal EcoPlan, upload videos and share their best practices, and use a personal dashboard to track their individual carbon output.

This initiative is so important because individual actions just aren’t enough – governments, schools and businesses need to work with residents to completely overhaul the way people live and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. And I can think of no better city than progressive San Francisco – where CO2-tracking iPhone applications and shared workspaces meet public transportation and clean technology – to lead the way and use technology to better the environment.