Solar Impulse Foundation Launches a “Solutions Guide for Cities” to Help Cities Reach Net Zero Goals

Guide unveiled at COP27; pilot cities, including Lisbon, Montreal, Stockholm, Geneva, and the Paris region, are set to explore ready-to-use climate solutions from the Solar Impulse portfolio

Ahead of the Solutions and Cities thematic Day at the international climate conference COP  27, the Solar Impulse Foundation is launching its innovative Solutions Guide for Cities, a compilation of cleantech solutions designed to help urban centres quickly build a robust  climate mitigation program. The Guide will be officially introduced during the European Commission virtual program for COP 27 and can be followed in a live webinar exploring how cities can unlock the opportunities in their ecological transition.

Lisbon, Portugal and Montreal, Canada will be two of the first pilot cities for the Guide. Other interested cities include Stockholm, Geneva, and the Paris region (Île-de-France) with more coming.

Carlos Moedas, Lisbon Mayor, said:

As Mayor of Lisbon, I am proud and committed to endorse the Solutions for Cities Initiative that the Solar Impulse Foundation is leading. Cities are uniquely placed to provide a sustainable economic model where clean energy serves the needs of our citizens, in particular the most vulnerable. Lisbon is committed to delivering that sustainable approach with new technologies and innovative solutions. To achieve that, I count on the support of the Solar Impulse Foundation and the relentless determination of my friend Bertrand Piccard.

Valérie Plante, the Mayor of Montréal declared:

The partnership we are announcing today will accelerate the deployment of solutions to the environmental challenges faced by cities, and we hope that many of them will use some of the tools developed by the Solar Impulse Foundation. Climate action is at the forefront of Montréal's priorities and as the North American Vice President of C40 I will keep working to move the needle forward both locally and internationally.

Bertrand Piccard, Founder and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation said:

Our Foundation has identified more than 1,400 technological solutions that exist today to protect the environment in an economically profitable way, but the world is not moving fast enough to acquire the implementations needed to reach carbon neutrality. Cities are the primary generators of economic activity and at the same time they are responsible for three-quarters of  global carbon emissions. Our Solution Guide for Cities demonstrates how solutions can be implemented in a profitable way to help speed their decarbonization plans.

Among the solutions vetted and labeled  by the Solar Impulse Foundation as both clean and profitable, we selected a sample of 188 that are effectively solving key challenges for cities' decarbonization and had real life case studies of implementation across +130 municipalities and 28 countries.

The Solar Impulse-identified solutions for cities include more environmentally friendly building materials such as low-carbon cements, efficient bio based insulation panels, anti-glare and heat managing glass for windows, renewable energy technologies that boost geothermal output, valorization solutions for organic or mixed plastic waste, greywater recycling or urban vegetalization optimization softwares, as well as often overlooked but highly effective energy efficiency measures.

Despite the increasing sense of urgency, most cities have not started net-zero planning because they lack an analysis of key sectors contributing to their emissions, have no access to the most relevant technologies and solutions, and face difficulties in prioritizing their efforts. The Guide addresses these core issues by showing where actions can be taken across the value chains of five main sectors that are closely interlinked with a city’s ecosystem : Energy & Power grid Construction & Buildings, Mobility & Logistics, Waste management and Water and Urban Infrastructure. It details and addresses the myriad “pain points” that city leaders face in managing their ecological transition, including significant adoption roadblocks.

The Guide utilises a unique ‘bottoms up approach’, leveraging cleantech innovators' knowledge of their clients’ adoption barriers and highlights their success stories to inspire climate action. 

Bertrand Piccard said:

We believe the players that are most eager to boost climate solutions adoption are the ones that can make a business out of it. Yet we recognise that the solutions and their capabilities are only part of the puzzle. The goal is to modernise the legal framework in order to create a need to pull the solutions to the market.

To assist in this task the Solar Impulse Foundation invited other organisations, also called “systemic enablers,” to join the initiative and share their best practices to go from urban vision to solutions adoption. These groups, including the World Wildlife Foundation, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), and EIT Climate KIC, among others¹, have been working on these requirements for many years and will help cities in deploying solutions from the Guide.

For more information about the Solutions Guide for Cities, The European Commission will host a webinar featuring Bertrand Piccard, forward-thinking mayors and the various contributors of the Guide, on Monday November 14 at 15h00 CET in Europe (16h EET in Egypt).

Register now

About the Solar Impulse Foundation

The Solar Impulse Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded by explorer and cleantech pioneer Bertrand Piccard. Following the success of the first round-the-world trip in a solar-powered plane, its mission is to accelerate the adoption of solutions capable of protecting the environment in an economically profitable way. It thus reflects the unifying and realistic approach of its founder around 'Qualitative Growth'. Demonstrating that it is possible to meet ecological challenges without undermining economic development, the Foundation achieved, in April 2021, its first objective of identifying and labelling 1000 'Efficient Solutions', assessed as clean and profitable by independent experts. While continuing to increase its portfolio of solutions, Bertrand Piccard and the Foundation are seeking to facilitate the emergence of these technologies on the market through advocacy in favour of modernising the legislative framework and by publishing guides to support political and business decision-makers in their ecological transition.