For these two projects, the BG Group relies on the Smart City division (see page 34) and on an innovation process well anchored in the Group to put its multidisciplinary know-how to work for the benefit of future Smart Cities.

Concretely, at first “we conducted interviews with the officials in charge of the various services and the political leaders of the municipalities. This has enabled us to characterise the current situation and identify their expectations,” comments Reto Graf, Head of the Transport and Mobility Infrastructure Unit at BG. He then specifies that “this approach enables the identification and understanding of the city’s needs. Tailor-made solutions can then be offered in order to establish a development strategy for smart services in line with the expectations of the municipality and the inhabitants.”

For Chatou as for Gland, several needs were identified concerning governance, digital infrastructure, data management, mobility and energy. If the two cities have, depending on their specificities, different strategies and needs, we can also find some common points mainly in the field of mobility and energy.

As part of the mobility component, a whole range of services has been offered: cycle paths, secure boxes for storing bicycles, communication initiatives to develop soft mobility, carbon-free automobile mobility strategy, smart parking for cars, etc.

On the energy side, it is mainly the technical management of buildings and ‘smart’ public lighting that have been the subject of proposals from BG. Indeed, to respond to the economic and ecological issues raised by the political authorities, “we presented scalable streetlights allowing the future installation of smart sensors, with which it will be possible to measure the air quality, the presence or detection of people, parking spaces, electric charging stations and Wi-Fi terminals,” explains Loïc Lepage, Group Head of Building, Energy and Territories. This multifunctional tool could therefore simultaneously respond to many environmental issues and at the same time improve the quality of life of residents.

The use of data and digital technology is also an important point mentioned in the roadmap. In Gland as in Chatou, monitoring of energy and water consumption data of public and private buildings makes it possible to identify drifts.

“With such data, we can seek to identify the causes of potential incidents and to provide quick and effective optimisation solutions, which lead to a reduction in the environmental impact,” explains Reto Graf.

Once the strategies were defined and the key tools identified by BG in collaboration with local stakeholders, a roadmap was given to each municipality. The smart service proposals are therefore now on the table of the Gland and Chatou authorities. BG will be able to support them in the realisation phase of these proposals.