The Paul Wilson interview: sustainability, innovation, place and technology

To reach net zero emissions by mid-century and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, society must adopt bold new models, mindsets and ways of working. The decisions we make today, be they economic, social or political, will shape how digital innovation serves the common good tomorrow. 

With that in mind, I’ve been speaking with leading voices working at the intersection of people, place and sustainability to explore what actions can help us achieve sustainable urban futures.

Paul Wilson is an expert in smart cities and place-based innovation. A senior advisor and consultant, Paul is Chair of the Smart Cities World’s Advisory Board, an Honorary Research Fellow of Bristol University’s Smart Internet Lab, and co-host of the Urban Exchange podcast, with the Resilient Cities Network.

He was Chief Business Officer at Connected Places Catapult – the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership – between 2021 and 2024, and a founder and board member of UK5G.

In this interview, Paul talks about what led him from fintech to smart cities, and why responsible governance and innovating with care is key to boosting city resilience.

Can you share your journey from fintech to becoming a leading voice in smart cities?

My early career was spent in fintech – before fintech was even called fintech. After several years in the voluntary sector, I joined a City of London startup that grew rapidly, and later became Chief Marketing Officer of a $3bn 17,000-person global firm covering the deep end of capital markets, trading and risk management. It was not the trajectory I expected but I spent 16 very happy years working at the sharp end of tech innovation in a buoyant economy, with big budgets.

But I’d always had a strong social conscience and wanted my work to have a positive societal impact, and I was becoming increasingly motivated by the impact of localism and city regions as policy units. When I moved to Bristol, I made the decision to dedicate the latter part of my career to using what I’d learned in tech, to help city management and build resilience in the climate crisis.

Why do you believe cities are such an important lever for positive change?

Cities are remarkable. 72% of the earth is covered by water, 25% by parkland, forest mountains and agriculture. Just 3% is covered by cities. But this 3% is the epicentre of the economy and the climate crisis. Cities generate 80% of the economy and 70% of greenhouse gases, and by 2050 at least two thirds of the 10 billion people alive will be living in a city. 

I began to understand that improving how we manage and innovate within cities could have a profound impact on people and the planet; if we want to address climate change, social equity, and economic resilience, we must start with cities.

Cities are also the original platform business model, where buyers and sellers, goods and services, and communities come together. It means we can apply platform thinking – data, connectivity, participation – to make cities more inclusive, sustainable, and adaptive. Much of this thinking was reflected in the ‘City as a Platform’ Manifesto, which I initiated and got support from 300 organisations around the world including the European Union and White House.

Bristol has become a reference point for smart city innovation. What was the vision behind ‘Bristol is Open’?

‘Bristol is Open’ was set up as a joint venture between the University of Bristol and Bristol City Council in 2014, to be the world’s first open programmable city. Working with the University’s Professor Dimitra Simeonidou and the Council’s Stephen Hilton, the aim was to create a city-scale digital test bed – a living lab where new technologies could be trialled in the real world.

The initiative worked by using Bristol’s city-wide fibre ducting infrastructure, a mesh network across the city’s lampposts, and an experimental 5G mile along Harbourside. Network nodes in We The Curious, Watershed and Engine Shed brought in local innovators and start-ups in various ways. Nokia, NEC and Interdigital became corporate partners. The digital infrastructure itself became a source of innovation into software defined networks.  Then we used the infrastructure to attract addition R&D grants into many areas, including driverless cars, public safety, independent assisted living, off-grid energy suppliers, and more. The project won several global awards, including “Smartest City in the World” three times. The Sunday Times and Huawei declared Bristol the UK’s Smartest City. It showed we were on the zeitgeist of what could be done with city-led innovation.

Photo: Wenhung Yang

Reflecting on the past decade, would you set up a smart city test bed differently today?

I think it would be in the same ballpark of thinking, but of course the world has changed a lot since 2014. After launching ‘Bristol is Open’, we saw the rise of the “techlash,” as communities and city leaders began asking questions about who is really in charge: people or tech companies? Then came Covid-19 and the whole world changed; everything went digital, compressing five to eight years of technological adoption into one or two, and concerns about digital inclusion grew.

At the same time, the impact of climate change became more visible and urgent, and the popular narrative shifted from “smart cities” to “resilient cities.” The emphasis has moved from deploying technology for its own sake towards an overriding purpose to enhance urban resilience. So I would heed the opinions of what I considered the naysayers 10 years ago; those asking what is the real point of this technology and what should the outcomes be?

What should be prioritised in future smart city initiatives?

First is to make sure that the smart city protects nature; second is supporting vulnerable groups of people and ensuring they have access to nature.

Take Bristol Harbour as an example. If we focus on nature first, vulnerable people second, the economy third, we will develop the Harbour in a way that promotes wellbeing for the city’s citizens and will make a more rounded sustainable impact, rather than by just putting economic growth first. We could use digital technology to monitor biodiversity in the water, so reedbeds flourish and clean the water, and fish, otters, and dragonflies thrive. This healthier ecosystem will make the water safer for swimming. The data could be shared publicly, even turned into interactive art, helping residents engage with the health of massive water park at the centre of their city.

Next, we should involve vulnerable groups – the elderly, people with disabilities, children and young people – ensuring they have access to the Harbour for leisure, recreation and connection to nature.

This re-conceived use of the Harbour as a place for nature, then active inclusive leisure, then economic activity stands to create a regenerative economy at the heart of our city.

How do digital twins fit into this shift toward resilience?

Digital twins are now being widely used by privately owned asset owners of cities – such as airports, ports, stadiums, shopping malls, rail stations and university campuses – as integral tools for everyday operations rather than just research and innovation. Digital twins enable things that are business critical to happen: such as predictive maintenance and “what-if” scenario planning, which saves money and improves safety.

So in practice, you can play around with your digital model of your place, change things and see what happens before committing to spending a lot of money and physically changing something, only to find out it doesn’t work.

In many ways, these digital twins are becoming the building blocks of smart cities, enabling greater, smarter decision-making. The challenge is ensuring that the governance of this data is robust.

Photo: Aditya Thakur

Governance and ethics come up frequently in your work. Why are they so central?

Governance is a fundamental element of smart city strategy, particularly as technology evolves. Cities generate vast amounts of data – from streetlights to traffic systems to air sensors – and we have got to guard this like the crown jewels and put governance around it at a local level, while acknowledging this is publicly owned data, and should be made open when appropriate.

Who owns the data is especially important. We must ensure that local communities and citizens own and control this data – not just the tech giants – and that they have the foresight to understand its value, which requires active education and community engagement.

Data management is useful but if you put guard rails around it you can actually make sure you’ve got moral and ethical things happening. For example, digital inclusion is super important for local community empowerment.

Of course, the next big thing coming is AI, which stand to be a huge game-changer. What if, within five or 10 years’ time we have lined up all this data and the AI actors are not all benevolent? We are at a crossroads right now if we don’t take AI governance more seriously; without it, it could be used for bad as much as it is used for good.

You’ve spoken about innovating with care. What does that look like in practice?

A good example is a current project I’m involved with in Bristol, around St. Paul’s Parish Church in Clifton. The Church’s congregation is very committed to environmental issues and there is deep concern surrounding that. We’ve printed out a 3m by 2m massive Ordnance Survey map of every building in the parish, which includes a lot of the University of Bristol. We’ve done this because buildings are the #1 source of greenhouse gasses in cities, and we are starting a dialogue with all the building owners about how they are adapting their buildings to meet net-zero targets, and care for the local area. Think Global, Act Local.

Many of the buildings in the parish are over 100 years old. Retrofitting is hard but over the next 10-20 years we are all going to have to move away from our gas boilers and find more sustainable solutions. We need to increase our deployment of renewables and micro-grids, and possibly think about district heating. Good local relationships are the key to progressing together, so we’re nudging that along.

Over time, we’re planning to add sensors, collect benchmarking data, and even create public art installations that visualise local progress. The point is to bring the community together to think globally but act locally, to hold the community together using art and data to create an open dialogue about our shared urban infrastructure. Solutions are always going to be local even though the problem is global –  so we want to make the topic engaging and fun.

Thank you Paul, for sharing your experience and insight.