The initiative seeks to promote public-private collaboration for developing sustainable cities.

Cities 2030 is supported by various national and international public bodies, sustainability forums and private companies.

Distrito Castellana Norte has started its collaboration on the Sustainable Cities 2030 project led by Forética, together with leading national and international public and private institutions. Forética, a leading business organisation in sustainability and corporate social responsibility, has launched the initiative through a public presentation in which it set out its main keys and upcoming milestones public presentation in which it set out its main keys and upcoming milestones. In the words of the organisers, Sustainable Cities 2030 “seeks to enhance the business contribution to the development of sustainable cities in Spain and to highlight the importance of public-private collaboration to achieve a resilient, safe, inclusive and sustainable city model”.

Sustainable Cities 2030 aims to advance the integration of strategic actions linked to sustainability in cities and highlight the importance of public-private collaboration and alliances at the national and international levels, in order to achieve the urban sustainability goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

The project is divided into three work areas for this year: sustainable construction, sustainable urban development and public-private partnership to achieve the objectives of sustainability in urban environments. The initiative was presented by Julia Moreno, Senior Manager of Sustainability and CSR at Forética.

Alliances and collaborations

The international organisations that form part of the project include The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the global network of local governments for sustainability, ICLEI, and the C40 Cities group, made up of 97 major world cities, representing a quarter of the global economy and more than 700 million inhabitants.

At the national level, the initiative has the support of the Fourth Vice-Presidency of the Government; the Ministries of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge; the Spanish Office for Climate Change, as well as the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, among other organisations.

Partnerships for this sustainable initiative also include national and international forums such as Smart City World Expo, the Cities Forum and Conama. In addition, together with Distrito Castellana Norte, the Madrid World Capital of Engineering, Construction and Architecture (Madrid WCC) is also participating in the project.

The introductory meeting of the Forética initiative also included a presentation by Pamela Jouven, who is in charge of climate alliances between the municipalities and companies of C40 Cities, who described the activities and approaches of the C40 Climate Leadership Group, an initiative led by local governments and mayors of which Madrid is a member, and that seeks to achieve commitments to global sustainability through the achievement of environmental goals in cities. Within the framework of C40 Cities, Jouven also introduced the CBCA City-Business Climate Allianceinitiative, aimed at boosting public-private collaboration to fight climate change.

At the end of the event, the companies that are behind ‘Sustainable Cities 2030’ shared their business experiences for constructing sustainable cities, with presentations by Jaime Fernández, Manager of ASPRIMA, Marcelo Catalá, Vice President of Urbanisation Solutions for EMEAA of CEMEX, Tomás Domínguez, Director of Products and Specialties of ENGIE and Catherine Cummings, Director of CSR and Institutional Relations of Sanitas.