Brands as thoughtful city dwellers

We love cities.

As proof of this passion more than half of the world’s population now lives in a city.

Within 40 years 75% of us will live in a metropolis – so how we live and use resources needs to adapt and innovate to keep city living sustainable, as even now the crazy concentration of people, communities, organizations and businesses means every individual behavior and contribution has significant influence.

The first wave of urbanization took place in North America and Europe in the years leading up to 1950. While a second wave of urbanization is now happening in developing nations, the vanguard urbanites are busy reassessing what urban living looks like.

The first side to this is that contrary to what Blade Runner, Fifth Element and Wall-E suggest, cities are becoming intensely human and thoughtful. People are no longer ignoring their interdependence and as we become more networked it is leading people to work together to humanize cities.

The second side to this is the sustainable living that is possible in a city, the economies of scale that can be achieved are limitless and these are beginning to be fully explored – not just through idealism, but through the desire for a greater quality of life and at a lower cost.

Brands and businesses are increasingly shaping and contributing to urban development; it is not just that they have a responsibility to do this, but more interestingly it is a huge opportunity for them to create a meaningful value exchange either with their employees, surrounding communities or other businesses.

Here we wanted to highlight some smart examples of brands and businesses contributions:

Getting their own house in order.

Real estate is prized in cities and smart use of it can benefit you and everyone else.

Bank of America’s building in New York has just been awarded an exemplary LEED certification and stands proudly as the most environmentally friendly commercial building. Ever.

As if further endorsement was needed, Al Gore rents office space within the building.

The compelling part to it is that it is not just filled with impressive new technologies, it is also devised to more humanized giant edifice – “We tried to design this one with what we call biophilic — or love of life — principles in mind” say the architects Cook + Fox.

Gardening is blooming as the natural world springs up all over urban landscapes. PNC creating the world’s largest vertical garden last year at their downtown Pittsburgh headquarters. This is something that makes a feature of a business’ presence and that reduces the building’s energy consumption while pleasing passersby.

PepsiCo, along with a number of other big urban-based corporations mentioned in this recent New York Times article , have turned over their land to employee farming. It increases people’s morale and generates food for local communities.

Corporate real estate for communal benefit.

The larger the building, the more likely it might have disused parts to it and so the more thoughtful businesses can be in sharing their real estate with the surrounding community, the better their impact can be.

A Vancouver rooftop was turned over to United We Can , an urban not for profit, for an urban farm. It was planned that the fruits and vegetables grown through the rooftop farm will be sold to high-end restaurants in the neighborhood and at farmers markets. The profits were to go towards the part-time wages of up to 25 urban farmers by the end of this year. Any sizeable office building could do this.

Fortnum and Masons in London are keeping bees atop their Piccadilly flagship store, doing their bit for the survival of the species, while producing their own honey product in as sustainable way as possible.

If big businesses can have less of a protectionist view of their properties, more initiatives like these could happen.

Urban regeneration or renewal.

New Urbanism focuses on  how spaces can be used to support communities and a better quality of life and its mantra is being increasingly adopted, either implicitly or explicitly. As urban planning get all round more thoughtful there is a lot brands can do to contribute to and diversify it and city’s regeneration efforts.

Paris has their own bike system called Velib , that has given a renewed sense of freedom to residents, reduced traffic and enticed tourists to explore the more unpredictable corners of the city. Sanyo have set up two solar powered bike parks in Tokyo for commuters, the zero emission transport option has been set up for the local communities and not only helps create an experience for people, it also showcases the brand’s new technology. Inspired by this, what car brand could boldly suggest people forego their car and instead cycle the city, by sponsoring a similar system to the one in Paris, for New York?

The Highline has been a much lauded development within New York city, it has renovated a disused space, drawn tourism and encouraged residents to reconsider their urban ecosystem. What if Home Depot or a similar brand were to convert disused spaces to small oasis, within which people could garden and contribute to the space? It could be done in a way that promotes Home Depot’s values and gardening products.

British Airways erected the iconic London Eye wheel on the South Thames river bank. It helped regenerate what had been a tawdry area of the city and pre-empted a full scale redevelopment alongside it that now caters to the thousands of tourists that flock there annually.

Nike have recently proposed the regeneration of a disused park in Tokyo and it in particular has raised all kinds of questions about brand’s potentially ‘unsolicited’ presence in public spaces. But if that value it is adding to the local community far outweighs any negative impact, why not encourage it?

Facilitating system efficiency and creating meaningful behavioral change.

Masdar city, is being built in the United Arab Emirates to the vision for the most networked and sustainable city in the world. Planners are working with top scientists, engineers and innovators to create interconnected systems and manage them through an integrated city dashboard. The vision is for city’s leaders to be able to fine-tune their metropolis in real time — and thus shape what could be the world’s first economically and environmentally sustainable city, with zero carbon emissions, as they go.

Smart traffic lights have been developed through a partnership between Siemens and BMW, that communicate to vehicles about road conditions and help moderate traffic patterns to operating on the most efficient cycle to reduce fuel consumption.

IBM has underlined its move from selling software and computers to selling solutions with it’s “Smarter Planet” initiative, part of which is focused on shaping life for the better in cities. A New York success story is in IBM’s supply of an IT solution to paperwork for the city’s homeless service agency so increasing their review rate by 57% and so speeding up the process for people to get allocated permanent housing. This doesn’t seem to quite nail what IBM talk about as a vision for cities on the site, but it is certainly worth keeping an eye out for what they do next.

These approaches span from the accessible to the hugely ambitious but they are proof of the opportunities for brands and businesses to be more responsible and to influence change for the better in cities.

The more innovative the initiative and more aligned with brand strategy, the more beneficial the effort will be for the brand in the long term.

If you’ve any more examples, we would really like to hear about it.

What is happening in your city, thanks to brands and businesses, that is making it a more human place to live?

Look out for more posts on this subject in the future. It’s one we are very fond of.