Stockholm has been declared the Smart City of 2019 at the Smart City Expo World Congress, held this week in Barcelona.

The expo’s annual World Smart City Awards, which received a total of 450 nominations from 54 countries, are aimed at recognising cities which adopted key innovations in sustainable urban development for the public benefit: the other cities selected as finalists for the Smart City of 2019 award were Curitiba in Brazil; Tehran, Iran; Bristol in the UK; Montevideo in Uruguay; and Seoul, South Korea. Stockholm was chosen as the final winner in part due to the success of its participation in the GrowSmarter urban laboratories initiative, which explores smart innovations for reducing carbon emissions.

Gustaf Landahl, Project Co-ordinator for GrowSmarter and Head of Department for Planning and Environment in the Environment and Health Administration at the City of Stockholm, said: “As a representative of the City of Stockholm and also the GrowSmarter project, this award acknowledges what we have done in Stockholm for many years.”

Stockholm has led the GrowSmarter project since 2015, implementing smart city solutions for a wide range of sectors including energy, transport and waste management. The GrowSmarter initiative, which is delivered with funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, has implemented more than 72 sustainably powered vehicles and conducted energy efficient renovations on more than 130,000m2 of property in its three key Lighthouse Cities: Barcelona, Cologne and Stockholm.

City of Stockholm project managers Sigrid Granström and Lisa Enarsson said: “Stockholm is proof of what a connected, smart and sustainable city is. Winning the World Smart City Award is a testament to the huge journey we have been on both in the GrowSmarter project and in the City as a whole. That journey is never ending, but GrowSmarter has taken us an important step on the way.”