Smart City Wien aims to be at the forefront of international developments and is committed to the EU’s environmental, energy and climate targets for 2050. Guided by the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan), the then Mayor of Vienna, Michael Häupl, launched the Smart City Wien initiative in 2011 with the aim of transforming Vienna into a more sustainable urban living environment. A project financed by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund brought together multiple stakeholders from inside and outside the municipal administration, who drafted the visionary concepts and packages of measures that were to become the original Smart City Wien Framework Strategy of 2014.

The initial Framework Strategy was developed from 2011 to 2013 in a process involving municipal policy-makers and administrators as well as external experts from the scientific and business communities and civil society. Vienna City Council adopted the Framework Strategy for the first time on 25 June 2014, making it the legally binding basis for Smart City Wien. But a Smart City always moves with the times and adapts to ongoing changes. The regional legislator therefore adopted a revised and updated version of the Framework Strategy, which came into force on 26 June 2019. The revised and updated version includes the following new features:

• “Digitalisation” and “Participation” have been incorporated as new thematic fields.
• The contents are based upon the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• Each thematic field now unites all three headline goals, i.e. radical conservation of resources, high quality of life and social inclusion, alongside the focus on innovation and digitalisation as the key instruments for viable sustainable development.
• New subject areas such as adapting to the consequences of climate change, establishing a circular economy and reducing the material footprint have been integrated.
• Indicators and the underlying calculation methods have been refined and adjusted.
• The principles, methods and tools applied in the governance (management, coordination, implementation and monitoring) of the Framework Strategy have been reviewed and adjusted where necessary.

Translating the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy into reality in a socially inclusive way is a huge undertaking for the decades ahead. As such, it is also a collective endeavour that requires a concerted effort on the part of municipal policy-makers and administrators, local businesses, the scientific community, culture and the arts – and, not least, every single Viennese citizen!