#46 Viladecans: "One Of The Most Sustainable Cities In Spain"

[00:00:06] Tamlyn Shimizu: Welcome to Smart in the City, the Bable podcast, where we bring together top actors in the Smart City arena, sparking dialogues and interactions around the stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations. [00:00:21] Tamlyn Shimizu: I am your host, Tamlyn Shimizu, and I hope you will enjoy this episode and gain knowledge and connections to accelerate the change for a better urban life. [00:00:31] Tamlyn Shimizu: Smart in the city is brought to you by Babel smart cities. We enable processes from research and strategy development to co creation and implementation. To learn more about us, please visit the Bable platform at babel SmartCities. [00:00:43] Tamlyn Shimizu: EU so today I'm here at Green Cities, the S moving event in the vibrant city of Malaga, Spain. So we are official media partners at the event, and it is really bustling here on the second and final day of the expo. So also, thank you to FYCMA for partnering with us to produce these episodes with some of the guests. I'm really excited to introduce you to our next guests here with me today. So for this episode, we're traveling back very close to Barcelona to the very important town of Viladecans. So with me today, I have two great people representing the city. First off, I have Jordi Mazón. He's the deputy mayor of the municipality of Viladecans. Welcome, Jordi. [00:01:27] Jordi Mazón: Welcome. Thank you. [00:01:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: And also with him to show also this other side. So Jordi represents kind of the politics side, right? Alicia Valle, she's the general manager for the municipality. [00:01:42] Alicia Valle: Hello. Thank you. [00:01:44] Tamlyn Shimizu: Nice to have you here. So I have a little question for you to get us started, and it's our teaser question, and my question is to both of you. If Viladecans were a superhero, what would be its superpower? [00:02:04] Jordi Mazón: Wow. It's a very complicated question. Superpower? I'm not sure. What do you think, Alicia? [00:02:14] Alicia Valle: Viladecans would be a character, would be Wonder Woman, because we'll talk later. We have a lot of women working on the direction of the city council, but also doing great projects around the city. So wonder Woman. [00:02:36] Tamlyn Shimizu: Wonder Woman. I love it. Do you agree? Do you have another? [00:02:40] Jordi Mazón: Yeah, I agree. But in addition to the comment of Alicia, I think also we like we enjoy with a very ambitious project. So the power is that the easy projects for us is not a challenge, but the great projects for us are motivation. So maybe the superpower is to face these big projects, this big challenge with a point of view in local, but also with a global point of view. [00:03:15] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I love that. I actually was hosting a webinar for one of our EU projects around small and medium sized cities, and the mayor that was representing the city, a small city in Germany, was saying that something very similar to that around basically just don't be afraid because you're small, right? Just tackle it. Yeah, I love it. Okay, so I want to give the listeners a little bit of background into you, who you are, what's your background, what led you here? So, Jordi, I'd love to hear from you first. Where did you come from? [00:03:52] Jordi Mazón: I am from originally, I'm from Viladecans. My grandfather grandmother was from Viladecans. [00:04:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Wow. [00:04:02] Jordi Mazón: So I am several generations so, and I am also a deputy major, as you commented before. But I am also a scientist, so I am a physical atmosphere, scientific degree, PhD. And I work also in the university in the investigation of atmospheric science. And this is also an opportunity for the political point of view. So my background is both political and scientific. [00:04:31] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, very interesting background. Just a little follow up question there. How do you think physics and politics interact? [00:04:38] Jordi Mazón: This is a very complicated question, a very interesting question, because I think the both worlds are connecting points. And so I think that the political can help physics and physics can help political. So it's a two way relationships. [00:04:54] Tamlyn Shimizu: Do you have an example? I'm just trying to picture it. [00:04:57] Jordi Mazón: Wow. Yeah, I think, for instance, this is a weird question for me. I think when you are writing a paper, for instance, or an investigation, and you submit this paper to a journal, their peer review evaluated your paper. And it is very important that the coherence of the model or the investigation that you are doing, the basic point is that the coherence of all terms or items in the paper. So if we move this idea to the political world, in my opinion, it's the same. So when you have a project, a political project, the coherence in this project with all the political that you are doing should be the same than a scientific point of view. So the quarantines and the rigor of. [00:05:48] Tamlyn Shimizu: All the projects that you are doing, very good example. Yeah, I was trying to picture this interaction. So thank you for that, but sometimes it's very complicated. Yeah, I'm sure. Alicia, I'd love to hear about your background. I know it's also quite interesting how you came here. [00:06:04] Alicia Valle: Well, I'm not from Viladecans. I don't live in Viladecans, but all my adult life I've been working there. So I start working in Viladecans in my last year of college, a little bit a long time ago. So now I've been working in Viladecans about 27 years with different roles. Okay. I started was doing some practice in the Low team in Vilada Kans with my partners there. And I developed all my career, professional career in Viladecans. And I feel like I'm from Viladecans in some way. I don't sleep in Viladecans, but almost the rest of my life I do it there. So I'm in love with the city. Absolutely. [00:06:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. Very, very nice. I also understand you have a background in law. [00:06:58] Alicia Valle: Yes, I'm a lawyer, and specifically, I'm an urban lawyer. So I've been always related with the design of the city, I think with a very interesting point of view that is also in the rest of our team and is talking about design of the city, but with a point, a very interesting point of view because we work with the citizens in the middle of our decisions. And that's absolutely one of the priority of the design team. So maybe that's one of the characteristics of Viladecans, that it's different from other places. [00:07:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, really putting citizens at the forefront of the conversation. And I know Barcelona area is also the metropolitan region, is really focusing on that this year. I just had an episode around democracy as the Barcelona won the European capital of Democracy this year. So we're talking a lot about these participatory processes. So cool stuff. So I understand, Alicia, that Viladecans is also co chair of the Impulso network. Can you tell us a little bit about the network and what that entails? [00:08:20] Alicia Valle: Yeah, Impulso is a network from cities of Spain. That it's a network from the government of Spain with the science and innovation part of the government very enveloped during the process. We are almost 90 cities actually in the network, doing a lot of work related with innovation and science. That's the main part of the work that the network is doing, actually. I think, if I have to tell one thing super interesting about this Impulsive network is that it's an ecosystem for the exchange of experience and it's very active. We do a lot of team building from people that works for the cities and it's very different from other networks that exist actually in Spain and in the rest of Europe because it's a floor to exchange a lot of knowledge and to help each other. So I think this is very powerful. Maybe it's an example to other networks that maybe are more classics in the way they work. And Impulsive is very different about the methodology and it permits you to develop some innovation culture programs in the city councils, but also in the cities. So I think it's a good example to check to people that are interested to work in these ecosystems. [00:10:16] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, very interesting. So how do you think, I guess that you are bringing many challenges to the table with the network, right? In practice, how does that work? Can you give an example? [00:10:32] Alicia Valle: Well, we have different work groups and we work by challenges, which is very interesting. Every work group have a challenge to put together all the knowledge of the cities and try to advance. In this challenge, for example, we have one group that is working very hard about how the law but talking about innovation affects the work of the cities. And that's very hard because when you are alone doing that in your city and you're not able to share the experience with others, it's hard to advance. So for me, that's the most important work group that we are working now. Okay. How can we change the low frame in the state, in Spain to advance to success in the super important goals we have as cities for the 2030, for example? [00:11:41] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, absolutely. And Jody, I want to also ask you about another thing that I heard about, which is the Green Leaf Awards. I understand that your municipality is one of the finalists. Right. So what sustainable practices is Viladecans recognized for? How does this award work? [00:12:07] Jordi Mazón: Yeah, we are in the final of the relief next October. In three weeks ahead we will go to Tallinn. [00:12:17] Tamlyn Shimizu: Okay. [00:12:18] Jordi Mazón: And so the relief for us is very important and is the point to put the point in the middle of all the political, in the sustainability that we are doing, the basic one is that we want to become carbon neutral city in 2030. So this is a very important challenge and this is a transformation tool for all the cities. So with this goal, we involve all the sectors in the city from the citizens, the enterprises, the administration, and now we are in this line. But we are several years and decades ago that we are working in this sustainability. As you pointed before, Barcelona metropolitan area is a big metropolitan area. We are 15 Barcelona of Barcelona city in the middle of the delta of the river, the Lord River. So the development of the city has done in the last decades in respecting all the environment that we have. We have five different ecosystems in the municipal term, from the mountains with a very characteristic Mediterranean landscape to the coast to the line to the coastline with a very environment protected by the European Union and all the agricultural area and the European ecosystem with many, many trees and different political actions and very close to the airport. So the airport for us has been an opportunity for the preservation of the old landscapes that we have surrounding the airport that is in the middle dekans and all this picture with a very active political actions in different items, water, energy, trees, landscapes. So for us, gridleaf is the point that summarize all the actions that we are doing now and from different years with different topics and items. So we think that Viladecans is one of the most sustainable cities in Spain, probably, or we are sure that's Green Leaf is a very challenge. We are very motivated for this final next October. [00:14:58] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I'm excited to hear all about that coming up next month. Right. So, yeah, good luck on that. But I'm just wondering, how does that align with the Sustainable Development Goals? [00:15:11] Jordi Mazón: The basic line is the participation of people, of citizens that power cities in the change of the energy transition. So the Vilawatt project was a European project from urban that this was the change in the model in the city. So with the line that we are going to become a carbon neutral city, we need to reduce emissions. So it is a change in mobility, change in the energy consumption and the management of the energy. And then if we want to offset the emissions, we need to change the mind and to change the management of the trees, parks, garden and the surrounding. So the basic lines are in energy sorry, and in water. Also, we are doing very actions with, for instance, two different how to say, two different ways for the water, for the water, for wash and potable water and drink potable water. And so we are in many, many different items with sustainability. We are, I think, in a very good line to become very referenced city in sustainability. [00:16:37] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, absolutely. What is the biggest challenge that you're facing? That's the biggest bottleneck? [00:16:42] Jordi Mazón: The big challenge is to become, in seven years, carbon neutral city and in 2050 to become a negative, positive carbon city. Yeah, this is the big challenge because this challenge means to transform many, many things in the city and to change very social actions. And so it's not only with reduce or change the mobility from fuel to electric, maybe, but also to change the mind of the citizens and the administration in this line. So this is a big challenge. [00:17:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: So you think mindset is the biggest challenge that you see? [00:17:26] Jordi Mazón: Yeah, because in a scientific point of view, it is very clear that we need to do, but now is to change in a social so this climate change and this neutral carbon goal, this is also a social project. So here, environment, social and technology are mixing to become a carbon neutral city. And to face this goal yeah. [00:17:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: You have to take a very holistic view of it. [00:17:55] Jordi Mazón: Right, exactly. [00:17:56] Tamlyn Shimizu: So which policies do you think are the most instrumental in shaping this goal in 2030? [00:18:03] Jordi Mazón: For us, one of them is the participation of the citizens, because this is not only an issue of the government, we are now working in four different sectors enterprises, citizens, administration and academia. And so this method of work, the government defined a line, but all these sectors are working together to face this challenge. And so this is one of the most important items or changing that we are doing now with the governance. [00:18:45] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very interesting. Applause to you also for taking that step to say, 2030. The time is seven years is nothing. It's like already yesterday, basically, in times. [00:18:58] Alicia Valle: Of we're in a hurry. Absolutely. [00:19:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, absolutely. Alicia, I want to talk about a really cool innovation model that I heard about and that you guys are working on. It's called mia M-I-A. Can you walk us through what this is? The key principles, all of that? [00:19:17] Alicia Valle: Yeah. Well, I will start for the beginning, taking the words from Jordino. Well, as I said, the network of impulsion and this position allows us to accelerate the work aim at inclusive, green and digital transformation and that we planned that we won't face the 2030 with these points very strong on our line. Bilara Khan, as I said, has put the quality of life of our citizens in the middle of the public policies. And to do all mean to become this evolution of the city and to improve the quality of life of our citizens, we had to change things inside the city council, inside the organization, the culture. I mean, the change is changing so fast and the administration sometimes is so slow and so classic in the middle. So to face all the challenges that Jordi has already explained to you and others that we have in education and just to be an inclusive city, we had to change things inside the city council. And we like to talk about a slow revolution, okay? Because it is a revolution that we have to face inside our culture. And to do that, we have construct this model together with our workers, okay? Because that was, as Georgie said, all the changes in the city are co created with the citizens. And our model of innovation, Mia, has been constructed with our workers. So they're a very active part of the conservation of the model. And to construct a model, innovation was the main active to think about how we can change the way we do inside. And what we did was to think about the four challenges in the city, okay? Education, environment, energy, and inside, a transformation, digital transition. And we built four groups to decide how the strategy of the city was going to be and how the organization has to change to face those challenges. So we put all these brains together to work and the conclusion was that we had to face very deep transformations of the process. We have been working the last 30 years maybe. And so we have to change the verticality of the way we face the projects and become a transversal organization. That's a very easy word, easy words, but very hard to face because the law in Spain and also in the rest of Europe, when you work in this kind of organization, public organization, are very close. And to become a transversal organization affects the way that the workers from public organizations used to work and they have in their rights. So you have to be very persuasive and you have to face that maybe the idea of the change has to become from bottom to top and not top to bottom. Yeah, absolutely. [00:23:48] Tamlyn Shimizu: Have you produced any material about this model? [00:23:50] Alicia Valle: Yes, we have a project, we have some awards, some awards from to Mia. And our materials are about the middle because we work with Agile, we change the metal. And also we have some demonstration projects. We have 24 demonstration projects using Mia as the method of work. [00:24:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, because we would love to share it. I think this will be super interesting for our audience to also take a look at the deeper material on this. [00:24:30] Alicia Valle: Absolutely, yeah. [00:24:32] Tamlyn Shimizu: Would love to share that. At the time that we're at right now, technology is evolving so quickly, the digital landscape is evolving so quickly. How do innovation models kind of keep up with that change? [00:24:53] Jordi Mazón: You are meaning with the technology, how technology are changing or the influence of the new technologies in all this model and the political in the city, as you commented, the technology is moving very fast. So we can imagine that what happens in ten years ahead, for instance, because all technology is changing very fast. But I think now at this point, technology for us, for instance, is very we are applying new technologies in the city with many, many sensoring in the streets. We now are working in a room with a high technology to control all the different parts of the city. And we are applying artificial intelligence, for instance, in several applications for citizens. And we now are in testing how these tools that we have, how the application of the intelligent artificial intelligence can help and improve all these tools. For instance, electrification in the mobility, for instance, with new applications or go on. So it's a large list of different application of technology. But how this technology will change the city in maybe five years, it's a very difficult question to answer. So we don't know, because all is changing very fast, as you commented. [00:26:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, but you are somehow being quite agile with how you're already adapting AI, et cetera. And this is a challenge that many cities have. What do you think contributes to this agility? How are you able to adapt quickly? [00:26:45] Alicia Valle: Well, for us it's absolutely super important to capacity our workers, but also the citizens. And we've been boosting some programs to do all that work with citizens, to our workers, because the work has changed. You cannot work in the same way that two years ago before know everything has changed. And I think we have to focus on people and not in technology. As Jordi said, technology is a tool and to achieve more quality of life for our citizens, that is in the middle of our policies. And for sure we have to don't leave anyone in this road. [00:27:41] Jordi Mazón: For instance, a sample, a very quick sample. We have a currency, a local currency, the billabat coin is a currency, a legal currency. €1 is one bilabat. And so citizens can get bilabat coins, saving energy and contracting green energy. And now this was the original project, but now we are adapting this project to the new times, to the new time. And so, for instance, now if you move or you go as a citizen to go to the gym, to the public gyms, we have several machines. You can do running, you can running there and you are creating energy. So if you reach, for instance, ten kilowatt hour of energy in one month you will get currency. And then this currency. You spend this money in the local shops in the city. When these shops, if these shops are green energy or saving plastic bags, etc. So technology is a power tool, but always thinking with citizens. So this is the key point. And citizens are motivated for the changes and very slowly, in a very slow path, we are transforming the mind or the way to the use of technology in the city with the citizens base point. [00:29:15] Tamlyn Shimizu: I love that use case. It's really cool. Incentivizing health and participation from citizens and economic development at the same time. Yeah, I love it. [00:29:25] Alicia Valle: Good. [00:29:25] Tamlyn Shimizu: The last thing I want to ask you about in this main interview part is alicia, you mentioned yesterday that 80% of your directive team consists of women, which is quite rare in the city landscape. I mean, I think both of us know that we're quite accustomed to being the only woman in a room when you're looking at urban leaders, predominantly male, of course that is changing. But I more want to emphasize how do you think that this gender diversity is influencing your city's approach? And I want both of you to answer, if that's okay. [00:30:04] Alicia Valle: Well, our major is men. Okay. And the selection of our team is for the profile. Absolutely. I want to say that because it's not because it's not a political decision. It's just he decided to have the best people for the job and 80% we were women to be women. What is great, and it's really a shame that in other organizations, as you said, you say exactly the inverse, 20% or 10% women indirection. And in the second line, in private organizations, there's a lot of women, but not in the first chair. What is very painful for all the good women, the directors that they want to improve in their careers. So we are absolutely an exception and that's a bad thing. But we're really happy in Mila de Guns about that and we love to explain it. I think there's one point that maybe in the mindset of women is that is inclusive. We like to do our projects or to introduce in our projects inclusive like a main issue. And that absolutely represents a change in the policies that we are implementing in Viladecans. Because in my case, I'm a mom. My son now is 16 years old and he can go alone to school and everything. But I have other partners that now are directors that have small kids and they have to conciliate. So that thing that maybe this is an anecdotic, it is not, but when you are programming something in the city, you think about these things. You cannot have a call for a meeting at seven because it's not the time. I mean, we have families and that's just an example also with maybe 80% of women take care about their grandfathers or the old people of the family. So that point of view of the take care about the others is a shame, but it's a very woman point of view. So that absolutely affects on the way we face the projects and the policies. And I think it's a good thing we like to conciliar to conceal maybe the way that the woman faces the problems is also more about the listening about to share different points of view. I'm not saying that Men doesn't do that, but I think that's more of the characteristics of our different way of communication I think so, for sure we will monitorize how these 80% of directors has effect in the policies of the city. It is an interesting case of use that maybe in some years we can check how is yeah, absolutely. [00:33:44] Tamlyn Shimizu: Do you agree? [00:33:45] Jordi Mazón: Yeah, I totally agree with lithia but my role is a politician so in the political list, in the also there are a lot of women the men in the government are in minory we go there were only four men and the rest are women so for me it's a pleasure to work with men and women. For me it's not the difference because the profile is in all cases excellent profile. And for me it's natural and for me, it's not strange to work with women or men. So for me it's natural to think welcome to this new normality. Yeah, for me, it's nothing to comment, it's okay, it's a pleasure. And I think for me it's very strange when I go to a meeting or a congress and I saw when I see in a table all men for me it's very strange and the same in the university now, students are women and men. So for us, maybe it's not an issue. No, it's not the normal thing. And in Viladecans, in technical point of view and political point of view, women and men are working together with no problems. In this case, Villa Dekans, a lot of women prevail in this stuff, technical and political, but lots of strong women. [00:35:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: In Villa Dicans and finally the point. [00:35:26] Jordi Mazón: Of view of the woman I would like to comment that sometimes in several aspects the point of view of the woman are better than men. This is a very interesting point and women and men to work together I think it's a key point, it's crucial. [00:35:47] Alicia Valle: I think so different points of view are interesting to do the best both. [00:35:54] Tamlyn Shimizu: Sounds good, sounds good to me. So I know we're running low on time, so I would like to move on to our segment and the segment I've chosen for today is called Trial and Error. Trial and error? [00:36:08] Tamlyn Shimizu: What went wrong, what mistakes were made along the way and more importantly, what lessons were learned? [00:36:19] Tamlyn Shimizu: And this is because we've talked a lot about all the wonderful things you are doing but I think it's also really crucial to talk about the lessons learned. So do you have an example that you can share about something that might have gone wrong and something that you learned from it. [00:36:37] Jordi Mazón: Wow, some example of roan. Yeah, sure, a lot. [00:36:50] Alicia Valle: If I can have the floor maybe to start and talking about this change, this slow revolution that we're doing inside the house. I like to talk about a slow revolution because we had tried the speed revolution and speed revolution is not good when you want to do very deep transformation. So I think one of the main lessons learned is that you need the time. You need the time for the change. That's very important. And also it's very important that thing that I just mentioned, that the change has to become from bottom to top at top to bottom, only in one way. Doesn't matter if it's bottom to top or top to bottom. Doesn't work. We have to be very firms about everyone wants the change or almost everyone wants the change. So maybe that's my two lessons. [00:38:00] Jordi Mazón: Yeah, maybe following this explanation, one thing that is important, that sometimes people say that the politician never say true, okay. Many times in my case, for instance, several times we say something to the citizens and then, as Alicia commented before, the administration is too slow. And so it's true, we are doing that, but maybe we want to in a political point of view, we want to transfer very fast. And so the administration and the laws are very slow. And so people say us, okay, you aren't allowed because you said this time ahead and this is not a realty yet, so yeah, okay, we're working. [00:38:52] Tamlyn Shimizu: But why you raise their expectations and then you've moved too slow to that point instead of moving together at the same speed. [00:39:00] Jordi Mazón: In my case, at the beginning, I was very brave to say we are doing that and we're doing everything. Two years, we will get that. Two months, maybe two or three years. Yeah. So the different velocities speeds between the political ideas and the reality, this gap, I think in my case it was around at the beginning because reality, yeah, I am coming from the university to developing projects faster than the political and so this change of velocities is complicated. [00:39:42] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, really good lessons learned. Thank you for sharing that. Now, it's the last question. It's a question that we ask every single guest and it's to you, what is a smart city? [00:39:55] Jordi Mazón: It's a good question and I think many times about this question. For me, smart city is smart city, as the word said. And the question, what is not a smart city? For instance, a city with many trees, with shallow, with a healthy city by using trees, parks, gardens, dense gardens. For me, this is a smart city. Also, a city where the mobility is doing walking or cycling and not by car in all spaces or transits is a smart city. And a smart city is the city that citizens won. And I think. We need to disseminate how to say to do as smart citizens. So this is a smart city for me then also. Okay. Sensing many items to control and to increase the efficiency of the management in the city, this is smart city also. But the base of the smart city for me is to have a green city with many trees, gardens, etc. To change the mobility in a common sense. So if you need to move 20 minutes, walking is not a large distance. So you can walk, you can cycling. And for me, this is a smart city. [00:41:36] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, very good multifaceted answer. And do you have something to add or change? [00:41:43] Alicia Valle: Well, I think to me, a smart city is a smart when it's designed to people and when the city is an environment that improves the quality of life of citizens. That's smart. Other things for me is technology is other things. That's the smart city, which is what we are working for, focusing on the citizens. [00:42:11] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. And we came full circle, we mentioned that at the beginning and we came full circle back to the citizens. So I love that ending. And now is just the time to say thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. It was really fun to have you and talk to you about this. So yeah, thank you. [00:42:25] Jordi Mazón: Thank you. You're welcome. [00:42:26] Alicia Valle: Thank you very much. It was fun. [00:42:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: And to all of our listeners, don't forget you can always create a free account at bable SmartCities. [00:42:34] Alicia Valle: EU. [00:42:34] Tamlyn Shimizu: You can find out more about smart city projects, solutions, implementations and more. So thank you very much. Thank you all for listening. I'll see you at the next stop on the journey to a better urban life.