Sustainable city development by ubiquitous carbon measuring: case of technical roadmap for intelligent homes in Sweden

This chapter describes technical roadmaps to plan and utilize information systems in order to decrease the energy consumption among city dwellers. On an individual level, IT tools can be used to empower users to measure, visualize, understand, and take action on their energy consumption. On the city level, energy performance contracting (EPC) is increasingly used to combine investments for a large number of buildings into one project. In Sweden, the implementation of 'S-box', an interactive measurement tool for energy consumption in apartments, is an ongoing project. The project is supported by real estate companies owned by Sweden's two largest city municipalities (Stockholm and Gothenburg). The case of 'S-box' is used to illustrate the challenges and impact of ubiquitous IT systems to engage city dwellers in apartment blocks to lower their carbon emissions.