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In a quest to improve the built environment, Sidewalk Labs is rethinking Toronto into a smart, more sustainable city. This article from IOT for All shares Sidewalks top three innovative learnings.

In Toronto the climate is harsh, and an innovative smart city project to shape the city’s future and provide a global model for inclusive urban growth, while considering the affordability, flexibility and climate is a real challenge!

Sidewalk, an Alphabet company, released an innovative Master Innovation and Development Plan (MDIP) for Toronto. While the plan was meant for a smart-city development in Canada’s largest city, it can also be used as a global guide book for urban innovation, a new urban toolkit for the digital times we are living in.

The MDIP was released in June 2019, written in 18 months, 3 volumes, 1524 pages and 18 pounds. Yes, you read that! 18 pounds of smart-city innovation!

Fast-forward to 2020: the plan sparked much controversy and faced a fairly rocky reception and a pushback from the community and the government in terms of policy innovations, data privacy, intellectual property, real estate (of course!) and community engagement.

After all the media coverage (or an outrage?), public consultations and meetings, Sidewalk released a more limited proposal for the development of Toronto smart-city!

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