7 ideas for a future-ready Bucharest

We are at a time when we need to make changes in the way we live, work and act towards our environment. This applies both to individuals and communities.

Being one of the main educational and economic hubs of Romania, our capital must certainly change in order to be prepared for the future.?

As an entrepreneur in technology, with a passion for everything related to sustainability and a focus on creating a harmonious relationship with the world (environment, people, organizations), I outlined some starting ideas that I think would help Bucharest be better prepared for the following years.

Rapid implementation of strategic plans to cut carbon emissions

Bucharest is one of the most polluted cities in the country, with a considerably declining air quality and a worrying increase in the carbon footprint.?

Current initiatives to reduce emissions and create a more sustainable environment must see rapid implementation and even exponential multiplication and growth.

Sustainability must become a standard in the way we buy, consume, travel, and in the way businesses are designed and scaled.

Businesses that have not already implemented an Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) policy need to urgently shift to a more responsible attitude (by reducing CO2 emissions, by creating products and services that contribute to a positive impact, by promoting a circular economy, etc.)

A better remote work infrastructure?

In December 2021, Romania became one of the countries that offer digital nomad visas to those who want to come and work remotely from here. The gig economy is developing, and the recent crisis has shown us how dynamic we can be in the way we work.

It is, therefore, necessary to create a new, better infrastructure for hybrid work.?

Offices will continue to exist and cover the needs that work from home/remote work cannot meet. But office spaces have begun to adapt, following models such as the hub and spoke one (satellite spaces, different from headquarters), or becoming much more flexible in terms of logistics, organization, or rental terms.

New urban organization concepts

Furthermore, we are already seeing projects that bring together office buildings, retail spaces, and housing in the same area, to minimize the time wasted between our various areas of interest. The concept of 15 minutes city talks about having, at a short distance, all the facilities we need, which would lead not only to saving good hours in Bucharest but also to reducing the nuisance caused by using personal cars, for example.

Creating new areas of interest - either through these mixed projects or through the reconversion and reconstruction of certain areas - could significantly improve the quality of life in Bucharest. Thus, we get to the need to create and implement public-private plans to transform the capital into a poly-centric city, with an increased quality of life.?

Green offices?

Going back to office buildings, they must contribute to reducing carbon emissions. To become green, developers need to pay more attention to the materials they use, the way they recycle energy, and the technologies they use to reduce their carbon emissions.

With this new interest in energy efficiency and the positive impact of buildings on the environment, customer expectations are also changing. Therefore, we can expect them to require the spaces where they work from not to negatively affect the environment.

A greener approach to everything

The surface of green spaces is decreasing in Bucharest - by about 7% in the last 25 years according to an INS study cited by ZF. If we correlate this with the density of the city, we can easily understand how worrying the negative impact on our physical and mental health is.?

A stronger city needs to have more green spaces, even if there are newer ways to get there - for example, we can build these areas (also) vertically (the well-known concept of vertical farming).

We should also start using more green energy, and one of its vital applications is in transport infrastructure. The Bucharest of the future must be properly prepared both for bicycles (by having dedicated tracks), electric cars and scooters, as well as for a well-developed public transport, which will encourage people not to use their personal cars as much.

A sharing economy is also a strategic approach we need to embrace for a greener city - and a motivating factor here could be free car-sharing parking spots. Promoting and actively supporting the circular economy will also lead to more recycling (with more affordable options for recycling, such as the EcoTree digital waste management platform) and less waste.

Also, returning to the concept of ESG mentioned above, the impact of companies on the environment and society can be better managed. Creating incentives for these companies, which prove a verifiable ESG policy, can facilitate the transition to companies that make responsibility one of their most important principles.

Education for sustainability

In order for Bucharest - and, in fact, Romania - to be better prepared for the future, we need to look at what and how we learn about sustainability. The implementation of compulsory courses, organised by age groups, on sustainability, circular economy, and climate impact would help to assimilate new information in a structured way and would lead to a better understanding of the urgency to act in this direction.?

Once we understand that we need to learn how to learn continuously, we will realize how critical it is to always be aware of the changes the world is going through and to manage them as efficiently and beneficially as possible.?

?More digitalisation

A future-ready city should make digitization the main modus operandi in many of its processes. Bucharest and Romania still have a long way to go in this regard, but I am personally optimistic.

We are witnessing growing support for startups and tech entrepreneurs, both through local programs and through the entry of international funds into the market. In the area of real estate, where we are active, it has become clear that without digitalization, the industry cannot survive - so we see more and more spaces implementing, developing, or getting involved in building tech solutions.

Digitization can contribute greatly to the creation of a greener city, by reducing - for example, the number of printed materials or to creating a safer city (in the current pandemic context and beyond).

These are just some of the ways in which we should focus on a more efficient, sustainable, and healthy Bucharest for the future. What should be added, in conclusion, is that these changes can only be made through good public-private collaboration, and by adapting the way we think and especially the way we learn and we educate.