When the world entered the era of digital society, it underwent one of its biggest metamorphoses of all times. This transformation, as important for the economy, society and culture as the invention of the printing press, happened very fast. 5 billion cell phones and 1.9 billion computers have been connected in just 10 years. This need of interconnection and communication, this desire of change turns our lives and our work upside down. Information becomes the new energy in a world where work and the known business models and organizational models are being transformed profoundly.

At the same time, the world is discovering its environmental limits (pollution, exhaustion of resources, climate change) as well as its social limits (demography, democratic problems, access to healthcare and education…). How can we make the communication society serve sustainable development?

A sustainable approach on the territories, especially the Agenda 21, is not only an assembly of constraints but also a question of creativity and innovation.

ACIDD, association communication and innovation for sustainable development has been convinced of this for over 10 years now. This is how we created the forums TIC21 and the network ICT21 for Energy Efficiency, which have made possible propositions such as the BeGreen festival, the wakeup calls of sustainable development 2.0 as well as their realization. The forum will be an occasion to evaluate the situation on the 37 propositions presented by ACIDD and the DATAR in 2009 on the digital and sustainable town and country planning. The city and the urban are at the heart of everybody’s concerns, on all continents. A new world is emerging, it was at the heart of the last Expo in Shanghai and it is also the object of several studies, encounters and conferences.

It is becoming essential that we, actors and people in charge in politics, society, culture, economics, universities and schools, have the opportunity to exchange ideas, to evaluate the situation and to pool our experiences in order to be able to make the right choices and to bring concrete results.

In this context, after the success of the first edition, the second Forum Green and Connected Territories is organized in a logic of cross-fertilization within the particular cross-border environment of the Upper Rhine Region, example of intercultural and interdisciplinary cooperation.

This meeting between the different parties in charge of the city and the territories of tomorrow will be exceptional. Come share and show your visions, experiences and habits during original methods of exchange and co-production, guaranteed by the legitimacy, the neutrality and the expertise of ACIDD.