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Equitable
In an equitable city, all citizens are equal, regardless of their gender, origin, status, ethnicity or religion. This includes an awareness of and fight against systemic problems such as structural racism. An equitable city strives for fair distribution of resources and provides universal access to basic needs such as security, affordable mobility, and housing.
Local Solutions for 
Global ChallengesSharing and supporting innovative and scalable solutions for resilient, intelligent, sustainable and equitable cities.
Resilient
The city, its systems and services, have enough resilience to cope with current and upcoming challenges such as population growth, climate change, pandemics, or financial crises. City residents have access to work, education, health care, and services such as food supply, energy, waste management and transportation as well as a vibrant cultural life.
Intelligent
An intelligent city uses high-end technology such as digitalization to enhance livability for its residents – for example, by improving city services. The intelligent city also drives science and innovation to serve the common good and promote a positive future for the next generations. The city’s stakeholders feel empowered to act as responsible leaders.
Sustainable
A sustainable city implements successful solutions to create systems with a neutral to positive environmental impact. Urban energy systems are based on renewable sources and sustainable concepts – such as natural cooling models or circular economy concepts. Mobility systems are transformed to focus on shared, healthy, and green transportation. Food systems are redesigned to feed the city from within and its immediate surroundings.
Equitable
In an equitable city, all citizens are equal, regardless of their gender, origin, status, ethnicity or religion. This includes an awareness of and fight against systemic problems such as structural racism. An equitable city strives for fair distribution of resources and provides universal access to basic needs such as security, affordable mobility, and housing.- Local Solutions for Global ChallengesSharing and supporting innovative and scalable solutions for resilient, intelligent, sustainable and equitable cities.
Program
A better future for both humans and the planet demands meaningful practices of leadership and collaboration, starting with the places we live: the cities. We need conscious, shared purpose and innovative action from committed citizens.
The BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt has launched the RISE Cities program to advance responsible leadership in cities and global knowledge of resilient, intelligent, sustainable, and equitable (RISE) cities. RISE Cities identifies urban challenges and facilitates mutual learning to support the development of local solutions.
Using its experience in community building and its knowledge of cross-sectoral exchange, the program seeks to establish a platform that engages all urban stakeholders - politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, urbanists, architects, the business community, and civil society - to identify and help implement new strategies and projects for sustainable urban development.
“We need initiatives like RISE Cities to bring leaders together across sectors, as only a collective network of leaders rather than a single person can solve these challenges and enable the cultural change needed globally."
Helle Søholt, CEO of Gehl and member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network
RISE Fellowship Program
Through RISE Cities, we aim to bring the Responsible Leadership mindset to city stakeholders in very concrete terms.
We strive to create a network of city stakeholders and to inspire more people to identify themselves as Responsible Leaders to catalyze sustainable urban transformation.
RISE Future Visions 2050
Collective knowledge production on future scenarios, trends and prospects based on the RISE metrics.
We aim to gather knowledge about future trends and visions – knowledge that reflects and defines our worldview and helps us to move forward.
