US Cities are incredibly diverse in their energy use and their energy politics, but many are trying to use the latest tools to solve similar problems with boosting efficiency and adding new capacity.

TED gave a recent prize to the City 2.0, recognizing that the “smart city” is a vital and important trend not only in the US but across the world. In the energy sector, information technology allows tracking of impacts on the grid, of timing for energy usage or traffic and tracking changes in ways that can allow for more-varied forms of policy and business responses to increasingly pressing problems.

In this video, Director Michael Marinello of the C40 Climate Leadership Group and Navigant Director Andrew Kinross explain why the Big Data trend requires benchmarking, and the possibility for positive feedback loops when it comes to energy and cities.

See an earlier video with this panel here.