As climate change accelerates, cities around the world are experiencing rising temperatures, increased energy consumption, and worsening urban heat islands. Addressing these challenges requires data-driven innovation, and we are proud to be featured in Aritco’s Accelerating Retrofitting 2025 report, which explores how technology is reshaping urban sustainability and resilience.
Co-created by Aritco and Springwise, the report describes innovative solutions that help cities future-proof their built environments. It underscores the importance of retrofitting existing infrastructure, as 80% of buildings today will still be in use by 2050, and operational energy use—such as heating, cooling, and appliance power consumption—remains one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions.
One of the major issues tackled in the report is the increasing severity of urban overheating. Cities are expanding rapidly, often replacing natural green spaces with heat-absorbing concrete, glass, and asphalt. This phenomenon, known as the urban heat island effect, causes cities to be 10-15°C hotter than surrounding rural areas, significantly impacting public health, energy demand, and livability.
Extreme heat not only increases cooling costs and energy use, but it also creates serious health risks, especially for vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing health conditions. Without proper mitigation strategies, heat-related illnesses and fatalities will continue to rise.
The Accelerating Retrofitting 2025 report highlights the urgent need for technological solutions to combat urban heat, and FortyGuard is featured as a pioneering company using AI-powered intelligence to address this growing challenge. The report describes FortyGuard’s AI-powered Temperature Dashboard, which can essentially work as a search engine for temperature data that allows urban planners, developers, and policymakers to identify and respond to heat hotspots in real time.
Key Features of the Temperature Dashboard:
Near-surface temperature accuracy between 0.5 and 10 meters—offering a granular look at urban heat distribution.
Uses data from satellites, weather stations, and on-ground sensors to provide hyper-accurate temperature mapping.
Predicts overheating risks and helps optimize urban cooling strategies such as green roofs, reflective surfaces, and strategic shading.
Supports data-driven decision-making for infrastructure projects, ensuring that future buildings and public spaces are designed with heat mitigation in mind.
Ultimately, providing precise, actionable temperature insights, FortyGuard’s platform helps decision-makers plan smarter, more livable urban environments that are resilient to extreme heat events.
The Accelerating Retrofitting 2025 report also showcases FortyGuard’s collaboration with Masdar City, one of the world’s leading hubs for sustainable urban innovation. As part of its work in Eco Plaza, FortyGuard provided data-driven insights to optimize cooling strategies for the development. One of the key implementations was the introduction of a shading solution called the Solar Tree, designed to reduce heat exposure and improve outdoor comfort. This collaboration demonstrates how AI-powered temperature intelligence can be integrated into urban planning and infrastructure projects, ensuring that future developments are built with climate resilience in mind.
The Accelerating Retrofitting 2025 report makes it clear: the world needs to renovate and retrofit the built environment at an unprecedented scale to meet net-zero carbon goals. However, progress has been slow, and many national retrofitting strategies are not yet on track to meet global climate targets. By leveraging AI, data analytics, and innovative planning, cities can proactively address climate challenges, reduce their carbon footprint, and create healthier, more comfortable environments for residents.
Realizing the necessity of using intelligent technology to optimize urban heat mitigation, we are currently accepting sign-ups for early access to our Temperature Dashboard™, allowing city planners, businesses, and developers to harness real-time temperature intelligence before it’s widely available.
Click on this link to join our waitlist and be among the first to experience our cutting-edge urban cooling technology: https://www.fortyguard.com/#comp-m36yggbo
Read the full Accelerating Retrofitting 2025 report here: https://www.aritco.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Trend-Report-Accelerating-Retrofitting-2025-1.pdf
We are honored to be featured in this report alongside other groundbreaking solutions tackling flooding, energy efficiency, and sustainability challenges. A huge thank you to Aritco and Springwise for featuring FortyGuard and recognizing the role of temperature intelligence in shaping the cities of the future.