Los Angeles has always been a city that imagines the future, on film, in science, and now, in sustainability. That future took center stage at the Smart & Resilient Cities Forum, co-hosted by Larta Institute, Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency (AWEX), and Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) as part of the Belgian Economic Mission to California.
Held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the forum brought together leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, including government officials, innovators, researchers, and industry experts, to answer a question for the ages: How can cities become smarter, fairer, and more sustainable through collaboration?
The event, graced by HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium, provided a stage for updates from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, HE Pierre-Yves Jeholet, Reynold Hoover (LA28), and Californian and Belgian leaders from cleantech and infrastructure sectors. With Larta CEO Rohit Shukla serving as Master of Ceremonies, the forum centered on a principle at the heart of Larta’s Global Bridge work: complex urban challenges require collaboration across borders, sectors, and disciplines.
That principle became the thread running through the day’s discussions, from ports and hydrogen innovation to housing equity and cultural resilience, and pointed toward new opportunities for Belgium and California to turn shared challenges into collaborative action.
Making the Case: Cities in the Eye of the Storm
Urban areas face a convergence of risks: heat waves, flooding, pandemics, economic shocks, and their disproportionate consequences. According to the OECD, cities are contending with more frequent climate-related shocks and complex interdependencies between infrastructure, health, and social systems. Belgium and California are both confronting these pressures, making resilience, sustainable infrastructure, and the transition to more circular, low-carbon economies increasingly urgent priorities.
Both regions have identified these challenges as areas where investment, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration can unlock new solutions. The forum was less about “what if” and more about “what now.” Belgium brings deep policy frameworks, industrial engineering, and circular-economy systems. California brings high entrepreneurial energy, bold ambition, and large diverse metro ecosystems. Together, these complementary strengths create opportunities to test, adapt, and deploy new approaches to shared urban challenges.
From Dialogue to Deployment: A New Model of Cooperation
At the forum’s start, Pascale Delcomminette of AWEX framed the mission as a bridge to build collaboration between Belgium and California, leveraging our strong ecosystems across innovation research, development, and economy to reimagine sustainable smart cities. The dialogue would lay the foundation for partnerships that unite companies, ecosystems, and research centers on both sides of the Atlantic.
The sentiment resonated throughout the event: collaboration is the new infrastructure. Faced with converging crises, from extreme heat to decarbonization to water scarcity, no single geographical region or company can go alone.
What emerged was a model of cooperation that blends European pragmatism — policy-driven innovation, public funding, and R&D excellence — with California’s entrepreneurial energy — rapid prototyping, investment readiness, and scale. The result is a living blueprint for how partnerships can move from dialogue to deployment.
That blueprint is already taking shape:
- VITO’s circular city testbeds in Belgium are exploring applications in Los Angeles, integrating clean water systems, heat recovery, and sustainable mobility.
- John Cockerill’s hydrogen and heat optimization technologies are being examined as tools for port decarbonization and industrial retrofits in Southern California.
- And through the Larta Institute’s Global Bridge program, Belgian startups are connecting with California accelerators and investors to pilot cleantech solutions in real-world conditions.
As the day closed, the tone was both reflective and urgent. We can’t afford these conversations to end here. The next phase is proving what’s possible, with projects that measure not just innovation, but impact.
Resilience Is Social, Not Just Structural
When it came to resilience, the focus shifted from infrastructure to people. The urban heat island, aging infrastructure, pandemic-residual vulnerabilities, they all speak to a deeper reality: cities are only as resilient as their communities.
As Dan Thorman of the Collidescope Foundation and LA Climate Week noted, resilience begins with community engagement — when schools, companies, and neighbors come together in a crisis.
That ethos extends well beyond the forum and is already visible in how both regions are approaching resilience. Across Los Angeles, local initiatives, from LA100’s transition to 100% clean, carbon-free energy by 2035 to Heat Relief 4 LA’s work to protect communities through cooling centers, aim to make resilience tangible. Belgium offers parallel examples, with cities such as Ghent and Leuven pioneering “citizen labs” that invite residents to help co-design climate and energy projects.
The emphasis on equity was no accident. Panelists noted that climate stressors rarely distribute themselves evenly: heat, pollution, and flooding hit hardest in neighborhoods where infrastructure is oldest, social capital is thin, and investment is scarce. True resilience, they agreed, must close those gaps, not widen them.
With Los Angeles preparing to host the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, that message landed sharply. The Games’ “no-build” plan — repurposing existing venues and investing in transit — was held up as both a test and a template. The legacy of major infrastructure, speakers argued, must be inclusive, not exclusive, leaving behind stronger communities, not just stronger skylines.
Circular Systems, Regenerative Design and Urban Innovation
Another clear theme that emerged was that circular economies are no longer niche; they are imperative. Inge Neven of VITO described innovation that regenerates rather than extracts: think clean air, clean water, recyclable materials. François Michel of John Cockerill added that optimization of existing systems can reduce emissions and costs alike.
Today’s cities cannot afford to build from scratch; they must re-engineer what they have. From heat reduction to water reuse to material lifecycle management, human-centered design for regeneration is imperative.
Ports, Trade and Decarbonization at Scale
If smart cities are the laboratories of sustainability, ports are its proving grounds. As global trade accelerates, decarbonizing these complex logistics hubs has become one of the defining challenges of the energy transition.
Leaders from the Port of Long Beach, Greenwin, and other Belgian innovators discussed how industrial corridors are reimagining infrastructure to balance growth and sustainability goals.
For ports, the transition is already underway.
- Los Angeles and Long Beach are electrifying cargo-handling equipment and deploying hydrogen fuel-cell trucks to move goods from docks to warehouses, reducing emissions in surrounding communities long impacted by diesel pollution.
- Antwerp-Bruges, meanwhile, is pioneering a carbon capture and storage (CCS) backbone for industrial clusters and exploring hydrogen and ammonia bunkering as the next frontier in clean shipping.
- Collaboration across these efforts is deepening: panelists called for data-sharing between ports, enabling emissions baselines and best practices to spread globally.
In a world where trade remains global, infrastructure must be localized, resilient, and support common-sense solutions for people and planet.
Smart Cities Need Human Insight
Technology can amplify progress, but it cannot lead alone. Data, sensors, and digital infrastructure only matter when they serve people and place. Smart cities, participants agreed, must be designed not only for people, but with them.
Panelists like Heather Joy Rosenberg of Arup emphasized that resilience and decarbonization must be pursued through a systems-based, human-centered approach, one that integrates equity, adaptation, and community voice. This approach recognizes that technology is most powerful when grounded in the realities of people, culture, and place.
Building on this theme, the Cleantech Ecosystems panel moderated by Sean Knierim highlighted that ecosystem development happens within complex environments. The process of testing and deploying sustainable infrastructure locally, supported by the right policy, permitting, and financial frameworks, is what allows cities to move from innovation to implementation. Human-centered design, early engagement, and collaboration across public, private, and civic sectors are essential to that process.
These ideas align closely with how Los Angeles is approaching climate adaptation and preparation for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, integrating transit, equity, and community participation into citywide planning and building decarbonization efforts.
From Global Bridges to Local Results
Here, Larta’s Global Bridges program becomes relevant. The forum did not end with handshake photos; it ended with pathways: cross-border R&D, pilot programs, policy exchange and commercialization. Global Bridges links entrepreneurs, funders and policy actors to bring science from Belgium to California and vice-versa, ensuring that ideas deployed locally can scale globally.
Looking Ahead: Culture, Connectivity & Legacy
The forum concluded with a forward-looking message from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who underscored that sustainability is inseparable from identity and inclusion.
Mayor Bass described a city in transformation, in the midst of a “cultural boom” and a “transit revolution,” preparing for an unprecedented series of global events including the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, and the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She noted that these milestones are more than spectacles. These just aren’t events. They’re investments.
Her remarks linked the Games to long-term urban priorities, such as improved mobility, economic opportunity, and resilience. Los Angeles will be the first city to host all three global events in back-to-back years, with investments that connect neighborhoods, expand transit, and strengthen community infrastructure. She emphasized that the Games will be “for all,” serving as a catalyst for a healthier, safer, and more accessible city.
Bass also reaffirmed Los Angeles’ strength as a global partner: home to the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere, the fourth-largest startup ecosystem in the world, and more than 120 universities fueling innovation and research. Her message to the Belgian delegation and to the world: Los Angeles is resilient, diverse, and open for collaboration.
“The best time to invest in LA was yesterday. The second-best time is today.”
A Call to Action
The Smart & Resilient Cities Forum made one thing clear: the future of sustainable cities is built at the intersection of collaboration, circularity and community. But intention alone is not enough. It is time to act.
To policymakers: Invest not just in assets, but in ecosystems that link science, infrastructure, and people.
To innovators: Scale your solutions beyond pilots and partnerships; deploy locally, and think globally.
To civic leaders and communities: Insist that resilience is built with you, not simply for you.
At Larta Institute, we believe that this moment is pivotal. Programs like Global Bridges and our upcoming Larta Impact Fund are designed to turn dialogue into deployment. Because when collaboration becomes intentional action, every bridge we build, between continents, sectors, ideas and people, takes us closer to a sustainable future.
About Larta Institute
Larta Institute is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit accelerating science and technology innovation for a sustainable planet. Since 1993, Larta has supported more than 7,000 innovators who have collectively raised over $50 billion in non-dilutive and dilutive capital. Through its mission to “feed, fuel & heal the world,” Larta cultivates entrepreneurs, builds ecosystems, and deploys solutions that create economic opportunity and community impact across the globe.