Scotland has been urged to embrace the "smart city" revolution which, it is claimed, is using environmental and digital innovation to power economic growth in cities around the globe.

In a presentation in Edinburgh, consultants and engineers Arup warned that cities "which choose to stand still run the risk of losing competitiveness and the ability to lead".

It highlighted the transformation of cities that have planned for the future, and the potential of projects, such as district heating schemes, self-powering buildings, radical cycling investment, and digital information exchange between citizens and local government.

Employee-owned Arup has been 50 years in Scotland and its current projects include the new SECC arena in Glasgow, Commonwealth Games infrastructure, the Forth Crossing and St James Quarter in Edinburgh, while UK flagship work includes the HS2 rail plan.

Mark Watts, an energy and climate change consulting director at Arup, said: "Scotland has the aspiration to be a low-carbon country and Edinburgh and Glasgow to be low-carbon cities, so they should look around the world at places which have top rankings as green cities, such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Portland and San Francisco."

He said district heating and cooling schemes that enabled cities to control energy costs, and extensive cycling provision which reduced spend on roads, were "as much about economic resilience" as green policy.

He said Copenhagen had, over 30 years, reduced transport spend from 14% to 8% of its GDP, and hoped to increase the proportion of journeys to work made by bike from its already high 35% to 50%.

He said: "They also say that for every kilometre somebody cycles, it saves them a dollar on health costs."

London had seen a 120% increase in cycling over a six-year period, with the investment effectively funded by the lower demands on the Underground, he said.

Electric buses now being developed, using charging pads en route, needed only one-fifth of the battery capacity of previous designs, Mr Watts said, while the problem of charging capacity for electric cars could perhaps now be tackled by online booking of charging points at retail parks.

In Hamburg, a "bio-reactive facade" is being trialled by Arup on a new building, with panels that change colour through the day.

"There is a lack of space to generate the scale of district heating needed, so we are looking at the idea of buildings as power plants," Mr Watts said.

Volker Buscher, Arup's practice leader on IT and communications, said the digital agenda in the UK had, until recently, been limited to broadband and smart metering. He said that now there was a 'Smart London' board under the mayor, involving the private, public and academic sectors, while Glasgow had won the competition for a £24 million future cities demonstrator project, now being plotted with the Technology Strategy Board.

The 'open data' concept could see cities sharing more information electronically with citizens, using data as "an economic ingredient".

Mr Buscher said: "In Edinburgh you are big enough as a city to demonstrate leadership and be internationally recognised, but small enough that you can bring a few stakeholders together and act relatively fast."