Climate Smart Cities announce winning teams

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Climate smart cities announce the winning teams

18 October 2022

Exciting news from cities across the world

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge!

The Climate Smart Cities Challenge is an open innovation competition to accelerate the shift to climate neutral cities, by empowering innovators and cities globally to collaborate in designing and demonstrating climate smart solutions to complex urban issues, such as freight congestion, carbon-neutral affordable housing and integrated zero-carbon neighbourhoods.

Challenge Works collaborated with UN-Habitat, Viable Cities, Dark Matter Labs, Ignite Sweden and the four partner cities – Bogotá, Bristol, Curitiba, and Makindye Ssabagabo – to design and deliver this challenge.

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists who participated.

Scroll down to check out each of the challenges and the winners who will be demonstrating their solutions and ideas in 2023.

Find out more about the challenge and the four cities

Climate Smart Cities Challenge

Bogotá – Colombia

What was Bogotá looking for?

Innovative business models, services and/or technologies that contribute to improved freight mobility in the city and reduce congestion-based greenhouse gas and air pollutants emissions from logistics operations (by 100,000 tonnes of CO2 and 100 tonnes of PM2.5 by 2024, approx.).

Who was the Bogotá city challenge winner?

Green Routes: With an integrated AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) platform for freight transportation, this team’s solution will offer listing, searching, matching, planning, optimization, and monitoring of freight mobility in real-time.

The development of this platform will reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions while improving the ease and efficiency of shipping goods and the overall quality of life in Bogotá.

Who makes up the Green Routes team?

Beemetrix, Clear Road, Decision Brain, Singula City and ZaiNar.

Green Routes - Climate Smart Cities Challenge
A view of the city of Bogota

Bristol – United Kingdom

What was Bristol looking for?

Innovative business models, services and/or products that can help shape a new housing development appraisal and financing model that enables the development of affordable, zero carbon new homes in the city starting in 2023.

Who was the winner of the Bristol city challenge?

Thriving Places: This team will focus on strengthening Bristol as a holistically healthy city. Their priorities include optimising the potential of every underutilised brownfield site and redefining development value for a new, broader definition of viability.

The ultimate goal is to provide decent housing for all using carbon-neutral climate-smart solutions.

Who makes up the Thriving Places team?

Edaroth, Atkins, Igloo, Brighter Places, Nodon and Microgram Foundry.

Thriving Places - Climate Smart Cities Challenge
Bristol houses in the sunshine

Curitiba – Brazil

What was Curitiba looking for?

Innovative and integrated business models, services and/or technologies that will help create zero carbon emission areas, advancing to Curitiba’s ambition to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Who was the winner of the Curitiba city challenge?

Smart Neighborhoods: This team proposes a decentralised model of urban public cleaning services performed by residents, with an education program focused on household energy consumption efficiency.

This model also proposes the availability of “smart points” of delivery of waste and mobility, and the implementation of a local composting program for small urban farms.

Who makes up the Smart Neighborhoods team?

AMA – Agentes do Meio Ambiente, Ambiente Livre, Nudgd and Smart Green Station.

Smart Neighborhoods - Climate Smart Cities Challenge
Aerial view of Curitiba

Makindye Ssabagabo – Uganda

What was Makindye Ssabagabo looking for?

Innovative products, services and/or business models which can help build zero carbon, energy-efficient, affordable homes that can be developed and demonstrated in Makindye Ssabagabo by 2023.

Who was the winner of the Makindye Ssabagabo city challenge?

Green Community Cities: The goal of this team is to develop affordable, sustainable net-zero housing within the context of an integrated solution addressing these objectives on both the individual building scale as well as the neighbourhood scale.

Through a shared approach Green Community Cities will deliver a demonstration adapted to the needs of the local community, while simultaneously being scalable for wider economic and sustainability impacts.

Who makes up the Green Community Cities team?

IBSF, Impulser, Marula Proteen, Urban Planning Constelation, EcoBrixs and CLC Global.

Green Community Cities - Climate Smart Cities Challenge
A view of Makindye

Congratulations to all

More about the challenge