Detroit City Challenge

Home » Detroit City Challenge

About the Sustainable Cities Challenge Detroit

We are calling on innovators to:

Demonstrate solutions that reduce fossil fuel use and cut costs of freight operations in Eastern Market

Solutions should address one or more of the following:

Reduce idling time
Reduce partial loads and empty miles
Reduce reliance on fossil fuel for cold chain logistics and freight management
Reduce implementation costs and barriers to adopting clean freight technologies

Entries for this challenge are now closed.

Why Detroit’s Eastern Market?

Detroit’s Eastern Market is the largest open-air market and amongst the oldest historic markets in the U.S. and is at the heart of Detroit’s Challenge. It is the city’s hub for food distribution, selling over $360 million of wholesale food annually, and double that in exports. The district is poised to expand and is considering strategies to address environmental concerns, carbon emissions, and pollution, while adding residential units to this bustling community. It organizes farmers, wholesalers, distributors, and logistics operators into distribution activities designed to move food that feeds millions.

Eastern Market neighborhood is continuing to expand as a market and as a mixed-use district. A key challenge of its growth strategy is to harmonize food production and distribution increases with clean freight initiatives.

This will safeguard the health of Eastern Market residents, workers, and visitors while reducing fossil fuel costs of freight operators.