The Sustainable Cities Challenge

The Sustainable Cities Challenge

The $9 million Sustainable Cities Challenge aims to harness the power, creativity and energy of innovation to improve access to safe, equitable and sustainable mobility solutions for all.

Stage 1: Call to Cities

In this stage, launched in June 2023, we were seeking cities that wished to host an open innovation challenge to attract innovators to solve their most pressing mobility problems.

We received more than 200 entries from over 150 cities across 46 countries. From there, we chose 10 cities for an intensive capacity-building phase in Autumn 2023, including cities in Brazil, Colombia, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Stage 2: Call to Innovators Via Three City Challenges 

Detroit, Varanasi and Venice have now been selected to host local city challenges, launching in 2024,  supported by $3 million in funding for innovators per challenge.

To learn more, visit the Sustainable Cities Challenge website.

The three City Challenges

Learn more about each of the Challenges

overhead photo of rows of parking lorries

The Detroit City Challenge is 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

Learn more

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The Varanasi City Challenge is calling on innovators to:

Create innovative, data-driven solutions that make crowded areas of Varanasi’s old city of Kashi safer and more accessible for religious tourists, local residents and vulnerable populations (such as elderly people and people with disabilities).

Successful solutions might include:

  • Tools that support the city to better manage overcrowding events
  • Interventions that improve citizen decision-making
  • Services that support vulnerable groups

Learn more

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The Venice City Challenge is calling on innovators to:

Create innovative solutions that change behaviour, increasing the use and adoption of existing low and zero-carbon transport modes in the city of Venice, with a focus on the mainland and motorized islands.

Solutions must address at least one of the following:

  • Increasing active mobility
  • Increasing public transport use
  • Increasing usage of shared mobility

Any proposed solution must take into account the motivational aspect of behaviour change.

Learn more

Partners

  • Toyota Mobility Foundation logo
  • wri
  • Challenge Works - a Nesta enterprise
  • 89up

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