UN-Habitat and Sweden unveil the winners of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge

Nairobi, Stockholm, September 29, 2022 — UN-Habitat and Sweden are pleased to announce the four winning teams of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge that will demonstrate cleantech solutions in four world cities.

Bristol, represented by the Thriving Places* team, was named as one of the four winning cities from around the world in a ceremony in Sweden yesterday [Sep 28]. 

Launched in November 2021, the Climate Smart Cities Challenge is an open innovation competition to identify climate smart solutions and reduce the climate impact of Bogotá, Colombia; Bristol, United Kingdom; Curitiba, Brazil; and Makindye Ssabagabo, Uganda while creating a better future for all.

The 45 finalists worked on coming together as teams to propose combined and collaborative solutions to each of the unique challenges in the participating cities. At the end of a co-creation phase a total of 12 teams prepared submissions and presented their ideas and in a series of pitching sessions in front of city representatives.

An expert advisory panel evaluated the team submissions and made their expert recommendations to the cities who have decided on the 4 winning teams.

The solutions proposed by these teams of innovators will tackle specific challenges in the four participating cities - Bogotá, Bristol, Curitiba and Makindye Ssabagabo- such as freight mobility and affordable housing.

The proposal by Thriving Places includes developing a number of sites across Bristol to create affordable, energy-efficient homes using modern methods of construction (MMC) to ensure they are carbon neutral. 

The winning teams will share up to 400,000 Euro in a planning phase to build towards demonstrating their solutions in the cities in 2023, with the ultimate aim of creating solutions that will create better futures in cities around the world.

Thriving Places team member Zoe Metcalfe, director at engineering consultants Atkins, (part of the SNC-Lavalin Group), said Bristol was well-placed to benefit from winning the global competition given its proactive approach to achieving net zero targets.

She said: “The Bristol team is named Thriving Places as that is our core aim. We will create and sustain thriving places which will contribute to a holistically healthy city for people and nature, and embed climate resilience. 

“We are looking forward to working with Bristol City Council and local communities to create a culture of collective design development and decision-making to create areas in the city that can be used to demonstrate how we build thriving places. In the context of energy prices, the cost of living and inflation, this will be an incredibly important and impactful step for the city.

“We know Bristol’s challenge is complex and requires structural and system changes at a local and national level. This can only be done with the cooperation, determination and coordination of a diverse range of stakeholders and players with local and national influence.

“At the heart of our proposal is EDAROTH (Everybody Deserves A Roof Over Their Head), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atkins that develops truly affordable homes on brownfield sites, made possible by using its own carbon net zero, modern methods of construction, housing system.

“The core team also includes Igloo Regeneration, a leading UK responsible real estate business which funds, delivers and animates great places and the Bristol-based, award-winning independent housing association Brighter Places, which delivers better places and inclusive homes. We have also been supported by local non-governmental organisations and academia in our bid.”

Sally Gilbert, Development Director for Brighter Places said: “As a Bristol-based housing association focused on delivering much-needed social housing for the city we are delighted to be a partner in the Thriving Places project.  

“It gives us the opportunity to build on our experience of delivering energy efficient affordable homes and understanding of local communities so we can try new approaches to create low carbon, sustainable homes that benefit local people, the city and the planet.”

Damon Rand from Microgrid Foundry, said: “Microgrid Foundry is delighted to have the opportunity to support EDAROTH and the wider Thriving Places team to deliver net zero places, applying modern methods of construction and testing new microgrid approaches to reducing operational energy and carbon emissions.”

Alexander Olivera, CEO at Nodon, said: Nodon is incredibly happy to be supporting EDAROTH and the rest of the Thriving Places team to deliver net-zero housing in an innovative and efficient way.”

Malcolm Hamilton from Play:Disrupt, said: “Play:Disrupt are thrilled to be part of the Thriving Places team and look forward to engaging with communities across Bristol in the creation of net zero homes.”

Richard Watts of VX Fiber adds: “VX Fiber is delighted to be part of the thriving places team delivering the underlying digital infrastructure to support the net zero climate impact projects.”

Rafael Tuts, Director, Global Solutions Division at UN-Habitat, said: “Cities are crucial for a successful transition to climate neutrality, and they can’t do it without the support of essential actors from civil society, academia, business and government. The Climate Smart Cities Challenge adopts a systems approach to address one of the most complex challenges we face today, to ensure a better future for all."

Olga Kordas, Programme Manager of Swedish Strategic Innovation Programme, Viable Cities adds: "The winning teams are now, together with the four cities, planning for system demonstrators. We have big hopes that this will direct system innovation efforts towards accelerating just transition to climate neutral cities, rather than incrementally improving the efficiency of how cities work today.” 

Winning teams of the Climate Smart Cities Challenge will work with cities, investors and other partners to demonstrate new pathways and capabilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also contributing to nature restoration, social justice, health, security, employment and other societal benefits.

The winning teams are:

● Thriving Places - Bristol, United Kingdom

● Green Routes - Bogotá, Colombia

● Curitiba Smart Neighbourhoods - Curitiba, Brazil

● Green Community Cities - Makindye Ssabagabo, Uganda

*The Thriving Places team includes the following organisations:

• Atkins, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group (Zoe Metcalfe)
• Igloo Regeneration (Kym Shaen-Carter)
• Brighter Places (Harry Evans)
• Nodon (Alexander Olivera), 
• Microgrid Foundry (Damon Rand)
• Play:Disrupt  (Malcolm Hamilton)
• Nature Youth Connection and Education  (Manu Maunganidze)
• The TRUUD Consortium, (Tackling the Root causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development) Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol
• VX Fiber (Richard Watts)
• Oxford University  (Simon Jackman)
• University of West of England
• Meteorological (Met) office
• Application Satellite Catapult (Amanda Campbell)

Notes to editors

All partners:

Viable Cities, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the Swedish Engineering Association (Teknikföretagen), Vinnova, Swedish Energy Agency, Office of the Mayor of Bogotá, Secretaries of Mobility and Environment, Bristol City Council & Bristol Housing Festival, IPPUC - Urban Planning and research Institute of Curitiba & Curitiba City Hall, Makindye Ssabagabo Municipal Council, ABB, Business Sweden, Ignite Sweden, Mission Innovation, Nesta Challenges, NIR, Scania, Sveriges Allmänna Utrikeshandelsförening (SAU), Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK), Smart City Sweden, Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, Swedish Institute and Swedish Secretariat for Expo 2020 Dubai.

Media Contacts:

For further details about the Thriving Places team, contact:

Simon Peevers, Atkins external communications
E: [email protected]
M: 07825 573 855

For further details about the Climate Smart Cities Challenge and the winning teams contact:

Katerina Bezgachina: [email protected]

Madeleine Bergman: [email protected]

More information about the Climate Smart Cities Challenge can be found at: 
https://climatesmart.citieschallenge.org/

About EDAROTH

EDAROTH (Everybody Deserves A Roof Over Their Head) provides end-to-end development solutions which focus on delivering social and affordable housing at the point of need. This approach prioritises brownfield and under-utilised land within existing communities – which are often considered too difficult or expensive to develop – and sees the landowner typically retain the land, assets and ongoing rental income. Find out more - www.edaroth.co.uk 

About Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, employing over 19,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe. We build long-term trusted partnerships to create a world where lives are enriched through the implementation of our ideas. You can view Atkins’ recent projects here.

About SNC-Lavalin

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin is a fully integrated professional services and project management company with offices around the world. SNC-Lavalin connects people, technology and data to help shape and deliver world-leading concepts and projects, while offering comprehensive innovative solutions across the asset lifecycle. Our expertise is wide-ranging — consulting & advisory, intelligent networks & cybersecurity, design & engineering, procurement, project & construction management, operations & maintenance, decommissioning and sustaining capital – and delivered to clients in four strategic sectors: EDPM (engineering, design and project management), Infrastructure, Nuclear and Resources, supported by Capital. People. Drive. Results. www.snclavalin.com

About Brighter Places

Brighter Places is Bristol’s largest independent housing association and currently manages 3,300 homes in Bristol and the surrounding areas with more than 8,000 residents. As well as managing and improving its current social housing stock, Brighter Places delivers new social housing with a focus on low carbon and energy efficiency.  It is committed to delivering 1,000 affordable homes for Bristol’s growing population by 2027 as part of its Corporate Strategy commitments. 
www.brighterplaces.co.uk 

About Microgrid Foundry

Microgrid Foundry is a joint venture company founded by community energy developer Bristol Energy Cooperative and microgrid system operator CEPRO. The partnership delivers early-stage development of net zero community microgrids for new-build housing.
https://www.microgridfoundry.uk/ 

About Nodon

Nodon is a climate optimization software, that makes it easy for real estate developers to build climate neutral, without compromising on budget or deadlines. Nodon optimizes construction and material choices based on project criteria at an early stage, so that climate impact can be reduced efficiently.
www.nodon.se

About TRUUD

The TRUUD Consortium, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol
https://truud.ac.uk/ 

About Play:Disrupt

Play:Disrupt use creative methods to hold constructive conversations. We widen participation through play by making consultation clearer, evaluation engaging and feedback, far more fun.
Playdisrupt.com

About Nature Youth Connection Education

NYCE connects people with nature through projects focused on those people who have less access to the natural environment and the environmental sector. We work mainly with young people, but also with their wider communities and with employers.
www.nyce.org.uk

About VX Fiber

VX Fiber is a Swedish technology company engaged in the investment and operation of smart city connectivity.
vxfiber.com