A big thank you to all the friends, donors, sponsors and partners who attended the Sustain-a-City Celebration on September 28^th, CNT’s biggest event of the year. The Celebration highlighted CNT’s work, and raised nearly $100,000 for our efforts to help cities operate more sustainably and efficiently.

Featured at the Celebration was CNT’s Urban Sustainability Tech Challenge, a five-month program that unlocks talent in our communities to connect entrepreneurs and community members to each other, and to CNT expertise and data. Shelley Stern Grach, Presenting Sponsor Microsoft’s Director of Civic Engagement, led a Q & A with the Tech Challenge Team, a group of volunteer digital entrepreneurs that worked with CNT to create a practical solution to an urban sustainability challenge in CNT’s focus areas of water, transportation, and economic development. 

The concept solution—dubbed ReLand—helps identify and score available industrial sites for urban development, scoring them for sustainability measures such as transportation access, proximity to a workforce, and environmentally-friendly shipping options. A panel of economic development experts including Steve DeBretto from the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, Abraham Lacy from the Far South Economic Development Corporation, and Maria Choca Urban from the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways discussed how such an approach can create jobs in cities and drive further economic development. 

We’re extremely proud of the Tech Challenge group of entrepreneurs, who value urban sustainability as a path to entrepreneurial success. We are also grateful to Platinum Sponsor ComcastNBCUniversal for being our host that evening in the Studio Xfinity. CNT events are always special, and with an engaged, excited crowd that evening, the Celebration did not disappoint.