FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE),EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Digital announce today the four cities selected to benefit from project funding as part of their Sustainable Cities Climate Impact Challenge.
Following a call for proposals, launched in November 2022, the challenge will award a total of $240,000 towards the implementation of solutions that can contribute to the decarbonization of transport in cities.
The winning projects were selected by EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Digital for their innovative approaches, strong city government support, and replicability to scale to other cities. Proposals from Hackney (UK), Espoo (Finland), Olot (Spain) and Karasu (Turkey) will each receive funding to help accelerate their transition towards active, shared, and electric mobility.
“Adopting ambitious mobility measures locally can have significant health and economic benefits, which can help make the case for regional, national, and EU-wide action. Many municipalities are now experimenting with innovative approaches and solutions that contribute to reaching net-zero goals. These pilot projects, supported with charitable funding from FedEx, will hopefully demonstrate how engaged communities can pave the way towards change,” says Thomas Osdoba, Director of Net Zero Cities and Senior Advisor on Cities for EIT Climate-KIC.
“While we at FedEx remain focused on removing carbon emissions from our own operations, our charitable giving platform allows us to simultaneously support the efforts of non-profit organisations. Thanks to our global presence we’ve built up a successful portfolio of collaborations with non-profits – all striving to achieve more sustainable transport beyond logistics. We collaborated with EIT Digital and EIT Climate-KIC to co-create this project in Europe where, we hope, it will positively contribute to wider climate objectives,” said Vinay d’Souza, Senior Vice President Planning and Engineering, FedEx Express Europe.
“This open call to cities, conceived together with FedEx, has been designed to leverage the expertise and resources of two Knowledge and Innovation Communities – EIT Digital and Climate-KIC. The volume and quality of the submissions received in response to this first call demonstrates the commitment from cities in the region to cut carbon emissions,” says Jyrki Karasvirta, Operations Lead of EIT Digital.
The initiatives chosen for implementation all have an aspect of promoting active public mobility – with a particular focus on cycling. Read more about projects here which include expanding cargo bike usage, increasing cycling uptake, installing secure, long-term cycling storage, and creating safe travel corridors for citizens.
