Registration Now Open for Innovate Fort Collins Public Pitch Night August 30

Emily Wilmsen
Senior Communications Specialist

Six community finalists will pitch their ideas to help Fort Collins achieve carbon reduction goals at a public forum August 30 at the Lincoln Center.

The public pitch night for the Climate Action Plan’s Innovate Fort Collins Challenge will be 5:30-8 p.m. in the Magnolia Theatre. Registration is required due to limited seating. Register at www.fcgov.com/pitchnight, Tickets are required to enter the theater and will be distributed at the Lincoln Center that evening.

Finalists include a broad range of businesses and organizations proposing solutions to challenges related to waste materials, transportation, energy and behavior change. The projects selected to participate in pitch night are:

• She’s in Power 3.0, submitted by Colorado C3E – operating body of Colorado Clean Energy Cluster;
• Healthy Environments through Activity and Responsible Transportation (HEART), submitted by CSU and partners;
• MISSion Innovation, submitted by Pretty Brainy;
• NoCo Tool Lending Library, submitted by Eco Thrift
• Solar United Neighbors Solar Cooperative, submitted by Solar United Neighbors of Colorado; and
• TacoBout Solar, submitted by Renewablue

Finalists will provide a brief overview of their projects at the Pitch Night event, which will make up 15 percent of their overall score. Judges include members of the City’s volunteer Boards and Commissions.

The Innovate Fort Collins Challenge is a competition that awards funding for community projects capable of achieving greenhouse gas reductions and additional social and economic benefits. Applicants were encouraged to include such tactics as innovative applications of new or existing technologies, behavior change projects, new business models, or new public-private partnerships.

The City has set aspirational goals to cut carbon emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020and 80 percent by 2030 with the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. The City aims to achieve those goals through a variety of strategies in such areas as energy, transportation and waste reduction.