New York, NY, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rubicon®, a software platform that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide, announced today that the company’s smart city partnership with the City of Kansas City, Missouri, won a Smart 50 Award for 2021.
The Smart 50 Awards, in partnership with Smart Cities Connect, the Smart Cities Connect Foundation, and US Ignite, celebrate innovative global smart cities projects by honoring the 50 most transformative examples each year.
The award recognizes the City of Kansas City, Missouri and Rubicon’s partnership in the installation of Rubicon’s smart city technology suite in Kansas City’s fleet of 80 sanitation vehicles. The fleet provides waste collection services for approximately 160,000 locations. With a focus on co-innovation and data collection, the implementation of this technology is improving residential waste collection services for the city’s more than 450,000 residents. As of 2021, the partnership has delivered more than two million dollars in cost savings and a 17 percent increase in citizen satisfaction with solid waste collection.
“We are thrilled that Kansas City is getting the recognition it deserves for its continued good work towards technology and environmental innovation,” said Conor Riffle, Vice President of Smart Cities at Rubicon. “This Smart 50 Award win is well-deserved, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the City for many years to come.”
RUBICONSmartCity™ is a technology platform that helps city governments run faster, smarter, and more effective waste, recycling, and heavy-duty municipal fleet operations. RUBICONSmartCity helps city governments ensure every resident’s trash and recycling is collected on their scheduled day, meaning no missed pickups. It also documents litter, bulky waste, and illegal dumping with photos, thus ensuring that these piles are cleaned up in a timely manner. It reduces recycling contamination, so cities can sell their recyclable commodities for as much money as possible, and it reduces the cost of collection by ensuring trucks are taking the most efficient path to collect waste and recycling. Finally, it also equips these vehicles—which go up and down every street in every city at least once a week—with capabilities to look for critical infrastructure and quality of life issues that can plague communities, helping our city partners deliver proactive government and equitable public service across all zip codes.
In 2021, RUBICONSmartCity has been listed in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards in the “AI & Data” and “Spaces, Places, and Cities” categories, and it won the Capital Finance International (CFI) Best SaaS Smart City Solutions Award.
Kansas City is a hotbed of technology innovation. It was the first city to be selected for Google Fiber broadband internet service in 2011. The City boasts a long track record of smart city innovation, including smart city digital kiosks downtown and the KC Streetcar corridor which features free WiFi.
“Since partnering with Rubicon, we have improved the quality of service significantly for Kansas City residents,” said Michael Shaw, Director of Public Works for Kansas City, Missouri. “We are proud to win a Smart 50 Award, but there is more work to do and we look forward to continuing to use innovative technologies to improve basic services and quality of life in Kansas City.”
RUBICONSmartCity has been rolled out in over 60 cities across the United States, including Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Columbus, OH; Durham, NC; Fort Collins, CO; Fort Smith, AR; Greenville, NC; Kansas City, MO; Memphis, TN; Montgomery, AL; Norfolk, VA; Santa Fe, NM; San Antonio, TX; Spokane, WA; Roseville, CA; and West Memphis, AR. The solution is available to purchase on Sourcewell, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, the HGACBuy consortium, and Marketplace.city.
About The City of Kansas City, Missouri
The City of Kansas City, Missouri, is the city of fountains, boulevards, jazz and barbeque with world-class arts and world champion teams. Strong neighborhoods are home to a half-million residents across more than 300 square miles. We are a UNESCO Creative City of Music, we are expanding the most successful modern streetcar system in the country, and a new airport terminal is under construction. Our elected officials and professional staff work together to provide approximately 400 city services through nationally-certified and award-winning departments and programs.
About Rubicon
Rubicon is a Lexington, Kentucky-based software platform that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide. Using technology to drive environmental innovation, the company helps turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises, and neighborhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work. Rubicon’s mission is to end waste. It helps its partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals. Learn more at Rubicon.com.
