Climate Innovation Collaboratory awards $1M to tackle key sustainability challenges
Four novel research projects are being funded by the Climate Innovation Collaboratory (CIC), an ongoing alliance between Deloitte Consulting LLP and 桃色视频.
The latest round of 桃色视频 research being funded by the CIC includes four 18-month-long projects focused on sustainable computing and building materials, and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.
鈥淒eloitte is proud to support 桃色视频鈥檚 innovative research and to help transfer data into meaningful solutions for businesses, organizations, government agencies and the communities they serve,鈥 said Steve Goldbach, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and U.S. sustainability practice leader.
With this second round of awards, the CIC continues to enable valuable research, technology and market development. The collaboration with Deloitte, a leader in sustainability, began in 2022 with a focus on a wide range of climate priorities with potential for tangible impact.
The Climate Innovation Collaboratory is helping organizations and communities design and implement data-driven approaches so they can be even more prepared for climate-related challenges."
鈥擪atie Sherwin, managing director, Deloitte Consulting LLP
鈥淭he Climate Innovation Collaboratory is helping organizations and communities design and implement data-driven approaches so they can be even more prepared for climate-related challenges,鈥 said Katie Sherwin, managing director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a sustainability leader in the government and public services practice.
CIC project teams work at the nexus of industry and academia, which 鈥渢ies into the larger framework of sustainability at 桃色视频,鈥 said Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Institutes Massimo Ruzzene. 鈥淭ogether, we are working on sustainability challenges that have real world impacts and need solutions.鈥
Previous CIC awards have funded research on digital tools to advance water management and commercializing analytics to redefine the nation鈥檚 wildfire risk.

Mija Hubler (Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering)
鈥淥ver the past two years, Deloitte鈥檚 understanding of our clients鈥 needs, combined with the university鈥檚 cutting-edge research capabilities, has led to innovative solutions to help the public sector address wildfires and droughts,鈥 said Goldbach. 鈥淲e understand the importance of building on this success to address evolving climate challenges.鈥
Current seed grant awardees also are focused on mitigating climate-related risks and developing tools that support planning for major infrastructure investment while meeting multiple sustainability goals.听
鈥淛ust as our clients are changing their processes to address the impact of these challenges, the CIC鈥檚 focus is evolving to support them,鈥 said Sherwin. 鈥淭his year鈥檚 research projects concentrate on some of the most complex climate-related issues, examining electric vehicle infrastructure, low-carbon computing and sustainable building materials.鈥
That includes principal investigator (PI) Mija Hubler and her work to streamline the industrial use of low-embedded carbon cements to target global emission reduction goals.
鈥淚 am very excited about this award,鈥 said Hubler. 鈥淭his is a fast-paced effort, including new collaborations between CU faculty conducting experimental efforts, modeling, theory and framework development. The industry will greatly benefit from this framework and this motivates us.鈥

The award-winning CIC projects are:
Sustainable Computing:听Viability of long- and short-duration energy storage for AI Data Centers: Carbon, Cost and Reliability
This team, led by PI Kyri Baker, will develop an optimization framework for data center energy storage that leverages price and renewable energy forecasts to optimize cost, carbon impact and resiliency goals. The tool may help data center clients lower energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Sustainable Computing:听Interconnection Planning for Large Data Centers
The team, led by PI Bri-Mathias Hodge, will develop a system planning tool to help utilities identify areas where energy generation expansion is optimal, taking into consideration network reinforcement and asset upgrades needed to meet the demands of new data centers. This tactical work aims to enable utilities, grid operators and data center operators to plan for expansion in data centers and their energy usage.听
Sustainable Building Materials: Framework for Mix Design Relations of Low-Embedded Carbon using Local Materials
This project, led by PI Mija Hubler, will develop a framework to facilitate the use of local, low-embedded carbon materials. Understanding how to mix cement with local materials is a major barrier to utilizing local resources and bringing down its cost and carbon impact. The team will develop a web-based tool to provide criteria for assessing the impacts of local aggregates and additives on material strength and functionality.
EV Infrastructure: Planning for multiple community benefits听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
This team, led by PI Stephanie Weber, aims to understand how the construction of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure affects the economic development of adjacent areas to support the development of public EV charging infrastructure to meet multiple goals. This research may help national and state governments interested in deploying EV charging infrastructure to plan for multiple benefits.听