Welcome to Future City Minnesota!   

Registration for the 2021-2022 Future City Competition is open!

This year's theme: A Waste-Free Future – Students are challenged to use the three principles of a circular economy to design a futuristic, waste-free city.

Imagine a city 100 years in the future that generates no waste and no pollution. Is this even possible? If we look to the natural world, the answer is yes! In nature, one organism’s waste is another organism’s food. Nutrients and energy flow in a cycle of growth, decay, and reuse. This is called a circular system. Today’s built world works as a linear system (think of it as a straight line, rather than nature’s circle). This linear system follows a path of taking natural resources, making products, using them, and then throwing away anything that is left over after we are done with it – from empty water bottles to old cars. While some things in this linear system are recycled, today’s approach does not have a way to capture all the resources and materials that make up the items we throw away or the waste that’s created in the original production process. This results in a lot of trash and pollution and is using up the world’s natural resources. But what if cities followed nature’s circular system? What if everything was reused or taken apart and remade into something else—from the house you live in, to the food you eat, the bus or car you ride in, the roads you travel on, the battery that powers your phone, and the clothes you wear? A city run on such a system would be truly waste free. All around the world, engineers, city planners, innovators, entrepreneurs, and government leaders are using the principles of a circular economy to create waste-free cities. They are designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. Your challenge: Design a waste-free city that uses the principles of a circular economy.

Save the date!

The 2021-2022 Minnesota Regional Future City Competition is scheduled to take place in-person on January 22, 2022 at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) in Rosemount.

National FCC Finals TBA.

For More information see the Future City Website.