UrbanFootprint

UrbanFootprint is an American data analytics company that builds and sells what it calls Resilient Decision Intelligence: a combination of curated geospatial data and software tooling that helps organizations understand how climate hazards, community vulnerability, and the built environment intersect across the United States. The company was started in 2014, originally to give urban planners and designers the industry's first web-based software platform for working with curated urban, environmental, and economic data. Over time its customer base widened well beyond planning departments to include energy utilities, financial institutions, government agencies, and private corporations that need to prioritize investments and resources in the face of climate threats, social inequities, and regulatory complexity. The core of the offering is the UrbanFootprint platform, which the company describes as the only platform built with the comprehensive tooling and data components required to construct and deliver Resilience Insights. At its center is the Insight Engine, which curates thousands of siloed datasets into one comprehensive geospatial data core covering the entire United States, aligning, normalizing, and organizing climate, community, and urban information into three Data Foundations: Climate & Hazards (current and future hazard risks plus the land and assets impacted), People & Vulnerabilities (community and household characteristics plus modeled vulnerability and need), and Built Environment (land use, buildings, transportation, and infrastructure across 160 million land parcels). Resilience Insights then intersect specifically curated data metrics and models from those foundations to support investment prioritization, quantified risk and vulnerability assessment, and optimized site selection and infrastructure investment. UrbanFootprint positions itself at the intersection of urban, climate, and community factors that affect risk and market behavior. Its messaging emphasizes that accelerating climate change, deepening social inequities, and the transition to net zero have exposed the inadequacy of existing systems to give decision makers clear and honest information. The company's stated mission is to close that gap by serving energy utilities, financial institutions, government agencies, and private corporations with comprehensive, granular, and context-rich data about the urban and natural landscape, paired with targeted insights that map and measure risk and opportunity. The company has been recognized in the climate-adaptation technology space, including being named among TIME's Best Inventions of 2022 for its Grid Resilience Insights work. It has also partnered with organizations such as Assured Guaranty on data-centric ESG tools and with other startups on mapping air pollution vulnerability. UrbanFootprint is a private company and, per its careers page, supports remote work across US locations. Its planning heritage remains visible: hundreds of planning and design organizations use the platform, and it is taught in top university classrooms.

UrbanFootprint was started in 2014 with a focused goal: to give urban planners and designers the industry's first web-based software platform, serving curated urban, environmental, and economic data to urban practitioners and equipping them with analytic capabilities to plan and improve communities faster, better, and at lower cost. That planning-first origin shaped the product's early identity as a tool for cities and design firms. As the platform matured, the company recognized that cities and urban planners were not the only organizations that needed data and insights about people and places. In what the company describes as an age of data primacy, accelerating climate change, deepening social inequities, and the profound challenges of the transition to net zero exposed the inadequacy of existing systems to give decision makers clear and honest information. UrbanFootprint repositioned around what it calls Resilient Decision Intelligence, extending its audience to energy utilities, financial institutions, government agencies, and private corporations. The technical centerpiece of that repositioning is the Insight Engine, which curates thousands of siloed datasets into one comprehensive geospatial data core covering the entire United States. It aligns, normalizes, and organizes climate, community, and urban information into three Data Foundations — Climate & Hazards, People & Vulnerabilities, and Built Environment — the last covering land use, buildings, transportation, and infrastructure across 160 million land parcels. Resilience Insights then intersect curated metrics and models from those foundations to drive investment prioritization, quantified risk and vulnerability assessments, and optimized site selection and infrastructure investments. By 2022 the company's climate-adaptation work was attracting public recognition. In November 2022, TIME named UrbanFootprint's Grid Resilience Insights among its Best Inventions of 2022, citing its role in powering climate adaptation. Earlier that fall, a series of announcements and coverage highlighted the company's widening ecosystem: in September 2022, Assured Guaranty and UrbanFootprint launched a data-centric ESG tool, and coverage described a municipal bond insurer tapping community-vulnerability data to manage climate risk; the Community Impact and Investment Index launched to guide climate investment; and startups joined forces to map air pollution vulnerability. In October 2022, UrbanFootprint was among the winners of the C^2 Challenge, with 11 tech products slated for testing in Colorado cities to improve life in Colorado communities. Today UrbanFootprint continues to serve hundreds of planning and design organizations, and its platform is taught in classrooms at top universities to empower the next generation of urban innovators. The company operates as a private, mission-driven business and, according to its careers page, supports employees living and working in any US location.

• 2022

  TIME names UrbanFootprint's Grid Resilience Insights among its Best Inventions of 2022 for powering climate adaptation.

• 2022

  Assured Guaranty and UrbanFootprint launch a data-centric ESG tool; coverage describes a municipal bond insurer tapping community-vulnerability data to manage climate risk.

• 2022

  The Community Impact and Investment Index launches to guide climate investment.

• 2022

  UrbanFootprint is among the winners of the C^2 Challenge, with 11 tech products to be tested in Colorado cities.

• 2014

  UrbanFootprint is started to provide urban planners and designers with the industry's first web-based software platform for curated urban, environmental, and economic data.

Resilient Decision Intelligence for energy utilities, financial institutions, government agencies, and private corporations, built on a comprehensive US-wide geospatial data core.

• Resilience Insights

  Actionable data packages and powerful technology that intersect curated data metrics and models to drive investment prioritization, quantified risk and vulnerability assessments, and optimized site selection and infrastructure investments.

• Insight Engine

  Curates thousands of siloed datasets into one comprehensive geospatial data core covering the entire United States, organizing climate, community, and urban information into three Data Foundations.

• Climate & Hazards Data Foundation

  Current and future hazard risks plus the land and assets impacted.

• People & Vulnerabilities Data Foundation

  Community and household characteristics plus modeled vulnerability and need.

• Built Environment Data Foundation

  Land use, buildings, transportation, and infrastructure across 160 million land parcels.

• Grid Resilience Insights

  Recognized in TIME's Best Inventions of 2022 for powering climate adaptation.

1. 1The Resilient Decision Intelligence Platform | UrbanFootprinturbanfootprint.com
2. 2About Us | UrbanFootprinturbanfootprint.com
3. 3In the News | UrbanFootprinturbanfootprint.com
4. 4Careers | UrbanFootprinturbanfootprint.com
5. 5Urban Footprint - Wikidatawikidata.org