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While uncertainty remains about what a smart city “is,” significant advances have been made in the technologies and applications that will underpin their roll out. In this paper, we argue that a smart city or region is not truly “smart” unless it places sustainability and quality of life at the center of the planning, governance, and innovation processes. The public sector lacks the resources to operate at this nexus alone, yet legitimacy challenges must be overcome to effectively draw on the capacities of non-state actors. By focusing on the Greater Phoenix Smart Region Consortium (The Connective), established in March 2019, we illustrate the role non-state actors play within the smart cities/regions space and highlight new types of partnerships to address climate change as part of their smart city vision. The regional and multi-stakeholder, participatory approach of The Connective offers lessons for advancing nexus governance in other jurisdictions.