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Meet the Inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge Winners

Mar 11, 2024 10:49 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge, pre­sent­ed through its Liv­ing Lab pro­gram. Through this ini­tia­tive, the Trust makes the Island avail­able as a site for local small busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neurs, and non­prof­its to test and demon­strate urban cli­mate solu­tions for cities and their diverse communities.

Dubbed the ​“Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge,” this ini­tial call for pro­pos­als sought projects that uti­lize water to help pow­er cli­mate solu­tions that grow blue and green jobs and cre­ate health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties. Each of the six New York City-based inno­va­tors will receive a site to demon­strate their projects, grant awards of up to $25,000, and access to a com­mon pool of addi­tion­al funds to sup­port pilot imple­men­ta­tion. Their pilot sites will also pro­vide valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with the Island’s rapid­ly grow­ing audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors through pub­lic demon­stra­tions, work­shops, train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and oth­er initiatives.

“Where some peo­ple see chal­lenges, New York­ers see oppor­tu­ni­ties, and Gov­er­nors Island’s ​‘Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge’ is the per­fect exam­ple of how New York­ers’ cre­ativ­i­ty and inge­nu­ity will con­tin­ue to shape our world,” said New York City May­or Eric Adams. ​“By giv­ing these cli­mate solu­tions a chance to pilot, we will con­tin­ue to grow New York City’s green econ­o­my, address cli­mate change, and begin to cre­ate the good-pay­ing, acces­si­ble ​‘green-col­lar’ jobs of the future.”

“Build­ing on the recent­ly announced Green Econ­o­my Action Plan and the cre­ation of the New York Cli­mate Exchange on Gov­er­nors Island, I am excit­ed by today’s announce­ment and the selec­tion of six orga­ni­za­tions to par­tic­i­pate in the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge,” said Deputy May­or for Hous­ing, Eco­nom­ic, and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. ​“New York City is and will con­tin­ue to be a leader in the green econ­o­my by enabling pilot pro­grams — like Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab — to test high-impact cli­mate tech, advanc­ing world-class research and devel­op­ment, and imple­ment­ing strate­gies that cre­ate both equi­ty and eco­nom­ic val­ue through green col­lar jobs.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is the per­fect place to test and show­case cli­mate projects that will cre­ate a more sus­tain­able and equi­table city for all, and we are thrilled to be able to offer a total­ly unique envi­ron­ment to these six teams,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The Water Abun­dance Chal­lenge win­ners rep­re­sent inno­v­a­tive water-based solu­tions being devel­oped by New York­ers, for New York­ers, and we can­not wait for them to share their work with Gov­er­nors Island’s engaged — and grow­ing — annu­al audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion people.”

“We are thrilled to sup­port these inno­va­tors and to shine a light on how cli­mate solu­tions move from con­cept to pro­to­typ­ing to a scal­able prod­uct,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“These founders and non­prof­it lead­ers are work­ing cre­ative­ly and thought­ful­ly every day to improve the city’s rela­tion­ship with water. We are look­ing for­ward to all New York­er join­ing us on the Island this sum­mer for demon­stra­tions and work­shops led by these teams.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is more than a spe­cial place in New York City. Now, it’s becom­ing a sym­bol of our val­ues and an incu­ba­tor for cli­mate solu­tions aimed at solv­ing the globe’s most press­ing chal­lenge. At a time when the impacts of the cli­mate cri­sis grow more appar­ent, the inno­v­a­tive pilot projects that will soon launch on the Island will undoubt­ed­ly move New York – and the world – for­ward as we work to make our city the epi­cen­ter of action,” said Dr. Stephen Ham­mer, CEO of The New York Cli­mate Exchange. ​“The Exchange could not be more proud to call Gov­er­nors Island home, great­ly val­ues our part­ner­ship, and looks for­ward to work­ing with part­ners across the five bor­oughs to address the cli­mate crisis.”

“To address the cli­mate chal­lenges of the future, we must invest today in a diverse group of inno­va­tors work­ing on new projects and tech­nolo­gies that will pro­tect New York City’s ecosys­tem,” said Abby Jo Sigal, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Tal­ent and Work­force Devel­op­ment. ​“The six win­ners of the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge are just the ones we need to safe­guard our water­ways and har­bors. They will also cre­ate well-pay­ing green col­lar jobs, which is key to mak­ing our City more resilient, not just envi­ron­men­tal­ly but also eco­nom­i­cal­ly, for all New Yorkers.”

This cohort of pilot projects includes:

• Duro UAS – A South Bronx-based com­pa­ny with the goal of improv­ing how envi­ron­men­tal data is col­lect­ed and shared through advanced, afford­able, and easy-to-use water mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems and data ser­vices. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Nearshore Sonde, a portable water mon­i­tor­ing device and cloud-based data dashboard.
• Just EcoC­i­ties – A nature-based solu­tions con­sul­tan­cy work­ing to improve water qual­i­ty, expand habi­tat, and pro­mote engage­ment with New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats, an eco­log­i­cal design firm whose mis­sion is to restore the Earth and inspire eco­log­i­cal stew­ard­ship, to pilot a Tidal Planter that cre­ates salt marsh while remov­ing pol­lu­tants from New York Harbor.
• LÆRO – A small busi­ness found­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with experts across fields of water advo­ca­cy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and electro­mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, work­ing to reduce the lev­els of untreat­ed waste­water that enter New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot Cycleau, their com­pact grey­wa­ter treat­ment sys­tem at water refill sta­tions and restrooms. 
• Object Ter­ri­to­ries – A crit­i­cal design prac­tice based in New York and Hong Kong that works at the inter­sec­tion of archi­tec­ture, land­scape, and urban­ism. Their pilot on Gov­er­nors Island will test their Inter­tidal Objects, habi­tat-friend­ly coastal pro­tec­tion units designed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cen­ter for Archi­tec­ture, Sci­ence, and Ecol­o­gy (CASE) at Rens­se­laer Poly­tech­nic Insti­tute, Fort Miller Group and after NATURE.
• RETI Cen­ter – A Red Hook-based non­prof­it that works to edu­cate, train, and work with local youth, experts, pro­fes­sion­als, and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to trans­form our coastal city from one that is dri­ven by fos­sil fuels to one bal­anc­ing equi­ty, ecol­o­gy, and econ­o­my. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens, inte­grat­ed eco­log­i­cal sys­tems that can be installed in any body of water, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with thread collective.
• Sea­weed City – A non­prof­it cit­i­zen sci­ence ini­tia­tive explor­ing the ben­e­fits of sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways. On Gov­er­nors Island, they will pilot their urban kelp farm­ing infra­struc­ture. The project is fis­cal­ly spon­sored by New­town Creek Alliance.

Of the select­ed pilots, 100 per­cent are local­ly based, 50 per­cent are women-led, and 33 per­cent are minor­i­ty-led. Pilots will be installed on Gov­er­nors Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning six to 18 months, with an inau­gur­al pub­lic Demo Day to be held in ear­ly sum­mer 2024. They will join ongo­ing pilot­ing projects led by Vycarb, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny work­ing to mea­sure and mit­i­gate car­bon diox­ide in New York Har­bor; Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny that trans­forms post-con­sumer plas­tics into upcy­cled prod­ucts through scal­able solar-pow­ered tech­nol­o­gy; and South Bronx Unite, a Bronx-based com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion that is pilot­ing a street-lev­el air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing net­work. For more infor­ma­tion on the pilots, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​l​i​v​i​n​g-lab.

The Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram is a key com­po­nent of Pilot:NYC, an ini­tia­tive announced by Gov­er­nor Kathy Hochul and May­or Eric Adams as part of the ​“New” New York Plan that seeks to make New York City a hub for urban inno­va­tion. The Pilot­ing Pro­gram includes two com­po­nents: the themed annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge and a gen­er­al rolling call. Through the annu­al chal­lenge, a select­ed cohort of com­pa­nies receives pilot­ing project sites, grant awards, deploy­ment sup­port, and pub­lic engage­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Trust also offers a year-round gen­er­al appli­ca­tion for self-fund­ed pilot­ing pro­pos­als across all dis­ci­plines. Non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, entre­pre­neurs, and start-ups are invit­ed to apply to the gen­er­al rolling call at any time at www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​h​a​l​lenge.

The pilots announced today will com­ple­ment an exist­ing group of busi­ness­es and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions that are cur­rent­ly show­cas­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing Con Edi­son, GrowNYC, Earth Mat­ter NY, the Bee Con­ser­van­cy, Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, and others.

“Duro is thrilled to part­ner with Gov­er­nors Island to launch the first IoT (Inter­net of Things) water mon­i­tor­ing net­work in New York Har­bor. This excit­ing ini­tia­tive, fea­tur­ing a pub­lic data

dash­board and work­shop series, will gen­er­ate unprece­dent­ed insight into the Har­bor ecosys­tem, strength­en the exist­ing body of research, sup­port the growth of key­stone species, and much more,” said Bri­an Wil­son and Gabriel Fore­man, CEO and Vice Pres­i­dent, respec­tive­ly, at Duro UAS.

“Just Ecoc­i­ties is thrilled to part­ner with Bio­hab­i­tats to pilot a Tidal Planter cli­mate solu­tion on

Gov­er­nors Island. The Tidal Planter will improve water qual­i­ty and expand salt marsh habitat,

with a mod­u­lar design that can be adapt­ed for water­ways through­out the region. We look for­ward to engag­ing with youth and com­mu­ni­ty groups in mon­i­tor­ing and main­te­nance of the planter, build­ing local capac­i­ty and train­ing the cli­mate work­force of the future,” said Jamie Ong, Found­ing Prin­ci­pal of Just Ecocities.

“We’re excit­ed to show the pos­si­bil­i­ties of diver­si­fy­ing grey­wa­ter treat­ment across New York City, and to pilot­ing a scal­able solu­tion capa­ble of restor­ing access to safe water­fronts in some of New York’s most under­served neigh­bor­hoods,” said Noe­mi Flo­rea, founder and direc­tor of LÆRO.

“RETI Cen­ter is proud and excit­ed to launch our Float­ing Blue­Blocks Gar­dens at Gov­er­nors Island. We see the cre­ation of nat­ur­al habi­tats and sup­port of bio­di­ver­si­ty as a cru­cial ele­ment in cli­mate adap­ta­tion. All vis­i­tors to the Island, no mat­ter their age or expe­ri­ence lev­el, are wel­come to come help us build and launch our gar­dens this sum­mer,” said Tim Gilman-Sev­cik, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of RETI Center.

“Deutsche Bank Amer­i­c­as Foun­da­tion is a proud sup­port­er of the Gov­er­nors Island Liv­ing Lab and con­grat­u­lates the win­ners of the inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. We are excit­ed by the pos­si­bil­i­ties of these pilot projects and the pos­i­tive impact they can bring to New York City’s vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties and beyond,” said Lisa Tal­ma, Vice Pres­i­dent of Phil­an­thropic Ini­tia­tives in the Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Finance Group at Deutsche Bank.

“As a strong part­ner in ush­er­ing our state’s clean ener­gy tran­si­tion, we’re proud to sup­port The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s unique Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge ini­tia­tive that places New York City at the fore­front of cut­ting-edge research tack­ling the great­est chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change,” said Tim Caw­ley, Chair­man and CEO of Con Edi­son. ​“These inno­v­a­tive projects will pave the way for a more sus­tain­able future for our city while boost­ing green jobs, eco­nom­ic growth, and health­i­er communities.”

“As we con­tin­ue to work to close the racial wealth gap and address oth­er dis­par­i­ties that affect New York’s under­served neigh­bor­hoods, we must not ignore the role cli­mate issues can play in exac­er­bat­ing these inequal­i­ties through the ways they dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly harm com­mu­ni­ties of col­or,” said Valerie White, Senior Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of LISC NY. ​“Pro­grams like the Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge on Gov­er­nors Island not only encour­age inno­va­tion that can pro­vide tan­gi­ble com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tric cli­mate ini­tia­tives but also offer diverse­ly owned start-ups access to key resources that will enable suc­cess. We look for­ward to see­ing the water-based solu­tions this cohort cre­ates and the ways their work will ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit New Yorkers.”

“The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust is proud to sup­port Gov­er­nors Island’s evo­lu­tion into a hub for prac­ti­cal, inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to the chal­lenges pre­sent­ed by accel­er­at­ing cli­mate change. From improv­ing data col­lec­tion to exper­i­ment­ing with sea­weed aqua­cul­ture in New York City’s water­ways, the vari­ety and inge­nu­ity of these projects gives me hope,” said Arturo Gar­cia-Costas, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer, Local, Nation­al and Inter­na­tion­al Envi­ron­ment, The New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

“At Ama­zon, we’re active­ly work­ing to reduce emis­sions to reach net zero car­bon by 2040, and are excit­ed to con­tin­ue our part­ner­ship with Gov­er­nors Island to show­case what sus­tain­able and resilient cities can look like. The emerg­ing busi­ness­es announced today are demon­strat­ing inno­v­a­tive approach­es to tack­ling the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis that are poised to scale, and we’re proud to sup­port their work as part of the Cli­mate Solu­tions chal­lenge,” said Car­ley Gra­ham Gar­cia, Head of Com­mu­ni­ty Affairs and Pub­lic Pol­i­cy, Ama­zon New York.

Today’s announce­ment marks an excit­ing step for­ward in Gov­er­nors Island’s growth as a resource for cli­mate demon­stra­tion and inno­va­tion. Announced in June 2023, the Liv­ing Lab is a new pro­gram led by the Trust that pro­vides a plat­form for part­ner­ships and pro­grams to ampli­fy cli­mate action. In addi­tion to the Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram, the Liv­ing Lab includes a cli­mate field trip pro­gram launch­ing this spring and a com­mu­ni­ty con­ven­ing space for cli­mate on the Island. The Liv­ing Lab is made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Deutsche Bank, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, LISC, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.

The New York Cli­mate Exchange, a research and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium of uni­ver­si­ties, busi­ness­es, and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions, was announced as the anchor part­ner for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions by May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island in April 2023. The Exchange will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus on Gov­er­nors Island ded­i­cat­ed to research­ing and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate solu­tions that will be scaled across New York City and the world and that will equip New York­ers to hold the green jobs of the future. The Exchange will also cre­ate thou­sands of per­ma­nent green jobs and gen­er­ate $1 bil­lion in fis­cal impact for New York City.