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Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces New Part­ner­ship with itselectric

Sep 19, 2024 12:19 pm

In an excit­ing step for­ward in Gov­er­nors Island’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and EV charg­ing start­up its­e­lec­tric announced today a new part­ner­ship to install com­pact, curb­side vehi­cle charg­ing tech­nol­o­gy on the Island, allow­ing the Trust to move towards a zero-emis­sions fleet of oper­a­tions vehi­cles and pro­vid­ing a mod­el for low-impact curb­side charg­ing in cities around the world. 

“From urban air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing to com­pact aquapon­ic sys­tems, we are proud to show­case inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy that will help cities and their res­i­dents fight cli­mate change,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“This new part­ner­ship with its­e­lec­tric is the per­fect exam­ple of what’s pos­si­ble here on Gov­er­nors Island, enabling us to mod­ern­ize our fleet of oper­a­tions vehi­cles while dra­mat­i­cal­ly cut­ting our emis­sions and demon­strat­ing the excit­ing future of cli­mate solu­tions for New York City and cities around the world.” 

“Our part­ner­ship with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is a tes­ta­ment to the way enti­ties of any size can lead progress toward decar­boniza­tion through break­ing down bar­ri­ers to EV adop­tion,” said Judy Chang, Project Direc­tor at its­e­lec­tric. ​“We’re proud to bring our sleek urban charg­ers, deploy­able in just days, to the Island in sup­port of its tran­si­tion to an all-elec­tric oper­a­tions fleet, mak­ing the air even clean­er for every­one who vis­its. This col­lab­o­ra­tion reflects our mis­sion to address press­ing cli­mate chal­lenges by lever­ag­ing exist­ing infra­struc­ture in any urban envi­ron­ment — from a 172-acre, car-free island to the biggest cities in the country.” 

Empire State Devel­op­ment Pres­i­dent, CEO and Com­mis­sion­er Hope Knight said, ​“Empire State Development’s $500,000 seed invest­ment in ​‘it’s elec­tric’ through NY Ven­tures is already bear­ing fruit, as evi­denced by this excit­ing deploy­ment on Gov­er­nors Island. By back­ing inno­v­a­tive cli­mate tech­nolo­gies like their com­pact charg­ing sta­tions at an ear­ly stage, we’re not only pow­er­ing the island’s elec­tric fleet but also dri­ving for­ward New York’s com­mit­ment to clean ener­gy. This project rep­re­sents promis­ing progress since our ini­tial invest­ment, and we hope it’s just the first of many future deploy­ments across New York State.”

Gov­er­nors Island is one of New York City’s most unique pub­lic places, with sev­en miles of car-free streets and path­ways allow­ing for safe recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties and pro­vid­ing a bucol­ic atmos­phere for a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of year-round ten­ants and sea­son­al part­ners. The Trust main­tains a small fleet of vehi­cles to allow staff to effec­tive­ly care for the Island’s 120 acres of open space and is com­mit­ted to pri­or­i­tiz­ing elec­tric vehi­cles to help move to net-zero oper­a­tions. To sup­port these goals, its­e­lec­tric will install five of its Level‑2 charg­ing posts across the Island and inside the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing fer­ry ter­mi­nal for oper­a­tional use. This unique tech­nol­o­gy con­nects behind-the-meter to draw spare elec­tri­cal sup­ply from adja­cent build­ings, lever­ag­ing exist­ing resources and pro­vid­ing a mod­el for wide­spread instal­la­tion. its­e­lec­tric charg­ing posts have pre­vi­ous­ly been installed in Brook­lyn, New York, Detroit, Michi­gan, with a crit­i­cal focus on front­line and Jus­tice 40 com­mu­ni­ties to bring afford­able, equi­table, curb­side EV charg­ing to city dri­vers across the Unit­ed States. 

Today’s announce­ment is the lat­est in Gov­er­nors Island’s recent progress towards wide­spread zero-emis­sions trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture. In March 2023, New York City May­or Eric Adams and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced that the Island would be home to New York City’s first pub­lic, hybrid-elec­tric fer­ry, which is sched­uled to begin ser­vice lat­er this year. Fol­low­ing that announce­ment, New York City was award­ed a $7.48 mil­lion grant from the US Fed­er­al Tran­sit Admin­is­tra­tion to sup­port shore­side rapid charg­ing infra­struc­ture on Gov­er­nors Island, which will enable the Island’s new hybrid elec­tric fer­ry to oper­ate 100% elec­tric with bat­tery-only propulsion. 

This tech­nol­o­gy joins sev­er­al oth­er inno­va­tions cur­rent­ly being demon­strat­ed on Gov­er­nors Island, includ­ing indoor aquapon­ic farm­ing (GrowNYC), com­mu­ni­ty sci­ence air qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing (South Bronx Unite), decen­tral­ized car­bon mon­i­tor­ing and mit­i­ga­tion (Vycarb), and post-con­sumer plas­tic recy­cling and repur­pos­ing (Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing). Through its cli­mate pilot­ing pro­gram, the Trust offers the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty for star­tups, small busi­ness­es, non­prof­its, and entre­pre­neurs to test cli­mate solu­tions that address mit­i­ga­tion, adap­ta­tion, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice. Solu­tions select­ed through the Trust’s inau­gur­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge ear­li­er this year include urban sea­weed farm­ing (Sea­weed City), liv­ing shore­line con­struc­tion and cli­mate work­force devel­op­ment (RETI Cen­ter), coastal infra­struc­ture retro­fitting (Object Ter­ri­to­ries), decen­tral­ized point-of-use grey­wa­ter treat­ment (LAERO), mod­u­lar wet­land sys­tems (Just EcoC­i­ties), and IoT envi­ron­men­tal mon­i­tor­ing (Duro UAS). For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​c​l​imate.

With a unique water­front cam­pus envi­ron­ment; an award-win­ning park engi­neered for cli­mate change; a diverse and engaged audi­ence of near­ly one mil­lion vis­i­tors every year; cli­mate pilot­ing and edu­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties; a col­lec­tion of pub­lic art­works engag­ing direct­ly with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, Beam Cen­ter, Wind Sup­port NYC, the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, and The New York Cli­mate Exchange — Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing cli­mate solu­tions built for cities. 

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic dai­ly year-round and is acces­si­ble by fer­ry from Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn. For cur­rent fer­ry sched­ules, oper­at­ing hours, and oth­er vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org/​p​l​a​n​-​y​o​u​r​-​visit.