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Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Announc­ing the 2025 Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge Winners

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Clockwise from top left: Arbon, Birdsview, CarbonCLAIR, CO Adaptive, Rego, Plantaer, Phytostone, and Mira Intel

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the win­ners of the annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. The sec­ond annu­al call for pro­pos­als focused on the theme of Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my, seek­ing projects and tech­nolo­gies that reduce the cli­mate impact of the urban waste stream and extend resource recov­ery to busi­ness­es and neigh­bor­hoods. Win­ners will receive a site on Gov­er­nors Island to demon­strate their projects, grant awards of $10,000, and access to a com­mon pool of addi­tion­al funds to sup­port pilot implementation. 

The selec­tion of the sec­ond annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge win­ners exem­pli­fies New York City’s posi­tion as a glob­al hub for cli­mate inno­va­tion and lever­ages the unique assets at Gov­er­nors Island to incu­bate cli­mate solu­tions,” said First Deputy May­or Maria Tor­res-Springer. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the win­ners of the chal­lenge, who will undoubt­ed­ly demon­strate impact­ful tech­nolo­gies to sup­port a more cir­cu­lar economy.”

Gov­er­nors Island has become a mean­ing­ful test­bed for inno­v­a­tive solu­tions that will cre­ate more resilient and sus­tain­able cities,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. These chal­lenge win­ners are ded­i­cat­ed to build­ing a bet­ter future and to grow­ing their busi­ness­es here in New York City. We look for­ward to all they will learn and accom­plish dur­ing their time on the Island and can­not wait to wel­come all New York­ers to come out and engage with these projects this summer.” 

Invest­ment in inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy — and the indi­vid­u­als devel­op­ing it — is an invest­ment in our col­lec­tive future,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Shift­ing to a cir­cu­lar econ­o­my that reuses, refur­bish­es, and recov­ers is key to achiev­ing an equi­table, net-zero city. We look for­ward to sup­port­ing these com­pa­nies on their jour­neys while shin­ing a light on how solu­tions move from con­cept to scal­able product.” 

Projects select­ed fol­low­ing from this year’s Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Chal­lenge are:

  • Arbon, a Direct Air Cap­ture (DAC) com­pa­ny that will pilot their humid­i­ty-swing tech­nol­o­gy to cap­ture and store CO2 (car­bon diox­ide) from ambi­ent air using an ener­gy-effi­cient, durable, and afford­able process, while also gen­er­at­ing car­bon cred­its and enabling down­stream appli­ca­tions of cap­tured CO2. Founder: Xiaoyang Shi
  • Birdsview, a Nor­we­gian-based com­pa­ny that will pilot their ground-pen­e­trat­ing radar (GPR) struc­tur­al assess­ment tech­nol­o­gy, which uses pro­pri­etary analy­sis soft­ware to assess the inter­nal con­di­tion of build­ings and reduces waste by opti­miz­ing the preser­va­tion of exist­ing struc­tures. Founders: Olav Sko­gen and Simen Husøy
  • Car­bon­CLAIR, a New York-based com­pa­ny ded­i­cat­ed to improv­ing urban air qual­i­ty by cap­tur­ing pol­lu­tants and CO2 in out­door envi­ron­ments, while pro­duc­ing a byprod­uct with com­mon indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions. They will pilot their off-grid mobile air qual­i­ty unit at a con­struc­tion and demo­li­tion site. Founders: Fares Al-Iahabi and Nazare­na Soria Hadad
  • CO Adap­tive, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny that will pilot their mod­u­lar wall sys­tem, made of reclaimed lum­ber, to retro­fit exist­ing build­ings to pas­sive house lev­el stan­dards of air­tight­ness and ener­gy effi­cien­cy. Founders: Ruth Man­dl and Bob­by Johnston
  • Mira Intel, a New York-based com­pa­ny that will pilot their drone-based struc­tur­al assess­ments and pro­pri­etary analy­sis soft­ware to enhance build­ing and infra­struc­ture resilience through enhanced mon­i­tor­ing capabilities. Founder: Danielle Nicholson
  • Phy­to­stone LLC, a woman-owned stu­dio mak­ing advanced nat­ur­al build­ing mate­ri­als. They will pilot Cast Car­bon, a biochar-enriched archi­tec­tur­al wall tile that is biodegrad­able, effi­cient­ly stores car­bon from sal­vaged pine pal­lets through a low-car­bon man­u­fac­tur­ing process and is mold-proof and fire­proof. Founder: Emi­ly Majewski
  • Plan­taer, a Brook­lyn-based com­pa­ny ded­i­cat­ed to trans­form­ing urban envi­ron­ments through archi­tec­tur­al solu­tions that inte­grate veg­e­ta­tion direct­ly into build­ing mate­ri­als. They will pilot their liv­ing con­crete façade tech­nol­o­gy, a low car­bon, engi­neered con­crete that improves air qual­i­ty and mit­i­gates extreme heat. Founder: Manuel Ben­itez Ruiz
  • Rego, the dig­i­tal util­i­ty meter for waste man­age­ment, which pro­vides pho­to and AI-based waste audits to track and ana­lyze waste streams in cities and increas­es diver­sion from land­fills. Founder: Josh Mastromatto

Of the select­ed pilots, 75 per­cent are local­ly based, 50 per­cent are minor­i­ty-led, and 50 per­cent are women-led. Pilots will be installed on Gov­er­nors Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning six to 18 months, with pub­lic Demo Days to be held through­out the year. 

Since its launch in 2023, the Trust’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Pilot­ing Pro­gram has sup­port­ed 14 dif­fer­ent projects with diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion across busi­ness and non­prof­it sec­tors. Through this ini­tia­tive, the Trust makes the Island avail­able as a site for star­tups, small busi­ness­es, entre­pre­neurs, and non­prof­its to test ear­ly-stage cli­mate prod­ucts and ser­vices; col­lect data in a real-world envi­ron­ment; and direct­ly engage with fun­ders, investors, cus­tomers, and the Island’s near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors. In addi­tion to a themed annu­al chal­lenge, the pro­gram also includes a year-round gen­er­al appli­ca­tion seek­ing self-fund­ed pilot­ing pro­pos­als across all cli­mate sec­tors. For more infor­ma­tion and for a full list of cur­rent and past projects, click here.

As a close part­ner of Gov­er­nors Island, we at The New York Cli­mate Exchange are excit­ed to see the ground­break­ing projects select­ed for this year’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge come to life,” said Shaina Horowitz, Direc­tor of Pro­gram­ming Inno­va­tion and Accel­er­a­tion at The Exchange. Sup­port­ing cre­ative solu­tions and test­ing tech­nolo­gies that reduce urban waste and pro­mote a cir­cu­lar econ­o­my is crit­i­cal to our green eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion, and Gov­er­nors Island can be a mod­el for New York City and beyond.”

We con­grat­u­late the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island on the sec­ond annu­al cohort of pilot­ing projects and look for­ward to see­ing the pos­i­tive impact they will have on the com­mu­ni­ty. The busi­ness­es announced today are on the cut­ting edge of inno­v­a­tive approach­es to move towards a more cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, and we’re proud to sup­port their work through the Trust’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge,” said Sal­ly Fouts, Glob­al Leader, The Cli­mate Pledge at Amazon.

We’re proud to sup­port The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s sec­ond annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge,” said Tim Caw­ley, the chair­man and CEO of Con Edison. This ini­tia­tive aligns with our com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing sus­tain­able prac­tices and advanc­ing solu­tions that reduce waste and build a clean­er future. Gov­er­nors Island serves as a cru­cial test­ing ground for the win­ners to show­case their trans­for­ma­tive solu­tions for New York’s homes, busi­ness­es, and neigh­bor­hoods. We look for­ward to the progress and insights these projects will yield and we invite all New York­ers to vis­it Gov­er­nors Island to learn and expe­ri­ence first­hand the inge­nu­ity that will shape a more sus­tain­able future.”

The Trust’s cli­mate pro­grams are 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 Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is a core mem­ber of the Har­bor Cli­mate Col­lab­o­ra­tive (HCC), a joint ini­tia­tive with New York City Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion and Brook­lyn Navy Yard Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion to grow the city’s cli­mate ecosys­tem through pilot­ing pro­grams, leas­es, work­force devel­op­ment invest­ments, and reg­u­la­to­ry wayfind­ing. Today’s announce­ment under­scores the collaborative’s com­mit­ment to dou­ble the num­ber of pilot­ing projects across these three sites. 

Gov­er­nors Island is at the fore­front of research­ing and demon­strat­ing urban cli­mate solu­tions, offer­ing a unique water­front envi­ron­ment; an award-win­ning park engi­neered for cli­mate change; near­ly one mil­lion annu­al vis­i­tors; oppor­tu­ni­ties for research and pilot­ing; pub­lic art­works engag­ing with cli­mate issues; and a grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of edu­ca­tion­al, non­prof­it, and com­mer­cial ten­ants focused on cli­mate — includ­ing Bil­lion Oys­ter Project, the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, the soon-to-open But­ter­milk Labs, and more. In 2020, the Trust and the New York City Mayor’s Office announced a vision to cre­ate the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, a com­mu­ni­ty on Gov­er­nors Island to accel­er­ate cli­mate solu­tions for cities. In April 2023, The New York Cli­mate Exchange, led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and a con­sor­tium of part­ners, was select­ed as the initiative’s anchor insti­tu­tion fol­low­ing a two-year com­pet­i­tive process. The Exchange will devel­op a $700-mil­lion cam­pus on the Island focused on advanc­ing cli­mate solu­tions and prepar­ing New York­ers for green jobs.