! Alert

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.

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.

May­or Adams, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty Unveil Trans­for­ma­tion­al Vision for Cli­mate Research, Jobs Hub on Gov­er­nors Island

...

Aer­i­al view of The Exchange, show­ing the icon­ic forms designed to evoke the dra­mat­ic land­scapes and hills of Gov­er­nors Island. © SOM | Miysis

New York City May­or Eric Adams, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man, and State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty Pres­i­dent Mau­rie McIn­nis today unveiled the New York Cli­mate Exchange,” a trans­for­ma­tive vision for a first-in-the-nation cli­mate research, edu­ca­tion, and jobs hub on Gov­er­nors Island that will cre­ate thou­sands of per­ma­nent jobs and $1 bil­lion in eco­nom­ic impact for the city. A cross-sec­tor con­sor­tium led by Stony Brook, the Exchange will cre­ate a state-of-the-art, $700-mil­lion, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus 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.

Today, here in the heart of New York Har­bor, we are tak­ing a giant leap toward a clean­er, green­er, more pros­per­ous future for every New York­er with the New York Cli­mate Exchange,’” said May­or Adams. This first-of-its-kind project will make New York City a glob­al leader in devel­op­ing solu­tions for cli­mate change while cre­at­ing thou­sands of good-pay­ing green jobs for New York­ers and infus­ing $1 bil­lion into our city’s econ­o­my. Where some peo­ple see chal­lenges, New York­ers see oppor­tu­ni­ties, and this team and this project are lead­ing the charge.”

The cul­mi­na­tion of a two-year, com­pet­i­tive request for pro­pos­al process, the selec­tion of the New York Cli­mate Exchange rep­re­sents a major mile­stone in the city’s ground­break­ing Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions ini­tia­tive — a key piece of May­or Adams’ Rebuild, Renew, Rein­vent: A Blue­print for New York City’s Eco­nom­ic Recov­ery” — which will cre­ate 7,000 per­ma­nent jobs and a bil­lion dol­lars in eco­nom­ic impact, while expand­ing and enhanc­ing pub­lic access to Gov­er­nors Island. The Exchange alone will cre­ate over 2,200 100-per­cent union jobs, includ­ing for con­struc­tion and build­ing ser­vices, with a com­mit­ment to hire all con­struc­tion and build­ing ser­vice work­ers at pre­vail­ing wage and a goal of 35 per­cent minor­i­ty- and women-owned busi­ness enter­prise (M/WBE) par­tic­i­pa­tion in construction.

Once ful­ly oper­a­tional, the cam­pus is expect­ed to serve 600 post­sec­ondary stu­dents, 4,500 K‑12 stu­dents, 6,000 work­force trainees, and 250 fac­ul­ty and researchers every year while sup­port­ing up to 30 busi­ness­es annu­al­ly through its incu­ba­tor pro­gram. The cam­pus will be fund­ed in part with sig­nif­i­cant gifts of $100 mil­lion from the Simons Foun­da­tion and $50 mil­lion from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

New York City still remains the glob­al hub for inno­va­tion — and the invest­ment in Gov­er­nors Island is anoth­er exam­ple of the for­ward-think­ing vision our city can deliv­er on,” said First Deputy May­or Sheena Wright. From a state-of-the-art edu­ca­tion hub to cre­at­ing thou­sands of jobs across emerg­ing sec­tors, the Adams admin­is­tra­tion is writ­ing a new, excit­ing chap­ter in our city’s his­to­ry. I applaud all of the part­ners, the cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tion, and lead­er­ship across mul­ti­ple may­ors that made this announce­ment possible.”

Today, New York City estab­lish­es itself as a pace­set­ter in the fight to com­bat the cli­mate cri­sis. Through this trans­for­ma­tion­al ini­tia­tive, we will lead the way in cli­mate research and edu­ca­tion while cre­at­ing a first-of-its kind jobs hub for New York­ers to ben­e­fit from the new green econ­o­my,” said Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic and Work­force Devel­op­ment Maria Tor­res-Springer. The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island set an inspired process for bold, solu­tions-ori­ent­ed respons­es to cli­mate change, the great­est threat of our time, right in the mid­dle of New York Har­bor. I am excit­ed to see the New York Cli­mate Exchange led by Stony Brook exe­cute upon this vision with a state-of-the-art, 400,000-square-foot cam­pus open to the pub­lic, 7,000 per­ma­nent jobs on the island, 2,000 con­struc­tion jobs in the com­ing years, and a cur­ricu­lum that will make New York City the undis­put­ed leader in address­ing the cri­sis of our time.”

The future of cli­mate jobs and lead­er­ship is bright,” said Deputy May­or for Oper­a­tions Meera Joshi. The New York Cli­mate Exchange will pro­vide trans­for­ma­tion­al ben­e­fits for green job train­ing and increased access and open space in one of New York’s most beloved parks. Togeth­er with the recent­ly released PlaNYC, we have the blue­print and invest­ment to exe­cute on the cli­mate action New York­ers need.” 

With today’s announce­ment, Gov­er­nors Island’s role as a his­toric gate­way to New York City enters a new chap­ter, as a place where ideas come to life and hope­ful solu­tions to the cli­mate cri­sis become real­i­ty,” said Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man. We are hon­ored to select Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and the New York Cli­mate Exchange to anchor the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions here on Gov­er­nors Island, cre­at­ing a glob­al hub for edu­ca­tion, research, job train­ing, and pub­lic engage­ment on cli­mate solu­tions for cities. Thank you to May­or Adams, Deputy May­or Tor­res-Springer, May­or Bloomberg, and May­or de Bla­sio for your com­mit­ment to the future of the Island, and thank you to Pres­i­dent McIn­nis and the entire Exchange team for answer­ing our call.”

We are hon­ored, excit­ed, and proud to part­ner with the City of New York to build this his­toric cen­ter that will cement New York City as the world leader on cli­mate change, the most press­ing issue of our time,” said Mau­rie McIn­nis, pres­i­dent, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty. Up until now, the devel­op­ment of cli­mate solu­tions has been siloed, with world lead­ers sep­a­rate from expert sci­en­tists sep­a­rate from the on-the-ground green work­force. As an inter­na­tion­al leader on cli­mate and as the lead­ing pub­lic research insti­tu­tion in New York, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty will bring stake­hold­ers togeth­er from the aca­d­e­m­ic, gov­ern­ment, and busi­ness com­mu­ni­ties to make the Cli­mate Exchange the cen­ter of research, inno­va­tion, edu­ca­tion, and col­lab­o­ra­tion to address this glob­al crisis.”

We are hon­ored to part­ner with Stony Brook and the Exchange,” said David Spergel, pres­i­dent, Simons Foun­da­tion. Our part­ner­ship with Stony Brook goes back many years, and togeth­er, we’ve made great progress in both basic and health sci­ences. This endur­ing rela­tion­ship is a source of great pride for all of us at the Simons Foun­da­tion. Stony Brook has cat­a­pult­ed to the fore­front of high­er edu­ca­tion through its remark­able strengths as a research insti­tu­tion and its unequaled focus on equi­ty and access. I can­not think of a more qual­i­fied insti­tu­tion to lead this his­toric fight against cli­mate change — a fight that must be met with inno­va­tion, intel­lect, and tenacity.”

This great news is 22 years in the mak­ing,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th may­or of New York City, and founder, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies and Bloomberg LP. As a can­di­date for may­or in 2001, I pro­posed trans­form­ing Gov­er­nors Island into a park and uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus, and the next year, Gov­er­nor Pata­ki and I worked with Pres­i­dent Bush to return the island to the city and state for $1. Our admin­is­tra­tion opened a pub­lic school on the island and began build­ing an extra­or­di­nary pub­lic park, but over time it became clear that the city need­ed greater con­trol of its devel­op­ment. In 2010, we worked with Gov­er­nor Pater­son to cede the island to the city, which allowed us to lay the foun­da­tion for ful­fill­ing our orig­i­nal vision of a year-round des­ti­na­tion with a uni­ver­si­ty pres­ence that would bring new life and jobs. Now, thanks to May­or Adams’ lead­er­ship, that vision is being ful­filled through a ground­break­ing part­ner­ship with Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty that holds so much poten­tial, the Cli­mate Exchange. Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies is glad to join Jim and Mar­i­lyn Simons and oth­ers in sup­port­ing it, as part of our glob­al efforts to help cities lead the way in tack­ling cli­mate change. This is a great day for the island, for New York City’s future, and for the fight against cli­mate change.”

Led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, the New York Cli­mate Exchange will be a first-of-its-kind, cross-sec­tor non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to cli­mate research, solu­tion devel­op­ment, edu­ca­tion, work­force train­ing, and pub­lic pro­grams on Gov­er­nors Island. The con­sor­tium will func­tion as a hub for edu­ca­tion and train­ing to grow green jobs for New York­ers and includes 15 mem­bers rep­re­sent­ing lead­ing uni­ver­si­ties from around the world, as well as busi­ness and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions ded­i­cat­ed to devel­op­ing and deploy­ing solu­tions to the glob­al cli­mate cri­sis. High-res­o­lu­tion ren­der­ings of the Exchange cam­pus are avail­able to down­load online.

The New York Cli­mate Exchange pro­pos­al presents a unique com­bi­na­tion of scale, vision, and impact; a wide range of pro­posed edu­ca­tion­al activ­i­ties for New York­ers of all ages; a focus on devel­op­ing, imple­ment­ing, and scal­ing cli­mate solu­tions; a broad coali­tion of part­ners with proven track records of deliv­er­ing ground­break­ing research; and a demon­strat­ed capa­bil­i­ty to deliv­er the pro­posed project. In addi­tion to Stony Brook, a flag­ship of the SUNY sys­tem, the con­sor­tium includes the fol­low­ing core partners:

  • Geor­gia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy (Atlanta, GA)
  • Pace Uni­ver­si­ty (New York, NY)
  • Pratt Insti­tute (New York, NY)
  • Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton (Seat­tle, WA)
  • Boston Con­sult­ing Group (BCG) (New York, NY)
  • Good Old Low­er East Side (GOLES) (New York, NY)
  • IBM (Armonk, NY)

The Exchange will offer an ambi­tious range of acces­si­ble and free edu­ca­tion­al and job train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to pre­pare New York­ers and stu­dents at every lev­el for careers focused on devel­op­ing solu­tions to cli­mate change.

A new cli­mate solu­tions semes­ter abroad pro­gram will launch for under­grad­u­ate stu­dents enrolled at insti­tu­tions rep­re­sent­ed in the Exchange con­sor­tium, fea­tur­ing course­work in cli­mate sci­ence, pol­i­cy, and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice; a grad­u­ate-lev­el fel­low­ship pro­gram offer­ing train­ing and research space to stu­dents; intern­ship and fel­low­ship pro­grams; and con­tin­u­ing education.

The Exchange has also com­mit­ted to expand­ing a New York State Path­ways in Tech­nol­o­gy (NYS P‑Tech) pro­gram with the Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School, a pub­lic high school locat­ed on Gov­er­nors Island, as well as SUNY Mar­itime Col­lege to offer skills-based job train­ing in addi­tion­al career path­ways and through col­lege-lev­el course­work relat­ed to cli­mate solu­tions. Expand­ed learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties will be offered to chil­dren through field trip pro­grams and a sum­mer camp inten­sive program.

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with local part­ners, the Exchange will host a wide range of work­force devel­op­ment and train­ing pro­grams geared towards pro­vid­ing acces­si­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties for New York­ers to gain skills in career fields relat­ed to New York City’s grow­ing green jobs sec­tor. Train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties will be deliv­ered in part­ner­ship with local orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing Green City Force, New York City Employ­ment and Train­ing Coali­tion, Non­tra­di­tion­al Employ­ment for Women, and SolarOne, and will work with the New York State Build­ing Trades and Con­struc­tion Coun­cil to devel­op con­struc­tion trade train­ing pro­grams focused on cli­mate resilient and sus­tain­able build­ing technologies.

Research and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties at the Exchange will be orga­nized around the themes of envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and inclu­sion; the impacts of use of food, water, and ener­gy on cli­mate change; and sus­tain­able and resilient cities. The cam­pus will host a Research and Tech­nol­o­gy Accel­er­a­tor, which will com­pet­i­tive­ly award lab­o­ra­to­ry and demon­stra­tion space to aca­d­e­m­ic, com­mu­ni­ty-based, and entre­pre­neur­ial teams work­ing on research ini­tia­tives and cli­mate solu­tions that deliv­er imme­di­ate sup­port to impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties, along with a Cli­mate Tech Incu­ba­tor that will pri­or­i­tize M/​WBEs and draw upon the exper­tise of busi­ness part­ners, includ­ing IBM and Boston Con­sult­ing Group.

Addi­tion­al research activ­i­ties host­ed through the Exchange will offer grant oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, as well as free exhibits, activ­i­ties, and hands-on learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Gov­er­nors Island vis­i­tors to engage with and pro­vide input towards projects in development.

The Exchange is slat­ed to begin con­struc­tion in 2025 and open in 2028. As part of the his­toric part­ner­ship announced today, the Exchange will have the option to con­struct a sec­ond phase, includ­ing com­plet­ing the ren­o­va­tion of Liggett Hall and devel­op­ing addi­tion­al facil­i­ties on three acres of the east­ern devel­op­ment zone. Thanks to his­toric lev­els of invest­ment in Gov­er­nors Island gen­er­at­ed from the project, the Trust will deliv­er fer­ry ser­vice every 15 min­utes as part of the project, with a new, hybrid fer­ry set to begin trans­port­ing pas­sen­gers in sum­mer 2024.

Affil­i­ate part­ners rep­re­sent­ed in the con­sor­tium include the City Uni­ver­si­ty of New York, Duke Uni­ver­si­ty, SUNY Mar­itime Col­lege, Moody’s, New York Uni­ver­si­ty, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oxford, and Rochester Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy. Advi­so­ry part­ners to the con­sor­tium include Brookhaven Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry and urbs.

The Exchange team also includes an unprece­dent­ed group of over 30 non­prof­it and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners with exper­tise in envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, arts, work­force devel­op­ment, edu­ca­tion, and labor. Part­ners include the Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, Water­front Alliance, WE ACT for Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice, The Build­ing and Con­struc­tion Trades Coun­cil of Greater New York, Ser­vice Employ­ees Inter­na­tion­al Union Local 32BJ, and The Point Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion. The full list of part­ners is avail­able online.

The Exchange’s 400,000-square-foot cam­pus will include class­rooms, lab­o­ra­to­ries, research labs, pub­lic exhi­bi­tion space, stu­dent and fac­ul­ty hous­ing, uni­ver­si­ty hotel rooms, and an audi­to­ri­um space. The cam­pus will include two new­ly con­struct­ed class­room and research build­ings on three acres of the Island’s east­ern devel­op­ment zone, as well as the restora­tion of over 170,000 square feet of space with­in his­toric build­ings, includ­ing Liggett Hall and the Fort Jay Theater.

In addi­tion, the Exchange will deliv­er 4.5 acres of new open space in its Phase 1 plan, adding to the Island’s exist­ing 120 acres of open space across the His­toric Dis­trict and South Island park. Con­struc­tion of the cam­pus will expand and enhance access to the Island’s exist­ing 43-acre park and its cul­tur­al and his­toric attractions.

The cam­pus will serve as a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry, show­cas­ing inno­v­a­tive approach­es to sus­tain­able and resilient design, including:

  • An all-elec­tric cam­pus with 100 per­cent of ener­gy needs gen­er­at­ed onsite;
  • The first aca­d­e­m­ic cam­pus in New York City to meet Liv­ing Build­ing Chal­lenge stan­dards, includ­ing ren­o­vat­ed his­toric build­ings and new con­struc­tion with­in the campus;
  • New York City’s first com­mer­cial build­ings uti­liz­ing mass timber;
  • One of the first cam­pus­es in New York City to receive True Zero Waste cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, with 95 per­cent of waste gen­er­at­ed on cam­pus divert­ed from landfill;
  • Cli­mate-resilient build­ings achiev­ing Water­front Edge Design Guide­lines certification;
  • 100 per­cent of non-potable water demand met with rain­wa­ter or treat­ed wastewater;
  • A dis­trict geot­her­mal and heat pump HVAC net­work serv­ing the entire cam­pus, pro­duc­ing an esti­mat­ed 70-per­cent reduc­tion in ener­gy use com­pared to facil­i­ties of a sim­i­lar size; and
  • No red-list chem­i­cals uti­lized dur­ing construction.

Pri­or to open­ing, the Exchange will launch advi­so­ry coun­cils to guide the work of the insti­tu­tion; launch a new seed grant pro­gram to sup­port the design of new work­force, edu­ca­tion­al, and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming; and engage with com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers to con­tin­ue the design process for the campus.

The cam­pus is expect­ed to cost approx­i­mate­ly $700 mil­lion in total, with $150 mil­lion com­ing in pre­vi­ous­ly allo­cat­ed city cap­i­tal fund­ing, $100 mil­lion from the Simons Foun­da­tion, and $50 mil­lion from Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies. The Exchange con­sor­tium will raise funds to sup­port the remain­ing devel­op­ment and oper­a­tional costs.

Pro­pos­als for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions anchor insti­tu­tion were eval­u­at­ed based on cri­te­ria devel­oped by the Trust and the city, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­er­nors Island Com­mu­ni­ty Advi­so­ry Coun­cil. The pro­pos­als were reviewed and scored by a selec­tion com­mit­tee made up of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Trust, the Mayor’s Office of Cli­mate and Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice, the Mayor’s Office of Equi­ty, and the New York City Depart­ment of City Plan­ning. Addi­tion­al input was pro­vid­ed to the selec­tion com­mit­tee by the city’s Cli­mate Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee and through pub­lic input ses­sions attend­ed by more than 200 par­tic­i­pants held in Octo­ber and Novem­ber 2022.

The Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions pro­pos­al was first pre­sent­ed pub­licly in 2020. An ini­tial request for expres­sions of inter­est for the center’s anchor insti­tu­tion was released in June 2021. Fol­low­ing the release of May­or Adams’ Rebuild, Renew, Rein­vent” eco­nom­ic recov­ery blue­print in March 2022, the city and the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island iden­ti­fied four teams in April 2022 to respond to a tar­get­ed request for pro­pos­als. May­or Adams and the Trust announced the three final­ist pro­pos­als in Octo­ber 2022.

For more infor­ma­tion on the project, includ­ing future pub­lic meet­ings and progress updates, please vis­it gov​is​land​.org.

Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmos­pher­ic Sci­ences has been a leader in severe storm research, weath­er pre­dic­tion, cli­mate change research and mit­i­ga­tion efforts, and edu­ca­tion­al and research efforts to restore and pro­tect water qual­i­ty, includ­ing in the Long Island Sound, Shin­necock Bay, and oth­er bod­ies of water on Long Island. The school SoMAS also hous­es broad­er sus­tain­abil­i­ty-relat­ed and atmos­pher­ic research with the goal of improv­ing pre­dictabil­i­ty about weath­er-relat­ed risks and build­ing resilience against severe storms, storm surge and coastal flood­ing, and ero­sion prob­lems. More infor­ma­tion about Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmos­pher­ic Sci­ences is avail­able online.

With an all-elec­tric cam­pus, a True Zero Waste cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and a dis­trict heat pump net­work that will serve the entire cam­pus, the New York Cli­mate Exchange will simul­ta­ne­ous­ly serve as a place of research and learn­ing as well as a one-of-a-kind sus­tain­abil­i­ty exam­ple for New York City and the world,” said Chief Cli­mate Offi­cer and New York City Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Com­mis­sion­er Rohit T. Aggar­wala. Fur­ther, because it is based on Gov­er­nors Island, the Exchange will be able to uti­lize New York Har­bor and its amaz­ing come­back as a resource for demon­strat­ing how our envi­ron­ment can recov­er if we make smart and sus­tained investments.”

With the advance­ment of the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions, the world should take note of New York’s com­mit­ment to going green,” said New York City Depart­ment of City Plan­ning Direc­tor and City Plan­ning Com­mis­sion Chair Dan Gar­o­d­nick. Gov­er­nors Island is com­bin­ing a spec­tac­u­lar new park, improved pub­lic access, and, in part­ner­ship with Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, a cut­ting-edge research and edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ty. The Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island is a huge win and will help New York con­tin­ue to be a glob­al leader in com­bat­ting cli­mate change.”

I am thrilled to have been part of the selec­tion com­mit­tee for the anchor insti­tu­tion of the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions ini­tia­tive,” said Mayor’s Office of Cli­mate & Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Kizzy Charles-Guz­man. The New York Cli­mate Exchange will advance sci­ence, cen­ter envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice learn­ing, cre­ate a new gen­er­a­tion of inno­va­tors in sus­tain­abil­i­ty and resilience, and expand New York­ers’ already vibrant rela­tion­ship with Gov­er­nors Island. Our beloved island will be a cli­mate hub for the world, and I can think of no bet­ter pair­ing of place and purpose.”

The New York Cli­mate Exchange will incu­bate the action­able, inno­v­a­tive research need­ed to address our glob­al cli­mate cri­sis,” said Mayor’s Office of Equi­ty Com­mis­sion­er Sideya Sher­man. With an incred­i­ble con­sor­tium of part­ners, the Exchange will cre­ate inclu­sive oppor­tu­ni­ties for New York­ers to con­vene, learn, work, and grow their busi­ness­es while advanc­ing cru­cial envi­ron­men­tal and sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals. We applaud the Trust and all part­ners who have come togeth­er to advance this ambi­tious plan, which will have a last­ing impact on our city and glob­al community.”

The world’s great­est chal­lenges require imag­i­na­tion, courage, and col­lab­o­ra­tion that breaks down silos, and today’s announce­ment of the New York Cli­mate Exchange as the new anchor insti­tu­tion for the Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions on Gov­er­nors Island answers that call,” said Ali­cia Glen, chair, board of direc­tors, Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Gov­er­nors Island is one of New York City’s great trans­for­ma­tion sto­ries, and I’m immense­ly proud of near­ly two decades of invest­ment across the lead­er­ship of mul­ti­ple may­oral admin­is­tra­tions that have led to this his­toric moment. Lead­ers around the world will always look to New York City as a cen­ter of inno­va­tion and lead­er­ship, and I could not think of a bet­ter part­ner than Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and its coali­tion of glob­al lead­ers and advo­cates to stew­ard this project.”

Cli­mate change rep­re­sents an exis­ten­tial chal­lenge, and SUNY is at the fore­front of the sus­tain­abil­i­ty, research, and work­force devel­op­ment solu­tions that will change the world for the bet­ter,” said SUNY Chan­cel­lor John B. King. Jr. Under the lead­er­ship of Pres­i­dent Mau­rie N. McIn­nis, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty is the nat­ur­al choice to lead the New York Cli­mate Exchange and is per­fect­ly posi­tioned to seize this moment for New York and the nation. Our thanks to May­or Eric Adams, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, the Simons Foun­da­tion, and for­mer May­or Michael Bloomberg for sup­port­ing this once-in-a-gen­er­a­tion opportunity.”

In the New York Cli­mate Exchange, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty will bring togeth­er aca­d­e­m­ic, cor­po­rate, phil­an­thropic, and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners to pio­neer an inno­v­a­tive, col­lab­o­ra­tive approach to devis­ing action­able cli­mate solu­tions,” said Kevin S. Law, chair­man, Stony Brook University’s Stony Brook Coun­cil; and chair, board of direc­tors, Empire State Devel­op­ment. The Exchange will incor­po­rate cut­ting-edge research, crit­i­cal input from affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties, and the prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence of com­mit­ted cor­po­rate part­ners to bring these solu­tions to mar­ket, demon­strat­ing that address­ing our ener­gy and cli­mate chal­lenges can gen­er­ate eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment opportunities.”

The cli­mate issues of today are urgent. And envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty neces­si­tate action from lead­ers across the world,” said Chaou­ki Abdal­lah, exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent for research, Geor­gia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy. As a core part­ner of the Exchange, Geor­gia Tech will pro­vide research exper­tise in the areas of ener­gy, urban plan­ning, bio­log­i­cal ecosys­tems, pub­lic pol­i­cy, and more, and we look for­ward to play­ing an instru­men­tal role in bring­ing its mis­sion to fruition.”

At Pace Uni­ver­si­ty, our stu­dents, fac­ul­ty, and staff walk the walk of sus­tain­abil­i­ty every day, and we are thrilled to bring our exper­tise to the New York Cli­mate Exchange,” said Mar­vin Krislov, pres­i­dent, Pace Uni­ver­si­ty. As home to the nation’s num­ber-one-ranked envi­ron­men­tal law pro­gram — and our exper­tise in land use, cli­mate jus­tice, ESG, and region­al clean water ini­tia­tives — we are eager to work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly and bring an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to cli­mate actions that forge a more resilient future for New York City and com­mu­ni­ties world­wide. Our exper­tise, vast stu­dent and alum­ni net­work, and loca­tion in Low­er Man­hat­tan pro­vide the per­fect spring­board for cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the green econ­o­my and engage­ment on Gov­er­nors Island.”

We are so excit­ed to be part of the New York Cli­mate Exchange, an ini­tia­tive that res­onates deeply with Pratt Insti­tute and our long­stand­ing part­ner­ing with local com­mu­ni­ties to address the crit­i­cal issues fac­ing us today and tomor­row,” said Frances Bronet, pres­i­dent, Pratt Insti­tute. Pratt is one of the pre­mier schools of cre­ative inquiry, art, archi­tec­ture, plan­ning, and design in the world. As a world-renowned aca­d­e­m­ic and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tion com­mit­ted to civic engage­ment and advanc­ing envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, we prob­lem-solve through an inclu­sive design process that brings deep tech­ni­cal exper­tise togeth­er with the expe­ri­en­tial exper­tise of com­mu­ni­ty part­ners, which over time has built an exten­sive net­work of trust­ed com­mu­ni­ty and indus­try part­ners. Pratt brings both this unique net­work plus research in crit­i­cal areas, from devel­op­ing green build­ings, pol­i­cy, prod­ucts, and infra­struc­ture to resilient streetscapes, envi­ron­men­tal sen­sors, and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als. For years, we have been lead­ing research on Gov­er­nors Island and are look­ing for­ward to expand­ing our scope as part of the Exchange’s net­work of com­mu­ni­ty and indus­try collaborators.”

We are very proud to bring our university’s deep and diverse strengths in cli­mate and clean ener­gy research and inno­va­tion to the New York Cli­mate Exchange,” said Ana Mari Cauce, pres­i­dent, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton. As the only core part­ner on the west coast, we are excit­ed to lever­age our region­al and glob­al rela­tion­ships to accel­er­ate efforts to address and adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change. This work is vital and urgent for the health and sur­vival of our peo­ple and our world.”

GOLES is proud to be a part of this thought­ful­ly put-togeth­er ini­tia­tive to address issues around cli­mate jus­tice and resilien­cy,” said Damaris Reyes, exec­u­tive direc­tor, GOLES. The Exchange is the result of inten­tion­al­ly built part­ner­ships between com­mu­ni­ty, aca­d­e­mics, advo­cates, and oth­er stake­hold­ers, and we look for­ward to all that we can achieve together.”

From our van­tage as an advi­sor to a diverse set of clients in New York City and across the globe, we believe that the Exchange has a unique and vital role to play in accel­er­at­ing and scal­ing sus­tain­able cli­mate solu­tions,” said Gio­van­ni Fas­sio, prin­ci­pal, tech­nol­o­gy prac­tice, BCG. We are proud to sup­port the New York Cli­mate Exchange in build­ing a first-of-its-kind’ liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry and in incu­bat­ing the most impact­ful cli­mate solu­tions to save the plan­et and to join ranks with a group of part­ners unit­ed by a shared mis­sion to advance cli­mate solu­tions that make the world a bet­ter and safer place.”

IBM is hon­ored and look­ing for­ward to being part of this trail­blaz­ing ini­tia­tive by col­lab­o­rat­ing on tech-dri­ven social impact and inno­va­tion efforts with Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty and the City of New York,” said Justi­na Nixon-Sain­til, chief impact offi­cer, IBM. The New York Cli­mate Exchange project will allow us to con­tribute tech­nol­o­gy, skills, and research capa­bil­i­ties need­ed to help find cli­mate solu­tions that put jus­tice and equi­ty at the center.”

It is a tremen­dous hon­or to design a new kind of cam­pus: One that not only sets the stage for our post-car­bon world but also cen­ters a com­pelling new pub­lic realm for all New York­ers,” said Col­in Koop, design­er part­ner, Skid­more, Owings & Mer­rill. Our design embod­ies this stew­ard­ship by weav­ing sin­u­ous mass tim­ber pavil­ions through the rolling land­scape of the park and reusing the his­toric build­ing fab­ric of Gov­er­nors Island. Togeth­er, these spaces will cul­ti­vate advances in cli­mate research and pilot new tech­nolo­gies that can be deployed across the city and even­tu­al­ly the world. We look for­ward to work­ing with the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty, and our team of design and engi­neer­ing col­lab­o­ra­tors to bring this impor­tant project to life.”

CUNY is pleased to sup­port and par­tic­i­pate in the New York Cli­mate Exchange, a cross-insti­tu­tion­al, cross-dis­ci­pli­nary col­lab­o­ra­tive mod­el that has the strength and flex­i­bil­i­ty to address the exis­ten­tial cli­mate cri­sis,” said City Uni­ver­si­ty of New York (CUNY) Chan­cel­lor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. This work on Gov­er­nors Island in New York City will allow our researchers and stu­dents to address cut­ting-edge cli­mate ques­tions, build a more sus­tain­able and equi­table city, and pro­vide a mod­el for high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions and cli­mate-focused schol­ars every­where to work togeth­er in pur­suit of research solu­tions to envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and relat­ed concerns.”

Brookhaven Lab researchers have played key roles in design­ing and con­duct­ing land­mark cli­mate stud­ies from the Arc­tic to the Ama­zon for the U.S. Depart­ment of Ener­gy,” said Jack Ander­son, inter­im direc­tor, Brookhaven Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry. We’re excit­ed at the prospect of col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er researchers through the New York Cli­mate Exchange as part of this new, impor­tant ini­tia­tive focused on devel­op­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of cli­mate experts and cre­at­ing equi­table cli­mate solutions.”

The Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School com­mu­ni­ty is thrilled to wel­come the New York Cli­mate Exchange and ready to col­lab­o­rate with the con­sor­tium of edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions in estab­lish­ing New York City’s Cli­mate Cen­ter on Gov­er­nors Island,” said Jef­frey Che­tirko, prin­ci­pal, Urban Assem­bly New York Har­bor School. This excit­ing announce­ment not only ben­e­fits all New York City pub­lic school stu­dents, but also pro­motes diver­si­ty in the mar­itime indus­try, marine fields, cli­mate research, and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. By pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for all New York City stu­dents to engage with­in these fields, New York City is break­ing down bar­ri­ers and paving the way for a more inclu­sive and sus­tain­able future.”