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Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Pitch Hour

The show­case start­ed with a Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Pitch Hour mod­er­at­ed by Alex Brady, Chief Real Estate Offi­cer at the Trust, where nine com­pa­nies pre­sent­ed their solu­tions fol­lowed by live feed­back from a pan­el of experts. These experts includ­ed Cas­sia Attard, Ven­tures Ana­lyst at Closed Loop Part­ners, Eric Davis, Sec­tion Man­ag­er, Research & Devel­op­ment at Con Edi­son, Ker­ry Con­sta­bile, Direc­tor, Decar­boniza­tion Strat­e­gy at Ama­zon, and Shaina Horowitz, Direc­tor of Pro­gram Inno­va­tion and Accel­er­a­tion at the New York Cli­mate Exchange.

Car­bon­CLAIR start­ed off the pitch­es high­light­ing their portable air fil­tra­tion sys­tem that cap­tures both par­tic­u­late mat­ter (PM2.5) and car­bon emis­sions using renew­able ener­gy sources. The com­pa­ny is ded­i­cat­ed to improv­ing urban air qual­i­ty by cap­tur­ing pol­lu­tants and CO2 in out­door envi­ron­ments, while pro­duc­ing a byprod­uct with com­mon indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions. On Gov­er­nors Island, Car­bon­CLAIR will be pilot­ing their off-grid device at a con­struc­tion site. 

“The Cli­mate Solu­tions Show­case was a great moment for Car­bon­CLAIR to share our vision and con­nect with lead­ers who are equal­ly pas­sion­ate about clean con­struc­tion and cli­mate inno­va­tion,” remarked Co-founder Fares Al-Lahabi. ​“Hear­ing from the pan­el and audi­ence gave us valu­able per­spec­tive on how our tech­nol­o­gy fits into broad­er cli­mate adap­ta­tion strate­gies, and it opened up con­ver­sa­tions we’re excit­ed to keep build­ing on.”

Mira Intel show­cased their infra­struc­ture resilience solu­tion. ​“Pre­sent­ing at the event was a mile­stone for Mira Intel,” beamed Co-founder and CEO Danielle Nichol­son. ​“The show­case was our first oppor­tu­ni­ty to pub­licly show what we have been work­ing on qui­et­ly for the past year. Gov­er­nors Island was the per­fect location.”

With drone-based struc­tur­al assess­ments and pro­pri­etary analy­sis soft­ware, Mira Intel can pro­vide ear­ly dam­age detec­tion and increased asset lifes­pan, redefin­ing the way we mon­i­tor and main­tain crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture. ​“Insights from guests com­ing from regions out­side of the North­east rein­forced our con­fi­dence that our plat­form can be trans­for­ma­tive in a diverse range of regions, each with unique infra­struc­ture vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and needs,” Nichol­son added.

Up next was Birdsview, a Nor­we­­gian-based com­pa­ny pilot­ing their ground-pen­e­­trat­ing radar (GPR) struc­tur­al assess­ment tech­nol­o­gy. A rapid and user-friend­ly con­crete inspec­tion tech­nol­o­gy, Birdsview’s solu­tion pro­vides pre­cise and action­able rein­force­ment insights to reduce costs and short­en project time­lines. Co-founder and CEO Olav Sko­gen shared that the com­pa­ny was born out of the urgent need to pre­serve, adapt, and opti­mize the aging built envi­ron­ment. With their pilot on Gov­er­nors Island, the com­pa­ny is look­ing for­ward to scal­ing beyond Scandinavia.

“The event was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with the oth­er star­tups and meet pas­sion­ate peo­ple who share a com­mit­ment for this work, affirmed Sko­gen. ​“Learn­ing more about the dif­fer­ent star­tups, the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties ahead of us was inspiring.”

Fourth to pitch was CO Adap­tive, a design-build firm based in the Brook­lyn Navy Yard that spe­cial­izes in high per­for­mance retro­fits of exist­ing build­ings. With a focus on mate­r­i­al repair and cir­cu­lar­i­ty that is root­ed in reduc­ing embod­ied car­bon, CO Adap­tive is devel­op­ing Dis­as­sem­ble, a pre­fab­ri­cat­ed mod­u­lar wall sys­tem made from sal­vaged wood that can be used to retro­fit spaces to pas­sive house stan­dards more quick­ly, eco­nom­i­cal­ly, and sus­tain­ably. Their pilot on Gov­er­nors Island rep­re­sents their first off­site tem­po­rary instal­la­tion in New York, which will help them work towards their goal to com­mis­sion their first per­ma­nent instal­la­tion in a pas­sive house retrofit. 

“We were hon­ored to be includ­ed in this group of cli­mate inno­va­tion lead­ers, and we left the event inspired by the impor­tant work hap­pen­ing all around our city and beyond,” remarked Andrew Brown, Archi­tec­ture Direc­tor. ​“The atten­dees rep­re­sent­ed a cross sec­tion of the many busi­ness­es, agen­cies, orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als who are com­mit­ted to address­ing cli­mate change today. The dis­cus­sions with pan­elists and peers helped our team bet­ter define our tar­get mar­ket, artic­u­late our scal­ing strate­gies, and gauge mar­ket inter­est. We are grate­ful to The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island for bring­ing this com­mu­ni­ty together.”

Cast Car­bon fol­lowed CO Adap­tive. Inte­grat­ed with region­al farm and forestry residues, Cast Car­bon is a biochar-enriched, archi­tec­tur­al wall tile that is not only nature-pos­i­tive and com­postable, but also beau­ti­ful to look at. The prod­uct was devel­oped by Phy­to­stone, a woman-owned stu­dio that pro­duces advanced nat­ur­al build­ing materials. 

Co-founder Emi­ly Majew­s­ki intro­duced the com­pa­ny and its vision to regen­er­ate nature, improve soils, and beau­ti­fy the lives of occu­pants, and with Cast Car­bon, they aim to help reduce the effect of ren­o­vat­ing build­ing inte­ri­ors. These ren­o­va­tions hap­pen twen­ty to forty times over the lifes­pan of a build­ing, caus­ing 350% more car­bon emis­sions than that of the building’s exte­ri­or, and adding more waste to our landfills.

“It was great to meet a real cross sec­tion of NYC stake­hold­ers from financ­ing inno­va­tion to pol­i­cy and ear­ly customers…all in the same place!” Majew­s­ki said about the show­case. ​“See­ing such a com­pre­hen­sive array of solu­tions from inte­ri­ors to the water­front to data col­lec­tion behind nat­ur­al cap­i­tal and infra­struc­ture health real­ly shows that it’s going to take a vil­lage for the inno­va­tion ecosys­tem to impact this great city, and we loved see­ing that in action.”

Sixth in the pitch line up was Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing, pre­sent­ed by direc­tor and co-founder Bar­ent Roth. Aim­ing to tran­si­tion cities and res­i­dents from a lin­ear econ­o­my to a cir­cu­lar one, Cir­cu­lar Econ­o­my Man­u­fac­tur­ing uses scal­able, portable, solar-pow­ered micro­fac­to­ries to trans­form sin­gle-use plas­tic into durable well-designed products.

With their Micro­Fac­to­ry on Gov­er­nors Island, the com­pa­ny uses plas­tic waste from New York City, solar pow­er, and local labor to man­u­fac­ture prod­ucts for the Island and beyond, fur­ther reduc­ing emis­sions and waste by dis­trib­ut­ing these prod­ucts local­ly. At the show­case, Roth pre­sent­ed life-size pro­to­types of the Cir­cu­lar Chair, which will be pilot­ed on Gov­er­nors Island lat­er this year. The chair has two dif­fer­ent seat­ing heights or can be used as a table when flipped on its side. 

Next in the line­up was Plan­taer. Pre­sent­ed by Founder & CEO Manuel Ben­itez Ruiz, Plan­taer has cre­at­ed a build­ing mate­ri­al that sup­ports veg­e­ta­tive growth and is devel­op­ing non­struc­tur­al prod­ucts, includ­ing pavers, tiles, pan­els, and coat­ings, that can be used for com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial roofs, build­ing facades, and infra­struc­ture. This bio­com­pat­i­ble mate­r­i­al not only low­ers embod­ied car­bon and increas­es dura­bil­i­ty, but also improves ener­gy effi­cien­cy, air qual­i­ty, heat mit­i­ga­tion, and stormwa­ter management.

Eighth to pitch was Arbon, a Direct Air Cap­ture (DAC) com­pa­ny that will pilot their humid­i­ty-swing tech­nol­o­gy on the Island. Pre­sent­ed by Annie Lee, Direc­tor of Busi­ness Devel­op­ment, Arbon uses an ener­­gy-effi­­cient, durable, and afford­able device that cap­tures and stores CO₂ from ambi­ent air, dras­ti­cal­ly low­er­ing the costs and car­bon foot­print. With cap­ture sources rang­ing from ambi­ent air to mines, pow­er plants, and oil refiner­ies, Lee shared that ear­ly tests of their tech­nol­o­gy show promis­ing results. At scale, their device is pro­ject­ed to reach car­bon cap­ture price points as low as $100 per ton CO2 from ambi­ent air and $35 per ton CO2 from a pow­er plant, all while hav­ing four to six times less ener­gy usage com­pared to sim­i­lar technologies. 

“The show­case event for Arbon marked the first step to real-world deploy­ment,” expressed Lee. ​“We’re excit­ed about our upcom­ing year-long pilot on Gov­er­nors Island, which will pro­vide cru­cial per­for­mance data and demon­strate our work­ing sys­tem to investors and the pub­lic. Hear­ing from last year’s suc­cess­ful pilots was par­tic­u­lar­ly inspir­ing and gave us con­fi­dence in the poten­tial of this opportunity.”

The final com­pa­ny to pitch was Rego, which has devel­oped an AI-pow­ered zero waste data plat­form for sus­tain­abil­i­ty teams. Pitched by co-founder and CEO Josh Mas­tro­mat­to, Rego aims to help com­pa­nies reduce waste, cut costs, and exceed their sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals. Their plat­form, which can be inte­grat­ed into a company’s work­flows, can pro­vide real-time waste results and loca­tion-spe­cif­ic insights using only sim­ple images. As a ten­ant on the island, Rego plans to turn their pilot into a pub­lic case study. 

“The event was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case to the pub­lic how the Gov­er­nors Island pilot can help advance and de-risk new com­pa­nies and tech­nolo­gies, such as Rego,” Mas­tro­mat­to com­ment­ed. ​“This means that Rego can more con­fi­dent­ly approach new oppor­tu­ni­ties with oth­er cities, munic­i­pal­i­ties, and enter­prise orga­ni­za­tions. The insights from the pan­el, audi­ence, and guests were incred­i­ble. They all want to sup­port our mis­sion to make zero waste afford­able and acces­si­ble for any city, any­where in the world. I feel more con­fi­dent than ever in Rego’s future after con­nect­ing with the attendees.”

Pan­el Dis­cus­sion: Water­fronts of the Future

The sec­ond pan­el fea­tured com­pa­nies and non­prof­its that have pilot­ed water­front solu­tions on the East Riv­er from Gov­er­nors Island to the South Bronx, in New­town Creek, and in oth­er loca­tions. Mod­er­at­ed by Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust, the pan­el includ­ed Bri­an Wil­son, CEO at Duro UAS, Lau­ren Kesner O’Brien, Pol­i­cy and Part­ner­ships Man­ag­er at Empire Clean Cities, Shan­jana Mah­mud, Co-Founder of Sea­weed City, and Greg Humphries, Head of Busi­ness Oper­a­tions at Vycarb.

“We are thrilled to host this dia­logue on water­fronts of the future in New York City, where we have 520 miles of water­front,” said Lau­ren. ​“While you may hear peo­ple talk about ocean car­bon, blue high­ways, urban aqua­cul­ture, and long-term mon­i­tor­ing, thanks to the lead­er­ship of these pan­elists, these activ­i­ties has been tak­ing place right here on Gov­er­nors Island over the past two years through their pilots.”

Pan­elists spoke to the pow­er of data for inform­ing and dri­ving cli­mate action. ​“With data, you can make so many informed deci­sions,” said Wil­son, includ­ing with the company’s Inter­net of Things (IoT) water qual­i­ty mon­i­tor­ing devices. ​“Thanks to our pilot on Gov­er­nors Island, Duro UAS can prove that dur­ing storms, rivers aren’t clean enough to go swim­ming in, but when there are no storms, some rivers are clean enough for the pub­lic to enjoy swim­ming in.” 

Their lon­gi­tu­di­nal data was help­ful for Sea­weed City, a non­prof­it that grows sea­weed to extract excess nutri­ents and pol­lu­tants from the water and bring every­day New York­ers on the water. Mah­mud shared how com­par­ing results from their aqua­cul­ture farms on Gov­er­nors Island and New­town Creek gen­er­at­ed insights into how water qual­i­ty and con­di­tions in dif­fer­ent urban water­bod­ies affect sea­weed farm­ing. Sea­weed City made their first sug­ar kelp har­vest in April 2024 and are cul­ti­vat­ing gracilar­ia and sea let­tuce for plant­i­ng this summer. 

Vycarb, a Brook­lyn-based start­up rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing the car­bon cap­ture and stor­age indus­try, also val­ues real-time data. ​“A lot of sim­i­lar solu­tions to remov­ing CO2 are miss­ing the accu­rate mea­sure­ment com­po­nent,” Humphries argued. ​“If you’re adding mate­r­i­al to the ocean – you should know exact­ly what you’re doing to the water. With accu­rate data, we can build com­mu­ni­ty trust in what we’re doing.”

With its first of its kind in-water CO2 mea­sure­ment and removal solu­tion, Vycarb enables the safe, respon­si­ble long-term cap­ture of cli­­mate-war­m­ing CO2 with­out dis­rupt­ing the local ecosys­tem. Their sys­tem helps to reverse ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion while gen­er­at­ing data-backed car­bon cred­its. Vycarb first pilot­ed on Gov­er­nors Island in 2023, scaled up to a sec­ond NYC pilot at the Brook­lyn Navy Yard in 2024, and are now seek­ing indus­try part­ners on a nation­al and glob­al scale.

For Empire Clean Cities, com­mu­ni­ty also dri­ves their mis­sion. The non­prof­it aims to demon­strate how last-mile deliv­ery com­pa­nies can adopt a safe, reli­able, cost effec­tive, and sus­tain­able logis­tics solu­tion for seafood, bev­er­ages, and oth­er car­go in high­ly con­gest­ed urban areas. Few­er trucks on the street will reduce air pol­lu­tion and improve traf­fic safe­ty for res­i­dents in the South Bronx and oth­er neigh­bor­hoods where last-mile ware­hous­es are concentrated. 

“By replac­ing trucks with elec­tric car­go bikes, paired with mid­dle-mile mar­itime solu­tions to South Street Sea­port and Gov­er­nors Island, we’re reduc­ing traf­fic and con­ges­tion,” assured O’Brien. ​“We’re low­er­ing car­bon emis­sions, avoid­ing air pol­lu­tants, and improv­ing safe­ty, effec­tive­ly cre­at­ing more liv­able, equi­table communities.”

Where does all this lead by 2050? Pan­elists spoke to their vision for a city with safe streets, clean air, and a vibrant water­front where New York­ers, sea­weed, and wildlife can swim and thrive, thanks to the suc­cess of the cli­mate solu­tions that start­ed at a small scale today.

A grow­ing move­ment around cli­mate tech and sustainability

Over­all, the Cli­mate Solu­tions Show­case high­light­ed the grow­ing move­ment around cli­mate tech and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. As a liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry in New York Har­bor, Gov­er­nors Island sup­ports inno­va­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion among com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions that are mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions towards city-lev­el cli­mate mit­i­ga­tion and adap­ta­tion goals. Fol­low along for more updates on our cli­mate pilot­ing activ­i­ties as we progress through the sum­mer and the rest of the year. 

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s cli­mate pro­grams are made pos­si­ble with the gen­er­ous sup­port of Ama­zon, Con Edi­son, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, and the New York Com­mu­ni­ty Trust.