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The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces Sev­en New Pilots As Part of Annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Challenge

Apr 23, 2026 10:00 am

Select­ed win­ners include tools for flood mit­i­ga­tion and com­bat­ting extreme heat, and will start deploy­ment on the Island begin­ning sum­mer 2026 

New report high­lights impact of more than two dozen pilots that have scaled cli­mate solu­tions tech­nol­o­gy fol­low­ing the 2023 launch of the Cli­mate Pilot­ing Program

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced today the selec­tion of sev­en win­ners of the third annu­al Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge. The oppor­tu­ni­ty sought solu­tions that will help com­mu­ni­ties adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change fac­ing New York City and oth­er dense urban areas, such as chron­ic flood­ing, extreme heat, and water short­ages. The select­ed win­ners demon­strate their projects in Gov­er­nors Island’s real-world set­ting, receiv­ing $10,000 grants and gain­ing access to valu­able tech­ni­cal sup­port; vis­i­bil­i­ty through events and mar­ket­ing; and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that con­nect pro­gram par­tic­i­pants with fun­ders, investors, cus­tomers, and the Island’s near­ly one mil­lion annu­al visitors.

“Since launch­ing in 2023, this pro­gram has helped sig­nif­i­cant­ly grow Gov­er­nors Island as a unique­ly posi­tioned, real-world test­bed for cut­ting-edge tech­nol­o­gy — one that is help­ing to posi­tion New York City as a true hub for inno­va­tion,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The founders and com­pa­nies announced today are at the fore­front of devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive solu­tions that show­case for­ward-think­ing approach­es to help­ing cities thrive now and in the future.”

“The tech­nolo­gies that are being demon­strat­ed by this year’s cohort address urgent chal­lenges like flood mit­i­ga­tion and urban heat, respond­ing direct­ly to the grow­ing cli­mate pres­sures fac­ing cities and urban res­i­dents today,” said Lau­ren Wang, Direc­tor of Cli­mate Pro­grams at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We’re proud to sup­port the emerg­ing lead­ers and com­pa­nies that are dri­ving this work, and to share the program’s tremen­dous impact over the past three years.”

Projects select­ed fol­low­ing this year’s Cli­mate Solu­tions Chal­lenge are:

• Adap­to­ra will deploy an ultra-high res­o­lu­tion ground defor­ma­tion sen­sor on Gov­er­nors Island. This data will help to mon­i­tor and mit­i­gate risks asso­ci­at­ed with land sub­si­dence and coastal infrastructure.

• Hen­ning Larsen will install Kli­maKover, an adapt­able mod­u­lar cool­ing shel­ter to mit­i­gate urban heat, cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, on Gov­er­nors Island this summer.

• Pre­visi­co will pilot their real-time hydro­dy­nam­ic mod­el­ing and sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy, which gen­er­ates hyper­local, asset-lev­el flood fore­casts up to 48 hours in advance. 

• Sun­phade will install their pas­sive, pho­tochromic solar film on sev­er­al of the Island’s win­dows, demon­strat­ing how a sim­ple win­dow retro­fit can low­er peak indoor tem­per­a­tures and reduce the ener­gy demands of air conditioning.

• Ther­moShade will pilot the Ther­moShade Oasis, a 10’x10’ off-grid cool­ing shel­ter that uses patent­ed radia­tive cool­ing shade pan­els to cre­ate a space that feels up to 20°F cool­er than under a stan­dard awning. 

• True Flood Risk will pilot its prop­er­ty-lev­el flood risk plat­form to assess cur­rent and future flood expo­sure across the Island’s build­ings to iden­ti­fy vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, mod­el flood sce­nar­ios and finan­cial risks, and offer guid­ance on the cost-ben­e­fit of build­ing mit­i­ga­tion strategies. 

• WaveSave will pilot SLAM­DAM, a rapid­ly deploy­able mobile flood bar­ri­er sys­tem designed to pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties from flood­ing dri­ven by coastal storms and heavy rain­fall, demon­strat­ing how tem­po­rary infra­struc­ture can sup­port cities in mit­i­gat­ing flood risk. 

Addi­tion­al pilots announced today include Orbit Exchange, an online mar­ket­place for reclaimed build­ing mate­ri­als; Poo Poof Inc., a solu­tion to dis­solve dog waste into water and min­er­als; and Rego (a 2025 Chal­lenge win­ner) with a build­ing mate­ri­als esti­ma­tion tool to sup­port cir­cu­lar construction. 

Through­out the year the Trust will host pub­lic events and pro­grams for vis­i­tors to learn more about the pilot­ing projects. The pilots will be installed on the Island over the com­ing months for peri­ods span­ning three to 18 months.

The Trust’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. 

The Trust also released its first Impact Report high­light­ing the Gov­er­nors Island Cli­mate Pilot­ing Program’s progress since its launch in 2023. In the past three years, the Cli­mate Pilot­ing Pro­gram has advanced projects relat­ed to nature-based solu­tions, liv­ing shore­lines, clean water, cir­cu­lar econ­o­my, build­ings, ener­gy, air qual­i­ty, and urban agri­cul­ture — open­ing doors to new cus­tomers, sup­pli­ers, tal­ent, investors, and pub­lic agency part­ner­ships. The pro­gram is core to the Trust’s Cen­ter for Cli­mate Solu­tions ini­tia­tive ded­i­cat­ed to accel­er­at­ing equi­table cli­mate solu­tions for cities. High­lights include:

• Since 2023, 24 pilot­ing projects have been launched on the Island. Today’s announce­ment brings the total to 34.

• Par­tic­i­pants have secured new investors and busi­ness­es with high pro­file cus­tomers, accessed com­pet­i­tive fel­low­ships, and brought inno­va­tions to mar­ket more quick­ly than before their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the program. 

• Par­tic­i­pants have gained vis­i­bil­i­ty on their pilots with poten­tial clients in gov­ern­ment, For­tune 500 com­pa­nies, and non­prof­its who are keen to sup­port cli­mate inno­va­tion, and have accessed com­pet­i­tive pilot­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with the New York Cli­mate Exchange, the Part­ner­ship for New York City’s Envi­ron­men­tal Tech Lab, NYCEDC’s Pilots at BAT, and BNYDC’s Yard Labs. 

• Over the past three years par­tic­i­pat­ing pilots have: raised ~$15 mil­lion of invest­ment, earned more than $3 mil­lion in rev­enue, hired 28 full time employ­ees, secured more than 130 new cus­tomers, and 35 per­cent of the com­pa­nies have expand­ed their office, man­u­fac­tur­ing, or lab spaces. 

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. All three enti­ties host and col­lab­o­rate on impact­ful cli­mate pilot­ing pro­grams to help emerg­ing busi­ness­es grow and scale solutions. 

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. 

The Trust and the New York City Mayor’s Office have devel­oped 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.

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About the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island is the non­prof­it cor­po­ra­tion cre­at­ed by the City of New York that is respon­si­ble for the rede­vel­op­ment and oper­a­tion of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust’s mis­sion is to real­ize the full poten­tial of Gov­er­nors Island for the inspi­ra­tion and enjoy­ment of all New York­ers, demon­strat­ing a bold vision for pub­lic space. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.gov​is​land​.org.