EARLY STAGE START-UP
FOUNDER: Brian Wilson
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Based in the South Bronx, Duro UAS develops advanced environmental monitoring technologies to expand access to environmental intelligence with the goal of improving how environmental data is collected and shared with affordable, easy-to-use water monitoring systems and data services.

Product: Nearshore Sonde
Advancing IoT (Internet of Things)-based environmental monitoring for urban ecosystem resilience and diversifying the climate tech workforce.

Duro UAS will pilot portable continuous water quality monitoring devices (or “sondes”) in the waters off Governors Island that will collect data including pH, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, oxidation-reduction potential, and temperature. This information will be available in real time through the Duro Dashboard—a cloud-based data visualization and analysis tool—providing the public access to key water data from New York Harbor

SMALL BUSINESS
FOUNDER: Jamie Ong

Just EcoCities represents a nature-based solutions consultancy working to improve water quality, expand habitat, and promote engagement with New York City’s waterways.

Product: Tidal Planter
Modular wetland system fused with living shoreline design to expand habitat, improve water quality, and engage communities with their waterways.

On Governors Island, Just EcoCities will partner with Biohabitats, an ecological design firm whose mission is to restore the Earth and inspire ecological stewardship, to pilot a Tidal Planter that creates salt marsh while removing pollutants from New York Harbor.

EARLY-STAGE START-UP
FOUNDER: Noemi Florea
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Laero represents a collaboration between experts across fields of water advocacy, manufacturing, and electromechanical engineering working to reduce the levels of untreated wastewater that enter New York City’s municipal infrastructure.

Product: Cycleau
Decentralized point-of-use greywater treatment retrofits that can reduce water pollution in local waterways.

Cycleau is a compact greywater treatment system that is designed to retrofit below sinks, showers, and laundry machines. On Governors Island, the system will be installed at the Parade Ground water station and the Yankee Pier bathrooms. The Cycleau system will directly involve Island visitors in the water quality treatment process while modeling a scalable solution for wastewater management that can be easily deployed in urban areas worldwide. Throughout the pilot, they will engage visitors in water quality testing and raise awareness of the impacts of wastewater pollution on New York City neighborhoods.

SMALL BUSINESS
FOUNDER: Marcus Carter
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Object Territories is a critical design practice based in New York and Hong Kong that works at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Their pilot on Governors Island represents a collaboration with the Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Product: Intertidal Objects
Coastal infrastructure retrofits that actively promote biodiversity along the water’s edge by creating refuge and reducing heat stress through design.

Object Territories will install their Intertidal Objects along Governors Island’s shoreline. The Intertidal Objects are retrofitted concrete ecological coastal armoring units that promote a living shoreline and provide erosion protection, and were designed in collaboration with the Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, after NATURE, and Fort Miller Group. They create refuge for wildlife and reduce heat stress, and have been previously deployed at Randalls Island and in Hong Kong.

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
Gita Nandan, Founder, RETI center and Principal, thread collective
Tim Gliman Sevcik, Executive Director, RETI Center
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RETI Center is a Red Hook-based nonprofit that works to educate, train, and work with local youth, experts, professionals, and community members to transform our coastal city from one that is driven by fossil fuels to one balancing equity, ecology, and economy.

Product: BlueBlocks Gardens
Scalable education and training platform for local youth leaders in living shoreline construction and ecological monitoring.

RETI Center will install their BlueBlocks Gardens, modular nature-based floating marshlands, in the waters off Governors Island with design lead thread collective. With a multilayered design that mimics an integrated ecological system, the BlueBlocks Gardens allow marine habitat to thrive both in and above the water. Previously deployed in Red Hook, this pilot will test the product’s resiliency and bring the project’s unique education and training platform to Governors Island’s community of visitors, partners, and tenants.

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
FOUNDERS: Shanjana Mahmud and Luke Eddins
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Seaweed City is a citizen science initiative exploring the benefits of seaweed aquaculture in New York City’s waterways

Product: Urban Seaweed Farming and Nursery
Urban seaweed farming to restore marine ecosystems, clean waterways, and promote community investment in the New York City estuary.

Seaweed City will pilot their urban kelp farming infrastructure in the high energy coastal waters off Governors Island, demonstrating how aquaculture contributes to ecologically, economically, and culturally productive urban shorelines and creating the first kelp nursery in the five boroughs. The project is fiscally sponsored by Newtown Creek Alliance.

EARLY STAGE START-UP
FOUNDER: Chris Graff and Barent Roth
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Circular Economy Manufacturing is a start up company created after winning a competition asking for ideas to turn NYC’s trash into products.

Product: MicroFactory

Visit South Battery to experience Circular Economy Manufacturing's 100% solar powered MicroFactory capable of recycling single use plastic into durable eco-friendly products using an innovative, energy efficient, rotational molding process. Within a repurposed shipping container they shred post-con­sumer plas­tic col­lect­ed by the City of New York that may oth­er­wise be sent to landfill, melt it and mold it into prod­ucts using only the attached solar pan­els for pow­er.

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
FOUNDER: Melissa Barber, MD, and Mychal Johnson
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South Bronx Unite brings together neighborhood residents, community organizations, academic institutions, and allies to improve and protect the social, environmental, and economic future of Mott Haven and Port Morris.

Product: Community Science Air Quality Monitoring

Citizen science-driven air quality monitoring and analysis.

South Bronx Unite has installed low-cost air quality monitors throughout the South Bronx that will collect data to be uploaded for analysis and public access. They have installed a "control" monitor on Governors Island to measure waterfront air quality in a less dense urban environment. This initiative includes a STEM curriculum to provide training to middle and high school teachers and to involve students in building and using the sensors.

EARLY STAGE START-UP
FOUNDER: Garrett Boudinot
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Vycarb is a Brooklyn-based startup enabling decentralized carbon removal through real-time, autonomous, and direct measurement of CO2 in water.

Product: Autonomous Carbon Monitoring Device

Using novel technology for real-time, direct, and autonomous measurement of the full carbon cycle and the responsive management and removal of carbon in water.

Vycarb is piloting their autonomous carbon measurement and mitigation apparatus at the end of Pier 102 on Governors Island. The device removes carbon dioxide from water, stores it as stable dissolved carbon in water, and measures exactly how much carbon was removed in a low-cost, modular, hardware-software integration.