Power Down & Get Outside

9-10:30am
Building 309
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Join The New York Climate Exchange and Latinxs in Sustainability—alongside professionals across urban ecology and planning—for a dynamic breakfast and discussion exploring sustainability through the lens of the Latinx community. This intersectional conversation will explore how identity and lived experience shape our relationship with the environment.

With a focus on urban forestry and environmental justice, the panel will examine disparities in green space access, community health outcomes, and environmental policy. Together, we'll reimagine sustainability as inclusive, culturally rooted, and led by the voices of those most impacted. Comunidad y cultura will come to life through an interactive papel picado activity.

9:30am-1pm
Building 309

Join the Exchange to experience and learn about the Pop-Up Cooling Shade, a prototype designed to create cool, safe, and welcoming spaces where neighbors can find relief from the heat, relax, and connect. Developed through Resilient Cities Catalyst’s (RCC) Neighborhood Small Business Climate Resilience Program, in partnership with Street Lab and the Pitkin Avenue BID in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the system combines shade sails, misting, and modular seating to transform streets and plazas into vibrant, welcoming community spaces—while also boosting foot traffic for nearby small businesses. RCC and partners tested the pop-up shade four times this summer during Heat Resilience Activations in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Corona, Queens, turning plazas and underused dead-end spaces into lively, safe, and cool areas for families, neighbors, and small businesses.

11am-12:30pm
Nolan Park
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Don't miss climate scientist and author Kate Marvel, The New York Climate Exchange, Pratt Institute, and the Climate Mental Health Network on Friday. All ages are invited to gather for an outdoor, hands-on event designed to help us reflect, recharge, and connect with others on Governors Island. This event will blend mindfulness, art, and emotional curiosity—inviting participants into a shared, restorative space where we individually explore the climate emotions that Kate presents in Human Nature.

1-3:30pm
Building 309
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“Maybe the superpower is the desire to look more deeply.”

Join The Exchange, in partnership with Stony Brook University and the Science Communication Lab/Wonder Collaborative, for a free screening of OBSERVER, a new documentary by filmmaker Ian Cheney.

After the screening, attendees will have the opportunity to connect with each other and the world around them and participate in activities that apply the learnings of the film—exploring Governors Island's natural areas and seeing what they can observe.

1-2:30pm
LMCC's Arts Center at Governors Island
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Cultural heritage is often imagined as something fixed: artifacts behind glass, recipes preserved unchanged, stories told exactly as they were. Join Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), The New York Climate Exchange, and The Climate Museum for a multidisciplinary panel that explores what it means to treat heritage as a catalyst, rather than a relic.

2-2:30PM
GrowNYC Teaching Garden at the Urban Farm
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​Join GrowNYC for a special, climate change-themed tour of their Teaching Garden on Governors Island! This one-acre farm features over 20 vegetable beds made from recycled plastic lumber, farm-style rows, an outdoor kitchen, a greenhouse, a high tunnel hoophouse, fruit trees, several rainwater harvesting systems, a rain garden, and so much more.

2-4pm
Colonels Row
No RSVP required. Drop by and explore throughout the afternoon!

Through its Climate Piloting Program, the Trust for Governors Island offers innovators the unique opportunity to test their early-stage climate products and services in a real-world environment. Stop by Colonels Row during Power Down & Get Outside to meet 15+ of these innovators and learn more about their products, from floating gardens and urban agriculture innovations to living concrete building facades and algae-based concrete and so much more.

3-4pm
Departing from Building 309
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Led by Trust for Governors Island Director of Climate Programs Lauren Wang, this guided experience will take you all across the Island for a firsthand look on the solutions being piloted throughout this extraordinary place. You'll get to learn about innovations and meet the people behind them, including:

​Arbon: Efficient Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 using novel humidity-swing technology.

​Birdsview: Structural building material assessments using proprietary analysis software.

​Circular Economy Manufacturing: Solar-powered MicroFactory transforming post-consumer plastics into new products.

​Empire Clean Cities: Sustainable last-mile delivery solutions.

​Just EcoCities: Modular wetland systems (pictured).

​KlimaKover: Membrane-assisted radiant cooling shelter.

Seaweed City: Urban seaweed farming.

Can't make the crawl? Download the Governors Island Guide on the free Bloomberg Connects Arts+Culture app to explore the Trust's climate pilots any time.

4-6pm
Taco Vista
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​Celebrate another successful, engaging Climate Week on Governors Island! Unwind with drinks, harbor views, and tacos—all while putting your eco-knowledge to the test with sustainability trivia featuring Bill McCabe of Green Apple Trivia. ​Cash bar with food available for purchase. Registration is encouraged.