NY Climate Tech: Dec 5 - Dec 11

Join a watch party for the UN Biodiversity Conference alongside the World Cup, learn about the future of the BQE, afood hacks, happy hours, and more events this month

and

Dec 05, 2022

Start the week off tonight with a summit on the future of the BQE at Pratt. Then sit back back till Thursday, when you can swing by the Out in Climate December Happy Hour, the Women and Climate Holiday Party, or the FoodHack Meetup. On Friday, consider volunteering at The Sustainable Fashion Community Center. Know any STEM teachers looking to incorporate climate into their curriculum? Send them to the Climate Models & Data sessions (online) on Saturday, then meet them later that evening at MMSC's (Eco-Conscious) Holiday Happy Hour. On Sunday, head to Brooklyn for a livestream of the UN’s Biodiversity Conference in Montreal hosted by Women and Climate.

Next Monday, join us for the Climate Tech December Meetup at Pig Beach in Brooklyn - a celebratory end to a hugely successful year for the NY Climate Tech community!

Cheers,
Alec and Sonam

Newlab's Founder Fellowship is returning for another year! The Founder Fellowship is designed to support underrepresented climate and urban tech founders in NYC as you build solutions to our planet's biggest challenges. Fellows receive one-year access to Newlab's co-working and prototyping space in Brooklyn, plus mentorship and curated programming to scale your business. Thanks to generous partnerships, the program is free. The deadline to apply is December 16th.
Local community solar startup WildGrid is running a Solarpunk Starter giveaway

Hot Take: Let’s transmit some clean power!

We think the Governor’s Office read our Hot Take last week on how much NY has to catch up to meet our climate action goals, got the press team together, and hit go!

On Wednesday, NY Governor Kathy Hochul, NYSERDA Director Doreen Harris, and several state and local leaders came together to break ground for the new Champlain Hudson Power Express that will bring renewable energy from Hydro-Quebec along a 339-mile transmission lined to New York City. The new line will connect the largest generator of clean power in North America to the largest city in America. The new line will be underwater in the Lake Champlain area and along the Hudson River, or buried along existing highways and railroads. The project will create more than 1,400 jobs during the three years of construction and is yet another example of #ClimateIndustrialism in action - revitalizing local communities with a new lease on life, literally.

Currently, most of New York City’s electricity comes from fossil generators, accounting for a quarter of the city’s GHG emissions. Approximately 50% comes from power plants in the city, and the rest from Westchester and the surrounding areas. The full mix - not so great as you can see from this chart by the Urban Green Council below.

Cleaning the grid requires dramatic changes to energy generation, transmission, and distribution, and this CHPE project is one of the biggest steps in changing the equation. In addition to huge investments in offshore wind, energy storage, and shifts in demand - we will eventually have 100% emissions-free electricity by 2040. As the running mantra goes, let’s build build build!

By Sonam Velani

This Week

🚖 Transportation Equity and the Future of the BQE: Mon, Dec 5
🚲 NECEC/AEG Clean Transportation Summit: Mon, Dec 5
🏳️‍🌈 Out in Climate - NYC December Happy Hour: Thu, Dec 8
👩‍🔬 Women and Climate Holiday Party NYC: Thu, Dec 8
🥙 FoodHack Meetup in New York City: Thu, Dec 8
🧥 Volunteer at The Sustainable Fashion Community Center: Fri, Dec 9
👩‍🏫 Climate Models & Data Part 1 - Visualizing Climate Projections (MS/HS): Sat, Dec 10
🧑‍🏫 Climate Models & Data Part 2 - Using En-ROADS for Climate Solutions (ALL): Sat, Dec 10
♻️ MMSC's (Eco-Conscious) Holiday Happy Hour: Sat, Dec 10
🇺🇳 Women and Climate Hosts Livestreaming of COP15 in NYC: Sun, Dec 11

For the Early Birds

🗽 NY Climate Tech December Meetup: Mon, Dec 12

🌳 Climate Change Dialogue - Cooling Benefits of Urban Parks: Mon, Dec 12
🌊 2022 Waterfront Alliance Holiday Party: Tue, Dec 13
🥗 "No Food Left Behind" Holiday Dinner: Tue, Dec 13
🏙 CityAge: New York - The New Infrastructure: Wed, Dec 14
👷‍♀️ DEP Engineering Career Fair: Wed, Dec 14
🗑 Holiday Sustainability Social with TRUE Advisors and NYSAR3: Thu, Dec 15
🎄 Sustainable PoPuP For Christmas: Thu, Dec 15
🔧 Hardware Holiday Party: Thu, Dec 15
🎊 2nd Annual Sustainable Holiday Market: Sun, Dec 18
🧪 Intro to Bioplastics: Sun, Dec 18
🍻 Green Drinks Brooklyn: Wed, Dec 21
🎁 Sustainable Gift Wrapping w/ FABSCRAP: Wed, Dec 21

🚖 Transportation Equity and the Future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

When: Mon, Dec 5, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM EST

Where: Higgins Hall Auditorium, Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn Campus, 61 St. James Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238

The profound problems facing the deteriorating Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) are as urgent as any other challenges currently confronting the city. What conflicting concerns are preventing crucial policy development that could address this critical situation? And how does the crumbling infrastructure of the BQE encapsulate the issues inherent in creating an equitable system of transportation? Join us for a discussion exploring these and other pressing questions as we discuss the BQE, the operational and political issues surrounding decision-making about the city’s infrastructure, and how these decisions can have dramatically different racial and socio-economic impacts.

🚲 NECEC/AEG Clean Transportation Summit

When: Mon, Dec 5, 12:30 PM – 7:00 PM EST

Where: ConEd, 4 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003

The transportation sector accounts for 42% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeastern U.S., making it the single largest contributor to the region's carbon footprint. While cleaning up the transportation sector is a priority for states in the Northeast, it will require a massive amount of new infrastructure deployment and extensive retrofits to existing infrastructure in order to transform it. NECEC and AEG will convene leaders from the public and private sectors across the Northeast to share lessons learned, pain points and successes to build consensus on how we can wrap our arms around the enormous task of building a clean transportation sector. In particular, we will look at the recent plans made by all states for public EV charging stations on Interstate highways and what infrastructure (charging and other technologies) is needed for both public and private entities and heavy duty electric truck fleets.

🏳️‍🌈 Out in Climate - NYC December Happy Hour

When: Thu, Dec 8, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST

Where: Julius, 159 West 10th Street, New York, NY 10014

Out in Climate is a non-profit dedicated to building a community for LGBTQ+ professionals in the climate space (e.g., policy, renewables, investing, corporate sustainability, environmental law). Our mission is to foster networking, community-building, and mentoring, and to help connect folks with opportunities and resources in the space. Join our community and subscribe to our future events at http://www.outinclimate.com/.

👩‍🔬 Women and Climate Holiday Party NYC

When: Thu, Dec 8, 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST

Where: NeueHouse Madison Square, 110 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010

Join us for a fun and joyful evening of climate talk, networking, and programming with special speakers, and vegan fare and drinks! Our event will be hosted at NeueHouse near Madison Square, where the chef will be creating some delightful plant-based dishes!

🥙 FoodHack Meetup in New York City

When: Thu, Dec 8, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST

Where: 91 East 3rd Street, New York, NY 10003

FoodHack meetups are for food tech entrepreneurs, investors, and food enthusiasts to network and hear from food industry speakers. Whether you're growing your food business, looking to connect with startups to invest in, or want to network with other like-minded professionals - this event is for you.

🧥 Volunteer at The Sustainable Fashion Community Center

When: Fri, Dec 9, 5:00 PM EST and multiple dates

Where: Sustainable Fashion Community Center, 1795 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10029

Sign up to volunteer at The Sustainable Fashion Community Center. Spend 4 hours sorting, hanging, organizing, and if you've got some skillz, use those to help out this wonderful community of advocates, activities, and small business owners. As a thank you, you'll get to swap for free! Volunteers get to participate in "straight swapping" - you bring 2 pieces, you take 2 pieces, you bring 5 pieces, you get 5 pieces... you get the idea. We cap volunteers at 10 pieces, same as a swap pass!

👩‍🏫 Climate Models & Data Part 1 - Visualizing Climate Projections (MS/HS)

When: Sat, Dec 10, 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Where: STEMteachersNYC Via Zoom New York, NY 10027

As defined by NOAA, a global climate model is a “complex mathematical representation of the major climate system components and their interactions.” Students often believe that climate change will impact all global locations equally. How do we help students build a better understanding of the connection between possible climate scenarios, global climate model outputs, and associated climate projections. In this workshop, participants will explore the NOAA Climate Explorer and the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, and will leave with a ready-made unit that helps students tell the story of climate change with data.

🧑‍🏫 Climate Models & Data Part 2 - Using En-ROADS for Climate Solutions (ALL)

When: Sat, Dec 10, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST

Where: STEMteachersNYC Via Zoom New York, NY 10027

Join us to experience how the robust, user-friendly En-ROADS climate simulator can be used with any STEM subject or grade. We will do a brief introduction of the tool, will share some interactive examples of policy solutions, and will engage in various classroom-tested activities to get students ideating and advocating for climate solutions.

♻️ MMSC's (Eco-Conscious) Holiday Happy Hour

When: Sat, Dec 10, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST

Where: 188 Woodpoint Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11211

The holidays are looking extra GREEN this year. Discover eco-conscious brands, as you celebrate the season! ✨

PLEASE NOTE: This sip and shop event is only one hour long. Please arrive promptly at 5 PM to make the most of the experience! 🍸

🇺🇳 Women and Climate Hosts Livestreaming of COP15 in NYC

When: Sun, Dec 11, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM EST

Where: Estuary at ONE°15 Brooklyn Marina, 159 Bridge Park Drive Brooklyn, NY 11201

The World Biodiversity Summit will be hosting programming at COP15 in Montreal. We'll be convening to watch the livestream together. See detailed programming and sessions here. The first session starts at 9:00 am and networking will start at 8:30am. There will be coffee and pastries available for purchase. The restaurant will also be serving lunch. 15 min networking breaks will also be part of the programming.

Submit Events

We know all of you are cooking up great events across New York that highlight the latest and greatest in our collective effort to save our city - and our planet! 🌍 We would love to spread the word. Please share any event details and we'll add them to the list.

Volunteer

We're excited to grow the Climate Tech community in cities across the globe - starting right here in our hometown of New York! 🗽 What started as an 8-person mid-pandemic outdoor dinner has since morphed into a 2,500+ strong and ever-growing group of rockstars trying to change the world. We're looking for volunteers to help us expand our programming into a full roster of community-wide meetups, subject-specific events, mentorship programs, site visits, and more. We aim to be a community resource - built for and by our community. Share your thoughts and we look forward to working with you!