The Harbor Climate Collaborative Hosts NYC Climate Technology Showcase

The Harbor Climate Collaborative, A Joint Initiative from New York City Economic Development Corporation, The Trust for Governors Island, and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation Aims to Make NYC the Global Capital for Climate Innovation

The Climate Technology Showcase Provides Networking Opportunities for Companies to Grow Their Businesses and get a Deeper Understanding of Critical Role Innovation Plays in Climate Change

The Collaborative Is Pledging to Double the Number of Pilots Across All Three Sites Over the Next Year

NEW YORK, NY—Today, The Trust for Governors Island (TGI), New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) held a Climate Technology Showcase. Together, the three mission-aligned public entities with sites along the New York Harbor, and connected by NYC Ferry, are committed to making New York City the global capital of climate innovation through piloting programs, leases, workforce development investments, and regulatory wayfinding. The Harbor Climate Collaborative (HCC) is pledging to double the number of pilots conducted across the collaborative and structure the program so that companies benefit from both campus-specific experiences and collaborative-wide networks, and funding opportunities.

The NYC Climate Technology Showcase highlights the collective impact of piloting across the HCC while also providing additional opportunities for participating companies to grow and scale their businesses in New York City and increase exposure to prospective customers, both governmental and in the private sector. Over 40 startups participated, and the event featured demonstrations of innovative climate technology from six different companies.

“New York City’s dedication to growing the green economy is stronger than ever and the role of cities as engines of innovation has never been more important than in the urgent work to combat climate change,” said First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer. “The city's commitment and creativity are exemplified by the Harbor Climate Collaborative, a partnership between the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, Trust for Governors Island, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation that deploys city-controlled campuses in the defining fight of our time and helps build a vibrant climate tech ecosystem in the city of New York.”

“Today’s showcase, highlighting more than 40 partners from across the Harbor Climate Collaborative, demonstrates what’s possible when innovators are given the space and resources needed to grow,” said Clare Newman, President and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island. “Through the city’s ecosystem of piloting sites, including Governors Island, we’ve been able to accelerate real-world testing, helping to propel these companies into their next stages of development and giving New Yorkers a front-row seat to the tools to fight climate change.”

“The Harbor Climate Collaborative is a unique collaboration of three massive former military bases that are being transformed to fight climate change, the global threat of our time,” said NYCEDC President & CEO Andrew Kimball. “Today’s showcase highlights some of the amazing entrepreneurs and technology already being piloted at our three sites to unlock economic growth, create jobs, and pave the way for a greener, more resilient future.”

“Since the launch of the Harbor Climate Collaborative earlier this year, we’ve made tremendous progress towards our commitment of making New York City the epicenter of climate tech R&D, and production,” said Lindsay Greene, President and CEO, Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. “From furthering EV solutions in urban environments to testing marine-based carbon capture in one of the busiest harbors in the world, we’ve successfully leveraged our waterfront assets to identify and advance the solutions we will need to combat climate change. We look forward to doubling down on this critical work next year.”

“The HCC will be an engine of economic opportunity for New Yorkers that integrates education, training and career placement for 2100 New Yorkers and will help position the city’s diverse talent for green collar jobs that are critical to growing the green economy,” said Abby Jo Sigal, Executive Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development. “The city's green economy will create 400,000 jobs, including 12,000 apprenticeships by 2040, and the critical role that the HCC will play in connecting local talent to these opportunities will make our economy more inclusive, resilient, and green.”

“New York City is where the world's brightest minds come to test and execute their best ideas on the biggest stage,” said New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser. “Today's event demonstrates this administration's commitment to collaborate across sectors, industries, and borders to build a global hub for urban innovation. Our efforts to streamline and accelerate the piloting process for emerging technologies, through initiatives such as the NYC Smart City Testbed Program, allow us to better evaluate and potentially scale solutions to our most pressing challenges—a win for tech companies, city government, and, most importantly, 8.3 million New Yorkers. I thank the members of the Harbor Climate Collaborative for their partnership in this important work.”

The Adams Administration has committed to making New York City a global hub of urban innovation – one of the 40 initiatives laid out in the “New” New York Action Plan. Following this commitment, the NYCEDC partnered with the Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Urban Tech Hub to release Pilot:New York City as a road map to accelerate urban innovation in New York City. The formation of the HCC builds on Mayor Adams’ efforts to develop a “Harbor of the Future,” a multifaceted initiative, and the “Green Economy Action Plan”—both announced by Mayor Adams in his 2024 State of the City address to reimagine New York City’s waterfront and fuel 21st-century growth and innovation.

As the core of New York City’s burgeoning climate innovation ecosystem, the HCC will invest over $725 million to advance New York’s green economy in NYCEDC’s Sunset Park District, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and on Governors Island. The investments support climate innovators through piloting, tenanting, regulatory coordination, workforce development, knowledge/data sharing, fundraising, and facilitating access to City agencies. The HCC, launched from the Adams’ Administration Green Economy Action Plan, unlocks six million square feet of space, will support the creation of 5,000 jobs, educate and train 2,100 students, and generate $55 billion of economic impact.

Throughout the last year, the HCC has gathered critical insights into the collective impact of piloting across our different campuses. Between 2023-2024, 19 green economy founders and climate tech companies completed or had an active pilot at one or more of the HCC pilot sites, including TGI’s Climate Solutions Challenge, NYCEDC’s Pilots at BAT program, and BNYDC's Yard Labs.

Insights from the last year show that climate technologies come from all over the world with companies cutting across a range of green economy industries, including resilience infrastructure, buildings, transportation, and energy. Companies come to New York City to pilot at various development stages but tend to be in the deployment stage. Through piloting their technologies along the East River waterfront, the industrial environment of all three HCC sites, companies have been able to:

• Collect data that helps companies iterate and improve their product;
• Demonstrate commercial viability;
• Raise exposure of their climate technologies to both the investors and the public;
• Gain entry into the New York City market and tailor services to New York;
• Secure industry certifications, during the pilot phase or plan to get their certification upon completing their pilot;
• Expand their footprint in New York City, including making new connections with city agencies, expanding to new office, lab or factory space, and creating new investor connections; and
• Onboarded new interns, trainees, full or part time staff, creating an average of four new jobs per pilot project.

“This pilot serves as a proof-of-concept demonstration and has accelerated our growth in NYC, LA, and Detroit. This project has helped us generate revenue, collect real-world data, partner with more than 20 customers to help move their goods, and raise $100k in grant funding to bring our 100% electric freight mobility solutions to other cities across the US,” said Emissionless Founder Max Yergan.

“Both pilots have accelerated our product development to validate how our system can be installed in buildings and how it can be iterated to meet real-world constraints. Following our pilot at Governors Island, we received multiple inquiries from customers interested in commercially testing our system at their facilities. These pilot opportunities likely brought down our go-to-market timeline from 24 months to at least six months,” said LÆRO Design Studio Founder & CEO Noemi Florea.

“Matcha's pilot at the Brooklyn Army Terminal was an accelerant to our entry into New York. The pilot helped Matcha demonstrate the reliability of its EV charging software, gain approval from NYSERDA, and generate press,” said Matcha Co-founder and CEO Chris Kluesener.

“Beyond real savings data captured, the pilot helped us figure out ways to improve our software in a real production environment. For example, when the pilot site had a blackout event during a power surge in the grid, 7 of 25 of our smart plugs could not reconnect to Wi-Fi. We have since developed a more robust IoT protocol to overcome this situation. With these issues identified and resolved at a small scale, we then gain the confidence and ability to install at a larger scale (>50 outlets per account). This is why the pilot is very important to us - to validate our concept with real data and find loopholes in our product to improve,” said Revert Technologies Co-founder and CEO Ryan Li.

“This pilot with DOT and NYCEDC has given us the opportunity to refine our product and service offering for NYC's delivery workers, ensuring that it is built with their specific needs in mind. DOT and NYCEDC cleared the way for us to be able to build safe charging infrastructure for NYC's streets, and we look forward to continuing to work together,” said Swobbee US Managing Director Stephan von Wolff.

“Our pilot at TGI has been instrumental in our company's success, generating critical data to iterate and improve our product internally, while showing externally that our product works and what its benefits are to secure new customers, investors, community partners, and talent. Our new pilot at BNY has allowed us to scale up our carbon dioxide removal and storage process several orders of magnitude, with us now delivering on the offsets we've sold, and demonstrating that our process is safe and effective at a meaningful scale,” said Vycarb Founder & CEO Garrett Boudinot.

The Mayor Adams Administration’s Harbor of the Future initiative includes emerging innovation centers at the Hunts Point Produce Market, Governors Island, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Science Park and Research Campus in Kips Bay, and the North Shore of Staten Island. Most recently, Mayor Adams announced that the city will invest $100 million to create the “Climate Innovation Hub” at the Brooklyn Army Terminal as a part of the city’s Green Economy Action Plan that will position New Yorkers to benefit from nearly 400,000 “green-collar” jobs by 2040. This new hub will serve as a home for clean tech innovation, manufacturing and support green technology startups—including supporting the Pilots at BAT program.

About The Harbor Climate Collaborative
As outlined in the Green Economy Action Plan, released by Mayor Eric Adams in February of 2024, the plan’s vision is to establish New York City as the global capital of climate innovation through piloting programs, leases for office and lab space, workforce development investments, and regulatory wayfinding. At the heart of New York City’s burgeoning climate innovation ecosystem, The Harbor Climate Collaborative will invest over $725 million to advance New York’s green economy in NYCEDC’s Sunset Park district, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and on Governors Island. By unlocking six million square feet of space, the Harbor Climate Collaborative will support the creation of 5,000 permanent jobs, educate and train 2,100 students, and generate $55 billion in economic impact.

About NYCEDC
New York City Economic Development Corporation is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization that works for a vibrant, inclusive, and globally competitive economy for all New Yorkers. We take a comprehensive approach, through four main strategies: strengthen confidence in NYC as a great place to do business; grow innovative sectors with a focus on equity, build neighborhoods as places to live, learn, work, and play; and deliver sustainable infrastructure for communities and the city's future economy. To learn more about what we do, visit us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.