Stony Brook University will anchor the New York Climate Exchange on Governor’s Island.
The news was announced with great fanfare earlier this week from New York City Mayor Eric Adams and The Trust for Governors Island. And there’s big money behind it. Both the Simons Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies have pledged a combined $150 million supporting The Exchange.
That investment shines a spotlight not only on the work required to tackle harmful climate change, but also on the leadership at Stony Brook University, and its partners.
“These gifts not only help fuel our ambitions in building The New York Climate Exchange, they also represent a ringing endorsement of Stony Brook and the transformational work we will be doing on Governors Island,” Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University, said in a letter to the community.
The Exchange is defined as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to collaborate with universities, world leaders, researchers, non-profits, community leaders, entrepreneurs, businesses and students to develop solutions that address climate change. This opportunity is something McInnis began speaking about back in 2021.
Now, she said, “Stony Brook is taking its place as a global convener at the forefront of climate solutions, and the impact on our faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters will be profound,” McInnis said.
The Exchange was announced barely a month after a United Nations panel of scientists released its report on a pressing need to address climate change.
“The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts for thousands of years,” the report said, calling climate change “a threat to human well-being and planetary health.”
Already, according to the U.N., climate change consequences has brought intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.
But The Exchange, which is expected to break ground in 2025, seeks to develop and deploy “dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis, while also acting as a hub for New Yorkers to benefit from the rapidly evolving green economy,” according to a Stony Brook University news release.
The center will partner with other institutions, including Pratt Institute, Pace University, New York University, the City University of New York, SUNY Maritime College, Brookhaven National Labs, IBM and others.
Together, they will build a foundation around the partnerships, helping “amplify” existing programs that pertain to the green economy and bringing “broader expertise” resulting, ideally, to new technologies, said Kevin Reed, associate dean for research and associate professor at Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.
Their collaboration is to include research that fosters commercially viable ideas that lead to immediate action, both locally and globally.
“Up until now, the development of climate solutions has been siloed, with world leaders separate from expert scientists separate from the on-the-ground green workforce,” McInnis said in a statement when the center was first announced.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, along with MNLA, Buro Happold, and Langan Engineering developed The Exchange’s design. As a model for sustainability, the center will have a net zero center that complements Governors Island’s natural landscape and New York City’s urban landscape. It includes a 400,000-square-foot interactive “living laboratory” with green-designed building space, including research labs, classroom space, exhibits, greenhouses, mitigation technologies and housing facilities.
Officials say The Exchange will include all-electric buildings for the entire campus with on-site solar electrical generation and battery storage meeting 100% of energy demand with net-positive capability to serve the local grid. And 100% of non-potable water demand will be met with rainwater or treated wastewater.
In addition, 95% of waste will be diverted from landfills, making this one of the first sites in the nation to achieve true-zero waste certification. Also featured is a climate-resilient design including new buildings raised to 18 feet, with no basements and living shorelines. All new and renovated buildings will meet “Living Building Challenge” standards and will be the first buildings in the city to achieve this certification.
A research and technology accelerator will serve to source and nurture ideas, projects and new ventures that aim to address climate crisis.
The center will include a citizens’ advisory council, composed of key local stakeholders to ensure that partners’ and neighbors’ voices are heard as it looks to jointly develop and implement new climate solutions, including those that affect low-income communities of color.
At the center, Reed said, there will be opportunities for internships – perhaps a summer semester, or something longer – for students at partner universities across all disciplines. It’s where students studying to be writers, healthcare professionals, engineers, nonprofit leaders and more will learn about the green economy and sustainability, bringing ideas to their peers who might expand on those concepts further.
That philosophy also extends to other fields and industries, where stakeholders will share knowledge across all of their networks, on Long Island and beyond.
Stony Brook University formed international partnerships with academic institutions outside of New York City, as well as with research foundations and social justice organizations to create The Exchange.
The potential for networks of collaboration – locally, nationally and globally – bring prospect for research and promise.
“Brookhaven Lab researchers have played key roles in designing and conducting landmark climate studies from the Arctic to the Amazon for the U.S. Department of Energy,” Brookhaven National Laboratory Interim Director Jack Anderson said in a statement. “We’re excited at the prospect of collaborating with other researchers through the New York Climate Exchange as part of this new, important initiative focused on developing the next generation of climate experts and creating equitable climate solutions.”
And economic opportunities abound, both on Long Island and elsewhere.
“In selecting Stony Brook University to anchor the New York Climate Exchange, New York City recognizes the world-leading research at its School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences focused on the Long Island Sound and other regional bodies of water,” said Matt Cohen, president and CEO of Long Island Association. “We are proud the SUNY flagship institution will be spearheading a nation-leading collaboration that will create green jobs of the future, which will also support Long Island’s growth.”
Yes, enormous challenges are ahead. Yet, Reed said, “This is what a public institution like Stony Brook University is meant to do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Adina Genn
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