Boston Climate Tech: Feb 13-Feb 27, 2023
Boston FoodHack, EBC Offshore Wind conference, Greentown Labs events & more
Hi all!
This is the Boston Climate Tech newsletter. This newsletter is a digest of community-submitted in-person climate tech events in the Greater Boston area coming up in the next two weeks or so.
As always, for the full calendar, check out https://airtable.cool/shrfu1ovRrNCh7SGy . To submit events, use this form
Sustainability Connect 2023 - MIT Events: 2/14 Tue
Boston FoodHack Meetup : 2/15 Wed
EBC Tenth Annual Offshore Wind Conference: : 2/15 Wed
ESG Mess? On The Trajectory Of ESG In Venture Capital - Sustainability Initiative: 2/15 Wed
Enabling Sustainable Digital Infrastructure - MIT Events: 2/22 Wed
ACCEL Kickoff Event - Greentown Labs: 2/23 Thu
Lunch & Learn: Passive House Institute Path to Certification for Multifamily Projects | MassCEC: 2/23 Thu
Cheers,
Sustainability Connect 2023 - MIT Events
🕑 Start time
2/14/2023 Tue 9:00 AM
🕓 End time
2/14/2023 Tue 2:00 PM
📍Location
MIT Samberg Conference Center
📍Address
📝 Notes
Sustainability Connect brings together the community working to create a more sustainable MIT. For Sustainability Connect 2023, we’re looking back on ten years of the Office of Sustainability, celebrating the successes you made possible, and envisioning the future of a sustainable MIT as guided by Fast Forward: MIT's Climate Action Plan for the Decade.
🔗 Registration link
Boston FoodHack Meetup
🕑 Start time
2/15/2023 Wed 6:30 PM
🕓 End time
2/15/2023 Wed 8:30 PM
📍Location
The Engine
📍Address
750 Main Street, Cambridge, MA
📝 Notes
About this Event
FoodHack meetups for food tech entrepreneurs, investors and food enthusiasts to network and hear from food industry speakers.
This meetup, co-hosted with Ark Biotech, will address "Challenges to tackle in 2023 to reach scale in alternative protein".
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.
The event is free but registration is necessary.
Guest Speakers
Christophe Chantre, Co-Founder & CEO, Tender Food
Lauren Abda, Partner & Founder, Branch Venture Group
Yossi Quint, Co-Founder & CEO, Ark Biotech
Pitch:
Are you launching a new product? Are you looking for your next R&D expert or your next CEO? Are you looking for a job or an internship? Join our 30-second pitch session and share your business update with the audience (open to anyone).
Date : February 15th 2023
Hour : 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Venue: The Engine
Language : English
The FoodHack Meetup concept:
Global food industry meetups to network, learn and get inspired.
Always free to attend and open to everyone
Industry guest speakers speaking and answering questions from the audience
Opportunity to pitch your business, venture, etc. on stage
About the Organizer:
FoodHack is a global community for FoodTech founders and Funders. We inspire, highlight and help fund Foodtech founders.
Must RESERVE in advance and please do let us know for cancellation
🔗 Registration link
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-foodhack-meetup-tickets-519617609257
EBC Tenth Annual Offshore Wind Conference: T-minus 7 years to 30GW by 2030 - Environmental Business Council of New England, Inc. (hybrid)
🕑 Start time
2/15/2023 Wed 7:30 AM
🕓 End time
2/15/2023 Wed 12:30 PM
📍Location
Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP (hybrid)
📍Address
Louis D. Brandeis Conference Center155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston MA
📝 Notes
We are 7 years away from the Biden Administration’s goal of achieving 30 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind by 2030. The past year saw many positive developments in support of this ambitious goal. Massachusetts has announced plans to expand the Commonwealths’ offshore wind goal to 11,000 MW; The August 2022 “Inflation Reduction Act” provides ~$100 billion in renewable energy tax incentives. New England continues to be in great position for reaping the environmental, economic and social benefits of building commercial-scale offshore wind energy.
Here in Massachusetts, Vineyard Wind LLC, a joint venture of AVANGRID and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is building the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The first year of construction has focused on the onshore substation, the duct bank system for ~4.5 miles of underground cables, the horizontal directional drilling shoreline transition at Covell’s Beach in Barnstable and the initial runs of offshore cable When completed in 2024, Vineyard Wind will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses, create an estimated 3,600 full time equivalent job years, save their electricity customers an estimated $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation, and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons per year (the equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the road annually).
A second utility scale project, South Fork, is under construction in federal waters off Rhode Island. Jointly owned by Orsted and Eversource, this 132 MW twelve turbine project will provide renewable energy to the New York grid via a connection in the Town of East Hampton NY. The South Fork project is located about 35 miles east of Montauk Point, and BOEM approved the Project’s COP in January 2021. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Updates on construction progress for both Vineyard Wind 1 and South Fork will be provided at the conference.
Active permitting efforts are underway for several major projects off the southern New England coast, including Revolution Wind, Park City Wind, Mayflower, Sunrise and Beacon Wind. Offshore Wind Port planning and development activity is advancing in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The 1200 MW Mayflower Wind project, owned by Shell and Ocean Winds (a joint venture between Engie and EDP Renewables) received their contract approvals in 2019 and 2021 and are advancing through permitting.
Off the coast of Maine, RWE Renewables Americas and Diamond Offshore Wind are advancing their New England Aqua Ventus LLC (NEAV) floating wind demonstration project. NEAV uses a concrete semi-submersible floating platform supporting a 10-12 MW commercial wind turbine and is in a federally designated area 2 miles south of the island of Monhegan, 14 miles offshore.
In October 2022, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources and Rhode Island Energy, a PPL company, announced its procurement process for 600-to-1,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy. Rhode Island Energy is considering a series of non-pricing criteria in the proposals, including statewide economic impacts, proposed labor agreements, siting and permitting and an Environmental Impacts and Environmental and Fisheries Mitigation Plan. Proposals are expected to create benefits in social, environmental justice, economic development, job creation and port development. In addition to the RI procurement, the first half of 2023 is expected to bring additional procurements from NYSERDA and Massachusetts. In a related development, AVANGRID made a recent filing with the MA Department of Public Utilities (DPU) indicating that its 1,232 MW Commonwealth Wind project, under the terms of an earlier award, was no longer commercially viable due to unexpected and unforeseeable cost escalation. Given DPU’s denial of a request to renegotiate the original power purchase agreement, AVANGRID expects to rebid the project into an upcoming Massachusetts procurement.
This year’s EBC offshore wind conference will start off with an update from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) will provide an update and forecast on offshore wind procurement in the Commonwealth. Representatives from port facilities and wind developers will summarize their progress and outlook for their projects.
We will also include an update on trends and innovations driving the industry including new technical engineering guidance from National Renewable Energy Laboratory and American Clean Power, new research on gravity-based foundations from Tufts and improved efficiency of offshore wind production by MIT, advancements in floating wind, lessons learned from litigation, and draft guidance to improve the federal permitting process.
The conference will conclude with the ever popular “developer update” presentations! We invite you to join us in person for what promises to be an exciting and informative half day event.
General Continuing Education Certificates are awarded by the EBC for this program (3.5 training contact hours). Please select this option during registration if you wish to receive a certificate.
🔗 Registration link
https://ebcne.org/event/ebc-tenth-annual-offshore-wind-conference-t-minus-7-years-to-30gw-by-2030/
Sustainability Researcher Lunch: ESG Mess? On The Trajectory Of ESG In Venture Capital - MIT Sustainability Initiative
🕑 Start time
2/15/2023 Wed 11:30 AM
🕓 End time
2/15/2023 Wed 1:30 PM
📍Location
Virtual
📍Address
📝 Notes
ESG has started to impact venture capital investors and technology startups about two years ago, especially since the advent of European regulation (especially SFDR). Based on participant observation and interviews with VCs between the US and Europe, Dr. Lenhard will outline the development of the industry’s struggle with integrating ESG over years.
From its professionalized and fragmented beginnings when ESG (or even DEI) were perceived as mere distractions, we arrived at its current state of reporting and disclosure requirements mostly because of regulatory and asset owner (limited partner, LP) pressure. Not only will these requirements lead to an 'ESG mess' this year (with the first reporting under SFDR happening in Europe), its longer-term impact on actually changing investment practices is unclear. I will finish with a utopian vision of an ordered and standardized ESG for VC world, in which investors are not only ticking reporting boxes but have made ESG part of their day-to-day practices.
Dr Johannes Lenhard is affiliate lecturer and researcher at the University of Cambridge and the co-director of VentureESG. He has recently published a monograph on people experiencing homelessness in Paris (Making Better Lives), a co-authored book on diversity and inclusion in venture capital and tech (Better Venture) and his forthcoming book on the ‘Ethics of venture capital investors’ is under contract with Columbia University Press. He writes regular for a variety of journalistic outlets and runs the non-profit CHIRN (Cambridge Homelessness Impact Research Network).
🔗 Registration link
https://sloangroups.mit.edu/sustain/rsvp_boot?id=1926087
Kendall Cogeneration Station Tour - YPE Boston
🕑 Start time
2/22/2023 Wed 5:00 PM
🕓 End time
2/22/2023 Wed 7:00 PM
📍Location
Kendall Cogeneration Station
📍Address
21 Athenaeum Street Cambridge, MA 02142
📝 Notes
This is an exciting opportunity to learn more about the largest combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the New England area! The tour will take place on February 22, 2023 at 5 pm. Attendance is capped at 25 people, so sign up as soon as you can! Don't forget to bring your ID and wear close-toed shoes.
YPE Code of Conduct:
YPE expects that all members and attendees will conduct themselves in a professional manner when interacting with others at in-person and virtual events. Unacceptable behavior (including bullying and harassment) may involve actions, words, or physical gestures that could reasonably be perceived to be the cause of another person’s distress or discomfort. Failure to follow these simple rules will result in you being removed from the event and blocked from joining future events.
Thank you for helping us build a strong and respectful community.
🔗 Registration link
Enabling Sustainable Digital Infrastructure - MIT Events
🕑 Start time
2/22/2023 Wed 11:00 AM
🕓 End time
2/22/2023 Wed 11:30 AM
📍Location
Virtual
📍Address
📝 Notes
The lack of transparency concerning the climate impact of digital resources and infrastructure is leading to less-than-optimal decision-making, and little information has been shared on the societal, economic, and other environmental downsides. Sustainable digital infrastructure expert Daan Terpstra will join MIT Horizon to provide his perspectives on the current problems in this field and discuss potential solutions. After his talk, Terpstra will take questions from the audience.
Register for this MIT Horizon webinar: https://mit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ELb3C7ltRMGaZG9ZGyC3zw
🔗 Registration link
ACCEL Kickoff Event - Greentown Labs
🕑 Start time
2/23/2023 Thu 10:00 AM
🕓 End time
2/23/2023 Thu 12:00 PM
📍Location
Greentown Labs Somerville
📍Address
444 Somerville Ave Somerville, Massachusetts 02143 United States
📝 Notes
Join us for an opportunity to celebrate the kickoff of ACCEL, an accelerator program developed in partnership between Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS). At this event, hear from innovative startups with BIPOC leaders who are developing climate solutions for sectors including electricity, transportation, buildings, manufacturing, and agriculture.
Greentown Labs and BGS recognize that the climate tech industry must change the status quo to put founders of color in the position to lead technology-driven companies that address climate change, support the development of diverse workforces, and fiercely advocate for the deployment of clean technologies in underserved communities.
Take this opportunity to network and build community around this incredible program, all while enjoying brunch!
ABOUT ACCEL
ACCEL is a year-long program that combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation through a Greentown membership, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and BGS’s networks of industry experts. The program is designed to bolster BIPOC-led startups as they develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach. Learn more about ACCEL here.
ABOUT BROWNING THE GREEN SPACE
Browning the Green Space is a coalition of leaders and organizations, primarily in the New England region, that share the passion to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) in clean energy. Their goal is to increase the participation and leadership of Black and Brown people and of women (collectively, “underrepresented groups”) in the clean energy space and beyond (e.g., wasted food, water, agtech) in the Northeast. Learn more about Browning the Green Space here.
🔗 Registration link
https://greentownlabs.com/event/accel-kickoff-event/
Lunch & Learn: Passive House Institute Path to Certification for Multifamily Projects | MassCEC
🕑 Start time
2/23/2023 Thu 12:00 PM
🕓 End time
2/23/2023 Thu 12:00 PM
📍Location
Virtual
📍Address
📝 Notes
In this Lunch & Learn session, Ken Levenson, the Executive Director of The Passive House Network, will review the process for Passive House certification of multifamily buildings using Passive House Institute (PHI) standards, discussing common steps, challenges, and best practices. There will be a review of the certifier options, the certification criteria, and critical resources and references that support completing PHI certification successfully.
🔗 Registration link