Boston Climate Tech: May 15 - May 31, 2023
Earth Night @Fenway park, Energy Plant Tour, MCJ X SVB HH/podcast recording, & more
Hi all!
This is Boston Climate Tech. This newsletter is a summary of community-submitted climate tech events in the Greater Boston area coming up in the next few weeks.
We have 12 events in the upcoming weeks- use this calendar or table view if you’d like to sort/filter.
Announcements
A few announcements before the event list:
💬 Join the Boston Climate Crew WhatsApp group (over 300 participants) here for discussions and more informal announcements. Please send an intro message about yourself when you join!
💻 Do you have software engineer, data science, or machine learning friends interested in working in climate? Checkout ClimateTechList - a guide/curated company list I launched recently for tech professionals looking to work in climate.
🎭 I recently read an interesting sociological/anthropological study about the 7 archetypes of people working in climate. I turned it into a personality-style quiz for fun- check it out here.
As always, to submit events, use this form
Cheers,
Environmental League of Massachusetts Earth Night 2023: 5/18 Thu
Carbon to Value Initiative Year 3 Kickoff Tickets, Wed, May 24, 2023 at 5:30 PM | Eventbrite: 5/24 Wed
YPE Boston & ENGIE Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) Tour: 5/30 Tue
Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer technology: Challenges and advancements - MIT Events: 5/30 Tue
Emerging Governance Structures for Climate Resilience – Climate Adaptation Forum: 6/2 Fri
MCJ X SVB: Climate Tech Happy Hour & Podcast Recording: 6/7 Wed
EnergyBar: Go Energize 2023 Kickoff - Greentown Labs: 6/8 Thu
Environmental League of Massachusetts Earth Night 2023
🕑 Start time
5/18/2023 Thu 5:30 PM
🕓 End time
5/18/2023 Thu 8:30 PM
📍Location
Fenway Park
📍Address
📝 Notes
Earth Night 2023 is ELM’s largest annual event and the kicks off their 125th anniversary year. At this event, celebrate both ELM’s impact as the state’s oldest environmental advocacy organization and their work to ensure Massachusetts leads the way on climate solutions.
With over 300 attendees, this engaging event includes ample networking time. ELM will also present the 2023 Commonwealth Environmental Leadership Awards. This year’s honorees have led the way to address the climate crisis on the local, state, and federal levels.
🔗 Registration link
https://greentownlabs.com/event/elm-earth-night-2023/
Carbon to Value Initiative Year 3 Kickoff Tickets, Wed, May 24, 2023 at 5:30 PM | Eventbrite
🕑 Start time
5/24/2023 Wed 5:30 PM
🕓 End time
5/24/2023 Wed 8:00 PM
📍Location
Greentown Labs Somerville
📍Address
444 Somerville Ave Somerville, Massachusetts 02143 United States
📝 Notes
Join us virtually or at Greentown Boston on Wednesday, May 24 to celebrate the kickoff of Year 3 of the Carbon to Value Initiative!
The Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative is a multi-year collaboration between The Urban Future Lab (UFL), Greentown Labs, and the Fraunhofer USA TechBridge Program. This unique partnership is driving the creation of a thriving innovation ecosystem for the commercialization of carbontech—technologies that capture, convert and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) into valuable end products or services. The C2V Initiative is founded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Startups selected to participate in Year 3 of the Initiative will have the opportunity to work closely with the Carbontech Leadership Council, an invitation-only group of executive leaders across diverse industry sectors driving the future of carbontech. Year 3 of the C2V Initiative builds on two successful years (Cohort 1; Cohort 2) that led to partnerships, technology advancement, and industry growth.
At this event, attendees will hear from industry experts and hear pitches from this year's carbontech startup finalists. Register today!
About Greentown Labs
Greentown Labs is a community of climate action pioneers working to design a more sustainable world. As the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, and many others with a focus on scaling climate solutions. Driven by the mission of providing startups the resources, knowledge, connections, and equipment they need to thrive, Greentown Labs offers lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, an electronics lab, software and business resources, and a large network of corporate customers, investors, and more. With incubators in Somerville, Mass. and Houston, Texas, Greentown Labs is home to more than 200 startups and has supported more than 500 since the incubator’s founding in 2011. These startups have collectively created more than 24,000 jobs, raised more than $4 billion in funding, and generated more than $9.8 billion in regional economic impact. For more information, please visit www.greentownlabs.com or Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About Urban Future Lab
The Urban Future Lab (UFL) at NYU Tandon School of Engineering is New York City’s longest running cleantech startup incubator. As an integral part of the NYU Tandon Future Labs network, UFL provides unmatched access to industry stakeholders, strategic advice, marketing and branding support, investor networks, and a community of like-minded founders. Our portfolio includes industry-leading startups in the areas of renewable energy, smart buildings, transportation, and resource-efficiency. UFL is leading the way to a more sustainable world by connecting people, capital, and purpose to advance market-ready solutions to address climate change. Since 2009, UFL has incubated over 60 companies that have cumulatively raised $868M in capital with 88% survival rate. For more information, please visit ufl.nyc or find us on Twitter. For more information about NYU Tandon please visit engineering.nyu.edu.
About Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer USA, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to the advancement of applied research. Fraunhofer USA was founded to conduct applied R & D for customers from industry and state governments and the federal government in the United States. Partnering with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe's largest application- oriented research and development organization, Fraunhofer USA can offer both domestic and international resources to our customers. The TechBridge Program is led by Fraunhofer USA with the core offering being applied, industry-focused projects performed for entrepreneurs by the Fraunhofer Network with the express goal of de-risking novel technologies for the private sector. Projects may take the form of developing and testing prototypes, deploying field demonstrations, performing third-party validation, generating test data in an industry context, or manufacturability studies. For more information, please visit www.fraunhofer.org or find us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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Venue Information
Parking is incredibly limited at Greentown Labs and we encourage attendees to consider taking advantage of public transportation. We’re a short walk from the newly opened Union Square station, as well as 1 mile away from the Harvard MBTA station. Union Square in Somerville is also easily accessible via the #86 and #91 MBTA buses. We offer indoor bike parking on-site and the closest Bluebikes stations are at Dane St., Conway Park and Union Square.
Please reach out Kelly Wilson([email protected]), Events Coordinator, with any questions about the event.
🔗 Registration link
YPE Boston & ENGIE Medical Area Total Energy Plant (MATEP) Tour
🕑 Start time
5/30/2023 Tue 6:00 PM
🕓 End time
5/30/2023 Tue 8:00 PM
📍Location
MATEP
📍Address
474 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215
📝 Notes
Join YPE Boston and Engie to tour MATEP, a comprehensive energy facility and micro-grid located in Boston, MA that has been serving the Longwood Medical and Academic Area (LMA) with steam, chilled water and electricity for decades.
Meet in the Reception area upon arrival. Please have an ID available in order to get through security.
🔗 Registration link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfHLzX3PQ0fKIkOQQmIOvGKSkjNfFexZP6XDY87I2pU08AVmw/viewform
Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer technology: Challenges and advancements - MIT Events
🕑 Start time
5/30/2023 Tue 10:30 AM
🕓 End time
5/30/2023 Tue 11:30 AM
📍Location
MIT 66-110
📍Address
25 Ames Street
📝 Notes
The need for a sustainable source of hydrogen has been widely recognized, not just as a potential transportation fuel, but as a way to limit CO2 production and fossil fuel consumption from existing industrial processes such as ammonia generation, petroleum refining, and leveling electric grid power. The primary commercial electrolysis products today are 1) liquid alkaline electrolyte-based technology and 2) proton exchange membrane-based (PEM) technology. While liquid alkaline technology is currently cheaper initially and more efficient at beginning of life, the PEM technology is lower maintenance and has the potential for larger improvements. The slowness of this transition is largely due to the fundamental understanding needed to develop alternative manufacturing methods, which need to be more scalable than the baseline methods, while maintaining reliability and durability. For example, the formulation and deposition parameters for slow application of catalyst layers by hand over small areas are very different than rapid, automated application over large areas. Designing for lifetimes of several years is also very different than for lab experiments, which are typically operated for days or weeks at most. This talk will discuss some of the advancements made in recent years in PEM electrolysis and scientific challenges still being worked on.
About the speaker
Kathy Ayers is vice president of R&D for Nel Hydrogen U.S., with responsibility for developing and executing Nel’s technology strategy in proton exchange membrane electrolysis. Ayers received her PhD in chemistry at Caltech while working with Nate Lewis, and spent several years in the battery industry before joining Nel in 2007. Ayers manages a broad portfolio of internally and externally funded research projects, across a range of collaborators in academia, industry, and national labs. She is also the lead principal investigator on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) benchmarking program, spanning the primary water splitting technologies funded by the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), with the goal of providing protocols and standards for consistency in water splitting research.
Ayers has served on multiple scientific advisory boards for Energy Frontier Research Centers and similar consortia such as the JCAP Solar Fuels Hub, as well as two federal level advisory committees for the DOE: HTAC (Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technical Advisory Committee) and BESAC (Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee). She received R&D Awards at the 2012 and 2021 DOE Merit Reviews from the HFTO Production Team, and an American Chemical Society Rising Stars Award in 2014 from the Women Chemists Committee. She became a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society in 2020 and received the inaugural Walter van Schalkwijk award in 2022.
🔗 Registration link
Emerging Governance Structures for Climate Resilience – Climate Adaptation Forum
🕑 Start time
6/2/2023 Fri 9:00 AM
🕓 End time
6/2/2023 Fri 12:00 PM
📍Location
Hybrid
📍Address
📝 Notes
State and local governments across the country are grappling with turning climate adaptation plans into action. These plans often involve expensive and large scale capital projects on both public and private property. This undertaking requires innovative thinking on governance from creating new county and statewide resilience authorities to empowering existing local boards and commissions. Join the Climate Adaptation Forum to hear how communities across the country are approaching this challenge and emerging models for governance and implementation.
🔗 Registration link
https://climateadaptationforum.org/event/emerging-governance-structures-for-climate-resilience/
MCJ X SVB: Climate Tech Happy Hour & Podcast Recording
🕑 Start time
6/7/2023 Wed 5:00 PM
🕓 End time
6/7/2023 Wed 9:00 PM
📍Location
📍Address
📝 Notes
MCJ and SVB invite you to hang out with other members of the Boston area Climate Tech community on Wednesday, June 7th from 5 - 9pm at SVB's office on 53 State Street in Boston. Come meet people who are working to build, support, and join ventures in the local climate tech ecosystem -- the entire MCJ team will be there! Attendance is capped so please RSVP early:
https://events.svb.com/mcjcollectivesiliconvalleybank
🔗 Registration link
https://events.svb.com/mcjcollectivesiliconvalleybank
EnergyBar: Go Energize 2023 Kickoff - Greentown Labs
🕑 Start time
6/8/2023 Thu 5:00 PM
🕓 End time
6/8/2023 Thu 8:00 PM
📍Location
Hybrid
📍Address
📝 Notes
Join us to celebrate the kickoff of Go Energize 2023, a Greentown Go startup-corporate partnerships accelerator program focused on decarbonizing our energy system, in partnership with Vineyard Wind and MassCEC.
At this EnergyBar, attendees will hear lightning pitches from finalists hoping to accelerate environmental and digital solutions for responsible development in offshore wind industry—like the Vineyard Wind Project, the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm.
A total of 40 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity is set to come online in the United States in the next decade. Cutting-edge technology is key for offshore wind energy projects to be developed in an environmentally responsible manner while also delivering electricity for consumers. Go Energize 2023 aims to reduce barriers to entry through industry education and relationship-building across relevant networks.
AGENDA
5:00-6:00pm: Arrivals and Networking*
6:00-6:45pm: Speaking Program
Remarks from Greentown Labs, Vineyard Wind, and MassCEC
Lightning Pitches
Greentown Closing Remarks
6:45-8:00pm: Networking *
*In-person only
🔗 Registration link
https://greentownlabs.com/event/energybar-go-energize-2023-kickoff/