NYC WATER AND CLIMATE II
In September, Cobalt Water Global proudly hosted an official event for Climate Week NYC 2019, titled "NYC Water and Climate." This year was our second annual Climate Week water charity event, and focused on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the water sector. All proceeds were donated to Water for People, a charity dedicated to bringing safe drinking water to people in developing countries and helping to meet UN Sustainable Development Goal 6.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED. What we do with water in cities can impact climate change, and climate change can impact water and exacerbate water scarcity in cities where people are already lacking access to safe drinking water. Partnering with WeWork, we organized a water charity event to make these links, help those without access to safe drinking water and sanitation, share with the community what is being done in NYC and globally in terms of climate action in the water sector, illuminate the importance of the topic in meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, and inform citizens on how they can better use water to help mitigate climate change.
We had a very exciting panel discussion with experts from diverse fields to talk about the water and climate change nexus, as well as water and climate action taking place locally in NYC and globally.
The event got underway with brief talks by Jose Porro, Founder and CEO of Cobalt Water Global, and Mina Salib, Manager of WeWork Labs Dumbo Heights. Jose shared with us the use of AI for mitigating GHG emissions from our cities' wastewater treatment plants and the emergence of Climate Smart Water Utilities. He also explained what NYC is doing to reduce GHG emissions from its drinking water and wastewater systems and gave examples of what we can do as individuals to mitigate climate change with smarter use of water. Mina provided us with insight on how WeWork Labs is empowering global innovation and supporting start-ups, like Cobalt Water Global and fellow WeWork Labs member Stojo around the world.
Kimberly Worsham, Founder of Flush, moderated our panel with an overarching theme of applying similar climate change solutions addressing SDG6 in developing countries. This means reducing panelists' normal budgets to one-third since many developing countries/communities with high climate change vulnerability have extremely limited funding for projects, yet need support and action just as much. The panelists were invited to discuss their works' key core value-adds and figure out low-cost solutions for similar issues in other countries or communities.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED. What we do with water in cities can impact climate change, and climate change can impact water and exacerbate water scarcity in cities where people are already lacking access to safe drinking water. Partnering with WeWork, we organized a water charity event to make these links, help those without access to safe drinking water and sanitation, share with the community what is being done in NYC and globally in terms of climate action in the water sector, illuminate the importance of the topic in meeting UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, and inform citizens on how they can better use water to help mitigate climate change.
We had a very exciting panel discussion with experts from diverse fields to talk about the water and climate change nexus, as well as water and climate action taking place locally in NYC and globally.
The event got underway with brief talks by Jose Porro, Founder and CEO of Cobalt Water Global, and Mina Salib, Manager of WeWork Labs Dumbo Heights. Jose shared with us the use of AI for mitigating GHG emissions from our cities' wastewater treatment plants and the emergence of Climate Smart Water Utilities. He also explained what NYC is doing to reduce GHG emissions from its drinking water and wastewater systems and gave examples of what we can do as individuals to mitigate climate change with smarter use of water. Mina provided us with insight on how WeWork Labs is empowering global innovation and supporting start-ups, like Cobalt Water Global and fellow WeWork Labs member Stojo around the world.
Kimberly Worsham, Founder of Flush, moderated our panel with an overarching theme of applying similar climate change solutions addressing SDG6 in developing countries. This means reducing panelists' normal budgets to one-third since many developing countries/communities with high climate change vulnerability have extremely limited funding for projects, yet need support and action just as much. The panelists were invited to discuss their works' key core value-adds and figure out low-cost solutions for similar issues in other countries or communities.
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Some highlights from our panelists:
Peter Glus, Senior Vice President, City Executive at Arcadis . Discussion highlights: Arcadis' water and resiliency work in NYC and globally, using data to engage/incentivize the public, the experience from Arcadis mobility projects.
Amy Motzny, Watershed Manager for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. Discussion highlights: Integrated water management around Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn and working with community and developers to minimize impact of climate change and protect our communities' waters; the importance of education and community outreach when taking climate action.
Jurrien Swarts, Founder/CEO at Stojo . Discussion highlights: The Stojo experience ending single use culture and how it can help a sustainable water culture among consumers; using design and cool factor to change behavior.
Ben Igoe, VP at JBS Project Management a CHA company. Discussion highlights: Success lessons learned from Passive House and how we can use them for sustainable water use in buildings; looking at lower-cost materials for bringing solutions to developing countries and meeting the SDGs.
Check out the bios for our panelists:
Peter Glus, Senior Vice President and Cities Executive for Arcadis.
Mr. Glus has been engaged in planning, design, and construction of large and complex projects over the past 25 years. In the public engineering field, he was Principle in Charge of multiple billion-dollar capital programs, including the South Nassau County Resiliency Program (1.5B), Hillview Reservoir Design (1.6B), NYC Heath and Hospital’s Post Sandy Improvements (1.7B), and the design of over 20 design contracts related to the City’s water system. In the sustainability field, he is currently Project Director for DSNY’s Commercial Waste Franchise Design and Implementation, and is the principle author of the NYC Housing Authority’s Solid Waste Management Plan. As a transportation planner, he is Director of Arcadis’s analytical team in support of mobility consulting for US cities, the City of Paris, the Province of North Holland, and London. Arcadis’s mobility consulting currently focuses on services for governmental authorities as they prepare for and adapt to shared mobility, autonomous vehicles, autonomous fleet vehicles, MaaS, and advances in ITS/V2I.
Amy Motzny, Watershed Manager for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.
Ms. Motzny advocates for and manages projects that support the clean and healthy water environment of the Gowanus Watershed. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan as well as a B.S. in Environmental Science and Spatial Information Processing. With more than 10 years of experience working in water resource management, she has held positions in both the private and public sectors. As a research scientist and teaching fellow with Columbia University’s Earth Institute, she has conducted extensive research on urban green infrastructure planning and design.
Jurrien Swarts, Co-Founder/CEO at Stojo.
Mr. Swarts runs the fast-growing collapsible cup company, whose mission is to end disposable culture. Jurrien brings extensive experience in the consumer goods space, crowdsourcing, creative entrepreneurship, management, business development, and accounting. Jurrien holds a BA in Chinese form Dartmouth College. Read more on Jurrien's and Stojo's story here.
Ben Igoe, VP at JBS Project Management a CHA company.
Mr. Igor is a Co-founder and principal of JBS Project Management, a boutique project management and owner’s representative company started in 2004. Earlier this year JBS Project Management was aquired by CHA Consulting, Inc. and is now operating as a CHA company. Ben has an intricate knowledge of managing construction projects in New York City and his passion for energy efficient projects have led him to work on multiple passive house projects, including those in which he is a owner/developer. Ben has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Villanova University and Master's in Finance from University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Prior to starting up JBS, Ben was a Captain in the Army with the Corps of Engineers and worked for Turner Construction in San Francisco and New York focusing on historic restoration, waterfront rehabilitation and base building.
Moderator:
Kimberly Worsham, MPA, MIWM is a water and sanitation specialist and the founder of FLUSH - a consulting organization that works to improve sanitation and hygiene knowledge and growth. She discovered a passion for toilets early as a child, where her curiosity led her to inspect the facilities of every restaurant she entered. Years later, she was reminded of that love while consulting in India, and then continued to follow her passion with work in Australia and Cambodia. She has worked for international and local NGOs, multilateral institutions, and firms on water and sanitation for a decade. She was also a founding board member of a local water organization, NYC H2O. In different lives, she has worked in local government, corporate marketing, and even taught math in Rwanda. She received her MPA and BSc in business at NYU, and a Masters in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland as an International WaterCentre Scholar.
Check out our official flyer and Sponsors here.
Gold Sponsors: Stojo; JBS Project Management, a CHA company; Arcadis; Clean Choice Energy
This event was part of the Clean Transport, Buildings and Infrastructure program of Climate Week NYC.
Peter Glus, Senior Vice President, City Executive at Arcadis . Discussion highlights: Arcadis' water and resiliency work in NYC and globally, using data to engage/incentivize the public, the experience from Arcadis mobility projects.
Amy Motzny, Watershed Manager for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. Discussion highlights: Integrated water management around Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn and working with community and developers to minimize impact of climate change and protect our communities' waters; the importance of education and community outreach when taking climate action.
Jurrien Swarts, Founder/CEO at Stojo . Discussion highlights: The Stojo experience ending single use culture and how it can help a sustainable water culture among consumers; using design and cool factor to change behavior.
Ben Igoe, VP at JBS Project Management a CHA company. Discussion highlights: Success lessons learned from Passive House and how we can use them for sustainable water use in buildings; looking at lower-cost materials for bringing solutions to developing countries and meeting the SDGs.
Check out the bios for our panelists:
Peter Glus, Senior Vice President and Cities Executive for Arcadis.
Mr. Glus has been engaged in planning, design, and construction of large and complex projects over the past 25 years. In the public engineering field, he was Principle in Charge of multiple billion-dollar capital programs, including the South Nassau County Resiliency Program (1.5B), Hillview Reservoir Design (1.6B), NYC Heath and Hospital’s Post Sandy Improvements (1.7B), and the design of over 20 design contracts related to the City’s water system. In the sustainability field, he is currently Project Director for DSNY’s Commercial Waste Franchise Design and Implementation, and is the principle author of the NYC Housing Authority’s Solid Waste Management Plan. As a transportation planner, he is Director of Arcadis’s analytical team in support of mobility consulting for US cities, the City of Paris, the Province of North Holland, and London. Arcadis’s mobility consulting currently focuses on services for governmental authorities as they prepare for and adapt to shared mobility, autonomous vehicles, autonomous fleet vehicles, MaaS, and advances in ITS/V2I.
Amy Motzny, Watershed Manager for the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.
Ms. Motzny advocates for and manages projects that support the clean and healthy water environment of the Gowanus Watershed. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan as well as a B.S. in Environmental Science and Spatial Information Processing. With more than 10 years of experience working in water resource management, she has held positions in both the private and public sectors. As a research scientist and teaching fellow with Columbia University’s Earth Institute, she has conducted extensive research on urban green infrastructure planning and design.
Jurrien Swarts, Co-Founder/CEO at Stojo.
Mr. Swarts runs the fast-growing collapsible cup company, whose mission is to end disposable culture. Jurrien brings extensive experience in the consumer goods space, crowdsourcing, creative entrepreneurship, management, business development, and accounting. Jurrien holds a BA in Chinese form Dartmouth College. Read more on Jurrien's and Stojo's story here.
Ben Igoe, VP at JBS Project Management a CHA company.
Mr. Igor is a Co-founder and principal of JBS Project Management, a boutique project management and owner’s representative company started in 2004. Earlier this year JBS Project Management was aquired by CHA Consulting, Inc. and is now operating as a CHA company. Ben has an intricate knowledge of managing construction projects in New York City and his passion for energy efficient projects have led him to work on multiple passive house projects, including those in which he is a owner/developer. Ben has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Villanova University and Master's in Finance from University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Prior to starting up JBS, Ben was a Captain in the Army with the Corps of Engineers and worked for Turner Construction in San Francisco and New York focusing on historic restoration, waterfront rehabilitation and base building.
Moderator:
Kimberly Worsham, MPA, MIWM is a water and sanitation specialist and the founder of FLUSH - a consulting organization that works to improve sanitation and hygiene knowledge and growth. She discovered a passion for toilets early as a child, where her curiosity led her to inspect the facilities of every restaurant she entered. Years later, she was reminded of that love while consulting in India, and then continued to follow her passion with work in Australia and Cambodia. She has worked for international and local NGOs, multilateral institutions, and firms on water and sanitation for a decade. She was also a founding board member of a local water organization, NYC H2O. In different lives, she has worked in local government, corporate marketing, and even taught math in Rwanda. She received her MPA and BSc in business at NYU, and a Masters in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland as an International WaterCentre Scholar.
Check out our official flyer and Sponsors here.
Gold Sponsors: Stojo; JBS Project Management, a CHA company; Arcadis; Clean Choice Energy
This event was part of the Clean Transport, Buildings and Infrastructure program of Climate Week NYC.