Month: September 2024

Previously published by TriplePundit

By Phil Covington

New York City will soon be home to one of the nation’s largest offshore wind projects. In June, developers broke ground at the municipal South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT), an old container and general cargo port facility occupying 73 acres that will provide crucial services for Empire Wind 1, a federally approved offshore wind farm set to contribute 810 megawatts of clean electricity to New York’s power grid by 2027.

The groundbreaking builds on New York’s Green Economy Action Plan and Mayor Eric Adams’ efforts to develop a multifaceted “Harbor of the Future.” Both initiatives reimagine New York City’s waterfront and fuel 21st-century growth and innovation.

The newly imagined South Brooklyn Marine Terminal is poised to be far more than a support facility for wind energy. It will also play an important role in urban regeneration while providing important employment opportunities for union jobs paying family-sustaining wages.

”Transforming the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a hub for offshore wind is an investment in New York City’s economy on a generational scale,” said Molly Morris, president of Equinor, the company which will develop the Marine Terminal site and Empire Wind 1.

The terminal was last used by a car importer but sat derelict for over a decade. Back in 2015, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) put the site on the market “to figure out what could be feasible to bring new life to this parcel of land,” said Sam Jung, vice president of renewable energy industry development on NYCEDC’s Green Economy team.

In September 2021, the city and NYCEDC unveiled a 15-year, $191 million Offshore Wind Vision Plan to make New York a leading destination for the industry. To deliver on that vision, in March 2022 New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced an agreement between NYCEDC, Equinor, and Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, L.P. (SSBMT) — a partnership between Industry City and the Red Hook Container Terminal — to transform the terminal into one of the largest offshore wind port facilities in the nation.

Leaders in the Sunset Park neighborhood, along with the Brooklyn-based environmental justice organization UPROSE, came together to put forward a community-based vision for the terminal and the community. The goal was to transform the area into a sustainable and green industrial waterfront. “The idea that it could be a wind port facility was really seen by them,” Jung said.

How do onshore terminals support offshore wind?

Most people are familiar with offshore wind farms, but the onshore component may be less obvious. The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will serve as an onshore support hub, maintaining necessary functions both during the wind farm’s construction and on an ongoing basis for future operations.

The terminal will serve as an operations and maintenance center for the wind farm and as a staging and assembly area for wind turbine components. It will also host an electricity substation that will connect wind electricity generated offshore to the grid. “The lease for the site will go through 2054, demonstrating NYC’s commitment to the clean energy future,” Jung said.

The project will create more than 1,000 jobs during construction, 200 turbine assembly jobs, and approximately 50 permanent positions once the terminal is completed.

New jobs support community impact 

Equinor aims to award 30 percent of project opportunities to minority- and women-owned businesses, and where possible, the build-out will draw upon labor from local neighborhoods and New York City more broadly.

Equinor signed a project labor agreement which prioritizes Sunset Park residents, New York City labor union members, and low- or very low-income New Yorkers for jobs at the terminal. “We are committed to creating opportunities for New Yorkers to secure well-paying careers in the growing renewable energy industry,” said Morris of Equinor.

Crews, many of them from women-owned businesses in the area, spent the first half of the summer taking down old buildings to make way for the planned terminal. As the site moves to the next stage, locals hired into union jobs will begin constructing the necessary infrastructure to support the waterfront project.

”There’s a lot of labor that goes into this. From the laborers to the carpenters, to the welders, to the dock builders, everybody works hand-in-hand,” said Kirt McCarthy, a 25-year veteran of the New York City District Council of Carpenters union. “As we go along, by months and quarters, it’s like a puzzle — it comes together in pieces. In my 25 years in the union, I’ve been at a lot of big sites and every one is different, so every day is a learning experience.”

Experienced workers like McCarthy are close by to help the younger apprentices, perpetuating an ongoing process of bringing up the next generation who will have access to family-sustaining wages through union work. “I feel this wind farm is going to grow roots in the neighborhood and the city,” McCarthy said. “The labor aspect of it is great, and I hope we can get some more projects like this in New York City.”

Jung of NYCEDC hopes the revitalization of the area will create a new walk-to-work community that will grow. “From the city’s perspective, we’re leveraging this moment to seed other investment in the area [and] make South Brooklyn a new center of gravity for other climate-related activities,” he said.

Public funding of the project has already garnered multiples in private investment. On the public side, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) awarded a grant of $60 million to the project, augmented by $105 million in city capital. These investments leveraged $1 billion in private capital from Norway-based Equinor, an important injection of direct investment for the city. “We are proud to say that this combination of public funding is unlocking a ton of private value for New Yorkers,” Jung said.

Upskilling New Yorkers for offshore wind and maritime careers 

The city also invested heavily to support workforce development and spread awareness of the career opportunities the terminal will bring about. That includes annual offshore wind and maritime career fairs, a more than $10 million investment in the local City University of New York (CUNY) system for workforce programing and facilities, and an emerging partnership with the Harbor School, a public high school on New York City’s Governors Island that focuses on maritime careers.

Students at the Harbor School will have a chance to see the city’s budding offshore wind sector take shape through an internship program with Edison Chouest Offshore, the company that will build and operate Equinor’s services operations vessel. The ship will be utilized in the operations and maintenance functions for Empire Wind 1 and will be home-ported at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. 

“SUNY Maritime College’s Global Wind Organization training programs are collaboratively leading New York State’s energy transition by supporting the forward-looking, diverse and sustainable workforce of the future,” said James Spear, director of professional mariner training at the State University of New York’s Maritime College. “As part of the nation’s first maritime academy, we’re excited to help our fellow New Yorkers build an inclusive and efficient tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, city-supported Workforce One centers, including a location at NYCEDC’s Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) in Sunset Park, that aim to enroll everyday New Yorkers into pre-apprenticeship programs “so that people from all across New York, but particularly Sunset Park, can begin the process of getting into good-paying, family-sustaining union jobs, like Kirt is in,” Jung said.

Laying the groundwork for other cities to follow 

The planned terminal also supports New York state’s climate goals which include generating 9 gigawatts of offshore wind electricity by 2035. “We are in lockstep with the state and federal government to realize these goals,” Jung said. “This redevelopment is in service of a more livable future for New Yorkers, and doing it in a way that supports those historically underserved and impacted communities from the fossil-fuel industry, so they can benefit from these renewable energy investments.”

Jung and his team at NYCEDC believe the terminal will serve as a model for how renewable energy development can promote minority- and women-owned businesses, forge partnerships with environmental justice groups, and trigger reinvestments that benefit the local community.

“At a localized scale, [the terminal] is set up to have a robust and long future,” Jung said. But success will ultimately depend upon factors that still hang in the balance.

The terminal is designed to host services for Empire Wind 1, but it is built with sufficient capacity to serve other wind farms, too. This means part of the terminal’s success will depend on ensuring a consistent and reliable pipeline for offshore wind developments in the future. 

One thing which might impact that pipeline is confidence within the industry. “The industry looks to the public sector for reliability,” Jung said. “In an election year, there can be concern about what a change in administration might do to an emerging industry.” To this end, he said the city is doing as much as it can to enable the industry to succeed.

Over recent years, factors like high interest rates, higher commodity prices, supply chain constraints and even the war in Ukraine also manifested as unforeseen barriers.

Even still, the transition from a derelict piece of land to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal is an important and optimistic one. “As the offshore wind industry continues to grow, it is critically important to continue developing a highly skilled workforce and pathways to family-sustaining union careers for New Yorkers interested in entering the industry,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “Our members are proud to be working on the redevelopment of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.”

Kirt McCarthy of the District Council of Carpenters agreed. “I hope this could be the beginning of many more successful projects like this one that will help the city and help the community, and I’m thankful.”

Verger Capital Management (“Verger”) is a leader in providing Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) services exclusively for non-profits. It was founded with the mission of helping non-profits achieve their goals and aspirations through the pursuit of strong, stable, risk-adjusted returns and consistent, reliable payouts in perpetuity. With such deep non-profit roots, it comes as no surprise that a focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) impact is an important part of Verger’s company culture and a leading factor in business decisions. In April 2024, the Verger team celebrated their 10th anniversary with a carbon neutral event using Climate Vault’s Event Emissions Calculator.

Event Planning with Sustainability at its Core

As part of their celebration, Verger held an investor conference where the team celebrated alongside their clients, boards, and key constituents. Marking a decade of living their mission, “to invest in the lives of others,” was a meaningful milestone for the firm. The event was held in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the Kimpton Cardinal Hotel. This venue was selected in part because of the hotel’s focus on sustainable practices, such as using glassware for water instead of single use plastic. As part of Verger’s planning process, they also chose to utilize Climate Vault’s Event Emissions Calculator to measure and neutralize the anniversary event’s carbon footprint. The team at Verger shared that this was an opportunity to continue their partnership with Climate Vault in a unique and meaningful way.

4 Benefits of Using the Event Emissions Calculator

Verger’s decision to use the Event Emissions Calculator was driven by Climate Vault’s reputation for providing credible solutions for tackling carbon emissions—which Verger has previously leveraged to neutralize their employees’ footprint as a workplace benefit.

“For a first-time user, I found using the Event Emissions Calculator great. It was so simple,” shared Liz Laughter, Verger’s Managing Director of Client Service. “It was easy to enter the information and come back as needed. We were able to update information, such as the total number of attendees, right up until the day of the event in order to have the most accurate footprint measurement possible.”

Liz and her team highlighted four key benefits of the calculator:

User-Friendly Interface: As a first-time user of any type of emissions calculator or carbon accounting software, they found the calculator’s interface very intuitive and easy to navigate. They could input event details such as attendee travel, venue specifics, and food choices with ease, allowing for a comprehensive estimation of the event’s carbon footprint.Flexible Data Entry: One of the standout features for their team was the calculator’s flexibility. It didn’t require every field to be completed, allowing them to estimate certain data points. The ability to leave the calculator and come back with additional information was also a benefit.Real-Time Results and Cost Transparency: The calculator provided immediate results, including the estimated carbon footprint and corresponding cost to neutralize the emissions via purchasing allowances through the compliance carbon markets.Affordability: The Verger team was able to measure the impact for free using the calculator’s Starter plan, and shared that neutralizing the event’s carbon footprint directly within the software was surprisingly affordable, fitting well within the total event budget.

Taking Immediate Climate Action 

After receiving the finalized emissions data measurement, Verger’s event planning team had the ability to reduce the carbon directly within the software. This was accomplished via Climate Vault’s integrated reduction and removal method that leverages regulated compliance carbon markets. The result? A quantifiable, verifiable, and immediate carbon reduction that enabled Verger’s anniversary investor conference to be carbon neutral.

Liz shared, “Having an already established and trusted relationship with Climate Vault, we knew that the calculator would be a credible and reliable tool. Using it aligned with Verger’s commitment to sustainability and our corporate values. Using the Event Emissions Calculator was a great way to continue our partnership with Climate Vault and reinforce our firm’s commitment to mitigating our carbon impact.”

Making Carbon Neutral Events the New Standard

The entire Climate Vault team congratulates Verger on 10 years of investing in the lives of others and are proud that our Event Emissions Calculator could support their sustainability goals during this milestone celebration. Verger’s experience highlights how businesses can integrate sustainability into their core operations effectively and affordably. The calculator’s user-friendly design and real-time results were pivotal in their decision to use it, and we look forward to supporting the Verger team as they plan to integrate the Event Emissions Calculator into future event plans. 
 

Climate Vault’s Event Emissions Calculator makes it simple to measure, reduce, and remove the carbon impact of your events—no matter the size. Get started calculating the footprint of your first event for free. 

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Chemours for achieving its emissions reduction goal as a partner in the Better Climate Challenge. Chemours has reduced scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 58% through decarbonization efforts across its U.S. manufacturing sites and offices.

“We are immensely proud to have exceeded the GHG emission goal set under the Better Climate Challenge and to have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy for these efforts. Our exceptional teams have dedicated considerable time and effort to surpassing this goal ahead of schedule, and we thank them for their hard work,” said Dr. Amber Wellman, Chemours’ Chief Sustainability Officer. “At Chemours, sustainability is core to everything we do—from our sustainable product offerings to our commitment to responsibly produce essential chemistries. Achieving the Better Climate Challenge goal motivates us to continue pushing forward in achieving our corporate sustainability goals.”

As a partner in DOE’s Better Climate Challenge and Better Plants Challenge, Chemours is driving GHG emissions and energy intensity reductions at its U.S. sites, which align with and support the company’s global 2030 Sustainability Goals.

“Congratulations to our 2024 Better Climate Challenge Goal Achievers for reaching their ambitious portfolio-wide goals and sharing their successful solutions with the market,” said DOE Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Jeff Marootian. “These industry leaders are demonstrating that decarbonization is not only possible – it’s happening now and it’s good business. We invite organizations to take up the charge and join us to build the clean energy economy of the future.”

The Better Climate Challenge and The Better Plants Challenge are two components of the Better Buildings Initiative, through which DOE partners with hundreds of public and private sector organizations to make commercial, public, industrial, and residential buildings more efficient, thereby saving energy and money while reducing emissions and strengthening the economy.

To date, Better Buildings partners have saved nearly $22 billion in energy costs, resulting in more than 220 million metric tons of avoided greenhouse gas emissions. Chemours is one of the market leaders partnering with DOE to set portfolio-wide emissions reduction goals and share their strategies with others.

Forward-looking statements and other information.

by Sarah Adams, Vert Asset Management 

Over the past several decades, the energy system has steadily evolved to include more renewable energy sources. The energy supply is mostly fossil fuels and renewables. The fossil fuels are coal, methane, natural gas, and oil. Renewables are solar, wind, hydro, and biofuels. The biggest users of energy are transport, industry and buildings. Buildings alone consume 40% of the world’s energy.

Large scale renewable energy infrastructure is steadily gaining in roads among utilities. This allows building owners to access renewable energy supply through their local utility. Modernizing the grid to include distributive energy supply allows companies like Prologis to put unused energy back into the grid for local use.

Paradoxically, as technology has evolved to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption overall, society is increasing its demand for electricity. Data centers lead this demand – powering our online activities like streaming, gaming, shopping, and telecommuting. The demand is projected to grow significantly alongside the demand for electric vehicles and the ramp up of artificial intelligence.

Going forward, building owners may explore ways to balance new energy demands by reimagining the role of the building in the energy value chain. One concept is to use buildings as energy storage. Currently we see this practiced most often as “demand response” which is when a utility customer voluntary reduces its electricity use, typically during times of peak demand or high outages, to help support the needs of the local grid. This is mostly used by large energy users such as data centers that can adjust their building’s energy needs in real time.

Read Sarah’s full article that has numerous specific examples of companies and their Renewable Energy strategies, all here – https://greenmoney.com/redefining-how-buildings-use-energy

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., September 16, 2024 /3BL/ – Edtech leader Discovery Education is offering teachers and administrators a free guide to applying for government and private grants. Entitled Your Guide to K-12 Education Grants, this resource illuminates the wide variety of K-12 grants available to educators and provides practical advice on how to prepare successful grant applications.

K-12 grants are a lifeline for schools and educators, offering much-needed financial support to innovate and enhance educational experiences. For school administrators and teachers alike, these grants can mean the difference between a basic curriculum and one that truly inspires and engages students.

Inside Your Guide to K-12 Education Grants, readers will discover:

What to do before applying for a grantHow to match grant proposals with providersTips for writing winning grant applicationsInformation on Federal and non-Federal grant sourcesLinks to additional grant resources

Educators can download a free copy of the Your Guide to K-12 Education Grants resource here.

“Grants are an important part of the K-12 funding ecosystem,” said Brian Shaw, Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Education. “They don’t just enhance classrooms, they help build stronger, more adaptable learning environments that empower educators, ignite student curiosity, and drive engagement. Discovery Education is proud to make Your Guide to K-12 Education Grants available, and hope educators nationwide will use it to unlock this important source of funding.”

For more information about Discovery Education’s award-winning digital resources and professional learning solutions, visit www.discoveryeducation.com, and stay connected with Discovery Education on social media through X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

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About Discovery Education 

Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. Through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, innovative classroom tools, and corporate partnerships, Discovery Education helps educators deliver equitable learning experiences engaging all students and supporting higher academic achievement on a global scale. Discovery Education serves approximately 4.5 million educators and 45 million students worldwide, and its resources are accessed in over 100 countries and territories. Inspired by the global media company Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Discovery Education partners with districts, states, and trusted organizations to empower teachers with leading edtech solutions that support the success of all learners. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com. 

Contact 

Stephen Wakefield 
Discovery Education 
Phone: 202-316-6615 
Email: swakefield@discoveryed.com