Edition 11 | October 13, 2025
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Explore Key Environmental Sustainability Links & Resources
This is a long one: following up on New York Climate Week (NYCW) - 3 areas of focus and a LOT of links to fascinating leaders addressing a changing climate. 
Spoiler Alert: I cannot wait to go again next year!
 
I will highlight the Green Pages community over time. V1 of the directory of 465 stakeholders has been researched and compiled by ClimateWiser and Build In SE. Shared links will include a recent announcement of capital, partnership or projects, or it will introduce a great organization supporting the environment.
 
Access the data or submit your organization directly to the Green Pages using the links below. Share far and wide, and let me hear from you!
 

01 | NYCW - Attention Economy v Reality
Overview:
September 21-29, 2025, 100K attendees landed in NYC for 1000+ events alongside the leaders of the world at the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Walking was the best form of transportation, complemented by the subway. Wear sneakers!
 
While Trump addressed the UNGA, claiming climate change calling climate change a "con job" and warning countries to "get away from this green scam" before it bankrupts them, the rest of us were meeting to hear about enormous progress across all aspects of environmental sustainability. Despite what you hear, there's a ton of progress, continued commitment and real economic benefit: keynote speakers included Jigar Shah (renewable energy capital), Tom Steyer (energy transition), Matt Damon (clean water for 500M), Jesper Brodin (Fmr CEO - IKEA driving business value) and many, many more.

Themes:
Political Narratives vs. Actual Economic Transformation 
🔹 Reality: 93% of new global electricity generation was renewable, Chinese emissions decreased 1% in first half of 2025 (first time ever), and renewables are winning on "cheaper, faster, better" economics
🔹 Attention economy: Political rhetoric against renewables dominates media despite these fundamentals
 
Climate Tech Investment Disconnect
🔹 Newlab's "doldrums" metaphor: Climate founders experiencing uncertainty despite real progress, with external narratives changing daily while actual technology development continues
🔹 KKR's investment approach: Focusing on "fundamental value over political cycles" and avoiding headline-driven decisions
🔹 Family office perspectives: Current climate tech valuations attractive after 2021-2022 hype cycle, suggesting market reality diverging from media attention
 
Corporate Sustainability Performance
🔹 88% of surveyed companies say the business case for sustainability is same or better than 5 years ago
🔹 IKEA's quantified results: 24% business growth with 29% carbon reduction, demonstrating real performance beyond marketing claims
🔹 Deloitte's emphasis: Moving conversations from regulatory compliance to concrete business value creation
 
Energy Market Fundamentals vs Politics
🔹 Texas example: While there's a lot of  anti-renewable political rhetoric, ERCOT (utility and ISO) market data shows solar/wind winning on pure economics
🔹 AI-driven demand surge: Creating bipartisan cooperation despite political positioning, as national security implications force pragmatic energy solutions
🔹 Grid efficiency opportunities: California at 32% efficiency vs 42% national average, representing massive improvement potential regardless of political rhetoric

02 | NYCW - Winning the AI Race
Overview: 
The "winning the AI race" narrative emerged as a powerful reframing of climate and energy policy, particularly from Trump administration officials who positioned energy abundance as essential for AI competitiveness against China. This messaging effectively neutralized traditional climate politics by making clean energy deployment a matter of technological competitiveness and national security rather than environmental protection. The framing suggested that whoever builds energy infrastructure fastest wins the AI race.
 
Themes:
Energy as AI Infrastructure
 ⚡️Bipartisan Convergence Through AI Demand
  • Neil Chatterjee (former FERC Chairman) saw AI as breaking traditional energy politics:
  • Forces the left to accept: "Cannot win AI race without fossil fuels, need natural gas for reliability"
  • Forces the right to embrace: "Solar, storage, geothermal, nuclear, grid technologies, virtual power plants, demand response, energy efficiency"
This created an "all of the above" energy approach driven by competitive necessity rather than environmental ideology.
 
Market Opportunity Reframing
⚡️Mateo Jaramillo (Form Energy) captured this shift: "
   👉🏻 Climate is just another way of saying trillion dollar market" 
 
The overall messaging moved from moral imperative to economic opportunity:
  • AI driving first significant electricity demand growth in 30-40 years
  • Creating massive infrastructure investment cycles
  • Long-duration storage enabling "speed to power" for gigawatt data center campuses
Technology Companies as Energy Customers
⚡️Google's 400MW fusion deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems
⚡️Hyperscaler demand accelerating nuclear deployment timelines
⚡️Data centers representing 12-14% growth in places like Delhi
 
Strategic Competition Framing
Energy abundance became positioned as competitive advantage:
⚡️EU committed $750 billion over 3 years in US energy purchases
  • Getting allies "off Russian energy sources with strict deadlines"
  • Energy as "diplomatic weapon" and "huge leverage point"
Timeline Urgency
The AI race created unprecedented urgency:
  • Permitting timelines cut from 2 years to 2 weeks
  • First US SMR (small modular reactor) construction targeted for 2026-7 at the Clinch River in Tennessee. Other SMRs are underway
  • "Time to market matters" - Neil Chatterjee

03 | NYCW - Hope and Inspiration
Overview:
Several powerful messages of hope and optimism emerged across the panels, often grounded in concrete progress and technological breakthroughs rather than abstract promises.

Themes:
Real Progress Despite Narratives
Tom Steyer emphasized that the fundamentals show we're #winning:
  • "93% of new global electricity generation was renewable last year"
  • "If China's peaked [emissions], the world's peaked" - referring to China's first-ever 1% emissions decrease in 2025
  • "We are winning" - his call to bring "swagger" to climate tech because the data proves success
Technology Breakthroughs Reaching Scale
  • Commonwealth Fusion Systems: 65% complete on SPARC demonstration device, targeting net energy gain by 2027, with Google's 400MW commercial agreement proving market readiness
  • Form Energy: "Days away" from first commercial deliveries of 100-hour duration batteries, with multi-year contract backlog across multiple states
  • Sublime Systems: Path to zero-carbon cement production at industrial scale
Economic Viability Without Subsidies
  • KKR noted that "80% of climate solutions more affordable than alternatives they replace"
  • Strobe Power's Kelly Earhart reported 2-3 year payback periods for NYC energy storage projects - "incredibly rapid for infrastructure investments"
Youth Engagement and Energy
  • Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute AND founder of Climate Basecamp) observed a transformation when messaging shifts from doom to solutions: "They (young people) are so accustomed to failure... [but with solution- focused messaging] they turn on like an electric bulb"
  • Tom Steyer echoed this: Young people respond powerfully when you move beyond "I know this. I'm already depressed" to actionable solutions
Proven Business Models - IKEA example
  • 24% business growth while achieving 29% carbon reduction
  • €97M cost savings from sustainability initiatives
  • Fastest-growing business segment is "sustainable life" solutions
Nature's Recovery Potential
  • Dr. Sylvia Earle (90 year old marine scientist at NOAA and creator of the aquanaut corps) offered hope through historical precedent: More whales now than in Sylvia's childhood because "we stopped killing them" - demonstrating that protection works and species can recover - Seen in NY Harbor!
  • Celine Cousteau emphasized abundance over scarcity: "There is zero scarcity. There's a fallacy. There's an issue of distribution, not a problem with scarcity"
Innovation Acceleration
  • Project Drawdown's Explorer platform now covers 70+ solutions with 150+ total planned, backed by "24 PhDs working globally, 20,000+ hours of research, trillions of data points"
  • AI enabling solutions: Multiple speakers noted AI accelerating everything from materials discovery to grid optimization to plasma control for fusion
Community-Level Success Stories
  • Water.org's model: 98% repayment rate on water loans, with $1 invested unlocking $20 additional capital, reaching 3 million people across four countries. Potential to serve 500M people with micro-finance solution
  • SEWA's heat insurance: Started with 20,000 women, now covers 245,000 women, providing direct bank transfers when too hot to work
Market Momentum
  • Jigar Shah noted that despite political headwinds, "$386 billion invested in renewable energy in first half of 2025" - a record
  • Family office trends: 15,000 family offices today expected to triple to 45,000 over next 20 years, with next generation wanting "financial returns + impact". $1T in wealth transfer to a next generation of donors who support solutions for climate change.
Systemic Change Indicators
  • Corporate commitment data: 88% of surveyed companies say business case same or better than 5 years ago, with 97% remaining committed to sustainability increases
  • Grid transformation: Texas eliminated daily price volatility through storage deployment over 3-year period, showing system-level change is possible
Awareness to Action
Two events emphasized moving from awareness to action, with the Daughters for Earth (DFE) event focusing on women as solution leaders and Street Art for Mankind using visual storytelling to make climate restoration tangible and hopeful.
 
DFE focused heavily on women's disproportionate climate impacts and their leadership in solutions:
  • 4 billion people experienced at least 30 days of extreme heat in prior 365 days
  • Women are 50% more likely to die from heat than men
  • Market women in Freetown losing 60% of income to extreme heat
Key insight: "The way we protect the planet is we protect women" - Aisha Zika
 
Street Art for Mankind Visual Storytelling 
  • 15 ecosystem restoration murals worldwide, 8 in NYC by end of production
  • Part of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)
  • Partnership with UN Environment Program (UNEP) and Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Specific Mural Messages
🎨Youth Empowerment Mural (Onur):
95ft x 70ft on High Line, painted with brushes only, nearly finished
Impressionist style showing figure with lantern over poppy fields
Symbolizes climate crisis and hope through youth leadership
 
🎨Sustainable Plastic Practices Mural (Stefan Thelen, also known as Super A):
It uses pop culture to send a powerful and playful reminder that everyone has a role to play in reducing plastic waste. 
 
🎨Clean Air for All Mural (Adelina Flossio):
19ft x 70ft near Javits Center
Woman breathing with life emerging from chest (trees, butterflies)
Direct visualization of air quality and human health connection
 
🎨Tree Equity Mural (Carlos Alberto):
A woman hugging a tree to emphasize the importance of nature. 

04 | Links to the Green Pages Community
Overview:
Building Awareness for the Green Pages Community (Press and/or Website):
Links:
▪️ 3RiversEnergy - Michigan based with several renewable natural gas solutions for Jack Daniels (TN) and Jim Beam (KY) - waste to energy and fertilizer
▪️ Aquatrino - Nashville TN - system for PFAS destruction at a fraction of the energy and cost of other solutions
▪️ TerraLoam - Charlotte NC - a new era of bioplastics that champions both human health and environmental sustainability
▪️ Cox Cleantech Accelerator - Atlanta GA - Industry-agonostic program in partnership with Cox Enterprises supports early-stage climate technology companies
▪️ Coastal Conservation League - Charleston SC - nonprofit protecting SC coast land

05 | Well, This is Fascinating… 
Overview:
A mixed bag of interesting, compelling or concerning content that attracted my attention lately. Feel free to share your fascinating finds for future newsletters.

Links:  
🔸 Renewables overtake coal as biggest supplier of energy - a first. Let's hope it stays that way - Trump administration policies on clean energy threaten the trend.
🔸 Neutralize Wildfires before they start - combination of many technologies to predict and manage wildfires
🔸 Sustainable Live Music - see efforts by leading performers to demand sustainable solutions at their concerts (also see the story on CNN about Billie Eillish)
🔸 5th Annual Climate Assessment - taken down by Trump Administration is BACK online - Climate.us is live
🔸 Plantd - Plantd structural panels are carbon negative and made of fast-growing perennial grass - replacing plywood.
🔸 Microsoft Data Center - Closed loop cooling recycles the water. I believe the bigger issue with data centers is water use.
Please forward to introduce a friend to ClimateWiser and Green Pages.
 
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