Stony Brook University, New York Climate Exchange Take Center Stage at Climate Week NYC

During Climate Week NYC 2026, students, faculty and staff at Stony Brook University, as anchor institution of The New York Climate Exchange, were at the center of a week of programming that stretched from Governors Island to its Long Island campus. 

The Exchange coordinated a network of partnered events across Lower Manhattan, with Chief Executive Officer M. Sanjayan and university leadership guiding public conversations meant to connect academic research with the needs of frontline communities.

“The Exchange is where the world will come to envision the future,” Sanjayan said. “When you come to Governors Island, you will be invited to collaborate and participate in solving the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced: climate change.” 

The week opened with a focus on clean energy at Solar One’s waterfront event space, where The Exchange and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority co-hosted a showcase for the newest cohort of Climate Tech Fellows. Presentations included a bio-based cement project for reef restoration, developed jointly by Duke University and Pratt Institute, offered as an example of lab research moving toward practical use. 

A climate campus coming to Governors Island will be the permanent home for the research and public engagement that defined this year’s Climate Week. This hub for climate solutions will feature mass timber buildings and public open space along a new waterfront esplanade, built alongside the historic restoration of Liggett Hall.

“Not long ago, climate change seemed like a problem for the future. But, more and more, the human and planetary costs of climate change are being felt in the here and now,” said Reuben Kline, Stony Brook’s interim associate provost for climate and sustainability programming. “Even worse, these costs fall disproportionately on individuals and communities that have the least resources. Stony Brook University’s researchers are producing solutions to these problems, but too often this research is locked away inside the ivory tower.”

Facilitators from Stony Brook’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science led workshop sessions throughout the week, helping participants of the Climate Tech Fellowship, a program for early‑stage innovators at the intersection of energy and urban resilience. The Alda Center worked with city officials to connect complex technical findings on residential energy efficiency to policies they could put into practice. That work fed into the Climate Leaders Exchange, a new Exchange program that brought staff from 12 cities together to trade strategies on the same topic.

“We’re proud to represent Stony Brook University by bringing communication training to experts across the climate space, from early-stage founders to those who are shaping policy. Each year we build on what we’ve learned, multiplying the impact of the people working to bring climate solutions to life,” said Laura Lindenfeld, the Alda Center’s executive director. 

The Exchange’s commitment to improving access to climate data was evident at multiple points in the week. Paul Shepson, dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SOMAS), joined scientists at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Arts Center at Governors Island to discuss how ocean and air sensor data could strengthen emergency planning for the region. Another public event hosted by AGU, Climate Central, Open Environmental Data Project, Public Environmental Data Partners and The Exchange examined environmental data that has gone dark and what it will take to build a more resilient data ecosystem moving forward.

“I am very excited about the opportunity and leadership from The Exchange to connect a wide array of partners in the New York City area to share their environmental observation efforts aimed at better understanding of the causative factors that lead to environmental health risks in our communities,” Shepson said. “When we all work together, there will be a synergy that can and will lead to solutions that pay off for the health of New Yorkers.”

Financial leaders met in Lower Manhattan to discuss scaling climate investment from billions of dollars toward the trillions needed for urban adaptation, while Sanjayan moderated a panel at Columbia’s Climate School examining how international commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement hold up under changing municipal leadership. Later in the week, on Governors Island, state and regional officials met for the inaugural Governors’ Climate Leadership Dialogue, co-hosted with Climate Group’s Under2 Coalition, to align clean energy policy across state lines.

Stony Brook’s community joined Friday evening at the Arts Center on Governors Island for a celebration built around the New York premiere of “Songs of the Earth,” an original composition by Eugene Drucker, visiting professor in the Department of Music, that sets the environmental poetry of Denise Levertov to music. A string quartet featuring Stony Brook graduate student Kevonna Shuford performed the piece. Afterward, David Wrobel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, moderated a panel titled “Our Health, Our Climate, Our World,” in which Stony Brook faculty members Sohl Lee, associate professor in the Department of Art, and Stephanie Wade, lecturer in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, discussed the links between planetary health and human well-being alongside outside experts.

“Our university is now in its second year of its climate arts partnership with LMCC,” said Janet Ward, associate provost for arts, humanities, and social sciences initiatives. “Our collaboration on climate and education programs for new audiences across the metropolitan area and Long Island is of immense significance. We are thrilled to offer an increasingly wide range of applied research opportunities, as we continue to build a meaningful foothold on Governors Island via both LMCC and The New York Climate Exchange.”

Saturday’s centerpiece event, “Homecoming: For the Harbor,” was rescheduled to October 17 due to severe weather.

The event is expected to bring interactive tabling from Stony Brook initiatives to Governors Island, including open studios from LMCC-SBU inaugural scholars-in-residence Darla Migan, lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, and Nobuho Nagasawa, professor in the Department of Art.

Tabling at the Homecoming for the Harbor event will include demonstrations from the Climate Knowledge Collective and the Weigh The Waste research project led by SOMAS lecturer Adam Charboneau and University Sustainability Coordinator Erin Kluge, as well as the Collaborative for the Earth (C4E) under executive director Kline, SOMAS assistant professor Karina Yager, Stephen Baines, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, and J.D. Allen, director of the Science Communication and Journalism graduate programs.

C4E is holding a separate event on campus at 11 am on Thursday, October 1, in the Wang Center Theater Lobby to celebrate innovative student research through a poster and StoryMap session, including the release of the podcast C4E Presents second national broadcast radio special on PFAS, also known as forever chemicals.

“Both the Collaborative for the Earth and the New York Climate Exchange are dedicated to sharing the insights from this research so that people can understand the risks they face and act on them,” Kline added.

View a gallery of photos by Adrian Umprierrez, Jenny Magee and Ryan Kelly: