Exchange velocity

Staring out from my new workspace this week I realized I was looking at Ellis Island in New York Harbor, the first American soil my great-grandparents stepped foot on 123 years ago. My son wryly noted that this means the average Tolva generational velocity is zero. This is mathematically true, though my actual distance covered personally and professionally to get here certainly isn’t zero. 

This week I begin a new phase of my career. I have been hired as the Director of Data Innovation for the New York Climate Exchange, an organization founded a bit over three years ago to lead a consortium dedicated to global climate research, education, and job training. In particular, the Exchange is tasked with constructing a permanent climate-focused campus on Governors Island (which you can see on the left side of the photo above, directly across from the Statue of Liberty). It’s happening, though it’ll take quite an effort (and a ferry) to get there.

For a long time I’ve worked within a framework of urban data which considers it the vital signs of a body civic. This new role expands my focus to the health chart of our planet’s climate ecosystem. My particular responsibility at the Exchange is the leadership of its various climate data efforts, some of which have been announced. Really it’s pretty simple (while being enormously complex): The New York Climate Exchange intends to be the activating platform for cities, communities, scientists, and entrepreneurs who rely on global climate data.

Part of my thrill in joining this mission is the coincidental collision of the existential threat to our planet, an urgent, hyper-polarized political discourse, and a moment of enormous technological disruption. There are solutions that can come from such seeming chaos, sometimes precisely because of the chaos. Here’s to embarking on a path that seeks to add some order.

There’s a bit more over at Instagram and LinkedIn. If you’re in this space — or simply care about our response to climate change — let’s connect!