Inspiring Change Makers at Hatch NYC

Climate Week Pt. 2

Hatch NY September 21, 2024

It’s hard to believe that a month has flown by since the HATCH Climate Week Opening event in NYC at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) headquarters in DUMBO Brooklyn. With 600+ events happening in New York during Climate Week how does one navigate through the numerous options? On Saturday, September 21st, I decided to take the 90-minute subway ride to the trendy DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn because the founder of HATCH , Yarrow Kraner is someone whom I met at Kinnernet in Venice, Italy in 2019 and respect immensely. Plus, my super-talented climate provocateur artist friend Benjamin Von Wong was one of the speakers. On top of this, the gathering was located at BIG’s headquarters and I’ve been a long-time fan of their sustainable and innovative awe-inspiring architectural design projects from Denmark to New York City. I’ve been wanting to attend HATCH’s gatherings for several years since Yarrow is a master connector and HATCH has been known to curate a high quality of speakers and attendees for their events from Switzerland to Mexico. So, a 90 minute subway ride on a beautiful Saturday to be at a HATCH event in New York City was definitely not an inconvenience.

DUMBO’s streets on a gorgeous summer weekend are usually hectic and packed with people restaurant hopping or making their way to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the picturesque waterfront. Upon entering BIG’s offices I felt an immediate sense of peace and calm at their impeccably designed offices in an industrial building loaded with natural light streaming from the windows with views of the East River and the Manhattan Skyline. I immediately felt welcomed and it was also a huge relief to see so many women in the room. As someone who has worked in tech most of my career, I’ve been accustomed to often being one of the few women in rooms and only one on panels at events from London to San Francisco. I started seeing a pattern here that there is probably a 50/50 male to female ratio at Climate Week events and in Hatch’s case, there were more women in the room. It was comforting to immediately see Harald Neidhardt from futur.io who produces the much anticipated CSO Awards (Chief Sustainability Officer) at Climate Week and at the World Economic Forum (WEF). I’ve known Harald for 20+ years from us both being early founders of e-commerce startups. I was also greeted warmly by our host Yarrow and was introduced to two stylish women, Manuella Cantalice and Carolina Llano. Carolina is of Brazilian heritage who lives in London and is the founder of New Animal Ventures which “unites allies to amplify ground realities and frontline voices in climate finance.” There was definitely not going to be small talk at Hatch. Carolina I learned is the Director of Art, Design, Technology, @Public Design Commission for the NYC Office of the Mayor and is currently working with BIG on the design of a more climate resilient waterfront. A delicious array of hors d’oeuvres and charcuterie beckoned to me and over bites of manchego cheese and figs, I was able to meet Daniela H. , who is the brilliant co-founder of Dynex, a quantum computing firm with ethical chips based out of Zurich. Another woman whom I was immediately drawn to was Ortega Pittman who was fashionable and effervescent. She glowed and was lit from within as she spoke about her work on Prince Charles’ Sustainable Markets Initiatives with the goal to "convene top organizations from industry and the financial services, alongside governments, to innovating, accelerating and delivering on a just, sustainable and prosperous future."

Once Benjamin von Wong and other speakers such as Atossa Soltani of Amazon Watch arrived, Yarrow gathered all of the attendees in a huge circle and asked us to introduce ourselves. This was a great ice-breaker and made it even more difficult to determine with whom one should speak as every single attendee had a fascinating story and job pertaining to impact and climate solutions.

Benjamin gave an entertaining presentation of how he uses art to educate the general public about the dangers of plastics and toxins in our environment. He showed us his most recent work of a sculpture made of garbage found in the Himalayas left behind by mountaineers climbing Mount Everest.

Altos Soltani of Amazon Watch is the director of global strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative. She spoke about her work to protect one of the most bio-diverse ecosystems on Earth. The initiative is led by an alliance of Amazonian indigenous nations of Ecuador and Peru, with support from Fundacion Pachamama, Amazon Watch and the Pachamama Alliance.

My favorite part of the HATCH event was after the talks, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, a partner at BIG and the evening’s co-host gave us a tour of their architectural models used for climate mitigation solutions for the entire NYC coastline which BIG has been involved with to make more resilient since Hurricane Sandy (they received 1/3 of a billion dollar budget from former Mayor Bloomberg). I was living on the Williamsburg waterfront during Hurricane Sandy and have seen firsthand how a superstorm can decimate the city and disrupt the lives of its citizens so hearing first hand of the process to protect NYC from future storms made me feel more secure about living in NYC. Another impressive project involved NASA for whom BIG is designing a 3-D printing robotic space vehicle for moon settlements which will print structures for habitation made with found materials such as moon dust.

During the tour I also had the privilege of meeting philanthropist Daniel Sheth and his daughter who is a high school student in Connecticut and is actively involved with the decisions related to their family office investments. Apparently Daniel used to manage the family office of one of America's top tech founders/CEOs for 18 years. After the Hatch event, I saw Daniel at four more Climate Week events including a private dinner at Cafe Boulud, a PVBLIC Foundation party at the Virgin Hotel, and at the Transformative Impact Summit Family Office and Philanthropy day at Neuehouse.

We ended the evening watching the sunset at BIG’s rooftop with expansive views with shots of tequila. What an inspiring and creatively and intellectually stimulating day and evening. Thanks Yarrow and Kai-Uwe for a fantastic event!