Sponsored Projects

PFS Energy is a start-up conceived to address the great amount of plant matter debris that accumulated in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017. At that time, and continuing to today, Puerto Rico has a very high cost of electricity and a slow rate of restoring power after natural disasters which are occurring more frequently due to climate change. Adding to Puerto Rico’s challenges is the fact that landfills, where a big portion of this biomass is typically deposited, are reaching their capacity with no easy solution in the foreseeable future. PFS Energy seeks to combine knowledge and experience in agriculture and engineering to develop a solution that addresses these multiple problems.

Project: PFS Energy’s objective is to produce electricity utilizing biomass, thus replacing fossil fuels as the source of energy. The gasification process for biomass involves the conversion of hydrocarbon-containing feedstocks such as branches, hard grasses, wood and other woody materials, into hydrogen and carbon fuel gases to be used to fuel a generator or turbine. Small-sized enterprises in Puerto Rico require somewhere between 100-200 kWh to operate their machinery, cooling systems and offices. Medium size operations on the island typically require 1-2 MWh to operate. RFS Energy’s business model would provide full service from the machinery to collect/harvest/obtain the biomass to the generation of electricity to be purchased by the customer on their facilities. The SGE Immersion Team will conduct a strategic analysis of the company’s business model to assess its feasibility, including the fuel types, latest available gasification technologies, guidance on permits required under the current renewable energy initiatives by the Congress, and possible spin off applications of the use of biomass inside and beyond the energy sector.

The United States Forest Service (USFS), an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, is responsible for sustaining the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. USFS manages El Yunque National Forest which is located in Puerto Rico (PR). El Yunque is home to over 200 species of trees and plants, 23 of which are endemic. PR was severely damaged in 2017 by hurricanes Irma and Maria which struck the island weeks apart, impacting critical infrastructure, including homes, businesses, public buildings, the electrical grid, and the water supply. Six months after Hurricane Maria, only a small portion of El Yunque National Forest was available for enjoyment. In January 2021, El Yunque’s visitor center, El Portal de El Yunque (the “doorway to El Yunque”), was reopened with a complete LEED Gold redesign, featuring open air architecture with excellent views, moveable exhibits, event spaces, native plant gardens, a restaurant café and gift shop. Local and regional partnerships are structured to enhance visitor experiences and expand local access and use of the facility, while helping the Forest Service to lower operational costs and generate a percentage of profits.

Project: Despite an entry fee which contributes to the total operating revenue, El Portal operates at a deficit annually. The SGE immersion team evaluated how the El Yunque El Portal Visitor Center can meet its revenue goals with strategies that also generate social and environmental value. This includes developing a market analysis informed by other visitor centers and larger visitation trends in Puerto Rico, reviewing constraints related to further tourism growth at El Yunque, analyzing a range of options for generating more value per tourist at El Portal, and identifying tourism products that will best help the Forest Service meet its goals, looking at new concepts in interpretative products for the Center which will appeal to a range of niche markets in Puerto Rico.

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. Founded in the U.S. in 1951, TNC is one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world with more than a million members. TNC has adopted five goals to impact the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss: 1) reduce or store 3 gigatons of CO2 emissions annually; 2) benefit 100 million people; 3) conserve 10 billion acres of ocean; 4) conserve 1.6 billion acres of land; 5) conserve over 620,000 miles of rivers; and 6) support 45 million local stewards. Many studies have shown that renewable energy projects with negative social and environmental impacts are often delayed in permitting or resisted by local communities, resulting in developmental bottlenecks which slow progress.

Project: Currently there is no widely- recognized standard for integrating social and environmental attributes – otherwise known as “non-price factors” in market transactions – into renewable energy procurement. Standards and certification programs have demonstrated success in other industries – i.e., forestry, agriculture, and workforce/labor – to deliver tangible social, environmental, and economic benefits. Without standards, it is difficult for renewable energy stakeholders to communicate about these values. The SGE Immersion team developed a business case for industry standards for non-price factors in renewable energy procurement, including 1) a gap analysis of existing/emerging standards + certification programs; 2) a review of the efficacy of standards + certification programs in other industries; 3) building a certification model for non-price factors in renewable energy; and 4) developing a financial modeling of the potential certification program projected over 5-10 years.

The American Honda Motor Co., Inc. is the North American subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company. The company opened its first store front office in Los Angeles in 1959 and distributes, markets, and sells cars (Honda and Acura), motorcycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles (Honda Powersports); generators, lawn mowers, pumps, and snowblowers (Honda Power); engines (Honda Engines), outboard motors (Honda Marine); aircraft (HondaJet), and robots (AISMO). By 2050, Honda aims to realize carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities, as well as complete electrification of our auto lineup by 2040.

Project: The Sustainability & Business Development (SBD) business unit is tasked with navigating the path for Honda’s environmental sustainability goals centered around electrification, carbon neutrality, and resource circularity. Within SBD, the Energy and EV Charging department is responsible for delivering solutions to achieve the company’s net zero targets while generating new revenue streams through electric and energy products, services, and businesses. Building electrification is a central pathway in the clean energy transition. Investing in electrification of existing buildings, as well as new construction is critical. The SGE Immersion team analyzed the market to help develop a strategy to expand accessibility and participation in those programs to all communities, accounting for both short-term and long-term cost impacts. The team focused on opportunities to build and sustain Honda’s core brand values and enhancing brand image and competitiveness in the marketplace which the company achieves through innovating, incubating, selecting, developing, applying, and operating new businesses, features, products, and services with responsibility for their profitability, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction for Honda in North America.

The Gellert Global Group is a privately owned, 3rd generation family business consisting of many of the leading North American food importing companies and has been involved in importing food products for over 100 years. The company utilizes expertise in sourcing, insurance, finance, logistics, food safety and information technology to meet the needs of retailers, distributors, foodservice chains, hotels, cruise lines, and food manufacturers. The Group is also active in restaurant operations and non-food operations, as well as real estate investments in the greater metropolitan NY area.

Project: As consumers grow concerned about the environmental and social impact of their purchase decisions, the pressure on consumer product retailers and manufacturers to address those concerns continues to increase. The company wants to take a more strategic approach to sustainability. The SGE Immersion team evaluated a sustainability strategy focused on business opportunities that could help drive profitable, long-term growth for the company (e.g. product commercialization, sourcing, transportation, OS international, R&D, etc.) given today’s market trends, particularly with regard to carbon emissions reductions.

Buzzup is focused on precision pollination, offering pollination monitoring and optimization programs to farmers, beekeepers, food producers, and researchers. The company provides products and services able to monitor various pollinator communities, including honeybees, bumblebees, and mason bees in open fields, greenhouses, and vertical farm environments. Biodiversity monitoring is an emerging element of sustainability strategies for companies and organizations around the world and is set to be incorporated into many regulatory environments within the near future. Within this paradigm, pollinators play a critical and multifaceted role. They represent a keystone species in most ecosystems, supporting plant life, which in turn supports entire food chains and ecosystems.

Project: Buzzup is looking to capitalize on its expertise in insect monitoring and pollination management to expand into biodiversity monitoring. The proposed expansion would focus on the development of in-field sensors to track the presence, health, and activity of pollinator species, alongside data analytics and consulting services to help companies measure and improve their biodiversity impact. Buzzup needed a deeper understanding of the emerging market for biodiversity monitoring, primarily within the US, but with an eye toward other North American countries and the EU at the international, national, and sub-national levels, the SGE Immersion team worked to conduct a market analysis of biodiversity monitoring among potential private sector clients, including the potential benefits of biodiversity services on field pollination and agricultural production.

Founded in 1990, Steve Madden designs and markets shoes and fashion accessories. Its brands, which include Steve Madden, Dolce Vita, Betsey Johnson, Blondo, GREATS, BB Dakota, and Mad Love have enabled the company to become one of the most iconic brands in footwear. Based in Long Island City, NY Steve Madden is known for unique and creative designs inspired by rock and roll and New York roots to allow its customers in over 80 countries to embrace their individuality. The company also licenses other brands, including Anne Klein and Superga, and designs and sources products under private label brand names for various retailers. Steve Madden operates its own retail stores, e-commerce websites, and wholesale distribution to department stores, mass merchants, off-price retailers, shoe chains, online retailers, national chains, specialty retailers, and independent stores.

Project: In 2020, the company released its strategy to create a more sustainable future focused on four areas: safe and equitable workplaces, inclusive and accessible fashion, reducing environmental impacts across the supply chain, and circularity. The U.S. generates around 29 billion pounds of textile waste each year, but only 13% is recycled. Around 87% is either sent to landfills or incinerated. It’s clear that fashion companies must help build a circular economy that considers a product’s post-consumer purpose. Steve Madden is interested in making a significant and legitimate contribution to a circular economy for textiles. The SGE Immersion team will develop recommendations on how the company should approach investments for circularity, which will include consideration of how it should focus its investments, approach design and/or material innovation, as well as recycling infrastructure.

OXTO Energy is a global energy storage and technology provider. The company’s proprietary hardware technology is focused on a completely new generation of flywheel batteries – based on prior satellite and spacecraft applications – which have the potential to change energy storage for industries like manufacturing, transportation, real estate and many more by stabilizing electricity from renewable intermittent sources of energy and reducing the cost of power consumption. OXTO’s product will enable affordable low-carbon energy production, help grid stability, and contribute to an efficient, competitive energy sector that can interconnect with adjacent markets. Renewable integration and rapid deployment of electric vehicle charging stations are reshaping energy network loading scenarios and creating more grid losses and power cuts. Indeed, different sectors have the same requirements of business-critical power quality (e.g., data centers, food processing, aluminum smelting). OXTO started with a European demand where the company has established key partnerships with research centers, system integrators and engineering firms. OXTO has kept its target market broad instead of focusing on one specific vertical market.

Project: The company’s initial objective is to integrate this product into larger solutions, to focus on increasing the volume of production and improving the product performance. The US is a major commercial and investment opportunity for OXTO as market demand for power stability and resilience is very high. To date, OXTO has interacted with a few organizations in the US as a member of the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator in Binghamton, NY and mHUB in Chicago, IL which has facilitated relationships with suppliers, potential investors and other stakeholders related to hardware cleantech sector. Competitors have raised significant funds, sometimes at a lower stage of development. The SGE Immersion team will evaluate the company’s current strategy and develop recommendations on how the company should enter the US market over the next 24 months to capture significant market share over the next 5-10 years. This will include helping the company prioritize customer segments, consider appropriate business models (e.g., service vs. sales), and identify milestones (e.g., product certification or company representation).

The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) has a mission to improve business performance and create positive societal impact through researching and teaching how to operationalize embedded sustainability and realize returns on sustainability investment. CSB’s Invest NYC SDG initiative is engaging the private sector and driving private investment toward creating a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient New York City. Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as a framework, the initiative catalyzes projects by connecting government, the private sector, and community stakeholders together to tackle some of the major challenges of our time, such as reducing carbon emissions, supporting equitable and sustainable urban mobility, and addressing food insecurity. CSB received funding from Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to identify innovative strategies and projects that leverage capital investments alongside resources from philanthropic, public, private, and community partners to reduce food insecurity in New York State (NYS).

Project: The goal of the project, called FoodMap NY, is to provide long-term changes in our food system that increase affordable, healthy food access, while supporting economic development and quality employment in food production, processing, and distribution. Via FoodMap NY, NYU and Cornell are examining the potential of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to address food insecurity through the year-round growing of healthy foods. The goal is to help develop a public–private partnership that will lead to the creation of a commercial indoor farm (e.g., greenhouses, sunless/vertical farms) that will help increase nutritional food security in NYS. The SGE Immersion team will evaluate whether CEA is an economically viable approach to grow affordable, nutritional food indoors. The team will want to examine economic and operational factors which may be impacted by NYS policies related to no- or low-cost land and discounted energy available through New York Power Authority (NYPA); benchmark CEA companies whose models have proven financially successful, have a commitment to or interest in deploying CEA to address food insecurity, and that could expand in areas of NYS where people face high food insecurity; and identify barriers and opportunities for greenhouses and vertical farms in expanding to highly food-insecure areas, including rural counties.

Founded in 1998, Google LLC (www.google.com) is an American multinational technology company with business interests in search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. Its major products and services include the Android mobile operating system, YouTube, and Google Search. Google is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet and remains an umbrella company for Alphabet’s internet-related businesses. As one of the Big Five American information technology companies, Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. It is committed to significantly improving the lives of as many people as possible through initiatives to build belonging, expanding opportunity, protecting users, responding to crises, and advancing sustainability. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998, they hired their first chef, Charlie Ayers, before they hired their first HR person. The Google Food program has been and continues to be a cornerstone of Google’s culture and currently operates locations in 170 cities in the world serving 325,000 meals a day to the company’s staff. While the program is internal to the organization, Google Food has a broader aspiration to contribute to enabling the planet to feed or nourish 10 billion people by 2050 in sustainable, inclusive, efficient, nutritious and healthy ways.

Project: In the past few years, Google has set ambitious sustainability goals in carbon, water and waste at the corporate level. Google Food seeks to do its part with its own sustainability initiatives. In March 2022, it announced two pledges to reduce and divert food waste from its food operations. This was done after several years of development on a five-pillar, twenty-solution area plan to halve its food waste per employee by 2025 and divert any remaining food waste from landfill. However, one of Google Food’s toughest challenges has been the lack of composting facilities in a number of cities where the company has its facilities. The SGE Immersion team will develop recommendations for activating private and public sector actors and funders to put together a reasonable plan for diversion in those cities.