The Future of Cities | 6/23/2024

Climate Health Innovators! Embark on a bi-weekly journey where we explore groundbreaking ideas, pivotal news, and exciting opportunities designed for anyone interested in championing climate action in healthcare. If you know someone who would benefit from CHILLing with us — clinicians, builders, or funders — tell them to subscribe here. 📬

This week, we’re sharing highlights of our event at New York Tech Week on June 4. We curated a program of industry leaders dissecting the critical themes of cities, public health, and climate change, alongside our partners at Fenwick, Mika Health, Women in Healthtech; and that featured leaders in the space: Mika Health CEO Oriana Fuentes, Climate Health Innovation & Learning Lab co-founder Chethan Sarabu, Fenwick partners Evan Bienstock and Joyce Tong Oelrich, CUNY Ph.D. student Lacy Shelby, executive director of The 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative Ben Furnas, Luminary Labs CEO Sara Holoubek, Ecologicca founder and CEO Jenessa Olson, and Joel Cesare, the head of green cities at BlocPower.

A big thank you to the Fenwick team for putting together this recap and key takeaways from the event:

Takeaways on Climate, Cities, and Health: Connecting the Dots for NY Tech Week

Tech's time to shine. With climate change impacting the environmental determinants of health, by leveraging technologies like AI and machine learning, we can create a feedback loop between climate, infrastructure and health data leading to more innovative and effective technologies, informed policies, targeted interventions, and advanced preventative care. This could include things like temperature, air-quality, and wastewater sensors integrated into buildings—or smart-grid technology that manages electrical supply and demand in real time – working synergistically to improve the health outcomes of citizens.

Powering innovation responsibly. AI is here to stay—and even as it requires massive amounts of energy to power, it’s promising to generate incredible new healthcare approaches through AI- assisted drug discovery and precision medicine, as well as advancements in climate change solutions in areas such as material science, electric vehicles, battery storage and more. We need off-the-shelf clean-energy solutions that power innovation without accelerating existing climate and environmental issues.

Going green takes green. In our capitalist reality, climate solutions must carry an economic incentive. Corporations need to know they’ll make money. Building owners and other entities responsible for infrastructure want climate and public health modernization to be cost-neutral or better. Cost often stands in the way of action—but that’s where tech can step in by finding innovative ways to lower those costs and make the advances more attractive for the profit-oriented. For many startups in this space, government grants and prizes, as well as philanthropic money, are great non-dilutive options to fund growth.

Low-income communities shoulder a heavier burden. Through a combination of policy and market forces, low-income communities are often disproportionally subject to climate change's profound effects. That might include living with worse air quality from being adjacent to highways, or in hotter zones in inner cities, or more flooding due to infrastructure disinvestment in areas with less lucrative real estate. Necessities like air-conditioning—which can prove lifesaving in a heat wave—are more burdensome for low-income households to acquire. And while smart sensors and other connected devices promise healthier personal environments, reliable internet connectivity remains elusive in many low-income areas. Companies creating solutions in this space must engage with these communities early and in a meaningful way to create a trusted partnership.

Think about how to frame solutions. When you’re selling climate and health solutions, focus on making individualized appeals. When New York was pitching a costly transition to electric school buses, it showed parents an influential study where children who carried air monitors all day experienced a spike in poor air quality while getting on and off school buses. The data and the personal nature of the study resonated with parents more effectively than abstract conversations about climate change or the overall environmental benefits of electric vehicles. This is a problem that affects everyone.

Other news

  • Harvard Medical School researchers published the largest-yet review points to climate’s interplay with cardiovascular disease, especially among vulnerable groups. HMS. 

  • Nature covered a growing body of research revealing the deaths and diseases linked to rising temperatures across the continent. Nature. 

  • Johns Hopkins researchers, lawmakers, and government officials met on June 17 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to discuss evidence-based approaches to make both climate health and human health a pivotal part of national transportation infrastructure decisions. John Hopkins. 

  • This op-ed covered the critical roles nurses play utilizing their experience, motivation and public support to make an important contribution in tackling the climate crises. Environmental Health News.

Events & opportunities

Other events and opportunities in the coming weeks:

  1. Online event: Publishing in The Lancet Planetary Health, The Lancet - June 24 - Online

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