February 2024

From the Institute Directors

While there's still plenty of time for a late-winter storm, it's nice to have a little more sunlight for these last few weeks of winter term. It's also energizing to look ahead to the weeks of spring break when members of the Irving Institute team will be all over the country. We'll be part of a Dartmouth contingent of faculty, staff, and students at CERAWeek in Houston; co-leading a group of undergraduate students on an energy immersion trip to Appalachia and Washington, DC, with the Sustainability Office; and engaging with the wider energy and society community at the MIT Energy Conference. Whether we see you at one of these events, at a Zoom talk, or on campus, we hope you'll continue to stay connected with us! 

Geoffrey Parker, Interim Faculty Director
April Salas, Executive Director

Greenshot Teams Hard at Work with Planet-Saving Startups

Greenshot participants, mentors, and staff talk during a breakout session on the accelerator program's opening weekend in January. 

For the past two months, nine groups of entrepreneurs, taking aim at devastating problems arising from climate change, have been climbing a steep learning curve in Dartmouth's fast-paced new accelerator, Greenshot.

Led by the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society and the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, in close partnership with the Tuck School of Business and Thayer School of Engineering as well as external partners including Cleantech Open, Greenshot aims to prepare sustainability-minded startups to shape and perfect their business plans in preparation for securing the venture capital they need to turn bright ideas into marketable products and processes.

Read more

Dartmouth Graduate Students Turn African Agricultural Waste into Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Left: The NET Offset team: Baptiste Gibrat, Michael May Th'22, and graduate special students Ashirafu Miiro, Oscar Ogala, Raymond Namusoso, and Richard Katongole; Right: NET Offset co-founders Michael May Th'22 and Baptiste Gibrat. (Photo by Isaiah Richardson)

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) candidate Baptiste Gibrat didn't expect to become a student entrepreneur until he met engineering PhD candidate Michael May Th'22. Their collaboration began last spring in a technoeconomic analysis class along with four Ugandan students. A compelling class project led to a trip to Africa, supported by Irving Institute student grant funding, and the two are now co-founders of NET Offset, a startup aimed at addressing food insecurity by converting local agricultural waste into an affordable, high-quality organic fertilizer that also sequesters carbon — one of the nine companies participating in Dartmouth's Greenshot climate accelerator program. Thayer news recently profiled the startup company. 

Read more.

Solving the Globalization Puzzle

Irving Institute Interim Faculty Director Geoff Parker and co-author Svenja Falk, Managing Director at Accenture, urge companies to move quickly to adapt to an increasingly fragmented global landscape by taking a multi-layered, rather than standardized, approach in this Ivey Business Journal piece. Read the article here. 
 

Protecting a Sacred River: Transnational Appeals for Energy Justice and Indigenous Rights Recognition

A group supporting indigenous inclusion in water and land use decisions in the Mapuche-Williche territory of Chile. Image courtesy of elciudadno,com

In a recent Law and Space essay, Energy Justice Clinic Program Manager and Lecturer in Geography, Dr. Sarah Kelly, provides an overview of the ongoing conflict over indigenous water rights and access in hydroelectric development in Chile's Mapuche-Williche territory. Dr. Kelly describes the issues at hand and how the Mapuche-Williche people are working to ensure their own equitable participation in land-use decision making. Read the essay here.
 

Can TikTok Save the World? These Eco-influencers Think So

Doria Brown (left) talks about her job as the Energy Manager for Nashua, New Hampshire; Arielle King (right) uses writing prompts from poet Audre Lorde to suggest ways to bring authenticity and intention to your social media presence. 

At a recent workshop hosted by the Dartmouth Energy Justice Clinic at the Irving Institute for Energy and Society, energy and sustainability professionals and influencers Doria Brown (@earthstewardess on TikTok, @theearthstewardess on Instagram) and Arielle King (@ariellevking) shared their expertise on leveraging social media for social impact and professional development. 

Brown and King offered tips and lessons learned for building a supportive, and effective community online, shared examples of the ways that social media can create professional opportunities, and encouraged the student audience to be deeply intentional when trying to build a personal social media brand. 

Learn more and find a link to a recording of the workshop here.

Upcoming Events

Other Dartmouth Climate and Energy News

Why Manufacturers Need a Phased Approach to Digital Transformation: Irving Institute Interim Faculty Director Geoff Parker was co-author on an article recently published in the MIT Sloan Review.

                                                                                        
Permafrost Restrains Arctic Rivers—and Lots of Carbon: New research co-authored by Dartmouth Engineering professor and Irving Institute Faculty Affiliate Colin Meyer provides the first evidence that the Arctic's frozen soil is the dominant force shaping Earth's northernmost rivers.

                                                                     
NYC is Requiring Landlords to Green their Buildings. Here’s How to Make the Upgrades Less Daunting: Thayer School of Engineering Dean and Irving Institute Faculty Affiliate Alexis Abramson authors this look at the possibilities and challenges of a new local law in New York City which has placed carbon caps on all buildings larger than 25,000 square feet.             

                                                                     
Dartmouth Engineering Receives DOE Funding for Developing Printed Solar Cells: Assistant Professor of Engineering and Irving Institute Faculty Affiliate William Scheideler was awarded $250,000 by the US Department of Energy Small Innovative Projects in Solar Program. The funding will go toward  developing a new method for fast and scalable manufacturing of reliable perovskite solar modules.  

Noticing Less Snow in New England? Researchers Are Too: NHPR spotlights a recent study from Associate Professor of Geography and Irving Institute Faculty Affiliate Justin Mankin and PhD student Alex Gottlieb that is focused on snowpack in the last 40 years across the Northern Hemisphere.

Video: Plugging into the Sun: Dartmouth News explores Dartmouth's new pilot EV charging program.