January 2024

From the Institute Directors

2024 has already been a busy year for the Irving Institute. A few weekends ago, we officially kicked off Greenshot, an accelerator for climate entrepreneurs. A partnership between the Institute and the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, Greenshot connects promising startups working on climate solutions — from tech to health to materials and more — with each other, expert advisors and instructors, and the Dartmouth community. It was wonderful to welcome our inaugural cohort to Hanover — we even had a little snow to make it an authentic New England winter visit! We were also honored to have so many Greenshot mentors and advisors attend, both in person and virtually. It has truly been a collaborative effort to launch this program, and we're excited to be a part of these companies' path to success. We'll keep you posted on the cohort's Greenshot journey over the next few months, and we hope that you'll join us at an upcoming event or program during winter term — or just stop by the building to say hello — soon.

Geoffrey Parker, Interim Faculty Director
April Salas, Executive Director

Irving and Magnuson Welcome Nine Startups to Campus for Greenshot, an Accelerator for Climate Solutions

The inaugural Greenshot cohort poses in the Irving atrium with program mentors and staff during Opening Weekend in January. 

On a chilly — and at-times snowy — January weekend, founders and partners in nine climate- and sustainability-focused startups, traveled to Hanover to spend most of the weekend in the Irving Institute building on the Dartmouth campus. The occasion? Opening Weekend of Greenshot, a new climate solutions accelerator powered by the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society and the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship.

The cohort, as well as Greenshot mentors and advisors who joined for the first morning of the program, had a chance not only to enjoy a taste of New Hampshire winter, but also to get to know each other, learn from seasoned entrepreneurs, and get oriented to the program overall. 

Opening Weekend was one of two mandatory in-person sessions of Greenshot (the other being a Demo Day in May during the Magnuson Center's Dartmouth Entrepreneurs Forum event in New York City.) The rest of the program will take place in the form of weekly Zoom sessions, featuring curriculum from experts at the Tuck School of Business and CleanTech Open NE, as well as regular meetings with mentors and other virtual check-ins. Two companies are based at Dartmouth, and other companies have taken advantage of available work space in the beautiful light-filled Institute building.

Read more about Greenshot and the inaugural cohort.

Tools for an Energy Transition

Attendees at the spring 2023 Powering Peace Workshop. Photo by Lars Blackmore.

In spring 2023, Dartmouth's John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding hosted a workshop, Powering Peace: Supporting Renewable Energy for Fragile States, focused on the challenge of decarbonizing UN peacekeeping missions in fragile states. The workshop highlighted an immediate need in terms of how to move forward, prompting Dartmouth participants Vikrant Vaze, Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering, and Steven Peterson, Senior Engineering Lecturer, to submit a successful proposal to the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society (one of the workshop's co-sponsors) to help fund the development of this decision-making framework in conjunction with Dartmouth's Dickey Center, a project that is now in full swing. 

Read more about the project.

Dartmouth Students Attend 2024 Youth Forum on Climate Action and Clean Energy in Concord, NH

Arshi Mahajan ’27 poses a question during the 2024 Youth Forum on Climate Action and Clean Energy in January..

Seven Dartmouth students participated in the 2024 Youth Forum on Climate Action and Clean Energy in Concord, NH in January: Bea Burack ’25, Maya Beauvineau ’26, Justin Kim ’23, Arshi Mahajan ’27, Ben Stevenson ’27, and Erika Wu ’27. The forum, co-sponsored by the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, and the League of Conservation Voters, now in its third year, offers New Hampshire students the opportunity to ask questions of and engage with policy and corporate leaders and others to explore opportunities for building an economically strong and environmentally secure future. This year's forum featured a variety of panels covering topics like Climate, Innovation, and Nature and Workforce, Training and the Climate Economy. 

A recording of the event is available here.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, February 7: 12:15 - 1:30 pm ET: Can TikTok Save the Planet? Communication, Ethical Storytelling, and Building Your Social Media Brand Workshop. The Energy Justice Clinic welcomes EcoTok Collective influencers Doria Brown and Arielle King, who will talk about how to use social media to help create the world you want to see. This event takes place in the Irving Institute Project Hub and will also be live streamed. Learn more

Wednesday, February 14, 12-1 pm ET: New Energy Series, "Spillover Benefits from Electric Vehicle Charging Stations to Local Businesses," with Qingran Li, Clarkson University. Learn more and register for the link. 

Dartmouth Climate and Energy News

New Special Advisor to the Provost on Climate and Energy: Anthropology Professor and Irving Institute Faculty Affiliate Laura Ogden has been appointed to convene campus-wide conversations to develop projects across all academic aspects of climate and sustainability, coordinate with campus partners, seek pilot funding for collaborative initiatives, and organize a national symposium to be held at Dartmouth during the coming year.

The People Have a Right to Climate Data: Geography Professor and Institute Faculty Affiliate Justin Mankin writes about the need for public and accessible climate data in the New York Times. 

Financing First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) Climate Assets: Institute Advisory Board Member David Yeh ’94 talks about the challenges involved in funding FOAK climate projects on this Canary Media podcast. 

Dartmouth Admission's 3-D magazine recently spotlighted Anthropology Professor and Energy Justice Clinic co-director and co-founder Maron Greenleaf as well as Energy Justic Clinic alumnae Sydney Wuu ’24 and Kate Yeo ’25.

A Sustainable Solution To Increase Clean Energy Deployment: NREL News spotlights a recent paper published in Nature Energy, co-authored by Institute Inaugural Director and ENVS Professor Elizabeth Wilson. 

NH Saves May Yet Go Down the Drain: NH Consumer Advocate Don Kreis references a late-fall talk by RMI co-founder Amory Lovins hosted by the Irving Institute in an NH.InDepth.org piece. 

Dartmouth Observers Attending U.N. Climate Summit: Dartmouth news covers attendance by Dartmouth participants, including Kate Yeo ’25, an Energy Justice Clinic alum and Institute Student Grant recipient, at COP28, the UN Climate Conference.

The Hopkins Center for the Arts shared this video of Energy Justice Program Manager and Geography Lecturer Sarah Kelly talking about how she and the EJ Clinic used Arts Integration Grant funding from the Hop to complete a community mural project in White River Junction in Vermont.