>> Good evening and welcome to MetroFocus, I Jack Ford.

After a series of bold proposals, we finally have a winner.

Eric Adams revealed that the 172 acre site will become home to the New York climate exchange, a $700 million campus dedicated to finding solutions to the global climate crisis.

The city selected a consortium and -- anchored by Stony Brook University to transform it into a hub for students, researchers and New Yorkers in need of new job training.

The University President helped lead the Stony Brook's -- schools successful bid.

And where joint by a fellow professor who focuses on better understanding the impacts of climate change.

She has been involved in this entire project.

This is part of our pearl and promise initiative.

I'd like you to explain for us why and how this entire project came about.

>> This project came about in many ways because of the ambition of the city of New York.

Trying to figure out how might we approach climate change in a different way.

And they begin a process that we entered about two years ago and we did so, be because we certainly see climate change as the biggest challenge that our generation and the generations that will follow behind us face.

And we thought we had ideas of ways to bring bold and innovative solutions to this challenge.

I would say that the most important of those is that we were going to work in a different model and work through partnerships.

Bringing together a wide range of higher educational institutions, University of Washington, Georgia Tech, paste and Pratt, CUNY, and NYU, Oxford, RIT, Duke and major corporate partners, IBM, Moody's, BCG, together with dozens of New York City-based community and environmental action groups.

And the idea was that what we need to do is to figure out how to talk across sectors, work together, designing from the beginning, real-world solutions that can be limited.

>> The big lead you brag a little bit about your University, it being the anchor.

How did that come about?

>> It came about because we are of New York, we are deleting public institutions in the New York City area, we are of and for New Yorkers and we have long been leading in many of the areas which are so important to solving this problem.

Whether that be about coastal resiliency, clean water, climate change, the impacts of weather changes in green energy and battery technology and wind energy.

These are things that we have been working on for many years.

And so we immediately saw an opportunity for us to try to have an impact right here in our backyard in New York.

>> Professor Reed I mentioned in the introduction the various components here.

Some have to do with students and others have to do with research and practical applications, job training.

I was struck by one oh.

This would be in essence a living laboratory.

What does that mean?

>> Inmates that the technologies that we will develop to make this laboratory work, both for research and educational needs is going to be on demonstration and also a testing ground.

As we use the technologies to make this campus carbon neutral and not using excess water or waste, that could be a model for the city and also an opportunity for our students and faculty and staff from this partnership as well as community groups to learn from that laboratory.

To help inform the future research which happens in there and also how do we help translate that back out all around kind of New York City.

In essence, it is really this opportunity to learn from the building itself, how we can help to meet our climate goals in New York and New York City.

>> Will would you say to students about the opportunities this will provide for them as part of the educational and community experience?

>> I will start with our undergraduates at Stony Brook and their partners, this is an opportunity whether you are an English major or premed major or a fireball -- biology major or engineering.

Spend a semester living on Governors Island contributed to the sustainability in that living laboratory we talked about.

And bring that knowledge about climate solutions, environmental justice and impacts in ways we can cultivate solutions, bringing that back to your studies on campus.

So when it helps to your career and create this career that is about living in a world that is greener that it is now and allowing us to meet our climate goals.

>> President McGinnis, let's go back to.

In addition to these exciting concepts, the physical structure of the project is fairly breathtaking.

Give us a quick sense of what it will look like and why it is so significant.

>> I think that is a really important part of our living laboratory.

The buildings have been designed by our architectural partners SOM wishes speak to the place, the undulating curves of the island, they speak to the undulating water which surrounds the island, but the technology that is employed in the buildings themselves is remarkable.

Some of the first use in the city of massive timber on a commercial scale, the employment of totally green energy, geothermal and solar to supply all of the needs of the campus, and in fact producing more that we can give back to the city, circular water systems, so that we are very efficient and -- in our use of water and the idea is that not only our students, faculty and staff who are residents getting to experience this, but so do the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will come to the island every year.

That is an important piece of the living laboratory.

>> Professor, back to you.

One of the other aspects we talk about is the ability to provide green job training.

Talk about that.

>> This is one of the funds that -- ones that I am also excited about.

There is an opportunity here that among group -- Freudian groups there is a need to help prepare workers, building trades for example, for the change that we are already beginning to see, the change in needs and energy efficiency in buildings.

As the change rapidly occurs over the next decade plus, there is a real need to kind of provide that information, provide that kind of, you know, constant update to the technology as it changes.

What we were trying to do at the New York climate change is not reinvent the wheel.

We are trying to empathize those existing groups and help provide access to training locations, to help provide access to experts, to help inform and make sure trainings are up-to-date and especially as laws as we all know and regulations are constantly changing.

And to make sure that a lot of those needed training programs have a home-based where we are thinking about changing something and we need to figure out how to make midtown Manhattan more energy-efficient, one place you can go to have this conversation would be the climate exchange.

>> Metta President, back to you.

A lot of people are asking where the money is coming from, is that taxpayer dollars, what is the answer?

>> The majority of this money is going to come from philanthropic support.

The city made a commitment in providing a small parcel of land on Governors Island to the New York climate exchange and a little bit of support for the construction costs, but the vast majority of this will be raised philanthropically.

We have a gift from the Simons foundation of $100 million and an additional $50 million which has already been committed by Bloomberg philanthropy.

We are enormously appreciative of our philanthropic partners and we are really excited now that this is public to continue to talk with others who believe in this collaborative cross sector approach to coming together to work together on our solutions for climate change.

>> I suspect people are saying what an exciting prospect this is, having this up and running.

What is the timeframe we are talking about before this is going to be in place?

>> Like with all projects of this scope is going to be a few years until there is going to be that physical presence that we can all take advantage of.

A couple more years, probably details related to design, we hope to break ground in 2025, and then we have an anticipated opening of the facility in 2028.