Convening New York City leaders to accelerate place-based climate collaboration

Across New York City, a wide range of organizations are advancing climate work—from education and community programs to scientific research and public engagement. The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) recognized an opportunity to bring this regional ecosystem together to collectively map work that’s already underway and where collaboration could accelerate progress. Workshop partnered with AMNH to design and facilitate a structured convening that engaged local partners in connecting, mapping and exploring opportunities.

The result was a clearer picture of climate impact work across NYC, along with actionable opportunities that enable partners to move forward with greater connection, alignment, and momentum.

• Multi-stakeholder convening engaging 60–70 local partners across multiple organizations and initiatives to build shared understanding and connection
• Structured mapping process to document find connections across key areas of climate work, including education, research and public programs.
• Shared map of climate impact initiatives across NYC that made existing work more visible and revealed new connections
• Strengthened positioning of AMNH as both a convener and active partner in NYC’s climate ecosystem

Climate initiatives across New York City are highly distributed, with organizations working in parallel across sectors and focus areas. While this creates a rich ecosystem of activity, it also leads to fragmentation, with limited visibility into existing work and untapped opportunities for coordinated effort.

AMNH recognized the need to convene partners in a way that would surface regional climate work already underway and build trust across organizations. This required a structured approach that could hold complexity, support interaction across diverse groups, and move beyond conversation into practical collaboration.

• Framed the convening around work already in motion, establishing guideposts for equal airtime, curiosity, and active contribution to create conditions for trust across a diverse group
• Designed a multi-round opportunity mapping exercise across five focus areas — youth education, educator support, community engagement, public awareness, and climate research — so partners could collectively surface and document work already underway
• Facilitated a connection exercise, Common Threads, to open the day, helping participants find shared motivations and build the relational foundation the mapping work depended on
• Guided a collaborative exploration session where participants self-selected into areas of shared interest, moving from awareness of each other's work to active identification of partnership opportunities
• Closed with a structured commitment exercise, translating the day's energy into three concrete actions per participant to take within 30 days

• Clearer visibility into climate impact work across NYC and where collaboration can accelerate progress
• Stronger connections across organizations, with increased trust and readiness to work together
• Actionable themes and near-term commitments that move work from conversation into implementation
• Reinforced role of AMNH as a trusted convener and facilitator of cross-sector climate collaboration in New York City
• Sparked multiple collaborations including a community-driven hackathon sponsored by multiple organizations and local research to improve water quality in underserved parts of the city.
• A growing and long-term community network that convenes annually