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 and 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.

Strategy & Framing

• Framed the convening around work already in motion to help participants build on existing efforts instead of starting from scratch.
• Established clear guideposts for connection, interaction, and contribution, creating the conditions for trust, curiosity, and active participation.

Convening Design

• Designed a structured “world cafe” workshop to support collective mapping of work across five focus areas, including youth education, educator support, community engagement, public awareness, and climate research.
• Participants moved through multiple rounds to document current initiatives, contribute to a shared understanding of the landscape, and surface partnership opportunities.

Facilitation & Co-creation

• Facilitated interactive exercises, including Common Threads and station-based mapping, to support connection and collaboration.
• Guided participants to identify intersections across their work and contribute resources, knowledge, and networks to collective efforts.

Synthesis & Opportunity Identification

• Synthesized outputs into a set of 8–10 actionable themes, highlighting areas for near-term collaboration and shared initiatives.
• Helped participants see patterns across focus areas and identify where coordinated effort could drive greater impact.

Commitment & Next Steps

• Before parting ways, we guided participants to identify concrete actions to take in the 30 days following the convening.
• Provided a framework for AMNH to track commitments and continue supporting collaboration across the network.

• 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.