CHINATOWN BUREAU Named a Finalist in the NYCx Climate Action Challenge
CHINATOWN BUREAU has been charging through the final round of New York City’s “NYCx Climate Action Challenge.” The contest dares the private industry to help the City of New York accelerate its infrastructure for the Electric Vehicle future. Announced by Mayor Bill De Blasio in late 2017, the Climate Action Challenge is part of the larger NYCx program which seeks to engage technology companies to partner with the city to deliver new technologies that address pressing issues such as climate change and transportation access while increasing jobs and supporting a growing clean-tech economy.
Building on our foundation of mobility and human-centered design, we partnered with innogy Consulting to deliver an end-to-end solution that goes beyond just charging hardware and into an interconnected, intelligent network of charging and mobility services. “Partnering with innogy Consulting was a no-brainer for us. As trusted partners, we saw the value in their expertise in energy consulting, EV charging hardware and their point of view on how the future of smart cities will manifest,” says Paul Miser, CEO / Co-Founder of CHINATOWN BUREAU. “Together, we came up with an amazing solution that not only answers the brief, but shows how a city like New York could lead the smart city transformation globally.”
The Solution:
The solution proposed a business plan and brought to life a strategic combination of hardware (EV charging stations), software (data-enabled consumer and city applications) and services (neighborhood, smart city and mobility offerings). These core elements manifested at our “charging hubs” in three ways:
- Charging Pole: Single, curbside charging pole
- Community Hubs: Multi-charger station integrated in local communities and neighborhoods
- Flagship Hubs: Multi-charger station positioned strategically near destinations (i.e. Hudson Yards, Madison Square Garden, etc)
Together these created an interconnected network of options for EV drivers, vehicle-for-hire drivers, company fleets and government fleets while adding value to the neighborhoods they served.
“We are thrilled to be part of this contest, as we are not only helping the City of New York achieve their environmental KPIs, but also foster meaningful community involvement and thus increase the quality of life for residents of all 5 boroughs of New York," says Marie Berry, CSO / Co-Founder of Chinatown Bureau.
The Pitch:
To bring this to life, the CHINATOWN BUREAU and innogy Consulting team put together a physical demonstration of the EV charging and smart city hardware, an end-user mobile app and a VR experience showing how Community and Flagship Hubs come to life, powered by our great partners at Garou.
“GAROU is thrilled to collaborate with innogy and the Chinatown Bureau to bring the virtual reality dimension to the proposal for the Climate Action Challenge by NYCx, City of New York Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer,” said Gaspard Giroud, co-founder and CEO, GAROU. “There is no more vibrant and memorable way to experience the future flagship hub than being able to walk inside of it and take a tour just as if you were doing it in real life. Building upon room-scale VR technology, the GAROU team designed and painstakingly modeled in CGi the future hub, giving an entirely new dimension to the project: making the virtual the most tangible and palpable yet.”
The Outcome:
After hundreds of submissions from organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies, CHINATOWN BUREAU and innogy Consulting were named as finalists. The winner of the challenge is to be announced at the end of June. Regardless of the outcome, it’s a true honor and privilege to be recognized as a finalist.