Why urban ERW in NYC?
Connecting New Yorkers to emerging climate solutions
by: Jonathan Lambert and Julia Dacey on June 11, 2026
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and even though climate change mitigation is actively occurring, it can often feel like little progress is being made. Because of this, the discourse around climate and environmental issues can feel (to many) negative and can lead to a sense of overwhelm and powerlessness. Therefore, our project aims to make one form of beneficial climate action – agricultural enhanced rock weathering (ERW) – tangible and apparent to both the NYU community and NYC public. We seek to accomplish this through an engaging and accessible physical microcosm of this globally-scalable climate solution that allows us to highlight one of many innovations that can help mitigate climate change.
A role for agriculture in tackling climate change
The food and agriculture system provides for the global population but also contributes to global environmental impacts and climate change. For instance, approximately 34% of all greenhouse gas emissions (the cause of climate change) are related to food and agriculture. This percentage is often shocking when first heard and is one of many statistics that can lead to the feeling of climate/eco-paralysis which we alluded to earlier. One aim of our project is to counter this paralysis by cultivating community knowledge of and investment in a climate solution that harnesses agricultural processes.
We have chosen a site in downtown Manhattan because often urban communities primarily experience the downstream results of food production – remaining shielded from the climate and environmental impacts of agricultural systems. This flows both directions , as communities who are not in touch with agriculture may also struggle to visualize this system as a path to mitigating climate change. Because of this, we have designed this project to provide a pathway for both NYU affiliates and NYC residents around the Urban Farm Lab (an NYU-run community farm on Houston Street) to engage with an accessible agricultural ERW site. We hope this will foster:
Connection and engagement with agriculture
First-hand experience with implementing and evaluating a scalable climate solution
Interaction with hyper-local climate data and biogeochemical field + lab methods
A first-of-its kind site with broader possibilities
As we covered in our previous blog piece, ERW is primarily practiced on large swaths of farmland outside of cities. However, researchers are beginning to consider incorporation of ERW into other land uses such as urban farming projects in Singapore and on green roofs in Europe. Building upon this, we have designed our site at the Urban Farm Lab to be the first fully-implemented “urban ERW” site in NYC and (to our knowledge) the first site of its kind in the world. While the plots we have set aside are too small to have substantial climate impact, they are aimed at demonstrating to the public the practicalities of implementing and scaling ERW. In this vein, we plan to strategically engage community members in conversations and education around the science of ERW as well as future monitoring and scaling needs for this climate solution. Doing so will hopefully allow NYU affiliates and NYC residents to understand the significance of ERW and feel confident critically evaluating its potential and assess evidence of its successes (and/or failures). To this end, we are developing bespoke, readily-available, and accessible ag-climate educational materials such as physical factsheets and online resources like this blog. Our team will also lead citizen/student science sampling and data analysis events alongside independently quantifying this project’s climate impact. We will do this via strategic biogeochemical measurements and will strategically communicate these results via this blog and through in-person outreach in collaboration with target organizations such as the New York Public Library, NYU Climate Initiative, and New York Climate Exchange.
We are excited that this first-of-a-kind interdisciplinary project brings ERW from beyond large-scale farms and the offices of startups, venture capital firms, and environmental nonprofits and into an urban community farm setting. In doing so, it expands the role of ERW from a tool for climate mitigation into a platform for education and public engagement. Most ERW projects focus primarily on carbon quantification and environmental monitoring, and at this site we will continue to conduct these crucial analyses, however the project is also designed to serve as a model for urban climate solutions outreach more broadly.
Since implementation in April 2026, we have already received funding to expand to a second NYC site at the Gallatin WetLab on Governor’s Island. If we continue to see success in this urban ERW outreach and education model it could be replicated in communities around the world. By making this work visible and accessible, we hope to highlight that alongside the challenges of climate change, there are innovative, forward-thinking solutions that people can learn from and feel hopeful about. Perhaps these sites will even inspire new scalable climate solutions to be tested here in NYC and beyond.
