New York Climate Week 2025: the need-to-knows
By Cliff Maroney
New York Climate Week 2025 is a crucial platform for sustainability leaders, investors, and innovators. Key trends include ESG backlash, sustainable construction, datacenter power needs, and nuclear energy’s resurgence. PR professionals should prepare for high-impact storytelling opportunities across renewables, infrastructure, and tech-driven climate solutions.
It’s almost that time of the year again for the sustainability industry and its PR pros: New York Climate Week (NYCW).
Boasting nearly 1,000 events spread across the city, NYCW is at the top of many sustainability organizations’ “must attend” lists. And for good reason.
Bringing together stakeholders from across the sustainability worlds – from finance pros, to regulators, to materials providers – NYCW provides a rare opportunity for some of today’s leading sustainability power players to rub elbows with the next generation of sustainability thinkers and pioneers.
But, as with any event that is this sprawling, trying to figure out exactly where to start and what conversations might dominate the event can feel like a tall task for PR agency professionals and their clients.
So with that, here is a whistle-stop tour of some of the biggest trends heading into NYCW 2025 and a few creative niches that PR professionals might be able to find.
The sustainable investing landscape has shifted. How is it going to adapt?
One of the most unique dynamics at this year’s NYCW is the evolving landscape and pushback surrounding ESG – particularly from the event’s host nation. Headlined by the of the SEC Climate Disclosure Rule’s death by a thousand cuts, the United States has long been viewed as the hub for ESG skepticism. But the country is not alone. For the first time ever Europeans were net sellers of sustainable ETFs and mutual funds in 2025. NYCW sessions like “Rising above the headwinds: harnessing tailwinds for increased decarbonization” will touch on the controversy.
“The Climate Week NYC events program runs across our ten event themes; Energy, Environmental Justice, Finance, Food, Health, Heavy Industry, Nature, Policy, Sustainable Living, and Transport… This year’s theme, “Power On,” calls for all of us to accelerate climate action, scale innovation, and energize global collaboration.” — NYCW
It isn’t necessarily surprising to see tides changing. Calls among investors for more nuanced impact investing approaches and better transparency about how exactly their investments are performing – or simply what realistic outcomes and targets should be – have been growing for some time. The question now is what the space will do to adapt. So far, the signs have been intriguing if not definitive.
Stakeholders have been increasingly embracing future-looking technology such as AI to deliver evidence-based approaches, for example. At the same, standardization in impact investment training and guidance continues to evolve and is helping “on the ground” analysts and advisors better meet clients where they are and hit expectations. This “new wave” thinking is presenting opportunities for new takes on the future of sustainable investing. One trending conversation at NYCW will focus on sustainable construction.
Buildings and materials innovation to move further center stage?
NYCW’s themes include a Built Environment program. In 2024, New York City needed to add 560,000 residential units by 2030 to keep up with demand. And New York isn’t alone. The housing crisis has spread to nearly after corner of the world with the public and private sector scrambling to try and find solutions.
Compounding this need for greater housing access for stakeholders is how they are going to make units as sustainable and health friendly for both individuals and their surrounding environments. Fortunately, as both pressure points have become more acute, discussions have begun to focus on both the volume and sustainability of units alike – and unique niches have opened up for storytelling and expertise.
Plastics in particular have emerged as one persona-non-grata of note. Historically, to help stretch budgets, housing stakeholders have turned to cost-friendly building and materials options – namely plastics. To that end, plastics are woven into nearly every aspect of building and construction – from carpet fiber to paint – making the construction industry one of the biggest consumers of plastics around the world. This sizable contribution to plastics consumption and pollution has become too big to avoid and is quietly one of the more unique and emerging white spaces that stakeholders in the construction and sustainability worlds may be able to add a voice to as part of NYCW conversations.
Datacenters dominate power conversations
Nearly all of the tech industry’s largest players continue to pour billions into datacenter expansion to meet global computing needs. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, by 2028 datacenters will consume 12 percent of the country’s energy sources. Phoenix, one of the leading datacenter hotspots, is set to see its datacenter capacity jump by over 550 percent – the equivalent of nearly 4.5 million homes. This surge in demand is simply unprecedented, and is leaving power stakeholders with more questions than answers about how they are going to feed these gargantuan computing engines while still prioritizing sustainability and meeting internal and external climate pressures. See DLA Piper’s NYCW’s session on September 24 for more on “Data Centers and the Future.”
Renewables have been a boon in helping to shoulder some of these power sourcing burdens. Continued investments in leading renewables assets like solar, wind and battery storage, will continue to underpin renewables proliferation. (Google, for example, just signed a massive 600 MW solar deal in South Carolina.) More intriguingly though is the reemergence of one of the biggest hot button issues in the renewables world: nuclear. Already, technology heavy weights have allocated billions towards nuclear development initiatives as a way to generate “always on” power. Significant regulatory and deployment challenges remain, however, the enthusiasm with which nuclear has resurfaced has made it one of the most intriguing trends to watch.
Looking forward to the event
With 900 events, activations, campaigns and engagement opportunities, the hustle and bustle around NYCW can certainly be a bit overwhelming. However, by keeping an eye out for both legacy trends and breaking developments, PR pros can both nurture unique conversations with journalists around the event and build future looking relationships around key narratives for the remainder of the year.
About the author
Cliff Maroney is a SVP in the Aspectus New York office.
Key takeaways
What’s the biggest shift in sustainable investing expected at NYCW 2025?
ESG investing is facing increased skepticism, especially in the U.S. and Europe. NYCW will highlight the demand for more transparent, evidence-based impact strategies.
How is the built environment taking center stage?
Housing demand and sustainability pressures are spotlighting construction innovation, especially in replacing plastics and greening materials for healthier communities.
What role do datacenters play in NYCW discussions?
Datacenters are projected to consume 12% of U.S. power by 2028. NYCW will explore sustainable energy sourcing amid rising tech infrastructure needs.
What’s the surprise comeback energy source at NYCW?
Nuclear energy is regaining attention due to its “always on” capabilities, despite ongoing deployment and regulatory hurdles.
Why should PR pros care about NYCW 2025?
With nearly 1,000 events, NYCW offers rare access to emerging narratives, high-profile stakeholders, and long-term relationship-building opportunities in climate communication.
