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Ice911 Research Changes Name to Arctic Ice Project

Ice911 Research Changes Name to Arctic Ice Project

Sep 29, 2020 | Press Releases, Strategy

Rebrand highlights nonprofit’s commitment to helping stabilize the global climate by saving the Earth’s natural heat shield

Redwood City, CA (September 29, 2020) – Ice911 Research, a climate restoration nonprofit, announced today the launch of a new brand identity. The organization will now be known as Arctic Ice Project (www.ArcticIceProject.org).

Arctic Ice Project more clearly brings the organization name into alignment with its mission, philosophy, and commitment to restoring the Earth’s natural heat shield. This new identity will help the nonprofit accomplish significant growth objectives, including expanding its technical work, developing strategic partnerships, and increasing major donor participation on a global scale.

“As our work has grown internationally over the past several years, we’ve found that our prior name was a bit confusing to our global partners and collaborators,” said Tom Light, Executive Director of Arctic Ice Project. “After some thoughtful team discussions, in-depth research, and feedback from many of our long-time supporters, we landed on a name that clearly tells the world what we’re focused on.”

Light continued, “Our audacious mission really is a moonshot project to safely slow climate change and buy time to transition from a carbon economy. The health of the Arctic is vital to preserving the Earth’s environments and ecosystems, and restoring its ice reflectivity may be the single safest lever we have to slowing climate devastation.”

Arctic Ice Project CTO and founder Dr. Leslie Field said, “Now is a great time to strengthen our identity as we work with more and more technical collaborators around the globe and partner with world-class supporters.” (Read Dr. Field’s name change blog post)

The new name is effective immediately.

About Arctic Ice Project
Arctic Ice Project (formerly Ice911 Research) is the most studied ice restoration effort in the world. As a 501(c)(3) climate restoration non-profit organization, we’re developing a localized, safe technique to improve ice reflectivity, increase the Earth’s planetary albedo, and slow the rate of global warming. Our technology represents an opportunity to buy up to 15 more years for our planet to decarbonize.

Expanding Leadership Team; Welcomes Executive Director

Expanding Leadership Team; Welcomes Executive Director

Mar 4, 2020 | Press Releases, Team

Tom Light to help accelerate the next level of global impact for the climate restoration nonprofit

Menlo Park, CA, March 4, 2020 – Ice911 Research, a nonprofit dedicated to safely preserving and restoring Arctic ice, today announced Tom Light as Executive Director effective immediately. The board of directors selected Tom after an extensive, worldwide search.

T.Light - Head Shot - Cropped.png

“A significant increase in funding is enabling rapid capacity building across all areas of the organization, starting with an executive director,” said Steve Payne, chairman of the board of Ice911 Research. “Tom is a strategic and inspirational leader who will help advance our vision and goals so we can prove and scale our climate restoration solution while there’s still time.”

Dr. Leslie Field, who has served since its founding in 2008 as Ice911’s CEO, will continue in her ongoing roles as founder, chief technical officer, board member and as a spokesperson for the organization.

Dr. Field said, “This is a really exciting moment for me personally. I’m delighted to see our capacity expand and make this key hire of Tom Light as our full-time executive director. I look forward to a great partnership with Tom, and to a rapid acceleration of our work to restore Arctic ice. Tom brings his experienced business perspective and proven track record in transitioning fast-growing start-ups to full-scale organizations, which is exactly what we need as we take our work to the next level.”

Tom is tasked with helping lead the efforts in proving to the world that Ice911 Research can preserve and restore Arctic ice. Under his direction, the team will expand its research program and work to establish international policy, governance, and funding for the adoption of Ice911’s solution by local communities, governments, and global institutions. These entities can then implement Ice911’s proven methods at scale to give the world the much-needed time to complete the move to more sustainable energy and conservation solutions.

Tom brings nearly 20 years of experience in the investment banking and nonprofit sector, where he has spent the last seven years working exclusively in the climate action sector. He has a proven track record building high-performing teams and scaling nonprofit organizations through public-private partnerships to fund sustainable worldwide projects.

“As conversations around climate change intensify and as a half-degree of warming quickly turns to environmental and economic hardship, Ice911’s work is of utmost importance. It’s imperative that, for the sake of humanity, we raise private and institutional funds to support and expand our technical programs, research projects, and policy outreach efforts,” said Tom Light, Executive Director of Ice911 Research.

As a climate finance leader, Tom was a founding member of WaterEquity, the first-ever impact investment fund manager with an exclusive focus on climate change adaptation with solutions to the global water crisis. Serving as the sole Managing Director, he scaled the firm from the start-up phase to a mature organization with multiple funds under management.

Tom’s prior experience also includes executive-level positions at UBS Investment Bank and serving as the senior-most leader responsible for the Grameen Foundation’s impact investment strategy in the capacity first as a fund manager and later as the Head of the Capital Management & Advisory Center.

About Ice911 Research
Ice911 Research is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its mission is to develop, test, model, and evaluate for safety, and then prove to the world that it can preserve and restore Arctic ice in a safe and cost-effective way. In addition to its ongoing technical work, the team is working to establish international policy, governance, and funding for the adoption of its solution by local communities, governments, and global institutions.

Climate Restoration Solution to be Tested on Sea Ice

Jan 21, 2020 | Press Releases, Progress

Update: Due to COVID-19 our Canadian sea ice tests have been pushed back to winter 2020.

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Rigorous, controlled testing will allow the nonprofit to measure important climate modeling variables on sea ice

DAVOS, Switzerland (World Economic Forum), January 21, 2020 – Ice911 Research today announced it will begin testing on sea ice next month utilizing the University of Manitoba’s Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) in Winnipeg, Canada. Under rigorously controlled conditions in a contained experimental site, these tests will provide the highest quality data to date about the performance of Ice911’s Arctic sea ice albedo modification solution.

This is an extremely important step in Ice911’s work and will be the organization’s first tests on sea ice. Generous donations and a growing network of connections with sea ice experts worldwide now allow the team to undertake these tests, which follow years of lake tests in multiple U.S. locations, including Alaska.

The Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) in Winnipeg, Canada. Photo credit: Dr. Fei Wang.

The Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) in Winnipeg, Canada. Photo credit: Dr. Fei Wang.

“From this work, we’ll further quantify the albedo-enhancing effect of our approach under various conditions, and its effect on ice preservation. This information will be key in our further collaborations with the climate modeling community to predict impacts of our approach in strategic areas of the Arctic,” said Dr. Field, Founder and CEO of Ice911 Research. “Continued rigorous testing will provide crucial information to international organizations so they can make impartial decisions about governance, permitting and funding. The implementation of our ice restoration solution is needed to help reduce climate risks worldwide while the world’s nations complete their needed transition to sustainable energy and transportation solutions.”

The SERF site is already equipped with a standard instrument package for scientific testing, and Ice911 Research will bring additional customized equipment to measure albedo (reflectivity) in the visible and infrared spectral ranges. This effort at the SERF facility, in conjunction with laboratory tests, enables Ice911 Research to make further strides in its work to develop and test safe and effective albedo modification to preserve and restore Arctic sea ice.

“This is a tremendous moment for Ice911 Research and the climate restoration movement as we work to preserve Arctic ice and ensure a habitable planet for future generations,” said Rick Parnell, CEO of Foundation for Climate Restoration. “We are thrilled that further testing will be completed to ensure the solution is safe, viable and scalable while setting the standard in ice solutions.”

Ice911 Research will begin testing at SERF in February and will continue until the melt at the test facility is complete. The team’s objective is to quantify the behavior and persistence of microsphere-treated Arctic sea ice, compared to untreated control Arctic ice.Field adds, “We look forward to these tests, and to further developing our partnerships with the University of Manitoba and other sea ice testing facilities worldwide, as we bring our solution closer and closer to completion to ready it for use by the international community at scale.”

Why Arctic ice matters
The region plays a critical role in maintaining a safe and stable global climate. For the past 700,000 years, Arctic ice has acted as the Earth’s heat shield by reflecting incoming solar radiation safely back to space, keeping us at an even temperature. The risks of an ice-free Arctic include accelerating temperature rise, as well as increased release of more greenhouse gases from melting permafrost deposits. The disappearance of the Arctic’s summer sea ice cover is one of the most visible warning signs of severe climate change and is already having consequences that are felt all over the world.

Ice911 Research’s solution
The team has spent the past decade testing and developing material approaches that could be used to make young, thin ice reflective. They are now focused on using reflective hollow glass microspheres, a material chosen for its safety, effectiveness, and practicality. These microspheres can be thought of as a kind of small, fine, white beach sand that floats. In a sense, the material is a lot like snow. The reflective beads stick to ice and water on contact, and their chemical composition ensures they don’t attract oil-based pollutants.

Media inquiries: Please see the Arctic Ice Project Media Kit

About Ice911 Research
Ice911 Research is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to restoring the Arctic ice and polar habitat. Its mission is to develop, test, model, and evaluate for safety, and then prove to the world that it can preserve and restore Arctic ice in a safe and cost-effective way. The team is working to establish international policy, governance, and funding for the adoption of its solution by local communities, governments, and global institutions.