When we initially dreamed up the Innovation Station initiative in July 2021, we were inspired by two simple facts. First, climate challenges are shared by communities around the world. And second, women and girls across the United States and globally are developing creative, translatable solutions to these challenges every day. If we could amplify these innovators as they build their networks to share best practices, develop collaborations, and deploy their learnings in new locations, these women and girls could help us solve our shared climate and environmental challenges more efficiently.
That’s why, for the last two years, the Innovation Station’s virtual event series has regularly gathered audiences from every corner of the globe to learn from women and girls making a difference in their communities by developing technical, programmatic, and initiative-based solutions. More than 100 women and girls are now part of our Innovation Station network, and their areas of expertise are incredibly diverse, ranging from aquaculture, the cryosphere, and habitat restoration to higher education, the fashion industry, and mental health. Their work has been captured in our Innovation Station podcast and shared with thousands of community members through our Innovation Station Quarterly newsletter. We’re proud to have helped them build over 480 new relationships to date.
Watching these numbers grow has certainly been exciting, but we know that tangible outcomes and impacts are what truly matter. So earlier this year, we polled our network members to learn whether they’ve benefited from being part of the Innovation Station. More than half of respondents reported participating in meetings to share best practices and grow their professional relationships, while nearly half had established ongoing conversations or new collaborations as a result of joining the Innovation Station network. They shared additional impacts such as expanding their international reach, gaining new partners, and experiencing increased access to publications, events, and other resources.
Innovation Station network members have participated in civil society consultations and roundtable discussions that have informed the U.S. Department of State’s actions on the nexus of gender equality and climate change. But they’ve reached beyond government spheres, as well. For instance, Exposure Labs and Earth Angel, two entertainment industry organizations represented during The Innovation Station: Golden State , have explored practices to improve the sustainability of future productions. Exposure Labs is also in conversation with the One Humanity Writing Collective, a group of domestic and international woman and non-binary fiction writers jointly drafting stories of climate resilience.
“Our organization gained a partner in the region where we work, and they are now an active participant in one of our working committees. That’s huge for us.”
—Laura Bowie, Executive Director, Gulf of Mexico Alliance
Innovators have also witnessed their tools and resources spread to new audiences, sometimes with the help of our U.S. Missions and partners abroad. One network member reported serving on an ocean conservation panel co-hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, as well as joining the State Department’s speaker program to facilitate further engagement. The fishery and aquaculture sustainability tools generated by Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, an organization that took part in The Innovation Station: Gulf Coast , were featured in a workshop facilitated by the American Institute in Taiwan.
Network members have shared their success stories in myriad venues. Safe Squad served as a featured speaker at events hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the University of Reykjavik, while Landesa provided a panelist for the U.S. Center’s COP27 Gender Day event . After connecting with new partners in Hungary, Farm From a Box was asked to participate in a side event at the ECOSOC Youth Forum in April 2023. The Alliance of Native Seedkeepers spoke at a recent APEC Sustainability and Inclusion Roundtable. In honor of this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Elephant Savior , Oceans Initiative , Eco Star Recycling , and PaTree Initiative were profiled on Share America.
Here in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, we’re eager to share the progress of the Innovation Station initiative while amplifying the impact of woman and girl innovators. That’s why we share the initiative’s goals during diplomatic travel, and we consider whether introductions to network members may be useful to the government officials, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations, and academics we meet in-country. As the third year of the Innovation Station gets underway, we look forward to growing our network to over 150 members, reaching new audiences with our virtual event series and podcast, and—of course—learning about even more game-changing solutions dreamed up by women and girl innovators. With the help of the Innovation Station, we commit to doing our part to elevate their voices.
About the author: Aubrey R. Paris, Ph.D., is the Senior Policy Advisor for Gender, Climate Change, and Innovation in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), where she leads the Innovation Station initiative. Dr. Paris received her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Materials Science from Princeton University and B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from Ursinus College.