By Dr. Anne Waple:Five years ago this month, The Collider officially opened its doors in Asheville.

By: Dr. Ann Waple, CEO of Earth’s Next Chapter & Member at The Collider - April 2021

Conceived as a co-working space and accelerator for climate-related businesses and organizations, it’s beautiful floor-to-ceiling west windows looked out on a great view in 2016: the Western North Carolina mountains, and a growing membership dedicated to solving our most pressing global problem while bringing economic opportunity to our town.

So, how has that view changed over the last five years? And how might it change in the next five years?

In 2016, The Collider was already a product of more than 10 years of grassroots organizing around economic opportunity, sustainability-focused local development, and philanthropic support. This effort was driven in part by the growing recognition and reputation of Asheville as a center of climate change expertise. Since 1953, Asheville has hosted the world’s largest repository of weather and climate information (run by NOAA), and by 2016, was contributing ever-more important and visible expertise to national and global climate research, data management, and climate services.

In 2021, it’s safe to say that private sector climate services are growing rapidly in number and importance, and looking back, it seems like a natural step to support this growth right here in Asheville alongside the federal climate data center. But a decade or more ago, the industry’s growth was by no means obvious. The Collider in 2021 is very much rooted in the creativity, foresight, investment — and dedication — of a handful of local troublemakers! And still, there has been significant evolution in the last five years since its official inception, and the Collider has had to weather (pun intended!) multiple challenges.

So, with the backdrop of a growing climate industry, what are the main ways the Collider has already played a role in supporting the local and not-so-local members of the climate services community, and where might it be in another five years?

A Thriving Network

The collaborative nature of the Collider has always been the cornerstone of its philosophy — understanding that the knowledge about and the solutions for climate change are bigger than any one sector can generate. Plus, collaboration is just more fun and creative (both necessary elements for solving climate change), and the members have always had a positive, generative network in mind. In 2020, the Collider got even more serious about creating a generative network, and the members themselves began providing the bulk of the strategic direction. While the network has strengthened throughout the last five years, the hope is that it will very much continue to grow and evolve as our response to climate change does the same.

This network is intended to support the members that are scattered all over the US, but in particular, promote the growth of climate services right here in Asheville, as well as to serve our partner organizations in town.

The collaborative nature of the Collider has always been the cornerstone of its philosophy — understanding that the knowledge about and the solutions for climate change are bigger than any one sector can generate.

In another five years, the hope is that more businesses and organizations choose to locate their HQs in Asheville, and that both the local and the national scale of The Collider’s network will be recognized as an authoritative hub for climate solutions across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

Local Economic Contributions

As the number of businesses and organizations increase and as many of those businesses have become more successful, the Collider has provided an increasing positive local economic impact.

Although the Collider hasn’t tracked the specific revenue of its businesses and organizations (something to consider for the next five years!), it’s estimated that the Collider members have grossed between $5–10m, not including the government contracts or NOAA’s Cooperative Institute, which is part of the UNC system. This is a baseline number and is projected to rise quite sharply in the next several years. Obviously, this helps the local economy directly, but there is also more indirect support to help make sure that Asheville’s economy can be a sustainable and climate-resilient one, with lots of local expertise to draw on.

Asheville on the National Climate Stage

As a collaborative network, Asheville is getting significant recognition as a hub of climate expertise, so much so that Asheville has started to be referred to as Climate City. In addition, several of the businesses and organizations in The Collider work at national and international levels and have their own impressive reputation.

For example, Climate Interactive, a nonprofit, regularly contributes its climate scenario graphics and analysis to the New York Times, and to international discussions, such as at the Paris Conference of Parties — the meeting at which the Paris Accord was signed. NEMAC-Fernleaf has been the main developer on the US Climate Resilience Toolkit — a key resource for cities and businesses looking to prepare for climate impacts. The US National Climate Assessment has benefitted from several Collider member contributions, and companies such as EcoBot are generating investment capital to serve clients all over the US with how to monitor, manage, and safely use wetlands.

Community Events and Education

Allied with the beautiful space on the 4th floor of the Wells Fargo Building, the Collider has hosted more than 150 events in its short history — from publicly-accessible ‘science pubs’, to large conferences (e.g. ClimateCon), to movie nights, hackathons and much more. Although COVID-19 has put a temporary halt to the in-person events, online meetings have still occurred and the Collider envisages opening the space back up to public events again later in 2021.

It is hoped that the Collider can become a local ‘go-to’ space for professional and public events alike. As the Asheville and surrounding communities drive towards their ambitious climate and sustainability goals in the next few years and decades, the Collider can become a place for locals and visitors to connect knowledge and action — becoming not only better educated about the world and our human systems, but also more inspired to participate.

A Focus on Opportunity

Much of the talk around climate change is…well, a little harrowing if we’re honest. Certainly the problems loom large and the changes required can seem a little daunting. However, change is already occurring rapidly — globally, nationally, and most obviously, at city and state scales. Asheville and The Collider is already building a reputation for being at the forefront of supporting positive change, and we see this only growing. Technological innovation, climate service models, data and scientific support, communications expertise, are all housed in organizational members of the Collider.

Reports in recent years (e.g. from investment giants such as BlackRock, and Bank of America, or from US-based nonprofits such as GreenBiz and CERES) have all indicated that industries and organizations that fully include climate change in their planning and operations are going to do better financially (and obviously also have a more positive impact on climate). Federal investment in renewables, and sustainable infrastructure is about to take off, and states and cities have already made bold commitments that will ensure the demand for climate services will grow in the next five years and beyond.

As the Asheville and surrounding communities drive towards their ambitious climate and sustainability goals in the next few years and decades, the Collider can become a place for locals and visitors to connect knowledge and action.

We think that the Collider couldn’t be better positioned to help bring the needed creative solutions to the challenge of climate change, AND increase the financial and reputational well-being of its members and the Western North Carolina region.

Dr. Anne Waple is the founder and CEO of Earth’s Next Chapter, with more than 20 years experience working in the public and private sector of the climate industry. She has been a member of The Collider since its founding.