[This article was taken from NJTW News, an NJTechWeekly.com newsletter. Sign up for it here.]
Focus On Women Designing Environmental Justice
- This year, the annual Women Designing the Future Conference, sponsored by NJIT’s Murray Center for Women in Technology, turned to questions of environmental justice.
- One example given was the placement of incinerators in Camden and Newark, while other New Jersey communities managed to avoid them.
- The incinerators were supposed to be the technological answer to Newark’s trash problem. Instead, they created environmental problems of their own.
- Local activists, including a few panel members, were told that the state constitution didn’t allow decisions on the location of incinerators to account the cumulative effect of pollution on a community’s environment.
- The activists have proposed an amendment to the state constitution, ACR80/SCR30, to ensure environmental justice.
- Asked how women in tech could help in their efforts, panelists noted a number of possible avenues, including the interpretation of data from environmental activities in Newark.
- According to panelist Christian Rodriguez, community organizer at the Ironbound Community Corporation (Newark), “When creating technology, ask the question ‘Is this extractive? Is this regenerative? Is there anyone being sacrificed in this process?'”
Crestron Acquires Intelligent Videoconferencing Room Tech
- Rockleigh-based Crestron, which specializes in workplace automation and collaboration solutions said that it planned to acquire the intelligent video technology developed by 1 Beyond (Boston).
- The integration of this technology will strengthen the Crestron ecosystem and core competency in videoconferencing, audio/video, and control and automation for collaboration rooms, the company said.
- The technology will be particularly useful in hybrid collaboration situations, Creston noted.
Regional Hydrogen Hub
- Gov. Murphy joined with the governors of New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut to create a multi-state partnership to propose a regional clean hydrogen hub.
- The proposed hub is intended to become one of at least four designated under the federal Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program.
- “Clean hydrogen has the promise to expand New Jersey’s diverse clean energy portfolio,” Murphy said.