On October 11, 2016, in partnership with local officials and community-based organizations, NYLCVEF hosted a forum on the topic of green infrastructure in the Buffalo-Niagara metropolitan region. The forum featured two panel discussions of policymakers and green infrastructure experts:

Panel 1: Lynda Schneekloth, Professor Emeritus at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning (Moderator)
Julie Barrett O’Neill, General Counsel, Buffalo Sewer Authority
Maris Grundy, Sustainable Landscaping Manager, PUSH Buffalo
Kathleen Buckler, Wetland Ecologist, Army Corps of Engineers
Scott Rybarczyk, Associate Principal and Senior Stormwater Engineer, Wendel
Sean Burkholder, Professor of Landscape and Urban Design, University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning

Panel 2: Carley Hill, Safety Director and Environmental Officer, Union Concrete and NYLCV Education Fund Board Member (Moderator)
Jill Jedlicka, Executive Director and Riverkeeper, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper
Justin Booth, Executive Director, Go Bike Buffalo
Brian Kulpa, Mayor, Village of Williamsville
Bart Roberts, Associate Director of Research and Faculty Engagement, UB Regional Institute

The first panel discussion reviewed the innovative work of the green infrastructure work being done by the Buffalo Sewer Authority, PUSH Buffalo, the Army Corps of Engineers, Wendel and the UB School of Architecture and Planning. Each panelist emphasized the importance of collaboration, and the City of Buffalo was recognized for its innovation and continued leadership on the issue. Drawing from varied experience in wastewater treatment, workforce development, wetland ecology, engineering and design, the multidisciplinary panel identified some early successes in the region's efforts to capture and control stormwater runoff. Panelists also discussed some of the key challenges to implementing these projects in the future, including the need for maintenance funding and civic engagement to broaden public understanding of the importance of investing public funds in green infrastructure projects.

The second group of panelists from Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, Go Bike Buffalo, the Village of Williamsville and the UB Regional Institute followed this conversation by taking a bigger picture view of the role that green infrastructure could play in future regional planning efforts and watershed management. Despite this different focus, panelists echoed many sentiments of the previous group. Specific projects such as the Niagara Street Gateway were lauded for including a complete streets model in design and implementation, a feature that can maximize the multiple positive effects of green infrastructure investments in the future. The importance of leadership from policymakers, another recurring theme from the first panel, was also raised as a significant opportunity for envisioning and implementing green infrastructure in local municipalities and across the region. Panelists agreed that continued public engagement will be essential for all of these reasons, ultimately enabling the region to capture the benefits of the One Region Forward planning process.

The forum was hosted by the Buffalo History Museum, generously sponsored by Roux Associates and Union Concrete, and featured by WBFO Buffalo.

Download our reccomendations here!

Last fall, we held a forum on Green Infrastructure in the Capital Region at Albany Law School. Today we're excited to give you the first look at our just released recommendations that the Capital Region can follow to expand green infrastructure.

Our key recommendations for executive offices at the municipal and county levels include:

• Implement green infrastructure projects on waterfront edges as natural barriers in flood-prone inland areas to mitigate rain-induced flooding, increase resiliency, and improve public and overall ecosystem health.
• Explore private property retrofit incentive programs such as the Stormwater Management Incentives Program and Greened Acre Retrofit Program in Philadelphia, the Rainwise Program in Seattle and the Riversmart Homes program in Washington, D.C. as well as Pay-for-Performance and Pay-for-Success contract models such as the Environmental Impact Bond issued by D.C. Water.
• Reexamine stormwater fee-based programs to encourage property owners to convert a certain percentage of their property to green infrastructure.
• Green infrastructure is a vital part of healthy communities. It reduces water pollution, mitigates flooding, and improves our urban spaces.

We look forward to working with municipal and regional leaders in the Capital Region and across New York State to implement these recommendations.

Click here to Read our Recommendations for the Capital Region

Many of the biggest threats to environmental policy and funding in New York are coming from Washington, posing a significant challenge to local officials. Despite this, we see opportunity. New York’s congressional delegation includes leaders on both sides of the aisle who can play an important role in their respective caucuses in ensuring that New York does not get left behind.

We developed our agenda in close consultation with other leading environmental, public health, conservation, energy, environmental justice, and transportation organizations from around New York. Together, we identified our most pressing priorities on climate change, public health, and natural resources in New York State, and how we can tackle them at the federal level.

Click here to view our 2017 Federal Polcy Agenda

On October 9th, we kicked off our Dig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series with our forum on Green Infrastructure. Our panelists from a variety of government agencies and nonprofits discussed how the city can manage combined sewer overflows (CSOs), and use green infrastructure to mitigate flooding. New York City's outdated infrastructure could benefit greatly from expanding green infrastructure and using it as a climate resiliency tool.

Learn more about the event by reading our white paper.

After the forum, NYLCVEF got to work putting the great ideas discussed together into our paper, “Green Infrastructure Recommendations for New York City.” The paper aims to help DEP and other agencies build on the positive steps they have already taken. The recommendations argue that New York City can and should be doing much more to significantly expand its green infrastructure program.

Growing the program throughout the five boroughs will not only improve our harbor’s water quality, but it will also reap critical environmental benefits such as climate and flood mitigation, a reduction of the urban heat island effect, and improved air quality.

"Given the frequency of extreme weather events and the on-going investments made to increase the city's resiliency post Hurricane Sandy, there’s great potential for green infrastructure to help achieve many goals: improved water and air quality, flood mitigation, open space enhancement, and increased resiliency," said Marcia Bystryn, President of NYLCVEF. “New York City can aim much higher. It’s time to build on the success of DEP’s pilot and maximize the potential of green infrastructure technologies citywide.”

Click here to Download our Green Infrastructure Recommendations for NYC

Our third and final forum in our Dig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series, focused on Organic Waste and Composting. Our panelists from a variety of organizations discussed different ways the city can make the most of composting and alternative methods on how to divert food waste from landfills.

After the forum, we got to work with the panelists and other experts to suggest concrete steps the city can take to make sure New York City is doing everything it can to make composting efficient and environmentally worthwhile. Today, we're excited to announce the release of our paper highlighting our recommendations the city can act on. Download the whole report to get all the details.

Our key recommendations include:

• Maximizing the use of anaerobic-digestion capacity at NYC DEP’s wastewater treatment plants.
• Assessing the capacity of the city’s wastewater treatment system to expand on Newtown Creek.
• Launching a pilot project to create exclusive franchise zones for commercial organic waste, giving new plants a long term supply commitment.
• Considering measures to encourage the use of in-sink organic material grinders in appropriately targeted multi-family districts.
• Establishing a “Save-As-You-Throw” system, which would provide an economic incentive for generating less waste, recycling more, and participating in community-based, centralized, or “in-sink” organics programs.

“Diverting organic waste is the key to achieving the City’s landfill reduction goals,” said Marcia Bystryn, President of the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. “But it must resolve the severe need for more of processing capacity before further expanding organic waste collection.”

PlaNYC2030 set out an ambitious goal to divert 75 percent of our solid waste from landfills. With food making up 35 percent of all waste generated in New York City, composting represents a huge opportunity. More than 100 people showed up for this forum, where some new and exciting ideas were presented about how to make composting work in our city.

WNYC wrote a great article about the ideas presented by Councilmember Antonio Reynoso at our forum, and you can read more in our white paper. Don't forget to check out the packed house on our Facebook page.

Click here to Download our Organic Waste Recommendations for NYC

Our second forum in our Dig Deep for a Greener New York policy forum series, focused on Funding an Equitable Park System. Our panelists from a variety of organizations discussed the importance of making sure everyone has access to green spaces.

In order to provide a fully-funded city park system the city will have to dramatically expand annual operating costs. Where will the money come from? Our panel provided great ideas on different funding streams to make sure parks across the entire city are safe and up to date.

• Check out pictures from the packed room on our Facebook page.
• Read our background paper, Alternative Funding for an Equitable Park System.

After the forum, NYLCVEF worked closely with New Yorkers for Parks and analyzed the recently laid out New York City budget to present recommendations. Our report, Funding an Equitable Park System: Recommendations for New York City lays out concrete steps the City can take to help bring in new revenue for our park system.

Our key recommendations include:

• The City should expand concessions in parks and divert 20% of revenues to a citywide parks equity fund rather than the general fund.
• The City should create specific districts to fund new park developments and/or improve existing parks, including the creation of Business Improvement Districts and Park Improvement Districts.
• The City should use tax increment finance, zoning incentives and development bonuses to leverage private dollars to fund the capital and maintenance needs of local parks.
• NYC Parks should identify a specific method to fund the maintenance and operations of new parks and facilities at the time that the project capital budgets are developed.
• Create a citywide park district, an entity that can levy property taxes to supplement the general fund budget with additional maintenance and operations funding.

“New York City has the premier parks system in the country but we’re lagging behind when it comes to how we fund our prized open spaces,” said Marcia Bystryn, President of NYLCVEF. “We look forward to working with the City to implement alternative funding strategies to help achieve a robustly-funded, well-maintained parks system that more equitably allocates resources."

Click here to view our Recommendations for New York City

Did you know that New York City ships 10,500 tons of residential waste to out-of-state landfills every day?

That adds up to nearly 27 million miles a year -- all on large, long-haul trucks that spew massive amounts of climate-warming emissions into our air.

New York City is lagging behind other major cities in the adoption of new technologies, even as our current system grows more and more expensive. Isn't it time for the Big Apple to rethink its solid waste management strategy -- and soon?

"Wasted Opportunity? Confronting NYC's Solid Waste Challenges" was a provocative half-day discussion that included a full accounting of New York City's existing solid waste challenges and charted out a course for a more sustainable future.

This policy forum took place December 6, 2012 at the New York City Bar Association.

"Wasted Opportunity?" explored the critical and timely issue of how New York City can best manage the nonrecyclable fraction of its municipal solid waste. Our speakers discussed the economic, environmental and public health impacts of the city's current system of managing unrecyclable waste, with a new system utilizing a range of new conversion technologies that extract and create energy and other resources from waste.

Our speakers were:

PANEL 1:
Caswell Holloway; NYC Deputy Mayor for Operations
Eric Goldstein; Director, New York City Environment, Natural Resources Defense Council
Carol Kellermann; President, Citizens Budget Commission
Thomas Matte, MD; Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
Maria Gotsch; President & CEO, New York City Investment Fund
Moderated by NYLCVEF President Marcia Bystryn

PANEL 2:
Kate Ascher; Principal, Happold Consulting
James J. Binder, P.E.; Principal, Alternative Resources, Inc.
Helena Durst; Vice President, The Durst Organization
Brendan Sexton; President, The Sexton Company
Jamie Stein; Coordinator, Environmental Systems Management Program, Pratt Institute
Moderated by Adam Lisberg, Editor, City & State

This forum was generously sponsored by:

Additional sponsors included the Energy & Environmental Law Committees of the New York City Bar Association and Columbia Law School's Center for Climate Change Law.

Our media sponsor for this special program was City Hall News, part of the Manhattan Media publishing group.

Click here to read our background paper on this issue

Click here to Read our Recommendations for New York City