In September 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced an aggressive carbon reduction goal for New York City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2005 levels by 2050. In order to address some of the key topics and major challenges to reaching these goals, NYLCVEF hosted a 4-part forum series this summer to address the 80x50 targets in the sectors of transportation, buildings, waste, and energy. Experts representing a variety of stakeholders debated and discussed the future of the city and the most effective way to achieve these goals, guided by questions from both the moderator and the audience.

The transportation forum focused on topics of equity, transportation availability, and infrastructure so that New Yorkers in all boroughs will have access to low-carbon transit. Buildings, as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas in the city, focused on the costs of improving energy efficiency particularly in existing buildings that have high retrofit costs. In the waste forum, panelists tackled the daunting question of how the city will completely eliminate waste sent to landfills and where waste will be sent instead. Finally, the energy forum looked at the challenge of transmission and connecting New York City with clean energy upstate.

The city officials, experts, advocated, and private sector leaders all added valuable insight into the feasibility of 80x50 and the best way forward. The conversations mimicked the type of cross-sector collaboration needed to craft the most effective policies, and NYLCVEF is hoping to make recommendations based on this dialogue that will shape the city’s path to achieving 80x50 with maximum stakeholder engagement. Learn more about any of these forums by clicking the links below.

Getting to 80x50: Transportation
How can we ensure sustainable mobility for all New Yorkers?
Download the Background Paper

Getting to 80x50: Buildings
Getting to Net Zero: What needs to be done to radically improve efficiency of heating and cooling systems in buildings, and how will it be funded?
Download the Background Paper

Getting to 80x50: Waste
Reimagining the waste stream: If we send Zero Waste to Landfills, where will it go instead?
Download the Background Paper

Getting to 80x50: Energy
The transmission challenge: How do we get enough clean energy to New York City?
Download the Background Paper

The New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund is pleased to present this 2017 Green Guide as a resource for all candidates running for public office in New York City. This document, released at our Environmental Candidate School, is a one-stop-shop for candidates to learn about new opportunities and approaches to persistent sustainability problems. It also provides contact information for citywide and local organizations that work on the front lines of these issues, available as a resource to any candidate. NYLCVEF developed this guide in close consultation with our environmental, transportation, public health, parks and environmental justice partners to embrace a wide range of views and perspectives.

Click here to download our 2017 NYC Green Guide

Each year, NYLCV and the NYLCV Education Fund work closely with New York’s leading environmental, public health, conservation, energy, environmental justice, and transportation organizations to identify the state’s most pressing priorities on fighting climate change, conserving land and water, and protecting public health. The result of that effort is our 2017 New York State legislative policy agenda. This agenda will drive NYLCV’s advocacy work throughout the legislative session as we push for legislation and appropriations in the budget that fulfill our policy goals.

Our 2017 agenda charges the legislature and executive with five distinct but interconnected directives: ensure adequate funding for the environment, address the causes and effects of climate change, protect the health of New Yorkers and their communities, protect natural resources, and invest in better, smarter infrastructure. Though there are nearly fifty policies we will support this year, there are three priority areas that are at the top of our list: clean drinking water, leadership on climate, and farms, food, and organic waste.

With progress stalled at the federal level, these problems must be solved at the state and local levels. Our leaders will need to be thoughtful, work across the aisle, and make tough compromises. But we fully expect them to do whatever it takes to create a greener, healthier and more prosperous New York in 2017.

Click here to view our 2017 NYS Agenda

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

Every year, NYLCVEF and our sister organization, NYLCV, work with New York’s leading environmental, public health, conservation, energy, environmental justice, and transportation organizations to identify the state’s most pressing priorities on climate change, public health and natural resources. The result of that effort is the document that you have here. Our 2016 agenda charges the legislative and executive branches with five distinct but interconnected directives: ensure adequate funding for the environment, address the causes and effects of climate change, conserve the health of New Yorkers and their communities, protect natural resources and invest in better, smarter infrastructure.

Making sure New York is resilient to the effects of climate change and reduces its carbon footprint has been and will continue to be a top focus. With the ongoing Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, the implementation of Governor Cuomo’s bold climate proposals from this past fall, and ensuring New York is fully compliant with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, there will much to do in the coming months in this area.

The Paris Climate Agreement creates hope that we may prevent the worst impacts of climate change, but there are other imminent threats to the well-being of our lands and waters. We must halt and reverse human degradation to our natural areas, conserving them for future generations with adequate protections and funding. From repairing our aging water infrastructure to funding our parks, this will be a constant theme throughout the year.

Finally, for far too long, low-income communities and communities of color have borne the brunt of the worst environmental hazards – both in terms of pollution and the devastating effects of climate change. This has resulted in troubling rates of asthma and other related public health issues. Protecting our environment isn’t just about nature. It’s also about people. Every single community must have clean air to breathe, well-maintained parks for recreation, access to fresh foods from local farms and protection from toxic chemicals.

We recognize that these challenges will not be easy to solve. Our leaders will need to be thoughtful, work across the aisle, and make tough compromises. But we fully expect them to do whatever it takes to create a greener, healthier and more prosperous New York.

Click here to view our 2016 NYS Policy 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