GREENING THE GRID: NEW YORK’S ENERGY FUTURE

Tuesday, December 5 at 6:30 pm at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue)

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), as part of its ongoing program New York’s Future in a Changing Climate, will present a panel discussion on the city’s future energy system.

Urban areas account for nearly three-quarters of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. What can be done in order to mitigate the amount of emissions that New York City produces? In the face of changing demand, leaders in the industry are striving towards new forms of renewable energy. Ranging from community solar power networks to more efficient building methods – the face of energy is beginning to shift. Join innovators on the forefront of this industry for a conversation about what the future holds for NYC.

• Charles Allison, Associate Professor of Professional Practice, The New School

• Bomee Jung, Vice President of Energy and Sustainability, NYC Housing Authority

• Nilda Mesa, Urban Design Lab/Earth Institute, Columbia University

• Lawrence Orsini, Founder and CEO, LO3 Energy

• Michael Shank (moderator), Head of Communications for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Register at the MCNY event page. Use promotional code FUTURE for tickets at the $15 member price.

Friday, November 9, 2018 at 7:00 PM

Hunter College, West Building, Room HW615

This page describes a past event hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Cities and co-organized by NYC H2O.  You can find more information about the event, including Adam Bosch’s slides used in the lecture, at this NYC H2O event page.  You can view video of the event at this NYC H2O Facebook page.

Adam Bosch, Director of Public Affairs for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), will discuss how DEP operates, maintains, and protects the largest municipal water supply in the United States. The talk will also include a special look at the $1 billion Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel project, the largest repair in the 176-year history of the City’s water supply.

The water supply is considered a marvel of modern engineering. Its system of reservoirs and aqueducts supplies 1 billion gallons of water each day to 8.6 million people in New York City and another 1 million people in the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Ulster. The programs that protect its reservoirs in the Catskills are considered a worldwide model for protecting the quality of water at its source.

As director of public affairs, Adam is charged with broadly sharing information about the City’s water supply with members of the public, local journalists, elected officials, and through education programs. Before joining DEP in 2012, Adam was a journalist in New York for more than a decade. His reporting earned five Associated Press awards for investigative reporting, breaking news coverage and public service.

Adam Bosch will be introduced by Dr. Allan Frei, Hunter College Professor of Geography, and Deputy Director of the Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College.  Dr. Frei will discuss the ongoing climate modeling project he directs to understand the potential impact of climate change on New York City’s water system.

This free event is presented in collaboration with NYC H2O, and is open to the Hunter College community and the general public.  To RSVP for the event please click this link to the Eventbrite page.

NEW YORK LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS FORUM: GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE DELAWARE RIVER WATERSHED

Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at 10:00am
Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library, 479 Broadway, Monticello, NY 12701

This policy forum will focus on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green infrastructure (GI) as an approach to managing stormwater. We are bringing together expert speakers and panelists to provide an overview of green infrastructure vs. traditional gray approaches and how it can be used to protect and restore water quality in the Delaware River Watershed region. From innovative examples to barriers and opportunities, this policy forum will equip local landowners and municipal leaders with the information and tools needed to get involved and bring more GI to their communities.

Refreshments will be provided.

SPEAKERS/PANELISTS:

• George Schuler, The Nature Conservancy

• Freda Eisenberg, Commissioner, Sullivan County Department of Planning

• Paul Beyer, Director of Smart Growth, New York State Department of State

• Stephanie P. Dalke, Pinchot Institute for Conservation

• Bryan Quinn, Environmental Entrepreneur, founder and principal of One Nature

• Jeff Skelding, Executive Director, Friends of the Upper Delaware River

• Molly Oliver, Delaware County Department of Watershed Affairs

• Diana Weiner, Sullivan Renaissance

Register at this NYLCV event page.

REIMAGINING THE GOOD LIFE: SUSTAINABILITY ETHICS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Breakfast 8:30 AM
Keynote 9:00 AM
Session I 10:00 AM
Session II 11:30 AM

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College
47-49 East 65th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues)
New York, NY 10065

Click here to RSVP

“FEEDING THE APPLE: NEW YORK’S FUTURE FOOD SUPPLY”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 AT 6:30 PM AT THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK (1220 FIFTH AVENUE)

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), as part of its ongoing program New York’s Future in a Changing Climate, will present a panel discussion on the future of the city’s food supply.

New York City is one of the world’s great food cities, brimming with culinary creativity and cuisines from around the world. At the same time, over a million New Yorkers have inadequate access to fresh, healthy food, and New Yorkers send over 2 million tons of food waste to landfills each year, while climate change threatens our food supply and the political environment imperils many agriculture workers.

How can we, as a city and as a world, transition to a more sustainable and equitable food system? What are the most far-reaching and provocative proposals for the future of food in New York? Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of two restaurants, Blue Hill in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY, joins New York Times Food reporter Julia Moskin for a conversation about how we can rethink what, and how, we eat.

A food industry revolutionary, Barber most recently spearheaded a pop-up restaurant, wastED, where he and guest chefs from around the country served meals composed entirely of ingredients destined for the garbage. From seeds to soil health to stem-to-root eating, Barber and Moskin will discuss what kind of menu will meet the challenges of the future—and do it deliciously.

Before and after the program, speak with representatives from Earth Day Initiative to find out how you can green your lifestyle through simple, impactful changes.

Register online at mcny.org/future | $20 with discount code FUTURE.

LIQUID ASSETS: NEW YORK’S WATERSHEDS & WATERWAYS

Thursday, February 22 at 6:30 pm at the Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth Avenue)

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), as part of its ongoing program New York’s Future in a Changing Climate, will present a panel discussion on the city’s watersheds and waterways.

What can New York City do to protect its drinking water supply and its recreational waters in the coming decades? How is that supply affected by climate change, and what must we do to adapt? Join us for a deep dive into NYC’s complex water systems, which powerfully illustrate our city’s dependency on – and symbiotic relationship to – its larger regional environment and economy.

• Al Appleton, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection

• Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance

• Paul Gallay, President of Riverkeeper

• Stacy Levy, environmental artist

• Jim Dwyer (moderator), New York Times reporter

Following the panel, the Valerie Green/Dance Entropy company will perform an excerpt from “Impermanent Landscape,” an immersive dance performance that captures the transient nature of living in an ever-changing urban environment. Impermanent Landscape is performed “in the round” in non-traditional locations, responding each time to the specific nature of the space.

Before and after the program, speak with representatives from Earth Day Initiative to find out how you can green your lifestyle through simple, impactful changes.

Register online at mcny.org/future | $15 with discount code FUTURE.

UPDATE:  There has been a change in the speaker lineup for the Gotham Center’s event on the future of sustainability in New York City.  Eric W. Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society who recently spoke at an event hosted by the Institute will be speaking, as well as Denise Hoffman Brandt, Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture, CUNY City College.

The Gotham Center for New York City History presents the panel discussion: Is New York’s Future Sustainable? Measuring the Historical Impact of Growth, and Planning for More.

Eric W. Sanderson, Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, founder of the Welikia Project, and author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, discusses the historical impact of development on the environment of New York City, and how we can restore the city’s ecology.

Denise Hoffman Brandt, Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture, CUNY City College, reimagines the ideas of “city” and “nature” to make New York City greener and more sustainable.

Nilda Mesa, director of urban sustainability and equity planning at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, reflects on her experiences as NYC’s first Director of Sustainability, and the political challenges ahead.

Janet Babin, Economic Development Reporter for WNYC, moderates.

Wednesday, April 19th, 6:30 – 8 PM

The Graduate Center, CUNY

Elebash Recital Hall (Ground Floor)

Click here for more information.

When: Friday April 10, 2015, 7:00pm 

Where: Hunter College Room 714 (West Building)

It can be argued that using chlorine in drinking water created the biggest improvement in public health in modern history. Typhoid fever was not eradicated in the U.S. until the widespread use of water disinfection was realized.

Michael McGuire, PhD, is the author of The Chlorine Revolution. McGuire will recount the story of how chlorine first got introduced into municipal drinking water supplies and its ensuing critical impact in advancing 20th century public health.

Anne Seeley, M.P.H., is Section Chief of Health Assessment & Policy Coordination for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Seeley will talk about how NYC treats its water and why the city has such excellent quality drinking water.
Tickets are free but reservations are required.

Click here to RSVP.

When/Where: Friday March 13 at 7pm – Hunter College West Building Room HW714

The High Bridge is slated to reopen as a walkway in summer 2015. Come hear Bryan Diffley, the Project Manager of the renovation, speak about NYC’s oldest standing bridge. An engineering treasure, the High Bridge was built in 1848 to bring water from the Bronx into Manhattan via the Croton Aqueduct, and remained in use for the Croton system until 1955. Its deck was used as a pedestrian bridge until the 1970’s when it was closed due to vandalism. The city began restoring the bridge in 2012.

The High Bridge was designed by John B. Jervis, Chief Engineer of the Croton Aqueduct, modeled on the great aqueducts of the Roman Empire.  In fact, the Croton was the longest aqueduct built since the Roman era!

Tickets are free but reservations are required. Click here to RSVP.

More on NYC H20When/Where: Friday March 13 at 7pm – Hunter College West Building Room HW714

The High Bridge is slated to reopen as a walkway in summer 2015. Come hear Bryan Diffley, the Project Manager of the renovation, speak about NYC’s oldest standing bridge. An engineering treasure, the High Bridge was built in 1848 to bring water from the Bronx into Manhattan via the Croton Aqueduct, and remained in use for the Croton system until 1955. Its deck was used as a pedestrian bridge until the 1970’s when it was closed due to vandalism. The city began restoring the bridge in 2012.

The High Bridge was designed by John B. Jervis, Chief Engineer of the Croton Aqueduct, modeled on the great aqueducts of the Roman Empire.  In fact, the Croton was the longest aqueduct built since the Roman era!

Tickets are free but reservations are required. Click here to RSVP.

More on NYC H20

HUNTER COLLEGE’S EAST HARLEM ART GALLERY AND INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES AT HUNTER COLLEGE PRESENTS:

OCEANS OF TRASH: TACKLING MARINE PLASTIC POLLUTION

A PROGRAM IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EXHIBITION WASHED UP: TRANSFORMING A TRASHED LANDSCAPE, PHOTOS BY ALEJANDRO DURÁN.

Saturday, January 31, 2015
2:30 – 5PM with reception to follow
Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work
Auditorium
2180 Third Ave at 119th Street
New York, NY 10035

Speakers include:

5 Gyres
The 5 Gyres Institute conducts research and communicates about the global impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. 5 Gyres employs strategies to eliminate the accumulation of plastic pollution in the five subtropical gyres. 5 Gyres founders Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins will present on their most recent research.

Alejandro Durán
Artist Alejandro Durán’s fascination with collecting and rearranging trash on the shores of Mexico’s Sian Ka’an region led to his ongoing project, Washed Up. As an educator, filmmaker, and artist, Alejandro’s work promotes awareness of ocean pollution and advocates for change.

Carson Farmer 
Carson Farmer is Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Research of Spatial Information (CARSI) where he works on a number of urban issues, ranging from transportation to human impacts on the oceans. Recently, Carson has begun to examine sustainability issues surrounding urban impacts on the worlds oceans from a quantitative and policy perspective with Dr. Tim Stojanovic from St Andrews University in Scotland.

Plus more exciting participants and practitioners.

Supported by the American Chai Trust and Hunter College Arts Across the Curriculum program sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For more information, please contact ehartg@hunter.cuny.edu

Download a PDF flier for the event.

In 2001 the MTA retired its fleet of Redbird subway cars. It gave the trains to states on the Atlantic coast to serve as artificial reefs for fish. The program has been successful in supporting the web of undersea life and attracts game fish, which in turn draws sport fishermen and scuba divers to the reefs. New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia have “reefed” about 1,000 subway cars in all from the MTA.

Come hear Bob Martore, the Artificial Reef Manager from South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources, explain how subway cars help provide homes for marine life.

When:  Friday, November 14, 2014, 7-8:30 PM

Where: Hunter College, Room 714 West, Entrance on 68th Street and Lexington Avenue (6 Train to 68th Street / Hunter College)

Please Click Here to RSVP.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 1, 2012 AT CUNY HUNTER COLLEGE

About the Event:

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) and its NYC Chapter, GreenHomeNYC, have assembled a slate of local experts and owners to help those involved with multifamily buildings in New York City get a leg up the new requirements and learn the best, most profitable path forward for their buildings.

Andy Padian, a board member of both NESEA and GreenHomeNYC and chair of the conference said, “Understanding the new benchmarking and energy auditing requirements in NYC is a first step to reducing your energy and water bills. After you navigate that, you need to hear from some of the best practitioners in the field about running your building efficiently, safely, and considering our recent brush with Hurricane Sandy, emphasizing resilience.”

Filling a very critical information gap, this one day conference combines the best technical information with first-hand experience on exactly how to save money in multifamily buildings through reduced energy and water usage. “We’ve got the people you really need to hear from — the owners who have gone through the process already, of course,” Padian explains.

NYC has enacted one of the boldest initiatives for sustainability in large buildings in the country. Known as the Greener Greater Buildings Plan, it focuses on buildings over 50,000 square feet. In New York City, many more multifamily buildings than office buildings fall into this category, so the new laws become particularly important to these multifamily owners. But this is the first conference to attempt to get owners and managers in the room together to learn exactly how to proceed. “I have invited the building experts who helped develop the framework for the new laws, LL87 and 84, to explain and demystify the process. One goal of this conference,” says Padian, “is that no one will leave with questions unanswered.”

The more typical multifamily building in the city, with 20 to 50 apartments and smaller, has its own complicated path to follow. Owners and building managers need to hear from each other about financing and real costs, and they need to share tricks they have learned that have helped them save money after finally getting an energy audit. “You have to get the owners and managers together to show the mistakes to avoid and to share the best practices to use. The value of this can’t be overstated,” says Padian.

Many organizations are collaborating with NESEA and GreenHomeNYC to get their members to this unique event. These include the Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College, The Community Preservation Corporation, Enterprise Community Partners, The Supportive Housing Network of NY, the NYS Association for Affordable Housing, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Con Edison, and NYSERDA.

The conference will be held at Hunter College on 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, from 9-4. Continental breakfast and a bag lunch are included. A reception following the event provides the opportunity to meet and network with the speakers and the other attendees. The conference fee is $150 and a reduced rate is available for CUNY students.

For more information and to register, go to http://www.nesea.org/buildingenergy/benyc/

Download a flyer for the event (PDF): BENYC POSTER FINAL

A discussion of Eric Sanderson’s Terra Nova: The New World after Oil, Cars and Suburbs
co-sponsored with The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Reception 5:30 PM
Program 6:00 PM

The next administration will face great challenges in addressing continued global climate change and its effects. In his upcoming book Terra Nova, The New World after Oil, Cars and Suburbs (to be published in 2013 by Abrams) Eric Sanderson, author of the best-selling book Manahatta: A Natural History of New York, argues that America’s addiction to oil and the lack of a policy of energy independence is actually destroying our way of life. Sanderson writes, “The oil-cars-suburbs complex is so well-constructed, so resilient to reproof, so tightly bound up with our economy and way of life, that we do not even notice much of what is right and good in our lives we give up to curse through the traffic on the way to work.” Sanderson’s solution focuses on four inter-linked and phased-in policy initiatives toward rethinking our energy consumption and the environmental toll of our car-dependent lifestyles. William Solecki, Director of The Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College, will moderate a conversation on the future of our energy and environmental policy with Sanderson and Owen Gutfreund, Associate Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Hunter and author of Twentieth Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape (Oxford University Press). Read more about the event on our website.

The event will be held at:
Roosevelt House Institute for Public Policy
47-49 East 65th Street (Between Madison & Park)
New York, NY 10065
6 Train to 68th Street, Hunter College / 4, 5 Trains to 59th Street

Please join us on: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 6:30-8pm
Sponsored by GreenHomeNYC & the Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter
Hunter College, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue, Room 714W

LEAVING #6 OIL BEHIND: POLICIES, COSTS, AND SAVINGS
NYC is one of the last bastions of #6 residual oil use in the country, and the environmental problems with this high particulate hydrocarbon has sparked a heated discussion in the City for decades. With the City now requiring most buildings to be off #6 oil over a fairly tight schedule, owners, environmental groups, oil and gas companies, and yes, even the general public are beginning to focus on these regulations. Learn what the regulations are, how they will affect buildings that burn #6 oil, and what the future will be for this fuel and buildings that burn it.

Introduction/Welcome/Remembrance
Bomee Jung, Co-Founder/Board Member, GreenHomeNYC, Panel Moderator

Speakers:
Michael Bendjouya, CC Controlled Combustion
Kenneth Camilleri, ICF International
Robert Daly, P.E., Technical Director, Boiler Division, NYC Department of Buildings

PLEASE RSVP @ www.GreenHomeNYC.org

Each year, GHNYC honors the memory of our friend Patty Noonan, who in her brief career in NYC was one of the principle agents of change in sustainable affordable housing, and many other sustainable causes. She inspired and mentored many in our field; as the point person for sustainable causes at the NYC Partnership, she changed the way many felt about our field; after 9/11, she took the helm of the Partnership’s downtown revitalization efforts. Patty was a fabulous woman who left us much too early. In tribute, GHNYC holds an annual Patty Noonan Memorial Policy Forum, to honor her memory, bring an important policy issue to light, and inspire people to follow in her path. A community-oriented, volunteer-run organization, GreenHomeNYC’s mission is to facilitate the adoption of sustainable building methods and materials by owners of small residential and commercial buildings in New York City.

GreenHomeNYC aims to be a hub of resources for small building owners, to promote the understanding of green building issues, and to connect building owners with local green building service and materials providers. GreenHomeNYC is also the New York City Chapter for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), the nation’s leading regional membership organization focused on promoting the understanding, development, and adoption of energy conservation and non-polluting, renewable energy technologies. To find out more, visit www.nesea.org. GreenHomeNYC is a registered 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit corporation.

The Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter was created out of the vision and financial support of Theodore Kheel, prominent labor negotiator, lawyer, and environmentalist. Forged as part of a strategic alliance between Kheel’s environmental organizations Earthpledge and Nurture Nature Foundation and the City University of New York, ISC has focused on serving as a catalyst through which cuttingedge knowledge about sustainability practice and theory is translated to a wide range of audiences within CUNY and beyond. Mr. Kheel’s commitment to CUNY in part emerged out of his ambition to help New Yorkers change the way they see their relationship with the local
environment. And from his perspective, a great place to achieve this is through a link to CUNY – as “CUNY is New York.”

Monday, December 5th 3:30PM
Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College
Hunter College | East 1216

Please RSVP using the form below.

A discussion with Professor Carlos Leite on his research, “Indicators of Sustainability on Urban Development,” which looks at the challenge of the Sustainable Megacity through Sao Paulo’s experience as a city of 20 million people, with expansion that ranges from formal urban development to the informal context of huge slums. This work signalizes parameters for a city that is reinventing itself through eco-urbanism after the “expanding and exhausting” model of the 21st Century when the city grew by 27,000% in population and 40,000% in urban territory.

Carlos Leite is an Architect and Urbanist with a Master and PhD in Urban Design from the University of Sao Paulo and a Postdoc from California Polytechnic University where he was Visiting Professor. He is Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo. He is releasing his first book: Cidades Sustentaveis, Cidades Inteligentes in Brazil (Bookman). He is principal at Stuchi & Leite Projetos:www.stuchileite.com

Bountiful Yards: Innovation for Small-Plot Food Production was held on May 17, 2011 at Hunter College. A bright, thoughtful and engaged audience of about 100 people packed Hunter’s West Building lobby.  Thanks to all who came, and to the presenters who gave us plenty of food for thought.  Thanks also to moderator Michael Menser and to CISC’s own Dr. Peter Marcotullio, for their introductions and insight.  Watch video from the event below, and be sure to join the CISC newsletter to be kept informed of future events. 

Event Video

Slides:

• Audant_Bountiful_Yards_51711.pdf 

• Fainchtein_Bountiful_Yards_51711.pdf 

• Greig_Bountiful_Yards_51711.pdf

• Lawson_Bountiful_Yards_51711.pdf

From the press release:

The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities invites you to a panel discussion on food and farming in metropolitan areas, featuring guests from the New York Region and Melbourne, Australia. Learn about innovative models for transforming yards into food-producing spaces, as well as the implications for both the metropolitan landscape and the larger food system.

Date: May 17, 2011 • Time: 6:00pm • Location: Hunter College Faculty Dining Hall; 8th Floor Hunter West Building

Panelists (click panelist name for .pdf of slide presentation):

Babette Audant: Lecturer, Culinary Arts Program and Urban Farm Faculty Project Manager, Kingsborough Community College

Ari Fainchtien: PhD Candidate, Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, CTO of Stakeware

Deborah Greig: Urban Agriculture Coordinator, East New York Farms

Laura Lawson: Author of City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America

Moderated by Michael Menser, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Brooklyn College

REMOVE

ISC Outreach Coordinator Alexandra Hanson is moderating a Food Systems Panel tonight here at Hunter, as part of the Urban Mondays at Hunter series, hosted by the Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.

What: Professionals who work in food systems planning and development will explain their work within the New York City area.

Who:
Leslie Boden, Principal at Leslie F. Boden Consulting,
Hilary Baum, Founder of the Baum Forum,
Kristen Mancinelli, Policy and Government Relations Manager for City Harvest,
Alexandra Hanson (moderator and ISC Outreach Coordinator)

Where: 8th Floor Faculty Lounge Hunter West Building, CUNY Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, 8th Floor (West Building), NY, NY.  (6 Train to 68th Street/Hunter College).

When: 7:30 pm, doors open at 7 pm.

Cost: FREE – Individuals without a Hunter ID should bring an alternate form of identification, check in at Lobby in West Building.

See also: Planning the Future of Food (Alexandra Hanson, recent ISC Blog post)