Can a city of over eight million really switch to renewable power? Urban Green Council’s 2020 conference, Unlocking the Grid: Getting Renewables to NYC, explored just that. Aiming to bridge the divide between skepticism and aspiration, experts across four panels discussed the advancements and impediments to NYC’s renewable future.
We are devastated by the murder of George Floyd and his death serves as a wake-up call for all of us to do more to dismantle systemic racism.
For more than a decade, the trust that owns the Empire State Building has been working to remake the monument as a model of sustainability. Soon, the rest of New York City will find out whether it can do the same. An ambitious regulation signed into law last year imposes a strict cap on emissions from the city’s big buildings. No place in the world has such aggressive rules for existing structures, and many in the city were skeptical of the law’s goals even before the coronavirus pandemic complicated things.
Statewide climate targets are driving New York to a low-carbon electrical grid, which will encourage widespread electrification of building systems.
Long before the COVID-19 disruptions forced dairy farmers to dump swimming pool quantities of milk into fields, a third of all food produced was going to waste, with huge consequences for hunger and the climate. John Mandyck, the CEO of the Urban Green Council, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss how improving distribution, consumer habits, and “best-by” labels can reduce food waste, feed the hungry, save money and reduce carbon emissions.
