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.
Advocates of New York’s Local Law 97 refer to it as the most ambitious climate legislation for buildings enacted by any city in the world. The claim might sound like hyperbole, but John Mandyck, CEO of the Urban Green Council, a nonprofit that helped shape the regulation, points to its scope and scale.
Multimillion-dollar fines. Cap-and-trade for buildings. How will New York decarbonize its famous skyline?
