The New School Joins Climate Week NYC, September 18-27, 2023
Each fall, Climate Week NYC brings together businesses, non-profits, local community members and more for this annual event featuring hundreds of events and activities across New York City. The New School, led by the Tishman Environment and Design Center, is offering a series of in-person and online events that will explore the link between building materials and health, mandatory emissions reductions, federal funding for environmental justice work, and more.
A key event at The New School is Harnessing the Positive Potential of AI for Urban Climate Action that will look at how AI can unlock climate resilience at the community level. Organized by The New School, Google.org, the Centre for Public Impact, and World Resources Institute (WRI), this event will feature live demonstrations of two novel solutions from The New School’s Urban Systems Lab and WRI which will be followed by a moderated panel discussion. The event will be held on Thursday, September 21, 2023, 9:00AM to 11:00AM (EDT) in the Tishman Auditorium (63 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY).
To find additional exciting events and opportunities taking place at The New School, please check the Tishman Center’s Climate Week Hub.
Climate Week NYC is hosted by Climate Group, an international non-profit, and takes place every year in partnership with the United Nations General Assembly and is run in coordination with the United Nations and the City of New York.
Climate Week NYC at The New School
Mandatory Emissions Reductions: Centering Environmental Justice in Climate Policy
Tuesday, September 19, 2023, 1:00PM to 2:30PM (EDT)
Online
Across the United States, fossil fuel infrastructure emits toxic air pollution and planet-warming greenhouse gasses that drive climate change. Low-income communities and communities of color bear the brunt of both, living on the front lines of impacts from climate change as well as suffering the harms of localized co-pollutants, like particular matter and nitrous oxides, emitted by nearby facilities. A new joint report by Dr. Nicky Sheats of the John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research (Kean University) and members of the Tishman Environment and Design Center, lays out a framework for a policy to require mandatory emissions reductions (MER) of power sector pollution in environmental justice (EJ) communities, and applies it to three state case studies: New Jersey, Minnesota, and Delaware.
Join us to celebrate the launch of this report and talk with state EJ leaders about the importance of the findings and the role of MER policy in advancing environmental justice.
The New Frontier of Design: Materials and Human Health
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 2:00PM (EDT)
Online
Americans spend 90% of their time indoors surrounded by materials that often contribute much more to the designed spaces than is realized. Toxic chemicals in building materials are well documented, but the correlation between carbon and chemicals is less so. Designers can address two of the major issues of current design and construction practice in the materials they specify.
This presentation will look at materials throughout their life cycle to identify risk and opportunities for healthier, low-carbon alternatives and learn how to evaluate different materials and products. It will also discuss vulnerabilities in different communities and how not everyone is impacted in the same way.
Ensuring Federal Funding Goes to Environmental Justice Communities
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 6:30PM – 7:45PM (EDT)
University Center, Starr Foundation Hall, 63 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
The Tishman Environment and Design Center is excited to delve into the critical issue of ensuring that the historic levels of federal funding resource frontline solutions for the climate crisis and environmental justice. This conversation will be focused on the opportunities and challenges for leveraging federal funding for environmental justice communities.
Panelists:
Harold Mitchell, Regenesis Institute
Trenton Allen, Sustainable Capital Climate Justice Fund
Maria Lopez-Nunez, Ironbound Community Corporation
Joe Evans, Kresge Foundation
Helen Chin, Communities First Fund
The session will be moderated by Tishman Center Senior Fellow Danielle Deane-Ryan and remarks will be given by Michelle DePass, Senior Advisor of the Tishman Environment and Design Center.
Regenerative Metropolis: High Performance Carbon Sequestration 2023
Friday, September 22, 2023, 12:00PM – 7:00PM (EDT)
Starr Foundation Hall, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Cities such as New York are at serious risk from climate change and have the power and responsibility to take the lead on solutions. This Symposium will explore potential scalable regenerative technologies for the world’s largest urban constructed environments. The material science of carbon storing building components is receiving much needed attention, but scalable solutions need wider adoption and development. The building industry is focused on reaching carbon neutrality in operations and construction, taking a holistic view of the enormity of this responsibility. Passive house energy efficiency coupled with scalable carbon storing materials for widespread use and large urban contexts, can provide the solution humanity needs and deserves now. Join us as we explore the emerging tools, policy, start-up financing, and material science around embodied carbon in high performance architecture.