Healthy buildings are here to stay. So what's next? On November 10, we welcomed back Dr. Joe Allen, a leading voice influencing global healthy building design, to unpack his new book, Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick—Or Keep You Well. Joe is an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program. 

Joe discussed some highlights from the book, including how diseases spread indoors, the different ways building owners can create indoor spaces that keep occupants safe and healthy, and why healthy buildings are vital for sustainable urban centers.

Local Law 97 requires the City of New York to reduce emissions from its operations—including city-owned buildings—by 40 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030. As the office that oversees NYC’s portfolio of buildings, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) will play a pivotal role in meeting these commitments. DCAS’s recently released Local Law 97 Implementation Action Plan outlines how the agency will lead NYC’s efforts to meet these targets over the next eight years and identifies a path beyond 2030 for the city’s buildings to comply with Local Law 97.

This episode features Anthony Fiore, Deputy Commissioner for Energy Management at DCAS. Anthony joins Urban Green CEO John Mandyck to discuss the Implementation Action Plan and how the city plans to reduce emissions in its buildings.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul just proposed a bold 2022 climate agenda in her State of the State address. The measures she put forth include a code requiring zero onsite carbon in all new buildings, a new building electrification fund, doubling energy storage by 2030, achieving 2 million climate-friendly homes by 2030, investing $500 million to support offshore wind power, and much more.

During this Urban Green Live Episode, John Mandyck takes us on a deep dive into this groundbreaking agenda with NYSERDA's President and CEO Doreen Harris, and Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development Janet Joseph.

On November 18, John chatted with Dana Gunders, an expert on food systems and one of the first people to raise the alarm about how much food goes unsold or uneaten across the country. They discussed food waste and its subsequent impacts on food security, the environment, and the economy.

Dana Gunders is Executive Director of ReFED, a national nonprofit working to reduce food loss and waste by advancing data-driven solutions. Prior to her role at ReFED, Dana served as a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she authored the landmark Wasted report about food waste and testified before Congress on the topic. She also launched the "Save The Food'' campaign with the Ad Council and wrote the popular Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook to provide consumers with easy-to-use strategies to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste in their homes. Dana has made a number of appearances in the media – including on PBS "NewsHour," "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver, CNBC, and FOX News – and was called “the woman who helped start the waste-free movement” by Consumer Reports.

Listen to John’s conversation with Jeremy Shannon, Director of Sustainable Design and Resiliency at NYC School Construction Authority. They expand on innovative school sustainability strategies and the SCA's progress in shifting schools away from fossil fuels.

In this episode, the CEO of UK's Green Building Council, Julie Hirigoyen, discusses the issue of net zero carbon emissions. 

We are excited to welcome Ben Furnas, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability. During this episode, Ben and John will discuss New York City’s policy direction for carbon reduction in buildings. Learn the very latest about NYC's plans to lower emissions on this episode!

In this episode, Steve and John will discuss the future of federal policy for building retrofits and energy efficiency, and how these items will be affected by political shifts in Washington, D.C.

Acting President and CEO of NYSERDA Doreen Harris joins Urban Green Council CEO John Mandyck to discuss the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the future of energy efficiency and their latest view on the pipeline of renewables for NYC.

We’re excited to welcome back Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity.” Dr. Allen and John dive deep into the important conversation about the false choice between health and energy as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and answer audience questions.