In the News
CouncilMembers Join Unions for Apprenticeship Tour, Call for Carbon-Free and Healthy Schools
PRESS RELEASE
Speaker Adams and Council Members toured three union training centers with Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa and Climate Jobs NY, as the union-led coalition ramps up Carbon-Free and Healthy Schools campaign. Click here for our press release.
Updating aging NYC school buildings will reduce the city’s carbon emissions: energy advocates
By Michael Elsen-Rooney, Daily News
The city’s aging school buildings, which spew out the same volume of carbon dioxide emissions as 154,000 cars each year, will be a key battleground in efforts to reduce air pollution and boost clean energy across city, advocates say. Click here to read more.
Op-Ed: Workers have a plan to kickstart NYC’s stalled climate response
By Gary LaBarbera and Vincent Alvarez
As leaders of Climate Jobs NY, a coalition of unions representing millions of working New Yorkers, we stand behind this climate jobs vision for our city. Workers are already on the frontlines of climate change. We rebuilt after Sandy, cleaned up flooded public schools after Ida, and are working hard to build renewable energy infrastructure. Click here to read more.
Hard to breathe: Report finds most NYC public schools with worst ventilation woes are in areas lacking green technology
By Isabel Song Beer, AMNY
"We have billions of federal dollars available right now that our city can invest in repairing and retrofitting school buildings to create healthier classrooms for students and educators, slash carbon emissions and pollution, create good union jobs, and save our city millions of dollars in energy costs. Healthy school buildings mean healthy kids, educators, and communities.” said Dave Hancock, Interim Executive Director, Climate Jobs NY. Click here to read more.
Labor unions’ climate agenda for City Hall includes cutting school emissions, adding bike lanes
By Danielle Muoio Dunn, Politico Pro
Major labor leaders are throwing their support behind an array of climate initiatives they say will create good union jobs as state and city leaders race to meet their mandates for cutting emissions. Climate Jobs New York — a coalition of unions representing 2.6 million state workers —is calling for the city to make public schools and housing carbon-free by 2030, install 300 miles of bike lanes and divert all food waste into energy by 2025. Click here to read more.
OP-ED: NYC Students Deserve Carbon-Free and Healthy Schools
By Carmen De La Rosa and Rita Joseph, City Limits
The Carbon Free and Healthy Schools plan would be transformational: it would institute energy audits and retrofits of each school, repair and replace HVAC systems, invest in climate resiliency upgrades, and electrify our fleet of school buses. It would make use of schools’ large rooftops to generate solar power and increase school buildings’ overall energy efficiency. Click here to read more.
Advocates call on Mayor Adams and City Council to retrofit public schools with green infrastructure
By Isabel Song Beer, AM NY
Elected officials, environmentalists, union leaders and other advocates gathered on the steps of City Hall Thursday to demand Mayor Eric Adams and the NYC city council retrofit public schools with climate friendly infrastructure.
The March 24 rally saw the coalition of advocates call on the mayor to plan to support carbon-free, healthy schools, especially in lower income neighborhoods by funding the Carbon Free and Healthy Schools (CFHS) initiative in this fiscal year’s budget plan. Click here for more.
OP-ED: BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE BEGINS WITH INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
By Kyle Bragg, Henry Garrido, and Michael Mulgrew, Crain’s New York Business
As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, we look towards the future with optimism--and urgency. As Congress develops a new infrastructure bill, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in our children and rebuild our schools. Click here for more.