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This close to Fair Trade Day – May 11 – it’s good to see cities in North America trading best practices for sustainability.
The City that Never Sleeps is also the city that draws enough energy to run a small country. Neon signs, subways, concert and sports venues are the showy energy drains. Outdated infrastructure, inconsistent application of construction guidelines, and endless congestion are some of the hidden sinks.
Can anything be done?
Chicago recently became the largest city in the US committed to 100% Clean Energy. The Chicago City Council established the goal of transitioning the entire city to clean, renewable energy, like wind and solar, by 2035. Cities like St. Louis, Madison, Atlanta, and San Francisco have made similar commitments.
How will Chicago pull this off? Illinois introduced a Clean Energy Jobs Act to move the entire state to 100% clean energy by 2050. Chicago provides a state and national model. They want complete electrification of CTA’s bus fleet by 2040. The Mayor’s Office Sustainability Team is developing a community-wide, partner-driven transition plan by December 2020 for achieving its renewable electricity goal.
How will other cities manage? San Francisco is reaching its goals in part by being the first US city to mandate 100% renewable electricity for commercial buildings. The city’s requirement is expected to reduce 21% of emissions from commercial buildings by 2030, when the entire city aims to run on 100% renewable electricity.
Rather than tackling the energy issue, New York City has the world’s first bill requiring buildings to cut greenhouse gas emissions. New York City’s building emissions represent nearly 70 percent of the city’s total emissions. The council’s bill requires buildings to cut their emissions 40% by 2030, and 80% by 2050.
NYC, Chicago and San Francisco join 118 other cities across the U.S. already committed to an equitable transition to 100% clean.
CSE is committed to Sustainability in New York City. We are partners with the New York City Fair Trade Coalition. We are proud to help them celebrate Fair Trade Day on May 11. We have clients in the area and are constantly expanding NYC’s sustainability practitioner base. On June 6-7, 2019, we will host the CSE Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program (Advanced Edition 2019). The foundation course offers a pragmatic methodology and tools to implement corporate sustainability. This is the “how to” course for identifying stakeholders, material issues, goals, implementation and reporting.
NYC will also host CSE’s exclusive Sustainability (ESG) Leadership Training Workshop for C-Suite Executives, September 30 – October 1, 2019. This Fast-Track workshop will address key sustainability leadership challenges and equip business leaders with updated knowledge and practical tools to develop a sustainability vision and strategy, improve branding and ESG ratings, reduce stakeholder related risks and lead sustainable companies to deliver economic returns.
