This week we celebrated Earth Day, an annual reminder that protecting our planet is not just an environmental challenge, it is fundamental to the future of our city. Everything we do will be impacted by the rising costs of extreme weather and our response to it.
This week my office released a series of reports, each designed to help us strengthen the physical systems and infrastructure that keep our city green – like trees.
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On Tuesday, the Parks Department announced a laudable goal to increase natural street and parks coverings to 30% of the City by 2040. But while tree planting has been funded through capital budget initiatives, maintenance and upkeep is an operational cost that has not kept pace. Compounding the issue is the lack of a dedicated funding stream specifically for tree maintenance.
In a new report, New York City’s Living Infrastructure, my office outlined ways for the City to realize its plan to expand tree canopies in the five boroughs, including generating more revenue from Parks Department concessions to fund their care.
We also have opportunities to improve our organics waste management, particularly in schools. The Zero Waste Schools Program was launched in 2016 with the goal of diverting all recyclable and compostable waste that our schools produce. What started as a pilot of 100 schools has grown to include all schools, which are now all required to separate compostable waste from regular garbage.
But while every school participates, a new review by my office has found that only about one-third of waste is currently collected and diverted from landfills.
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Additionally, our analysis found that 28% of compost bins were contaminated — meaning they included materials unsuitable for composting, such as paper and plastics — far exceeding the City’s overall organics contamination rate of 4%. Providing nearly a million meals to New York City public school students every day is a massive and often underappreciated undertaking by city government. The scale of that effort makes it even more important to get food waste right. With a more centralized approach to data collection, program assessment, and communication, we can cut emissions, strengthen sustainability efforts in our schools, and save money in the school food budget. Above all else, if we’re serious about managing the clear and present threat of the climate crisis, we need clear metrics to inform the work ahead. Our Office’s Climate Dashboard was updated this week with the latest tracking of the City’s progress towards reaching NetZero, electric vehicle adoption, green job creation, building emissions, and other risk factors. |
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Sincerely, |
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Mark D. Levine |
#MarkLevine #DrJaneGoodall
