Sustainable Futures Conference Recap
What a four days we had! We heard from 16 keynotes speakers, took part in over 32 community-led breakout sessions, performed walking audits of our neighborhoods, and witnessed sustainable tech, design, and community projects in our Innovation Salon. A parallel Youth Congress for Climate Justice heard from their own set of speakers, organized, and made their own plans. We created a whole community!
Here are some highlights from each day’s keynote session:
Click image for day 1 keynote video.
Day 1 - “The Sustainable City: A Green Urban Economy”
In our first Keynote Session we opened with a Land Acknowledgment from Stockbridge Munsee Community’s Heather Bruegl and welcoming remarks from RPI President Dr. Shirley Jackson and Congressman Paul Tonko.
Our first keynote speaker was Andrew Fanning of the Doughnut Economic Action Lab, who spoke about how we might apply the principles of Doughnut Economics to our region. Katarina Thorstensson then narrated the story of how Gothenburg, Sweden reinvented itself from the "gateway to hell" mired by its polluted industrial past into a sustainable indentity rooted in a walkable, dense city with a vibrant event schedule. The city plans to go completely carbon neutral by 2030.
Gothenburg, Sweden, voted “The Most Sustainable City in the World”
Enrique Peñalosa talked about the many challenges he faced as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia—implementing car-free days, the expansion of parks and public space, bicycle highways, and one the largest bus rapid transit systems in the world. He gave us a quote to ponder in the light or resistance and challenge: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
As our closer, Joe Martens pitched Offshore Wind as the catalyst for a truly equitable green economy in New York State that can help us meet the rigorous GhG benchmarks set by the CLCPA. “If the coronavirus has taught us anything, it is that rapid change is possible," he said. "And the time is now."
In the afternoon we had eight parallel community-led breakout sessions that covered the entire region, from Hudson to Albany to Glens Falls. We talked about "Climate Change & The Cultural Sector," "Doughnuts and Cloud Banks," "Self Sufficiency in Small Cities," and "The Greening of Schenectady."
At happy hour we took part in an Innovation Salon, a virtual exhibit fair, where we heard from wind turbines experts at GE, smart city developers at National Grid, and biomaterialism designers at CASE, RPI. We heard about SUNY's plan for a Carbon-Neutral Campus, and Siemen's plan to develop Triple Helix living laboratories.
Click image for day 2 keynote video.
Day 2 - “The Sustainable Community: Housing & Wellness”
Our second Keynote Session went deep into the intersectional nature of housing, health, food systems. We heard from Ruth Ann Norton, the inspiring founder of the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, who is doing groundbreaking work in establishing equity metrics and fighting for affordable green housing. “Investing in weatherization and efficiency will not only improve our footprint but will have the largest impact on the health of our residents and the resiliency of our communities," said Ms. Norton.
Janet Joseph, Senior Vice President at NYSERDA, reviewed the many ways that New York State is working to decarbonize its building sector through a just transition. "To meet the goals of the CLCPA, we need to decarbonize 500 residential building a day for the next 12,000 days," said Ms. Joseph. "But we need to be prioritizing affordable housing... we cannot create a housing crisis on top of a climate crisis."
Professor Tim Beatley of U Virginia introduced his Biophilic Cities project, which fundamentally intertwines elements of nature into the fabric of a city. There are obvious carbon reduction outcomes to such "greening" but many of the co-benefits are social and humanistic. "A biophilic city is a city of awe," said Prof Beatley. He showed us examples from around the world, including Singapore, Millwaukee, Richmond, Toronto, and Pittsburgh, all of which have worked to transform their greenspaces with a particular emphasis on equity and access.
Soul Fire Farm
Leah Penniman of the Capital Region's own Soul Fire Farm closed the panel with a moving portrait of her work literally restoring the nutrients of the soil to pre-colonial levels, manifesting an activist, afro-indigenous community farm that brings a deep, historical understanding to the fight against systemic racism and the path towards food sovereignty. "We do heart work as well as strategic work," said Ms. Penniman. "In order to create green and livable cities and communities, it's not just about metrics, it's also about a frame shift. The earth is not just a commodity to be used... the earth is a family member.”
RPI’s EBESS Program
In the afternoon we had eight parallel, community-led breakout sessions that picked up on some of the themes of the keynote and addressed a wide variety of topics like “Why Good Food Should Not be a Privilege,” “Reimagining our Energy Consumption,” “The Great Potential of Mass Timber in New York State," and “Net-Zero Affordable Homes.”
At happy hour we took part in an Innovation Salon, a virtual exhibit fair, where we heard from Capital Roots on their Urban Grow Center, RPI's new EBESS program, NYSERDA's Community Heat Pump Systems, and Albany Riverfront Collaborative's vision for a reconnected Albany.
Click image for day 3 keynote video.
Day 3 - “The Sustainable Network: Energy & Transportation”
Day 3 examined how the future of our grid and transportation systems will be deeply entangled with questions of equity, community, choice, and empowerment (literally).
We began on the global scale as Anjali Mahendra, of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, outlined some of her institute's great work around the world, including her current project, "Towards a More Equal City," which examines how growing cities can seek equitable solutions to their development, including promoting equitable transit options. "We need to build cities that work for everyone," said Ms. Mahendra, and offered a number of equity action items that have arisen from her research, including democratizing street space.
From the global level we zoomed down to New York State, when we heard from Sarah Salati, of New York Power Authority, who outlined how the Authority embodies a public-private partnership in its many projects across the state as it updates the grid and ushers in the massive transition to renewables. Yet their core principles are not just about energy; they are focused on the people who bring this energy to communities—among NYPA's foundational pillars in their Vision 2030 plan is an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a 10-point just transition plan and $10 million investment in EJ and minority-owned businesses. In a sustainable transition, a power authority can no longer just be a power authority.
We zoomed down further to the Capital Region itself, where we heard from Carm Basile, CEO of the Capital District Transportation Authority, the region's visionary public transit entity, whose mission statement reads: "Mobility Solutions that Connect the Region's Communities." These solutions have long been climate-aware, as CDTA created the region's first bike share program, continues to build out its landmark BRT system, procured an early order of electric pilot buses (with 100% electrification by 2030), and is about to introduce another last-mile micro-mobility solution in the form of electric scooters this summer. "We're going to try them out, we'll study what happens," said Mr. Basile. The CDTA's domain does not end with buses. As community champions they are proponents of walkability, and density. "We're in the sidewalk business,” he stressed. This combination of a willingness to experiment, a vision for the future, and a commitment to community is what makes CDTA such a valuable regional asset.
Todd Fabozzi of CDRPC closed us out with a dizzying array of maps that he's made of trends in housing, poverty, demographics, density, and transportation over the decades. They paint a portrait of segregation, or suburbanization, and decline. "This is sprawl without growth," he said. Todd heads the CDRPC's sustainability team which acts as the crucial interface between NYSERDA's massive Clean Energy Communities program and the needs and capacities of each town and municipality trying to meet the state's aggressive GhG reduction goals. "It's a process," said Mr. Fabozzi. "But the key is to build up trust with the towns you work with."
In our conversation afterwards, we came back again and again to this idea of trust, relationships, community as we see our way through this challenging transition to a sustainable future.
Video of Day 3 Keynote Session
In the afternoon we had eight parallel, community-led breakout sessions that picked up on some of the themes of the keynote and addressed a wide variety of topics like “Envisioning Transportation in 2050,” “The Smart City Revolution,” “Creating a Walkable Downtown,” and “The Word on Complete Streets.”
At happy hour we took part in an Innovation Salon, a virtual exhibit fair, where we heard from RPI's Center for Future Energy Systems, National Grid's Fleet EV Charging Enablement, NYPA's Buildsmart 2025, Zero Waste Capital District, and SAFE Cities at Stand.Earth, among others.
Click image for day 4 keynote video.
Day 4 - “Sustainability = Equity: Justice & Resilience in Cities”
On our final day we went deep into the question of how to cultivate climate equity policy on a local and state level. We looked at the influence of EJ activism on policy and we did a close read of the core equity policies in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
We heard from UAlbany President Havídan Rodríguez about all the sustainability research happening at the University, and then we heard from Youth Congress member Melissa Hoffman, who delivered a forceful statement calling for accountability in all of our institutions, particularly around the protection of fossil fuel interests. It was a vital message to begin our session and reminder that young people will largely set the tone and the policy in the coming years. And young people don’t come to play.
From Agyeman, J. “Urban planning as a tool of white supremacy.” The Conversation.
Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University, kicked off our keynote speakers, discussing the evolution of the term “Just Sustainabilities”, which he coined twenty years ago. “Recognition is the precursor to any form of justice,” he said. “The challenge is that we live in cities of difference.”
One of these cities is Minneapolis, site of the Derek Chauvin murder at the hands of the police. At first blush, the city appears to be a liberal bastion, but upon closer examination, Minneapolis is one of the most segregated cities in the nation. “This is by design, not accident,” said Prof. Agyemen. To the city’s credit, he pointed to its efforts to change its design, its philosophy and its policies in its new comprehensive plan, something many other city’s have yet to do. After unpacking a history of segregationist policy in cities, he pivoted to talking about how such segregation is intimately entangled with food justice and the presence of food deserts in frontline communities. “We cannot separate hunger from racist urban planning,” he said. “food justice mean Racial justice.”
Our next speaker, Peter Iwanowicz of Environmental Advocates NY, has worn many hats— as an activist, working at the state level as the acting DEC Commissioner, and just about everything in between. He is therefor well aware of all the behind the scenes work that wen into the climate law and how revolutionary the CLCPA can be. “The goals in this law are not negotiable and they’re not fungible,” he said. The air pollution protections are important, he said, but he sees the truly critical part of the law as “Section 7,” which requires a cultural and methodological shift at all levels, and “Injecting the ethos of climate reality and climate justice into all of government decision making.”
One of those activists who helped shaped the incredibly progressive equity language of the CLCPA is Annel Hernandez of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Ms. Hernandez showed us the incredibly network of EJ groups in New York City who are engaged in inter-borough projects around Waterfront Justice, Extreme Heat, Peaker Plants, and transforming Rikers Island into renewable energy site. She also offered us a methodology for organizing, based around the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing.
Our last keynote speaker of the conference, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos, gave us a birds-eye view of how the great “battleship” of the state is slowly embracing climate justice as a core principle in all of its policy. “We now have the nation’s leading climate law that’s being talked about at the Federal level as a model,” said Commissioner Seggos. He sees the equity component in the CLCPA as only a beginning. “For me, 40% investment in disadvantaged communities should be a floor, not just a goal.” He narrated the long and at times difficult process of the Climate Action Council, which he co-chairs, and all of its associative working groups, which as a collective are reprograming the state and all of its agencies into a sustainable mindset. It is not a small task, but New York State, that great battleship, is leading the way.
Video of Day 4 Keynote Session
In the afternoon we had eight parallel, community-led breakout sessions that picked up on some of the equity themes of the keynote and addressed a wide variety of topics like “Jus Transition in NY State,” “Solidarity Economies: Experiments in Local Resource Redistribution for Climate Justice,” “More Than a Land Acknowledgment,” and “People Who Make a Difference: Engaging Future Change-Makers”
At happy hour we took part in our last Innovation Salon, where we heard from another collection of amazing projects, including Colocating Agriculture & Solar, RPI’s Biomaterialism research, Community Choice Energy Aggregation, Sanctuary for Independent Media’s People Health Sanctuary, Climate Change Visualization Tools, and Workforce Development for a Just Transition!
The four days went by fast, but many generative connections were made and we will continue to discover the impact these collaborations and partnerships will have on our region. Join us in the Sustainable Futures Community Slack Space and stay tuned for a searchable database of videos of all the presentations throughout the conference.
Until next time!
