PHOTO: The Queens Botanical Garden Society, Inc. in Flushing will receive funding as part of the Greener NYC initiative. Photo Courtesy of the Queens Botanical Garden
Article written by: The Forum
City Council leaders and environmental groups this week announced more than $1 million in funding for the Greener NYC initiative – a Council plan to support environmentally friendly focused programs that encourage education, advocacy, community service, and green-job training contributing to the improvement and conservation of the city’s air, land, energy, open space, and other vital resources.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan) and Councilmembers Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-East Elmhurst), Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), and Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) made the announcement on Monday at Green City Force in Brooklyn.
“This initiative is part of the City Council’s ongoing commitment to making New York City greener and more environmentally friendly,” Mark-Viverito said. “Together we are moving in the right direction, and through the Greener NYC Initiative, we’re bringing every community across the city together to get there even faster.”
In addition to Greener NYC, the Council announced a climate change platform in 2014 to push the city in a greener, more energy efficient, and more sustainable direction. The platform includes legislation to reduce the city’s car fleet and update the municipal air code for the first time in over 40 years. Most significantly, Local Law 66 of 2014, which the Council passed by a vote of 47-0, will require the Big Apple to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent before the year 2050.
“The Greener NYC initiative will improve our city’s environment by getting additional dollars to support those that are working to protect our air quality and fight climate change,” said Constantinides, chairman of the Environmental Protection Committee. “Supporting green-job training and environmental education will help bring us closer to our goal of reducing our city’s carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. This initiative will benefit our city’s economy and public health. I thank Speaker Mark-Viverito and Council Member Donovan Richards for their leadership on this important issue.”
Some of the organizations that are set to receive a portion of the funding include Alley Pond Environmental Center, Inc.; CEC STUYVESANT COVE INC AKA Solar One; the Eastern Queens Alliance; Green City Force; Greenbelt Conservancy, Inc.; Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, Inc.; New York Botanical Garden; New York Restoration Project; North Shore Waterfront Conservancy Of Staten Island, Inc.; Prospect Park Alliance, Inc.; Queens Botanical Garden Society, Inc.; Rockaway Waterfront Alliance; Sustainable South Bronx; West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.; New York Aquarium WCS; Zimmer Club Youth Conservation Program of Staten Island, Inc.; Protectors of Pine Oak Woods Inc.; Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy; Council on the Environment, Inc.; City Growers Inc.; Friends of Hudson River Park, Inc.; Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger; Friends of the Highline; Brooklyn Queens Land Trust; Goddard Riverside Community Center; and St. Nick’s Alliance.