The Built Environment, Sustainability, & Labor

We are past the point where there is any serious debate about whether there is climate catastrophe.  Workers in design and construction have a critical role to play in trying to mitigate the long-term effects and steer building, one of the main sources of the carbon footprint, to a more environmentally friendly and socially productive direction.  But we also work within a capitalist structure.  Design and construction for the most part are driven by profits, not social concerns, something seldom questioned by the design community and elected officials, even those on board with mitigating climate change.

What is the role of labor in this dire situation?  What agency do we have as designers and builders, individually and collectively?  How can we shift not only how we design and build, but what we design and build?  And how do we bridge the divisions within the building industry, between design and construction, and also bridge the long-standing “blue/green divide” between environmental activists, and design and construction workers trying to make a living?

We need an open discussion on these questions.  Please join us, for presenters from labor, construction, labor organizing, and design.  

Building Coalitions for a Just Transition

Our big upcoming event will be the evening of Thursday April 13th in the Rose Auditorium of The Cooper Union, titled, "Building Coalitions for a Just Transition". We are organizing this event in partnership with New York Review of Architecture, the Green New Deal Working Group of The Architecture Lobby and the NYC Chapter of Science for the People. 

With this event, we intend to test the viability of a new political constituency within the fields of architecture, engineering and construction. We suspect there is an appetite among thousands of our colleagues for deep industrial reform which far outpaces the capacity or vision of the dominant players in our fields. 

NYS/NYC Climate & Energy Policy Overview

Climate policy has achieved some significant successes in New York at the state and local levels. However, there is a lack of transparency regarding the actions taken and the decision-makers involved. Tonight, we will share insights about the politics (bureaucratic and electoral) of climate policy and identify opportunities for activists and organizers to participate in this movement independently or through organizations.