ABI Collective

We are the Alternative Building Industry Collective. Or, if you like, the ABI Collective.

We are an organization of building professionals based in New York City dedicated to reshaping the industry for climate action and a just transition into environmental justice. We first came together to defend NYC's Local Law 97, but our vision extends beyond just this law. Our political analysis is that transformative change, in-line with climate goals and equity, requires cross-sector labor organizing and power building to challenge the needs of corporate interests. The ABI Collective works for just climate futures.

At work, we may have technical opportunities to design and build for sustainability, but our industry remains structurally and politically off track. This bears some responsibility for creating the injustices within our built environment. We must build collective power and move the building industry toward a regenerative future, reversing its role in economic, climate and racial injustice.

Why We Exist

As practitioners within the industry, we see up close how politics and economics shape what gets built and what ideas get left behind.

We take seriously the global contribution by our industry, accounting for nearly 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in NYC alone. Parallel with efforts to combat the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the energy sector, we seek to slash the carbon footprint of the building sector through participatory planning and the creation of new political priorities.

Transformative building policies require organizations dedicated to political action that are independent of the shortsighted interests of industry leaders and investors. We leverage our multitude of technical proficiencies for advocacy while setting aside client obligations and the constraints of our professions.

Our Mission

We seek to empower solidarity among workers in the design, construction, engineering, and maintenance fields of the built environment sector.

We work to identify and solve problems within our workplaces and the industry at large.

We aim to help the general public understand these problems; to understand why the built environment operates the way it does and when to answer the call to make it better.

Every day tomorrow is being built. With the building industry at its heart we strive for an economy that is both equitable and ecologically abundant. We aspire to get there through a “just transition”—an integrated approach to political reform and deep decarbonization efforts, with prosperity for communities and workers at its core.