Climate Action

Equitable health outcomes are necessary to achieve climate justice, and changes to existing policies can help achieve that goal.

The Urban Design Forum’s 2019 Forefront Fellowship, Turning the Heat, addressed ways how urban practitioners can advance climate justice principles across New York City.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Rebecca Lurie, Coordinator of the Community & Worker Ownership Project at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, on building infrastructure for small cooperatives and opportunities to strengthen the cooperative movement in the construction industry.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Daphany Rose Sanchez, Executive Director of Kinetic Communities Consulting, on building a small business in the energy efficiency sector and achieving energy equity

The Urban Design Forum interviews Stephanie Carlisle, Senior Researcher at the Carbon Leadership Forum and former Principal at KieranTimberlake, on the role of embodied carbon in achieving climate goals and how to make high-performance buildings the standard for all projects.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative at the University of Pennsylvania, on building coalitions in the climate movement and a Green New Deal for Public Housing.

Leading up to our Cooperative Works program, we are pleased to publish a series of interviews with leaders in sustainability in the built environment, inclusive economic development, and racial justice.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Maru Bautista, Director of the Cooperative Development Program at the Center for Family Life, on the benefits cooperative ownership can have in a community and the resiliency of cooperative models.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Sandra Lobo, Executive Director of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition on organizing around racial, environmental, and health justice and economic democracy.

The Urban Design Forum interviews Mark Chambers, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, on the City’s efforts to implement Local Law 97, expanding the tent of climate resistance, and prioritizing environmental justice communities in the vision for a greener future.

As part of our 2019 Forefront Fellowship, these posters feature proposals explore the role buildings can play in advancing heat resiliency.

The Turning the Heat report emerges from the Urban Design Forum’s partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Resiliency to research how urban design can mitigate the impacts of extreme heat in New York City’s most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.

Urban Design Forum Executive Director Daniel McPhee sits down with Duncan Pescod, Chief Executive Officer of WKCD, for a wide-ranging discussion about the project’s financing and design, extensive public engagement efforts, and the future of WKCD in light of recent protest movements in Hong Kong.

Daniel McPhee sits down with James Nozar, CEO of Strategic Property Partners, to discuss how he has worked collaboratively with Mayor Jane Castor to leverage Water Street's unique single investment structure to streamline design and development and build a new ground-up urban hub for Tampa.

Daniel McPhee sits down with Chris to discuss how Waterfront Toronto's lengthy public engagement process resulted in detailed block plans specifying architectural character and use, as well as major investments in the public realm.