During Climate Week NYC, The Tishman Environment and Design Center and Ripe for Creative Disruption EJ Fellowship convened EJ leaders on the road to the UNFCC Conference of Parties 27th Meeting on Climate Change (COP27), in Egypt.
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![[RE-BLOG] Sustainability Town Hall Highlight](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d14dab43967cc000179f3d2/1666755757027-L9NTG8EIW0PFGEBJXK8O/noah-buscher-x8ZStukS2PM-unsplash-1024x586.jpeg)
In recognition of Climate Week 2022, The Tishman Environment and Design Center (TEDC) hosted an online town hall to discuss sustainability at the New School. The format of this discussion was an attempt to bring faculty, staff, and students together to exchange knowledge and voice concerns about energy consumption and waste management. As the school aims for goals such as being “net zero” by 2050, it is essential that everyone is involved in the process of not just figuring out the when, but also the how.
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With many of the Tishman Center’s research assistants (RAs) scattered across the country for summer break, we wanted to highlight some of the environmental justice activism happening in our hometowns. On August 26 in my hometown of Houston, Air Alliance Houston, the Climate Justice Museum, and One Breath Partnership collaborated to hold “5 Years After Landfall”: a collective reflection on the catastrophic events of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
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The issue of cumulative impacts (CI) has been a central focus of the environmental justice (EJ) movement for decades. Understanding cumulative impacts requires consideration of the complex interplay between socio-demographic, environmental, and public health factors that impact EJ communities. These communities are both more likely to be overburdened with pollution (higher vulnerability) and more likely to suffer severe impacts from pollution (higher susceptibility) . Yet advancing actions that address cumulative impacts in EJ communities has been challenging for a variety of reasons. One of the key barriers to addressing CI in environmental decision-making is the narrow focus of existing environmental regulations that do not include an explicit mandate to consider multiple pollutants from multiple sources. There are gaps in our knowledge about how multiple pollutants interact with each other and impact public health under different conditions; and most environmental laws do not consider the socio-demographic and health disparities that impact EJ communities . Finally, one of the biggest obstacles to implementing a proactive approach to addressing CI has been the lack of political will to limit the activity of industry in EJ communities where cumulative impacts have traditionally been concentrated…
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Solidarity to everyone leading the fight for justice at the frontlines. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been paraded as the first and best climate bill in the country, although it is not representative of the needs of those who will be harmed by this very bill, and is no climate bill at all. The economic benefits of the wealthy still take precedence over the lives of the most vulnerable. It is out of touch and can be seen played out across the nation. However, local power movements in states like New Jersey are taking the lead on making sure legislation like the New Jersey Environmental Justice Law is made to protect the dignity of all people.
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Gael Garcia Bernal, is a Mexican actor, director, and producer, popularly known for his performance in Amores Perros and Motorcycle Diaries amongst others. In a career spanning over two decades Bernal has also ventured into creating more conscientious films. As a part of this endeavor, during the pandemic, Bernal produced a six part documentary series centered around the climate crisis in Mexico. The series is called ‘El Tema’ which translates to ‘The Theme’.
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We are pleased to announce a number of staff promotions and new hires at the Tishman Center that will allow us to better serve the campus community, TNS sustainability goals, and President McBride’s Four Pillars of Fearless Progress. The Tishman Center recently received a catalytic grant from an anonymous, new climate funder that will support our strategic growth strategy over the next three years enabling us to hire a number of new employees engaged in campus programming serving faculty, staff and students and in growing our action-based research with frontline, grassroots partners in the tri-state region and around the country. Our expansion has been made possible through the great work and commitment of our staff, faculty and leadership. This illustrates the timeliness and urgency of the climate emergency and environmental justice work the Tishman Center undertakes.
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As we are still in the midst of both a global pandemic that continues to affect the lives of everyone on the globe, multiple deadly conflicts in places such as Yemen, Syria, Ukraine and other locales, and the active stripping away of rights in the United States of America, we are glad to find inspiration and hope in the work of our student awardees. These students are dedicating time and effort to addressing not only environmental and climate injustice, but also advocating for democracy, civil rights, accessibility and methods to deal with trauma. We are proud to support the work of these amazing people and are happy to share their work with you. If you are interested in hearing more or want to further support their work, please feel free to reach out to us. And to all of the awardees, thank you for the time and commitment you put into your projects.
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After two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, how has our conception of public space changed? Over the past two years, the citizens of metropolitan cities have minimized the use of vehicles in the streets due to the restrictions for travel and ‘stay home’ mandates. With the absence of traffic jams and parked cars, the citizens of New York occupied the streets in their own way.
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On April 14, 2022, the Tishman Center collaborated with the New School’s Food Studies program to host “Listen Up! Understanding Food Justice and Environmental Justice through Music” as part of our Earth Week events and Food Studies’ “Critical Food Studies and Social Justice” series.
Read More![[Re]-Watch Earth Week 2022 Videos](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d14dab43967cc000179f3d2/7a5b27ec-8f8a-4d20-ab26-cbbd97ef917c/earth%2Bweek%2Bmulti%2Blogo%2Bno%2Bborder%2B%281%29.png)
Thank you to all of our guests, panelists, research assistants and colleagues that helped us have a great slate of events for April and our Earth Month programming. You can re-watch (or watch for the first time) below. We will update a couple of the videos for increased accessibility. We hope you enjoy and share these!
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I want to share an emerging area of opportunity: furniture waste. A topic that resonates in its ubiquity and infamy.
For 15 months, I documented the street furniture I came across in my SF Bay Area neighborhood and was stunned by what I discovered: over 50,000 pounds of furniture within two miles of my home, of which, 89% was reusable, with about a third needing repair…
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During the Month of April, the Tishman Center will be hosting, co-sponsoring and promoting Earth Week events. Our theme this year is: Art, Design, Democracy: Tools to Achieve Climate Justice. We will have a number of events featuring musicians, chefs, artists, planners and academics who will share their experiences, art, music and more to help us think of creative and engaging ways to get closer to a more just and safe world. You can register for all events below and we will have a number of social media activities and things to share with attendees.
You can RSVP below for all upcoming events and you can reach us at @newschoolTEDC on Twitter, @tishmancenter on Instagram and tedc@newschool.edu by email.
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The Tishman Center led the effort to complete The New School’s AASHE STARS Certification for 2021. The process started at the beginning of 2021 and was managed by Tishman Center Assistant Director Mike Harrington along with critical support from Ali Sahin and Maryna Arabei, two Tishman Center Research Assistants. We are happy to report that the university retained a silver rating and a slightly higher score than our last assessment.
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The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC WGII AR6) was released on February 28, 2022: a 3,675-page tome that focuses on climate “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”. Governments around the world use this report as the authority on how climate change impacts nature and humanity.
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I grew up during the first Intifada. If you were a child in the late 1980s, you might remember images of Palestinian boys and young men hurling rocks at Israeli tanks and soldiers as they tried in vain to save their homes and families. I remember deeply; those images are etched in my brain because this was my first exposure to where my mother is from. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I would watch my mother watch the news and could tell how bad it was. She would sit on our couch, her hand gently tapping the wall above her head and sadness, fear and anger on her face. I never could understand how these young boys with their little rocks and stones could be considered terrorists and predators, while a well-armed and organized national military could be seen as the victims.
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The Tishman Environment and Design Center is pleased to announce a new Co-Director structure. Professors Ana Baptista and Joel Towers will now be sharing leadership of the Center. Ana Baptista and Joel Towers have both been instrumental in the founding and shaping of the center over the last fifteen years. Joel’s background in sustainable design and Ana’s longstanding involvement in the Environmental Justice Movement make for a deeply complementary partnership as the TIshman Center’s co-directors. This leadership approach embodies the Tishman Center’s commitment to shared leadership grounded in interdisciplinary, diversity and social justice principles.
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This has been a stressful and difficult year, on campus and around the world. We have seen many of the world’s inequalities laid bare as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. COVID-related deaths and economic fallout from the pandemic are felt unequally, with low-income and communities of color bearing the brunt. Meanwhile the climate crisis continues to grow in urgency as we are witnessing increasingly dangerous droughts, wildfires, heat waves, and storms. Again, poor communities and communities of color are most vulnerable to these events and have the fewest resources to recover.
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Looking to get involved in environmental work right in your backyard? Look no further! NYC has a plethora of environmental volunteer opportunities, and we’ve compiled some of them here - although this list is by no means exhaustive.
Read More![[RE-BLOG] Food Studies Program’s November “Food and the Public” Event Features Panel “Remembering Nach Waxman”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d14dab43967cc000179f3d2/1638977938001-IYN7H0TY21YSZOX3D9GJ/nach+blog.jpg)
On November 15th the Food Studies Program’s second Fall 2021 event “Remembering Nach Waxman” brought together the wife and children of Nach Waxman in conversation with six culinary leaders to discuss Waxman’s life and contributions. Waxman founded the bookstore Kitchen Arts and Letters (KAL) in New York City in 1983, and it quickly became a crossroads for researchers, writers, chefs and home cooks alike. Patrons came in search of what would grow to be nearly 13,000 titles from around the world, from cookbooks to food histories.
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