Monthly Forum: Bolstering Climate Resilience in NYC

How prepared is New York City to handle the complexities of climate change, including flooding? Over a decade after Hurricane Sandy, the city continues to face challenges from storms that inundate streets and tunnels and cause power outages. This discussion will explore how rising sea levels threaten coastal areas, examine the progress of key projects like Living Breakwaters and review the risks associated with heavy rainfall. We'll also delve into potential solutions through green infrastructure and consider the environmental and economic consequences of not taking proactive measures.

Date: Tuesday, September 17
Time: 6:15PM - 8:00PM
Location: Fujitsu AirStage, 1450 Broadway - 42nd Floor

Doors open at 6:15 PM. Refreshments will be served. Stick around for networking afterwards!

Speakers:

Johanna Lawton
Project Manager, Rebuild by Design

Johanna Lawton supports resilient infrastructure initiatives at local, state, and national levels, as well as collaborative stakeholder engagements. Through research and design, she has contributed to various publications to advance the use of multi-benefit infrastructure, including the reports “Climate Displacement in NYC: Making Space for our Neighbors,” “Atlas of Disaster,” “Resilient Infrastructure for New York State,” “An Anthology of Ideas after Hurricane Ida,” and “Toward Rainproof NYC: Turning the Concrete Jungle into a Sponge.”Previously, Lawton worked for the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs as the Managing Editor of the Refuge Press, where she worked at the intersection of human rights, social justice, global development, and literature. Lawton is also a founding member of Resilience PAC, a member-driven political action committee dedicated to ensuring NYC adapts to climate change equitably by helping climate-forward candidates get elected to local offices, and serves as a public member of Manhattan’s Community Board 2.She holds a B.A. in Environmental Policy from Colby College. She is committed to working on environmental justice issues, and draws on her experiences as a lifelong New Yorker to identify local and national disaster-related inequities.

Mallory Rutigliano
Climate and Environmental Policy Practitioner, New York

Mallory Rutigliano is a sustainability and resiliency expert based in New York City. Mallory works on climate resiliency for the NYC Mayor's Office of Management and Budget, contributing to the city's Climate Budgeting initiative. Mallory is also the vice chair for the New York chapter of the Sierra Club, and chairs committees on environmental education and the Hudson River estuary, among other positions. Mallory previously conducted sustainable finance research at BloombergNEF on topics such as global policy, fossil fuel divestment, and green bonds. She also has a background in behavioral health research focused on addressing health disparities, alongside the environmental and biological sciences with an emphasis on policy. Mallory earned her MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and her BA in Biology and Psychology from Dartmouth College. She is currently a doctoral fellow in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, focusing on resilient food systems.

Tami Banh
Associate, SCAPE Landscape Architecture 

Tami Banh is an architect and landscape architect. She’s passionate about exploring ways to restructure relationships between humans and the surrounding world through designing, building, writing, and making. Her works and research focus on ecology, climate resilience, and human-nonhuman cohabitation. Tami is an associate at Scape Landscape Architecture and served as an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Urban Design program at Columbia University. Tami holds a Bachelor in Architecture from the University of Southern California and a dual Master in Architecture and Master in Landscape Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University.

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Since 2002, GreenHomeNYC has been promoting an energy efficient and sustainable built environment, and supporting green professional development in NYC.

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