NYC Climate Leadership Panel Features NYCHA’s Shaan Mavani

On May 16, two organizations devoted to helping cities improve, Greater NY and HR&A Advisors, hosted a conversation event called Climate NYC to consider an increasingly urgent question: How can New York most effectively address the complex challenge of climate change?

Greater NY, which fosters partnerships among CEOs of NYC non-profits and leaders from finance, law, consulting, and private industry, and HR&A Advisors, an employee-owned firm that advises public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic clients on how to increase opportunity and advance quality of life in cities, co-produced the event. They convened a distinguished panel of leaders with global experience and from a range of respected public and private NYC institutions – including NYCHA’s Chief Asset and Capital Management Officer Shaan Mavani – to address vital questions concerning the city’s efforts to address climate change.

The Climate NYC event was introduced by Shaun Donovan, the CEO of Enterprise Community Partners who is a board member of Greater NY and who previously served as HUD Secretary under President Obama. The event was moderated by Jeff Hébert, the CEO of HR&A Advisors and a respected thought leader in economic revitalization and climate policy who served as First Deputy Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer of New Orleans under Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Participating alongside Mr. Mavani in the panel discussion were Rohit T. Aggarwala, NYC’s Chief Climate Officer and Commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection; Mark Gallogly, Co-founder and Managing Principal of the Three Cairns Group; and Christie Peale, CEO and Executive Director of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods.

When asked what makes him hopeful about the fight against climate change, Mr. Mavani said: “Today there’s a lot of awareness of these issues, and a lot more momentum. As people are directly experiencing the impacts of climate change, public understanding and support for action is a lot stronger than it was five, ten, fifteen years ago. So many more folks are also now focused on addressing these challenges. That’s what gives me hope.”

Mr. Aggarwala added: “What gives me hope is that Climate Change is not just a technocratic conversation anymore. People get it now. There is real engagement among real people. If we (organizational and thought leaders) do our job about what the choices are, what the costs are, we will get to acceptance that these projects have to move forward. We’ve got enough awareness that stuff must happen that it creates the opportunity in our political environment to move things forward.”

Mr. Gallogly said he is encouraged by NYCHA’s sustainability efforts, praising “the innovation at NYCHA – it’s astonishing how important NYCHA is!”

GreaterNY’s Executive Director Alice Naude concluded the event by thanking the panel participants: “The point was made early on in this conversation that what this issue really needs is leadership. I think you have all demonstrated that in this hour today. Thank you for your leadership and thank you to attendees for all the conversations that you will now go out and have about climate across this great city.”