By Danielle Dweck and Angelina Banek
Over 400 students, activists, and community leaders gathered at the City University of New York (CUNY) Climate Justice Summit on Feb. 25 to learn about the local climate justice movement. Focused on uniting CUNY students who are eager to contribute to a more just city, the summit brought together passionate voices determined to inspire change. The summit also aimed to confront environmental inequality while empowering communities disproportionately affected by climate change. Through panel discussions, interactive workshops, and networking opportunities, attendees explored sustainable solutions and discussed the role of youth activism in driving policy change. As the climate crisis escalates, CUNY students are stepping up to make their voices heard.
The New York City (NYC) Climate Justice Hub is a new partnership between the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) and CUNY. Brooklyn College serves as one of the hub’s four anchor campuses. NYC-EJA is a non-profit that connects 12 environmental-justice-centered grassroots organizations from all five city boroughs. During the summit, NYC-EJA Executive Director and Hub Co-Director Eddie Bautista explained the history and goals of the alliance, as well as how its partnership with CUNY came to be.
“[NYC-EJA] was born with two essential mandates,” Bautista said.“One is to identify all the systemic reasons why Black and brown communities repeatedly get hammered with noxious facilities while we have some of the highest asthma rates and some of the lowest healthcare rates.”
Bautista went on to explain the other goal of the alliance. “The second was to dismantle as many of them as possible, and for the last 30+ years, that’s what the Environmental Justice Alliance has been doing,” he said.
Bautista shared that he and BC professor Michael Menser had spent over ten years considering how they might bridge the work of the NYC-EJA and the CUNY students who come from the same neighborhoods. He stressed the clear connection between the two organizations.
“Ask a CUNY student. They’ll likely tell you somebody in my family has asthma, or I know somebody, or there’s a noxious facility right down the block from me. There was a natural alliance between the two sectors, between EJ activists and CUNY,” Bautista said.
Bautista credited a 4 million dollar grant from The Waverly Street Foundation as the catalyst that empowered them to kickstart the New York City Climate Justice Hub.
Kendra Sullivan, director of the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, is the co-director of the hub representing the CUNY side of the partnership. During the conference, Sullivan proudly shared that the hub had already created 94 new jobs, including paid internships for CUNY students, research fellowships, graduate student fellows, and part-time data visualization fellows.
“We’re literally staffing, and cross training, and educating, and connecting the grassroots sector. I would say the scale and scope of our parent institutional workforce is unprecedented, except it is precisely the scale and scope of the crisis we face, but we can face it because we are working together,” Sullivan said.
One session that occurred during the event was a discussion panel that explored the role and importance of youth in the fight for environmental and climate justice on and off campus. Led directly by CUNY students, faculty, alumni, and members of the NYC-EJA, the panel provided insights into the history of student organization and activism at CUNY. Moderated by Conor Tomás Reed, the discussion featured speakers Angela Zhou, Hennessy Garcia, and Maria Reyes. Key topics included environmental racism and injustice, heat and air quality concerns, the importance of community engagement, and the pivotal role of youth in combating climate change.
Following the impactful discussion, attendees moved on to the New York City Climate Justice Hub showcase, which highlighted the power of community-university partnerships in advancing climate justice. This interactive exhibition showcased the impact of the NYC Climate Justice Hub, displaying work from all three of the Hub’s core work streams: Research Teams, Classes and Curriculum, and the Climate Justice Fellowship and Academy program. Each of these core programs utilizes CUNY resources to further research studies and advocacy agendas of the Hub’s participating member organizations, including The Brotherhood Sister Sol, El Puente, Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), The Point CDC, UPROSE, and We Stay/Nos Quedamos.
“It is so important for organizations across the five boroughs to come together about environmental justice issues because it takes a city-wide response to address such challenges,” said attendee Saul Porter regarding the showcase.
One interactive exhibit was The Brotherhood Sister Sol 1K Composting Systems Initiative for NYC exhibit, which discussed the importance of composting throughout New York City’s five boroughs. The exhibit even featured a model compost bin used for hot box composting, a method of composting that uses a bin to create heat and speed up the process of turning organic waste into compost.
“The Brosis compost project was the most interesting community EJ project,” said Tommy Richards, a BC student. “Composting is an important part of bridging environmental attention to our community and our consumption.”
Another exhibit tracked climate justice across CUNY campuses, in which attendees were shown a short film made by CUNY students that addressed the issue of polluting infrastructure located in low-income neighborhoods.
“It is so crucial to have events like these because when we are learning about climate justice, it usually takes place in other parts of the world, but this event lets students know how they can partake in climate justice work here, in their own communities and neighborhoods,” Dinorah Hudson, exhibit leader and NYC Climate Justice Specialist, stated.
The summit was just the beginning. At the end of the day-long meeting, students came together to plan a CUNY-wide student caucus. A follow-up meeting will take place at BC on March 20.
Students can find more information on the NYC Climate Justice Hub official Instagram, @nyc_cjhub.