Urban Green Live

In this episode of Urban Green Live, host John Mandyck is joined by Justin Driscoll, President and CEO of the New York Power Authority, to discuss the future of nuclear power in New York State. They explore the role of the New York Power Authority in decarbonization efforts, the advancements in nuclear technology, and the importance of community engagement in the site selection process for new nuclear plants. They also address the challenges of nuclear waste management and the anticipated timeline for the new nuclear initiative. Justin Driscoll, President and CEO, the New York Power Authority. Justin E. Driscoll is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the nation's largest state-owned electric utility. He is responsible for developing and implementing the statewide utility's strategic vision and mission, and for overseeing its operations, legal and financial matters, and relationships with external stakeholders. He is also responsible for the operation of the New York State Canal System. Justin supervises NYPA’s 17 generation facilities and 1,550 circuit-miles of high voltage transmission, as well as its role as an energy efficiency project developer and as energy supplier for its governmental customers, including New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City Housing Authority, state agencies and local governments.Host: John Mandyck, CEO, Urban Green Council. John joined Urban Green Council in 2018 as its first-ever CEO. He capped a 25-year career as Chief Sustainability Officer for United Technologies Corporation, a Fortune 45 global leader in the building, aerospace and food refrigeration industries. He also serves as a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Business. John is the founding chair of the Corporate Advisory Board for the World Green Building Council, a former board chair of Urban Green, and co-author of the book Food Foolish.If you enjoyed this episode, please consider ⁠becoming a member of Urban Green⁠, and subscribing to our podcast for more insightful conversations on building a sustainable future.

Live from Urban Green's 2025 annual conference, this special episode of Urban Green Live features John Mandyck's keynote conversation with Rory Christian, Chair and CEO of the NYS Public Service Commission.They discuss the role of the PSC and the levers they can use to advance building decarbonization. They also discuss how utility rates affect electrification, the future of natural gas in New York, and how New York State can achieve a just transition.This episode was recorded on June 2, 2025 at Urban Green's NYC Next: Shaping Building Decarbonization conference at NYU in New York City.We'd like to thank ⁠Carrier⁠ for sponsoring the event and podcast.

Con Edison’s centralized district steam system serves more than 3 million New Yorkers and over 1,500 buildings in Manhattan, from the Financial District to 96th Street. In this episode of Urban Green Live, we’re joined by Matthew Ketschke, President of Con Edison, for an insightful conversation about pathways to decarbonizing NYC’s district steam system—the largest in the country. 

For the fifth anniversary of Urban Green Live, we returned to our very first guest: Dr. Joe Allen, Director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program and Associate Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan of Public Health.In this episode, Dr. Allen reviews what we’ve learned since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged five years ago and discusses the latest trends for designing healthy buildings. Learn about recent improvements in Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) sensor technologies, new research about IAQ’s cognitive impacts on creativity, healthier building materials, and more!

At the 2024 Urban Green Gala, we were proud to honor one of the nation’s most respected voices on climate change, Gina McCarthy. As the former White House National Climate Advisor and EPA Administrator, her leadership produced some of the most aggressive climate action in U.S. history. At the Gala, Gina sat down for a conversation with Urban Green CEO John Mandyck, which we’re excited to release as the latest episode of Urban Green Live! Listen in as Gina lets us in on her experience in the federal government, offers advice to climate advocates, and shares what makes her optimistic about the future of climate action.

The Green Economy Action Plan is a first-of-its-kind roadmap to growing NYC’s green economy. The plan identifies the jobs and sectors that will help the city combat climate change. And its recommendations will help put New Yorkers—particularly those from environmentally disadvantaged communities—in a position to benefit from the nearly 400,000 ‘green-collar’ jobs expected in New York City by 2040. With buildings-related work accounting for nearly half of these jobs, we’re excited to welcome Nse Esema, Senior Vice President of the Green Economy team at NYCEDC, to Urban Green Live. In this episode, Nse and Urban Green CEO John Mandyck unpack the plan and discuss how NYC’s growing green workforce will accelerate building decarbonization efforts. SPEAKERS: Nse Esema, Senior Vice President of the Green Economy Team, NYCEDC John Mandyck, CEO, Urban Green Council RESOURCES:  Green Economy Action Plan

Arup is a global firm dedicated to sustainable development, and they recently answered a simple question: how much carbon could be saved by 2050 if New York City expanded the range of buildings eligible for office to residential conversions? On this episode of Urban Green Live, John Mandyck talked to David Farnsworth and Tess McNamara about Arup’s research and the impetus, from a sustainability perspective, for making more of NYC’s office buildings eligible for residential conversions. SPEAKERS: David Farnsworth, Principal, Americas Property Market Leader, Arup Tess McNamara, Senior Consultant, Climate & Sustainability, Arup John Mandyck, CEO, Urban Green Council RESOURCES: Arup's presentation slides

Ian Shapiro—founder and co-owner of Taitem Engineering and Professor of Practice (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) at Syracuse University—is one of New York’s leading experts on building electrification, having recently helped the City of Ithaca develop a local energy code that reduces carbon emissions by 80 percent in new buildings and will require fossil-fuel-free buildings starting in 2026. He joined us on Urban Green Live where we’ll talk to Ian about the building industry’s readiness to electrify and the challenges of growing the workforce and reducing construction costs. This wide-ranging discussion touched on everything from heat pumps to energy opportunities in New York State.

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has helped provide companies with a clearly-defined and verified net zero pathway to reduce their emissions in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement goals. And now, the SBTi is setting its sights on buildings—developing target setting methodologies, tools, and guidance for companies and stakeholders in the sector to set 1.5º aligned decarbonization targets. Karl Downey is a Senior Technical Manager for the SBTi, and is leading their Building Sector project. He joined Urban Green Live to discuss what the SBTi is and how it works, what makes it different from previous and existing standards, and the development and upcoming release of the Building Sector guidance.

The New York City Department of Buildings recently created the Bureau of Sustainability, led by newly appointed Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability Laura Popa, a former member of the Urban Green Council Board of Directors. DOB’s first-ever climate-focused bureau will direct the department’s sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives, including the implementation of LL97.   On December 15, we sat down with Laura to discuss the bureau’s work, its priorities for the coming months and what it all means for the buildings industry.

Healthy buildings are here to stay. So what's next? On November 10, we welcomed back Dr. Joe Allen, a leading voice influencing global healthy building design, to unpack his new book, Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick—Or Keep You Well. Joe is an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program.  Joe discussed some highlights from the book, including how diseases spread indoors, the different ways building owners can create indoor spaces that keep occupants safe and healthy, and why healthy buildings are vital for sustainable urban centers.

Local Law 97 requires the City of New York to reduce emissions from its operations—including city-owned buildings—by 40 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030. As the office that oversees NYC’s portfolio of buildings, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) will play a pivotal role in meeting these commitments. DCAS’s recently released Local Law 97 Implementation Action Plan outlines how the agency will lead NYC’s efforts to meet these targets over the next eight years and identifies a path beyond 2030 for the city’s buildings to comply with Local Law 97. This episode features Anthony Fiore, Deputy Commissioner for Energy Management at DCAS. Anthony joins Urban Green CEO John Mandyck to discuss the Implementation Action Plan and how the city plans to reduce emissions in its buildings.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul just proposed a bold 2022 climate agenda in her State of the State address. The measures she put forth include a code requiring zero onsite carbon in all new buildings, a new building electrification fund, doubling energy storage by 2030, achieving 2 million climate-friendly homes by 2030, investing $500 million to support offshore wind power, and much more. During this Urban Green Live Episode, John Mandyck takes us on a deep dive into this groundbreaking agenda with NYSERDA's President and CEO Doreen Harris, and Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development Janet Joseph.

On November 18, John chatted with Dana Gunders, an expert on food systems and one of the first people to raise the alarm about how much food goes unsold or uneaten across the country. They discussed food waste and its subsequent impacts on food security, the environment, and the economy. Dana Gunders is Executive Director of ReFED, a national nonprofit working to reduce food loss and waste by advancing data-driven solutions. Prior to her role at ReFED, Dana served as a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she authored the landmark Wasted report about food waste and testified before Congress on the topic. She also launched the "Save The Food'' campaign with the Ad Council and wrote the popular Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook to provide consumers with easy-to-use strategies to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste in their homes. Dana has made a number of appearances in the media – including on PBS "NewsHour," "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver, CNBC, and FOX News – and was called “the woman who helped start the waste-free movement” by Consumer Reports.

Listen to John’s conversation with Jeremy Shannon, Director of Sustainable Design and Resiliency at NYC School Construction Authority. They expand on innovative school sustainability strategies and the SCA's progress in shifting schools away from fossil fuels.

In this episode, the CEO of UK's Green Building Council, Julie Hirigoyen, discusses the issue of net zero carbon emissions. 

We are excited to welcome Ben Furnas, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability. During this episode, Ben and John will discuss New York City’s policy direction for carbon reduction in buildings. Learn the very latest about NYC's plans to lower emissions on this episode!

In this episode, Steve and John will discuss the future of federal policy for building retrofits and energy efficiency, and how these items will be affected by political shifts in Washington, D.C.

Acting President and CEO of NYSERDA Doreen Harris joins Urban Green Council CEO John Mandyck to discuss the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the future of energy efficiency and their latest view on the pipeline of renewables for NYC.

We’re excited to welcome back Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of “Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity.” Dr. Allen and John dive deep into the important conversation about the false choice between health and energy as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and answer audience questions.