Green Healthy Schools

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome to Uptown Chats, a podcast where we share stories about environmental justice by and for everyday people. I'm your co host, Jaron. [00:00:25] Speaker C: And I'm your other co host, Lonnie. [00:00:26] Speaker B: And this month we're celebrating Children's Environmental Health Month with two episodes focused on youth and climate action. Our episode today will highlight an exciting campaign that WEX has been working on, has been a part of for the last few years called the Green Healthy Schools Campaign. Right, Lonnie? [00:00:43] Speaker C: That's right. And we'll be joined by Faiza Zahm, the climate and labor organizer at Align. [00:00:49] Speaker B: But before we get to the good stuff, Lonnie, can you share WEAC's mission? [00:00:53] Speaker C: WE act mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. [00:01:04] Speaker B: That's right. So as we mentioned, our episode today is all about the Green Healthy Schools campaign that We ACT has been involved with for several years now. And Lonnie, I believe you've been involved with helping move that campaign forward, right? [00:01:16] Speaker C: Yes, I've been a part of that campaign since I started at WeAct four years ago. So the campaign is championed by the Climate Works for All Coalition, which we act as a part of. And they're calling for an annual capital investment of $2.2 billion over five years to make schools fully electric and fossil fuel free, install clean solar power, and upgrade heating, cooling and ventilation systems. These investments will create over 300,000 green jobs, or over 60,000 per year, and cut Department of Education energy costs in half. Long term. [00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. This campaign is all about delivering clean air and improving learning environments for nearly 1 million public school students and making workplaces for more than 150,000 teachers and school workers sustainable. [00:02:01] Speaker C: The investments this campaign is calling for will help the city meet the mandates of Local 187 at scale and start to repair decades of harm that are caused by disinvestment by prioritizing schools and environmental justice communities. [00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is a great campaign and we made sure to include links in the show notes for folks who want to learn more. [00:02:18] Speaker C: With that said, should we go ahead and jump into our interview? [00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Let's go. [00:02:22] Speaker C: Let's go. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for joining us, Faiza. We're super happy to have you on the podcast. I feel like it's probably overdue, you know, to have someone from a line on the podcast talk about the work that y' all are doing. I know there's lots of exciting stuff that y' all are working on. But you know, obviously our topic today, Green Healthy Schools. And we'll, we'll get into that here in just a second. But before we get into, into that, I just want to ask you to briefly introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your role at Align. [00:02:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me and I always love a chat with Lonnie. And now just meeting you, Jaron, it's, it's great. I'm Faiza Azam. I use she her pronouns and I'm the climate and labor organizer for up for a Line. We connect climate, labor and community groups for a sustainable New York. And my role is such that I actually organize labor unions, climate justice groups and community organizations to push for climate campaigns in the city and state of New York. A lot of it does include making sure that labor unions are part of that conversation because often there are so many dynamics and we don't really hear from all those affected by climate change to make sure that they're at the decision making table together. I also coordinate the Climate Works for All Coalition, which is a coalition of labor, climate, community, faith, students and so many other groups in a diverse coalition to push for tackling the climate crisis and inequality. And part of that campaign is Green Healthy Schools. So I'm really excited to work with y' all on this amazing campaign. [00:04:06] Speaker C: Always good to see you, Faiza. I see her more often than probably anyone, but I wish everyone could hang out with Faiza as much as I get to need to do it more often. But we are here to talk about Green Healthy Schools and it's not a new campaign. We act has been supportive and have been around for this campaign for quite some time now, at least since I started we act about four years ago there was a Green Healthy Schools pushing the campaign. So it sounds like it's self explanatory, but can you go through and kind of give us a timeline of the brief history of the campaign and kind of in a nutshell, what it's all about and then we can dive into some details? [00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So as I mentioned, I coordinate the Climate Works Fall Coalition and in 2019, Align and so many other groups including React, passed the most ambitious law enforcement. I don't even know. I think the country to tackle the dirty building emissions in New York City that is called Local Law 97. New York City buildings contribute a significant amount of pollution in New York City and passing Local Law 97 was focused to reduce this amount of pollution and our coalition worked together to ensure that this campaign not only was enacted, but that it created a path for green healthy schools. So according to our research and just from the city's data, greenhouse schools, New York City public school buildings, all 1200 of them, actually contribute 70% of the city's total carbon emissions. [00:05:39] Speaker B: And. [00:05:41] Speaker A: We don't have the support from the city, especially funding wise and investments wise, to ensure that these schools are being properly maintained or upgraded and electrified because our buildings are constantly aging. They're over 75 years old. And often students and teachers and faculty are the ones that have to work in these like, dirty situations. Dirty situations that are often vulnerable to mass flooding, to other natural disasters, especially when we saw the orange smoky skies that occurred two years ago in our city from the Canadian wildfires. Three years ago, Align released our Green Healthy Schools report, the second one back in 2022. The first one was released on 2021. And this report highlighted the need for investments in our public schools. And a few months after, or actually the beginning of the Eric Adams administration, he took a lot of our findings from the report to introduce the Leading the Charge initiative. So this was an initiative from the city to electrify 100 public schools, but by 2030, and this would commit $4 billion to electrify those 100 public schools. And unfortunately, the city has only been able to allocate half of that funding only for small, small upgrades and electrification fixtures. But we are still pushing and pushing and pushing the city to continue to invest in our public schools because climate change will continue to happen in the future and we must do everything we can to be a city that leads the nation. And most recently, this is something that we are also really excited to share that we did launch our Green Healthy Schools report last month. And thank you so much to we act for being a big supporter and contributor to this report. So this report really is making sure that we're able to share updated numbers and really push for decarbonizing our public schools and making sure they're green and healthy. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Thanks for that recap because again, this is an. I know Lonnie is super familiar with this work. He's been kind of in this space working on this stuff for a while. Relatively new to me. I mean, obviously I'm familiar with the concept of air quality and electrifying and transitioning to more clean energy for our buildings in New York, especially in schools. And I imagine that maybe the pandemic was probably a wake up call for a lot of people. In that space of like, well, what are some of the upgrades that need to happen for these buildings? But, you know, hearing kind of the work that you all are doing to help move that forward is really great. I know. I'm kind of curious, you know, given, you know, what I was saying about some of the realizations that we've kind of had over the last few years of why it's important to, you know, improve our buildings, to transition to clean energy, to, you know, make sure we're protecting the health of people in those buildings. Can you talk a little bit about the timing of why, why this report is coming out now and what's the maybe some of the highlights, some of the key points or takeaways that are kind of new in this updated version of the report? [00:08:47] Speaker A: Thanks for. Thanks for that question. Well, as you know, since Eric Adams took office, many, many different things have happened. Many different new events have happened. And our last report was actually released in the beginning of his administration. And we've seen the news. He has dropped out of the New York City mayoral race. So he will not be running for reelection. Which means. Which means that we will have a new administration that is running our city agencies, that is regulating city, the city's budget and ensuring that they're the ones being responsible for investments in our public schools. After November, we'll be seeing a new candidate who will be the mayor of New York City next year. And this means that we need to push for a new way of governing. That means when we see so many cuts from the federal government to the environmental protection agencies, we've seen the federal government push to prohibit data collection from the epa, which would drastically harm the way environmental justice communities are being monitored as environmental justice communities because their communities are not being the data is not being collected. The data of dirty fossil fuels, the data of just overall pollution is not being collected. And at the national level, we are not seeing any progress. We are seeing a lack of progress. We're seeing scaling back on climate initiatives. And that's why we need to make sure that New York City and New York State is prioritizing green, healthy schools and doing so with numbers that are accurate and the numbers that are also fitting the current economic status that New York City is in now because things are far different than they were two years ago. And I know you mentioned the pandemic has changed a lot in 2020. And then we finally were starting to come back in person to many other things in 2022. But right now we're in 2025. And our emission goals are, emissions goals are not being met in the way that we need them to because we just, we need leaders who are going to prioritize these investments. So that's why we released our report because we really want to make sure that we have the receipts that we are the ones prioritizing climate justice for, especially for black and brown communities who attend New York City public schools and just communities across the city in general. [00:11:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's really important that as you mentioned, given the time where the city and the state are going to have to do a lot more to make these investments, to make these changes. So that way, because we, you know, we can't rely necessarily on federal funding that came from the Biden administration, who was a little bit more amenable to climate crisis that's going on. And also making schools and buildings healthier and removing and transitioning off of fossil fuels. And also, you know, the idea that storms are happening way more like you mentioned, like schools and they're flooding and not being able to recover from those disasters and also, you know, with the wildfires and not having proper H VAC systems and we have, you know, young lungs to think about that are, that are growing and all the cumulative impacts of everything that some children will experience, whether they being not having a healthy home environment, living in an environmental justice community, and then going to school all day at a school that is not in good condition at all. So we act, we are part of the Climate Works for All coalition and we definitely support this report a lot. Can you talk a little bit about how Green Healthy Schools relates to the environmental justice movement? [00:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an amazing question. And that's something that Climate Works for All is, has always prioritized because we are a coalition that specifically focuses on ensuring that environmental justice communities are the ones that are in the forefront with labor, with community, with every groups that are impacted. So what is Green Healthy Schools is a campaign that is specifically dedicated to ensuring that our public school school buildings are invested in infrastructure wise, in how public health wise for specifically black and brown communities as a priority. This means that when we see schools in areas that are historically disadvantaged. So for instance, according to our report, we have found that school districts in the Bronx as well as parts of Brooklyn and Queensland are historically the ones that have poor air quality or the ones that are in communities of color that happen to be also in the communities of color. These schools that also don't have proper funding for ventilation are also in those same communities. We've overlapped a lot of those areas, and we found that those were in similar communities that are often historically poor. There are black and brown communities, communities that are of immigrants. And we wanted to really prioritize those communities because in New York City, there is an unequal distribution of wealth, and often communities of color are the ones that are receiving the smaller end in this uneven distribution of wealth because there are not often investments made. So when it comes to green, healthy schools, environmental justice communities, we want to make sure that not only are we prioritizing those communities, but we are also talking to community members. So in a lot of our organizing efforts, we have been making sure that we're in touch with a lot of the parent groups, with a lot of labor unions and folks who do work in those schools that are in the community, and really hearing from them on how the city has, how the city needs to invest in their livelihoods as public school students, families, teachers and faculties. So I hope that answers your question. [00:14:43] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Thank you for that, Lonnie. We're always trying to make sure we have very explicit kind of address. What is the connection, whatever topic that we're talking about, back to environmental justice, the core of our podcast, Something you said made me think of something I want to circle back to. Again, another little tangent before we circle back to the question of talking about some of the highlights in the report. Something you mentioned about having community members involved and input and make sure they're informed, but also shaping the process. Look, what did the process look like for developing this report in terms of both looking at data, but also hearing stories from people living in these communities and how they're being impacted? I imagine it's probably a mix of those things, but just. Can you share a little bit more about what that looked like? [00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So I would say a lot of the conversations we've had with community members were with the groups that helped write the report. So a lot of groups that the groups that have been very influential and crucial to developing the report were groups that are young people. So we were working with, we act, as well as Triage, which is a nonprofit that specifically works to mobilize young people in high schools, especially to push for environmental justice communities to, you know, schools and environmental justice communities to have the proper investments. We have coalition members where part of the labor sector will also help shape this, such as groups that specifically work in the trades, as well as District Council 37, which is the union that represents cafeteria workers, crossing guards and other other staff members, and DC 37, Local 372. So we have coalition members who have relationships in the communities, who are the ones that are doing a lot of this work. And hearing from them and getting their input and feedback and getting their expertise onto the report was really crucial. There was also support from the mayor's disadvantaged communities map as well as working to kind of map out what the data from the city was, as little or as augmented they were, because the city has not been clearly as transparent as we'd like them to. But I think that that is where we got a lot of our information from. [00:16:59] Speaker C: No, I think that's a great response. And I think one of the things that we act really appreciates about this kind of report is the intersectional aspect of everything. So you've got labor, you've got the people who are doing the work to make schools greener and healthier, and you've also got other unions of people who are working within these buildings as well, who go to work every day, who are also exposed to the same issues and threats that the buildings pose, just for kind of the health and safety of everyone who's involved. And you've got the children and you've got the youth, which is a nice little layup for the episode that comes after this, talking about youth and climate with Shiv from Triage, actually. So I think that just. And then also the environmental justice aspect to it is right. You know, that's kind of where we bring that information. And so there's this report kind of has A nice almost like 360 view of an issue that I think a lot of people would just assume is just, you know, it's not solely education and it's not solely just building decarbonization or it's not just climate. It's a little bit of everything. And with that being said, can you talk a little bit about some of the recommendations and the call to action when it comes to having a report? Because I know people love to release reports and things like that, but there's got to be some type of plan or some type of recommendation, whether it be policy or programmatic. But you want to talk about some of the recommendations that are in the report? [00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So the report currently highlights the need for specific investments. So just for context, for folks who might not know how much the city. How much the city budget is. The city budget is actually $115 billion annually to spend on our city's public programs and agencies. And we. The report actually is highlighting that to properly invest in green, healthy schools, the city must dedicate $2.2 billion out of the $115 billion to adequately upgrade New York City buildings for the next five years. This is less than 2% of the city's budget. It is doable. And the city has already committed $4 billion during the leading the for the Leading the Charge initiative. So there is often a. There are always questions of where's the money coming? How are we going to get the money? But the city has already committed the money and we anticipate that to invest in green healthy schools, it would be less than 2% of the city's budget. The goal is to electrify and upgrade New York city schools by 2030 and to ensure that there is solar power, as well as fixing insulation, improving H Vac systems, as well as making sure that New York City schools are energy efficient and fossil free. And our findings have also discovered that a lot of this work would generate 321,000 jobs in for to make New York City schools green and healthy. That is a lot of jobs in the trade sector. That is a lot of jobs that will support our teachers. That is a lot of jobs that will ensure that our students, teachers and faculty are safe. And also, not only will this make our schools energy efficient and create jobs, but also save millions for the city by cutting energy costs for public schools and also make our ears cleaner and ensure that we are starting to repair decades of neglect by prioritizing schools and environmental justice communities. Because as I said earlier, there is often an inequal distribution of wealth when it comes to communities that are historically people of color, historically environmental justice communities. So this will really ensure, you know, these schools will really ensure that we're able to make investments in those communities as a priority and that we're doing so with the support of our workers and community members. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Great. So on that note, you know, I'm thinking about a couple things, you know, thinking about some of these, you know, actions that, that you're mentioning in terms of things that need to happen, really building the momentum for this to move forward. We're always trying to think about specific actions that listeners can take. I know that a lot of the campaigns that we works on and I imagine that line works on there's ways for community members to get involved. What does that look like for this campaign? How are, how are community members and maybe listeners to this podcast, what are ways that folks can help support and move this work forward to help advocate for green healthy schools? [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, this is, this is my favorite part as an organizer because I love mobilizing people and I love meeting new people. I just love having them just learn about my campaign, whether or not, you know, however they can contribute to it. And honestly, it's, it's pretty fun. So some of the ways folks can get involved is to follow Align on social media. So that would be on Instagram at Align Underscore New Underscore York and on, on, on X or Twitter. It's Align NY and folks can sign our petition. We have a petition going for the next mayor of New York City to invest in Green Healthy Schools. To find the petition you can go, you can search up this URL that I will just spell out now. So it's align ny.org greenhealthyschools in lowercase. So that's align A L, I, G N and then another N and then y align ny.org greenhealthyschools no space, all lower caps. [00:22:41] Speaker B: And we can make sure to include that link in the show notes too for folks that are rapidly typing away on their phones or on their computers. I remember my other question. Actually, your comment jogged my memory. But again, we'll make sure to include those links in the show notes. Folks who want to check out more. But, but an interesting thing that you brought up is that we're approaching a mayoral transition. Just thinking about what you anticipate, both challenges and benefits of that dynamic as the end of the year is rapidly approaching. What you anticipate with this campaign in terms of the advocacy. Do you see opportunities that that creates or maybe some challenges? Maybe a little bit of both. Yeah. What does that look like? [00:23:24] Speaker A: I see. Well, I like to be optimistic and I see just as many opportunities as possible. I think regardless of who the New York City mayor is, regardless of their political parties, regardless of anything, there will be a fight for Green Healthy Schools. Green Healthy Schools is a budget campaign. We are also pushing for funding for rooftop solar, which is the legislation that Align and Climate Risk for All has pushed for and passed with a super majority of co sponsors. So that would be Local Law 99. And I think with the new mayoral administration coming in, we already have Green Healthy Schools on the platforms of some of the mayoral candidates, especially for the Democratic nominees around Mandani. However, whoever becomes the mayor, we are dedicated to ensuring that they are held accountable for their promises, to make sure that public schools are at least supported and benefited because we've seen historical cuts in the last four years for New York City public schools and it's been a long lasting fight to restore funding for schools. So we want to make sure that not only Are we prioritizing schools where we're doing so in a way that is equitable and creates family sustaining jobs, especially for environmental justice communities. So I think I'm optimistic, I'm excited for a new chapter for New York City, a new economy, a new way that our city will push back against the federal government's cuts and that we will hopefully have better transparency and support from the city to make sure that climate justice is prioritized in the city, if not especially with the federal government and its cuts to the EPA and whatnot. And that we're able to push the state as well to continue to lead the nation and probably hopefully the world in the way that climate justice is addressed and advocated for, invested in. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Thank you. Just want to give you another chance if there's any other things that you wanted to talk about, mention, promote anything else that we didn't have a chance to talk about or didn't ask you about directly. Just a chance for you to share any of those things. [00:25:38] Speaker A: Yeah, just emphasizing for folks to Please sign our petition. We are hoping to get 1,000 signatures, hopefully by the end of the year and even more because we want to hand deliver them to the next New York City mayor and really show him that his constituents want green, healthy schools. That even if you are not sure about a lot of the things that a lot of the costs, a lot of the conversations when it comes to the city's budget that making our schools cleaner and greener will help all of us in the long run because the climate crisis will not wait for us and we must ensure that our city is prioritizing our communities, frontline communities, hand in hand with the work with labor unions and align is align will be everywhere and all at once. We'll be tabling, we'll be doing many different activities around the city to ensure that we're getting signatures on our petition. So please sign the petition. If you are a New York City resident and feel free to reach out to us on social media, on email if you have any questions, we'd love to mobilize with you because mobilize because that's that is something that we we need to do especially in these times and building community is the best way to do so. [00:27:00] Speaker C: Thanks for listening. If you like the episode, make sure to rate and review the show on whatever platform you listen on. If you have thoughts about the show, we encourage you to reach out to us with your thoughts and [email protected] and. [00:27:12] Speaker B: Check out we act on Facebook weact4ej that's W E A c t F o r e JJ. On Instagram, bluesky and YouTube, we act4ej. That's w e a c t number 4ej. And check out our website, weact.org for more information about environmental justice. [00:27:31] Speaker C: Until next time. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Bye bye. It.