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Sustainable Houses of Worship

Project posted December 8, 2009

Churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship serve as anchors for their congregations and communities. But rising energy costs and expensive building maintenance are a burden greater than many can bear. Their aging buildings waste costly amounts of heating fuel because of inefficient design, poor insulation, and deferred maintenance.

The Pratt Center is collaborating with religious institutions to help them reduce their buildings’ energy consumption, set maintenance priorities, develop space utilization strategies and in the process turn them into centers of education and advocacy for sustainability in their communities. Sustainable Houses of Worship is currently focusing on Bedford-Stuyvesant, home to more than 100 houses of worship as well as the Retrofit Bedford Stuyvesant collaboration targeting two blocks of Herkimer Street for home weatherization.

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Jackson Heights Green Agenda

Map posted November 25, 2009

Jackson Heights is a thriving neighborhood that contends with some distinct environmental challenges. I has just 1 acre of park space for every thousand children, the least of any council district in the city. It has the highest share of tenants living in overcrowded conditions. And it sits near both the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and LaGuardia Airport, which bring traffic congestion, pollution and noise.

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Jackson Heights Maps Out a Green Agenda

Media posted November 24, 2009

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One City/One Future

Project posted April 6, 2009

Making Growth Work for All New Yorkers

One City/One Future is the product of four years of collaboration by civic leaders, neighborhood advocates, community development organizations, labor unions, affordable housing groups, environmentalists, immigrant advocates, and other stakeholders to make economic development work for all New Yorkers.

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Hunts Point Rezoning

Testimony last updated June 17, 2008

Testimony to the City Council Committee on Zoning and Franchises Special Hunts Point District, Bronx (C080248ZMX)

Joan Byron
Director, Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative
Pratt Center for Community Development
June 17, 2008

My name is Joan Byron; I am the Director of the Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative of the Pratt Center for Community and Environmental Development. The Pratt Center works for a more just, equitable, and sustainable city for all New Yorkers, by empowering communities to plan for and realize their futures. We are especially proud to have supported the work of Hunts Point and other South Bronx organizations since the early 1990s in the many battles they have fought for environmental justice; Hunts Point bears more than its share of the burdens of the infrastructure and land uses that make New York City's density and vitality possible, to the daily cost of the people who live, work, and breathe in the shadow of highways, electric power plants, sewage treatment and sludge pelletization facilities, and dozens of waste transfer stations and waste handling facilities.

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Pratt Center eNews - Fall 2007

News last updated November 1, 2007

In this Issue:

  • What Banh Mi and Child Care Have in Common
  • Elena Conte: Community Action and Citywide Change
  • Downtown Brooklyn Reassessed
  • Campus Connection: A Sustainable Pratt Institute
  • Preservation and Planning: The Next Generation
  • Cypress Hills Breaks Ground
  • Redefining ReDefining Economic Development
  • Change a Light, Change the World
  • Save the Date: Pratt Center Gala, February 26, 2008

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Congestion Pricing

Testimony last updated October 31, 2007

Testimony on Congestion Pricing and Social and Environmental Justice

Joan Byron
Director, Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative
Pratt Center for Community Development
October 31, 2007

My name is Joan Byron; I direct the Sustainabilty and Environmental Justice Initiative of the Pratt Center for Community Development. For 45 years, the Pratt Center has supported community-based organizations all over New York City working for social, economic, and environmental justice, and I am especially proud of the work we've done with Bronx organizations who are in the forefront of those movements -- Nos Quedamos, the Point, Sustainable South Bronx, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, and more.

That's why we support congestion pricing -- because it is socially and economically progressive, as well as a step toward environmental justice.

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