“We congratulate Mayor Bloomberg on today’s release of PlaNYC 2.0, a blueprint that will take our city’s sustainability efforts to the next level and further cement the Mayor’s legacy as a champion of the environment. We’re glad to see that this plan will move us closer to our goal of greenhouse emission reduction, and that it addresses growing concerns about the ways climate change will affect the five boroughs. Additionally, it recognizes the importance of environmental volunteerism and the ways in which every citizen has a role to play.

“Having partnered with the Bloomberg Administration to pass sweeping legislation to green our city’s building code and to create the Office of Environmental remediation, the Council looks forward to continuing to collaborate on many of these initiatives. In addition, we’re especially proud that this plan for the first time incorporates food system sustainability – an issue that has long been a priority for the City Council. In fact, many of the food proposals outlined today work in tandem with proposals from the FoodWorks report we released several months ago.

“Finally, we’re proud to say that as a result of discussions relating to the updated PlaNYC, the Council was able to negotiate a significant reversal to proposed budget changes relating to the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan. At its core, the SWMP had a goal of relieving communities that were unfairly overburdened in handling the city’s waste and achieving true borough equity in waste management. The Council remains committed to this goal, which is why we had serious concerns about the Administration’s proposal to delay construction of four marine transfer stations by pushing funding for the projects as far back as Fiscal Year 2019.

“As a result of our efforts, funding will not be delayed and the projects will move forward as planned. This is a win for the environment, for New York’s neighborhoods and for the future of our City.”