The number of jobs influenced by the green economy in New York exceeded one million in 2019 and 2020. New York’s efforts to promote sustainability not only encourage the creation of new jobs related to clean energy and energy efficiency, but they can also affect employment more broadly, requiring new skills in existing occupations and increasing demand for others. The State must fund educational and workforce development programs to grow the green economy and help bolster New York’s pandemic recovery.

The Corporate Governance Program supports and facilitates the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the Common Retirement Fund’s due diligence process, investment decisions, and performance monitoring program, and provides active stewardship of the Fund’s public equity holdings.

As unprecedented fires burned in the West and powerful storms flattened or flooded homes, businesses and vital infrastructure in every corner of the nation, 2020 painted a vivid picture of the potential for climate change to disrupt our lives. 

Even as we grapple with the serious public health and economic challenges stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change continues to represent an urgent and growing threat. 

The Climate Action Plan Progress Report for the New York State Common Retirement Fund highlights the Fund’s recent efforts to address climate risks and opportunities.

As DEC now enters its second half-century, its mission is broader than ever before. Wide-ranging laws to address climate change and major initiatives to assure clean drinking water are just some of the new tasks DEC has been assigned in the last few years, adding to an already long list of environmental planning, regulatory and management programs — all of which are important to our quality of life and the State’s economy.

Since the cost of electricity represents a considerable burden to local governments and their taxpayers, this report focuses on initiatives that reduce electric bills and the consumption of electricity overall, as well as the consumption of electricity generated through traditional methods.

Most large urban areas in New York State are served by municipal sewer systems, many of which commingle stormwater with the wastewater from homes and businesses in combined sewer systems. The flows from combined sewers can overwhelm treatment systems and have a harmful impact on the environment. This report, as part of the Office of the State Comptroller’s infrastructure series, describes the current scale of the problem in the State and some of the steps being taken to remediate it. 

Local governments or public authorities own 20 of the State’s 27 municipal solid waste landfills, the type of landfills that take in most of what we typically think of as “garbage”—residential, commercial and institutional waste. This report examines the role of local governments in solid waste management, with particular attention to the issues they confront as municipal solid waste landfill owners.

One tenet of the “smart growth” movement is that communities should strive to preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas.