Committee Chairs Virginia Maloney and Julie Won initiated the hearing with questions regarding the current state of the GEAP’s marquee items. Sam Jung, Senior Vice President of Green Economy at the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Doug Lipari, Executive Director of the NYC Office of Talent and Workforce Development provided follow-up testimony from the executive branch.
The conversation was directly shaped by an NYCETC report that situated the green economy in the current moment and helped inform Council perspectives.
Key Takeaways
- The State of the Green Economy in the Current Administration is Unclear. With no permanent leadership at the New York City Economy Development Corporation (NYCEDC), no stated plans for an updated green economy action plan that factors in the current realities of state and federal climate policies and funding or private investments, including previously planned offshore wind deployments, and few specific green economy items stated in the latest draft budget, the relevance of the 2024 plan remains to be determined.
- Questions Remain on Green Job Growth and Data: According to the Plan, the green economy was anticipated to grow from 130,000 jobs in 2021 to 382,000 jobs by 2040—with 70% of those jobs transitioning from existing, non-green to green jobs (e.g. a banker financing a solar farm rather than an oil pipeline), and 30% of them being net new (e.g. deployment of new technologies like offshore wind). However, only 2,000 green jobs were added to the city in 2023, according to data from the Center for an Urban Future. Estimates on the number of green economy apprenticeships, or green jobs attributable to Community Hiring, key workforce pillars of the plan, were not available.
- Plans for Five-Borough Green Training Centers have Evolved: Another key workforce pillar of the plan, a commitment to develop a green training facility in each borough, has advanced in a different form than was articulated in the 2024 strategy. It currently includes (i) SolarOne’s Environmental Education Center, which opened at Stuyvesant Cove, Manhattan, in 2025; (ii) Fordham University’s Bronx Green Jobs Center, which received $3 million from EDC and will open at East Fordham Road at the end of 2026; (iii) the BATWorks innovation hub, a $100 million investment that is slated to open in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in 2028; and a $10 million investment in CUNY will produce additional sites with (iv) Queensborough Community College and (v) College of Staten Island, with opening dates to be determined.
What Comes Next: Our Take on What It Will Take
NYCETC and many of our partners—including The Green Launchpad, JobsFirstNYC, Consortium for Worker Education, Stacks+Joules, Green City Force, The HOPE Program, Andromeda Community Initiative, Fordham University, Solar One, and SBIDC—provided public testimony amplifying many shared goals for building a green economy in the current moment. These included:
- Seeing workforce not as charity, but as a vital business service that delivers operational outcomes and is embedded into economic growth and justice
- Leveraging the existing activities of stakeholders across the five boroughs, including workforce training nonprofits, industrial businesses, chambers of commerce and business service providers, private and nonprofit real estate
- Increasing transparency on the progress of the GEAP’s implementation and adjusting the strategy in light of market changes, so that even non-governmental stakeholders across the city can understand gaps and contribute to filling them
NYCETC CEO Gregory J. Morris’s testimony focused on (1) centering City government as the anchor employer in the green economy, and (2) having City government model effective workforce practices through a Full-Cycle Model of Green Workforce Development in which agencies themselves provide career exploration, preparation, access, launch, and advancement for New Yorkers, from schools to mid-career.
NYCETC also submitted a full policy memorandum that includes the following recommendations:
1. Pilot the Full-Cycle Model of Green Workforce Development in City Government: Direct key agencies (Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Parks and Recreation, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Department of Transportation, and Department of Sanitation) to serve as demonstration agencies by expanding career exposure, strengthening work-based learning opportunities, increasing exam frequency, and creating more transparent pathways into climate-critical civil service titles. If this model can work inside the City’s own famously slow hiring bureaucracy, it becomes the most credible, battle-tested template we have for scaling the private green economy — because it will have been proven on the hardest case first.
2. Explore The Green Launchpad as a model for New York City’s industry partnership strategy: Convened by NYCETC, the NYC Energy Efficiency Workforce Coalition brings employers, utilities, workforce organizations, and training providers together to define occupations, competencies, career pathways, and hiring needs using a common language. Rather than beginning with available training programs, the Coalition starts with employer demand and aligns workforce investments to meet real hiring needs. As the City refines its industry partnership strategy, The Green Launchpad provides a practical framework that could strengthen employer engagement and inform future partnerships across additional green economy sectors.
3. Launch Green Economy Career Navigators: Place dedicated navigators in community colleges, Workforce1 centers, and community-based organizations to help New Yorkers understand career options, access training, stack credentials, and connect to employment opportunities in the green economy.
4. Create a GEAP Accountability Framework: Require the Administration to identify the priority occupations, workforce investments, hiring targets, and performance metrics necessary to achieve the goals of the Green Economy Action Plan.
5. Establish a Green Economy Workforce Implementation Working Group: Building on the foundation established by the former Green Economy Advisory Council, this body would bring together NYCETC, employers, labor, workforce providers, educational institutions, City agencies, utilities, philanthropy, and the Green Economy Network to ensure the City’s workforce strategy evolves in step with industry needs. Unlike the previous advisory structure, the Working Group should be designed as an active implementation body that ensures that the broader green workforce ecosystem plays a meaningful role in advancing New York City’s green economy.
Watch the Hearing
A recording of the hearing is available on the City Council’s website.
- From 1 hour 53 minutes, watch testimony from Gregory J. Morris, NYCETC; Keri A. Faulhaber, JobsFirstNYC; Angela N. Son, The Green Launchpad; and Dr. Christopher Malone, Consortium for Worker Education.
- From 2 hours 3 minutes, Jonathan Spooner, Stacks+Joules; Sindri Manzanares, Green City Force; Jako Douglas-Borren, The HOPE Program; and Sophia Oliveira Ricci, Andromeda Community Initiative.
- From 2 hours 13 minutes, Travis Proulx, Fordham University; Miquela Craytor, SBIDC; and Stephen Levin, Solar One.