Establishes an office of sustainability

• Democratic2

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Rachel May says this is needed

The coordination across state agencies of efforts to maintain energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles and other entities is the purview of sustainability offices across the country and within the federal government as well. New York has directives for energy efficiency and laws creating clean energy targets for the state as a whole; however, there is no central office whose singular mission is to coordinate the best practices for sustainability, climate change mitigation, and envi- ronmental stewardship throughout state government, including all of the buildings and the vehicle fleet the state owns and/or manages. Addi- tionally, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, sustainability measures can also serve to maintain public health for the state's 300,000+ state employees. With regard to energy usage, in 2012 the Governor's Executive Order 88 directed the New York Power Authority to create a Central Management and Implementation Team (CMIT) to have all Affected State Entities reduce energy use by at least 20% by April 2020 and to submit annual reports on progress toward that target. The goals of this EO are now superseded and strengthened by the state's Climate Law, (Ch.106 /Laws of 2019 the "CLCPA"); however, the Climate Law does not provide for overall sustain- ability measures that go beyond clean energy usage by the state itself. In addition to managing energy efficiency efforts, a statewide sustaina- bility officer can provide centralized leadership toward the state's ongoing and longterm efforts toward: modernization of vehicle fleet; waste reduction efforts; air quality in buildings; water usage reduction; and all facets of environmental and public health measures that collectively constitute sustainable management of our state govern- ment entities.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.