This one is personal for Leslie and me. We are committing this nonprofit to become a 100% climate neutral organization in 2017, and we will make sustainability a priority across all aspects of the organization going forward. No line of work, no company, no nonprofit is so important that we shouldn’t expect and demand that it be transformed with great urgency towards 100% sustainability. This has been on our minds and in our practice for many years, but it is time to wear it on our sleeve.

We want the Uni Project to be a model for how services can be shared across NYC neighborhoods with maximum social impact and minimal environmental cost. In 2016, with the help of our staff, including MIT student Ester Shmulyian, we identified and implemented ideas for reducing our carbon footprint in the office, workshop, truck, and street. We will continue to measure and document emissions that we haven’t been able to eliminate, and we will participate in a carbon offset program that reduces emissions elsewhere in that amount. Over time, we aim to wean ourselves from offsets as well, with future moves like switching our trucks to biodiesel, a carbon neutral alternative to petroleum diesel made from waste cooking oil.

This will be a journey for the Uni Project, and we’re learning as we go. We hope you’ll join us.