“We envision a Battery Park City that will serve as an innovative model for urban climate action, where all of us who live, work, and spend time here mobilize to create a sustainable future.”
– Battery Park City Authority (BPCA)

Purpose

Battery Park City has a long history of environmental leadership and as a model for sustainable mixed-use urban development. 3×3 organized convenings with Battery Park City Authority’s (BPCA) leadership, staff, and community stakeholders to elicit a collective vision for sustainability and maintain its position at the forefront of innovative strategies and environmental standards for sustainable design, building maintenance and retrofits, and community action. In partnership with Buro Happold, we engaged nearly 500 stakeholders throughout Battery Park City in order to capture ideas, test strategies, and build awareness and capacity for the implementation phase. 

Participation

– Stakeholder alignment meetings
– Neighborhood surveys and outreach materials
– Community focus groups
– Engagement pop-up events (500 participants)

Quantitative outcomes

– Redesign of 36 acres of parks and open spaces to optimize pedestrian safety
– Target of 33% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2017 levels by 2030
– Plan for 70% of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030

Community-centered approach

From the start of the project, 3×3 established a collaborative framework for cross-departmental leadership and community stakeholders to work together in the visioning, ideation, and voting process. The roundtable discussions facilitated small groups of diverse demographic groups to come together. We then created pop-up events in places where the community gathers already to socialize and invite people to vote on ideas surfaced from the roundtables. 

Impact

– Community-driven 10-year roadmap to secure BPCA’s carbon neutrality by 2050

– Sustainability Plan  including 18 strategies, 25 targets, 64 supporting milestones, 46 actions, and 142 sub-actions across the topic areas of Energy, Water, Materials and Waste, and Site

– Green Guidelines providing technical support and best practices for BPCA and Battery Park City building owners, managers, and tenants

– Sustainability Implementation Plan outlining policies, programs, partnerships, tools, and funding mechanisms that are available, or can be created, to assist in transforming the Sustainability Plan into a reality 

Project team

Katherine Fisher, Priyanka Jain, Paula Kawakami, Megan Marini