Invest NYC SDG Initiatve

The Invest NYC SDG Initiative is a two-year project led by NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) with the goal of monetizing the size of the prize for business in creating a sustainable, inclusive and resilient future economy in NYC.

Through research and inclusive stakeholder engagement, CSB will use the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to identify opportunities for private sector financing of community initiatives to tackle issues such as affordable housing, energy access, urban mobility, waste and climate resilience.
 

---

The majority of New York City's “One City: Built to Last” sustainable development plan align with the UN SDGs and paves the way for catalytic progress in meeting set goals. However, the City’s sustainability plans offer mostly incremental change and are currently insufficient for more systematic solutions due to their lack of engagement of civil society and the private sector. 

For systemic change to occur there needs to be engagement and collaboration between the private and public sectors. This was recognized by the 2017 “Better Business, Better World” report, where the $12 trillion business opportunity identified in the reports based on assumptions of multi stakeholder interaction. At CSB, we are uniquely positioned to understand complex ecosystems of stakeholders and build consensus around commercially viable solutions. 

Progressing transitions in any of these opportunities requires cooperation across a number of stakeholders and frameworks. It demands addressing cross-sectoral linkages through multi-stakeholder and partnership approaches. This has to involve regional and local governments, the private sector, consumers, science and technology actors and the business community. 

Unfortunately, the sort of cooperation needed does not occur naturally which we believe is creating a significant bottleneck for SDG development. There are many different scenarios for describing such bottlenecks and they are primarily based on lack of cooperation and disconnect. NYU is well positioned to research and understand these complex ecosystem challenges, with CSB at the epicenter of this work. 

CSB has a history of bringing solutions to challenges within sustainability and understand the underlying requirements for success. Similar to earlier achievements, CSB aims to develop a shared vision across wide groups of stakeholders and across fundamental value drivers.
 

Focus Area	Project Types
Mobility Solutions	Public transportation, electric/hybrid, vehicles, fuel efficiency, and congestion management
Built Environment	Affordable housing, energy efficiency, and smart buildings
Waste	Circular solutions (for plastics, glass, metals, paper, etc.), combined food waste, and wastewater for energy production
Renewable Energy	Wind, solar, ground source heat, identifying renewable energy buyers
Food and Health	Food waste, food deserts, food transport, and urban farming
Climate Resilience	Public infrastructure, private real estate, and preparedness

 

NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business will coordinate the project under the leadership of CSB Director and Professor Tensie Whelan and Project Director Chris Walker.

This is a two-year project with four phases: outreach and discovery; research and analysis; consultation and commitment; and implementation planning. The project will be highly consultative. We will assemble key stakeholders and experts that we can contact to facilitate the projects direction and verify ideas. 

We will present the results of our research to a Steering Committee of key stakeholders every quarter for the duration of the project to ensure that the project is proceeding in the correct direction and engaging the right actors. We will present the results of our research to stakeholders for discussion, revision and prioritization by the beginning of the second year. Then we will work with the constituents for the top priorities identified to develop financing and implementation plans, as well as ensure there are leadership groups that will carry the initiatives forward after the project is completed.
 

Thank you to the following Steering Committee members for lending their time, expertise and support to the Invest NYC SDG project.

Charlene Denizard, Director, Global Citizenship and PepsiCo Foundation, Pepsico (Interim)
Jeff Gitterman, Co-Founder, Gitterman Wealth Management
Will Kennedy, Programme Officer, UN Office of Partnerships
Micah Kotch, Managing Director, Urban-X
Nilda Mesa, Director, Urban Sustainability and Equity Planning Program, Center for Sustainable Urban Development/Earth Institute, Columbia 
Kyung-Ah Park, Managing Director & Head of Environmental Markets, Goldman Sachs 
Sanaz Raczynski, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist, Nuveen
Frances Resheske, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Con Ed
Aniket Shah, Senior Fellow at Columbia University Center for Sustainable Investment, Columbia, and former Head of Sustainable Investing, Oppenheimer
Kevin Smith, Vice President, Environmental Markets Group, Goldman Sachs
Tim Wilkins, Partner, Head of Sustainability, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, LLP
John Williams, Chairman and CEO, Impact Infrastructure