3Qs with Myles Lennon of Urban Agenda

New York City has set ambitious plans for greenhouse gas emission reduction — 30% by 2030 (and 30% by 2017 for all city properties and the major universities).  But if all the initiatives involved in greening the city — energy auditing and retrofitting buildings, installing new lighting and heating and cooling systems, planting more trees, and upgrading public transportation, to name a few — if all those started tomorrow, there would be a crippling workforce shortage. 

Myles Lennon is working to make sure that when the city is ready to go green on a big scale, there will be a skilled and able workers to take on the challenge.  Lennon, a graduate of Brown with a background in organizing and international development, is the Senior Policy and Research Associate of Urban Agenda, an organization that applies action, research, and coalition-building to advance social, economic, and environmental justice.

“A couple years ago, it became apparent that green jobs were the jobs of the future,” Lennon said.  To that end, Urban Agenda convenes the local chapter of the Apollo Alliance, a national coalition of environmental, labor, and community activists that develop and advocate for sustainable energy policy.  And Lennon is one of the leaders of the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable, an impressive coalition that is creating a policy road map for workforce development and training in New York City.

1. What was your environmental epiphany?

I grew up in Queens right by the Long Island Expressway.  There were no trees and just a little park and two huge malls.  There was little green space and a lot of smog coming off the Expressway.  So ever since I was young, I was aware of environmental injustice.

Later, when I was working in Providence, I would pass through this bus station where there were many young people heading to and from public schools, and not a park in sight.  It was extremely dirty — I can’t even begin to describe it.  We were surrounded by buses, which are a symbol of good urban development, but they created so much smog.

For the young people of color who lived in this neighborhood, that was their environment, that was what they saw every day.  The bus ride that I took became a metaphor for the ride that so many others took from that dirty place to prison.  That’s poetic and abstract, but it was very real to me.  I saw the link of how people of color and young people are treated systemically in our society and how we treat our environment.

2. Who or what are you inspired by right now in the green movement?

I could easily name someone well-known — but my former roommate and good friend, Tom Lyons, was really critical about the way I consumed, and he inspired me early on, and continues to inspire me.

He made me conscious about the everyday things that I had never begun to think about, like the little plastic caps on cardboard orange juice containers.  I’d throw the whole thing into the recycling without making the effort to cut off the caps.  Or when I did the dishes, I’d run water and try to do it as quickly as possible, but he said, Why don’t you soap up the dishes before running the water?

The biggest thing was the temperature of our apartment.  In New York City, we don’t have control over the heat in our apartment.  The building I grew up in was terribly inefficient.  We’d have fans going and windows open in the winter because the heat was so set so high.  In fact, my parents still do.  I took the heat for granted.  When I moved to New England, I expected it to be warm inside when it was cold outside.  I hated Tom — he kept our place so cold.  He challenged the level of consumption that I was comfortable with and what I considered “normal.”  I realized that making those kinds of changes isn’t about making real sacrifices — it’s about changing what you believe is normal.

3. What are three ways you actively reduce your carbon footprint and one way you don’t?

I eat a local, vegan diet, so I’m not dependent on the inefficient dairy and meat industries.

I do not use any new plastic bags, ever — there are a few that I’ve been reusing for years now.

When I do the dishes, I soap them down first and don’t run the water while I’m washing.

And as for what I don’t do, I could make a much better effort at unplugging electronics when I’m not using them.