MAYOR ADAMS APPOINTS ELIJAH HUTCHINSON AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MAYOR’S OFFICE OF CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

 

Hutchison Previously Served as Vice President for Waterfronts at NYCEDC, Launched Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced the appointment of Elijah M. Hutchinson as executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ). An experienced public servant with expertise in waterfronts and coastal resiliency, Hutchinson will lead the Adams administration’s strategy for creating a healthy, resilient, sustainable city for all New Yorkers, including through the implementation of “PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done.”

 

MOCEJ leads the city’s efforts to ensure that New York City is both reducing its emissions and preparing to adapt and protect New Yorkers from the intensifying impacts of climate change. Through science-based analysis, policy and program development, and capacity building, with a focus on equity and public health, MOCEJ works to make buildings efficient and resilient; ensure infrastructure is climate-ready; transform streets and the public realm into living, open spaces; and make energy clean and resilient. Victoria Cerullo, the acting executive director, will transition to a senior role with First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright’s team.

 

“Our Office of Climate and Environmental Justice is the tip of the spear in our fight to dismantle decades of environmental racism and build a cleaner, greener, more sustainable city,” said Mayor Adams. “Elijah Hutchinson has the skills and expertise we need in a leader of that fight. He will continue to innovate and activate in the fight against climate change, because he, like this administration, knows how to ‘Get Stuff Done.’”

 

“The Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice is charged with fighting on the front lines of the climate crisis," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. "Elijah Hutchinson will lead New York City's efforts to protect New Yorkers from extreme heat and flooding, clean the air New Yorkers' breathe, and decarbonize our city's buildings, transportation, and food networks. I am grateful to Vicki Cerullo for her leadership and commitment to climate justice and look forward to working with her in her new role.”

 

“When he was at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Elijah demonstrated both the vision needed to create and gain support for a priority focus on resilience, as well as the management capability needed to move multiple projects forward on schedule” said New York City Chief Climate Officer and New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala. “He’s the right person to deliver Mayor Adams’s ambitious ‘PlaNYC’ objectives and to continue integrating climate action, resilience, and environmental justice into a consistent action agenda.”

 

"With the most ambitious climate agenda in the nation, we can do more than secure the future of New York. We can improve the daily life of New Yorkers, create jobs and housing, provide more transit and energy options, protect our waterways and environment, and keep our neighborhoods and neighbors healthy and safe," said Acting Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Executive Director Hutchinson. "By 2050, emissions from large buildings will be reduced to zero, and, by 2040, we will be powered entirely by clean renewable energy. This will only be possible by giving all New Yorkers the tools, resources, and technologies they need to be resilient in a rapidly changing climate. We must do this with urgency and without leaving vulnerable populations behind. I look forward to working with our local communities, our state and federal partners, and global leaders to future-proof the New York that I love." 

 

About Elijah M. Hutchinson

 

Elijah M. Hutchinson led coastal resilience and new greenway initiatives as vice president for waterfronts at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). He established the resilience practice at NYCEDC, working to integrate climate, resiliency, hazard mitigation, and sustainability into a multibillion-dollar portfolio of neighborhood infrastructure, open space, transportation, and mixed-use development projects. From helping to launch the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience project — which includes Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience, Seaport Coastal Resilience, the FiDi-Seaport Master Plan, and Battery Coastal Resilience — to securing federal funding to create an equitable citywide greenway master plan, Hutchinson has focused on speeding up projects, identifying new resources, and centering environmental justice to protect the New Yorkers of today and tomorrow.

 

Hutchinson has a master’s in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.