on Apr 22, 2026

Celebrating Earth Day 2026

Cities don’t have the luxury of treating climate change as a future problem. The decisions being made right now — about buildings, energy systems, coastlines, and infrastructure — will shape whether cities can keep their promises to residents on both resilience and affordability.

 

This Earth Day, we’re reflecting on the work HR&A teams have been doing across the country and beyond to help communities navigate complex pressures created by climate change.

 

Tackling the Dual Crises of Climate and Affordability — Rising energy costs and housing unaffordability are not separate emergencies. For HR&A, the central question is how we decarbonize cities at speed without making life harder for the people who are already most vulnerable.

• Reimagine Ravenswood — HR&A recently led “Reimagine Ravenswood,” a community-driven site reuse, neighborhood improvement, and workforce development planning process to guide a just transition for the largest fossil fuel plant in New York City to an inclusive clean energy economy in western QueenResearch, innovation, and long-term regional prosperity
• Affordable Housing and Decarbonization Solutions —  One of our favorite things to do at HR&A is to roll up our sleeves alongside the smartest people working to address issues facing cities and turn good ideas into workable solutions. We recently hosted a salon-style conversation in our New York Office about the tension between decarbonization and affordability and developed a few solutions to move the needle

 

Scaling Clean Energy Equitably – The clean energy transition won’t be evenly distributed unless equity is a design principle from the start. HR&A works across energy policy, real estate, and community development to help partners build programs that reach the people who need them most.

• Public Solar NYC — HR&A helped the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice assess the feasibility of NYC’s first public solar program targeting low- and moderate-income residents. The program has since secured $250 million in federal funding.

• Con Edison Building Decarbonization —  Since 2020, HR&A has supported Con Edison’s strategy for incentivizing building decarbonization across NYC and Westchester County in support of New York State’s goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050.

• Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2)—  HR&A is helping cities and community organizations design energy upgrade programs that advance decarbonization without triggering displacement or rent increases, with partnerships now scaling nationwide

 

Building Resilience for the Long Term — Climate resilience is no longer a planning aspiration — it is a fiscal and moral imperative. HR&A helps governments translate climate risk into concrete strategies and investment priorities that hold up over time.

• Honolulu Climate Financial Risk Assessment  —  HR&A is supporting the City and County of Honolulu in assessing climate-related financial risks and developing funding and budgeting strategies for long-term adaptation to coastal erosion, flooding, and hurricanes.

• Queens 2100—  Principal Jonathan Haragold joined a study that moves past whether coastal flooding will disrupt Queens neighborhoods — and focuses on when, how much, and what we can do now.

 

Our Leaders in Climate Conversations – From municipal finance to seismic resilience to urban sustainability, HR&A’s leaders are showing up in the rooms where climate policy is being made. Here’s where we’ve been lately.

• Director Hannah Glosser at the ULI Resilience Summit—  Director Hannah Glosser was featured in Smart Cities Dive for her work on one of climate adaptation’s hardest questions: when and how communities should retreat from areas of unmanageable risk

• Jeff Hébert at the Adaptation Forum— HR&A’s CEO spoke on what it takes to move from climate risk to resilience. As a former Chief Resilience Officer of New Orleans, Jeff brings firsthand experience with what recovery actually demands and what cities need to do before disaster strikes

• Ignacio Montojo at the GARI Summit — Partner Ignacio Montojo joined the Global Adaptation & Resilience Investment Working Group to explore why the $4 trillion municipal bond market is uniquely positioned to fund local climate resilience and what it means for how cities access financing and manage climate-driven fiscal risk

• Kate Collignon at SPUR’s 1906 Earthquake Forum— Partner Kate Collignon served as an advisor on SPUR’s seismic safety policy brief and joined a timely conversation on what cities need to do now to prepare for the next major earthquake.