Thanks to the power of our virtual volunteer network, the OpenAir Collective’s low-carbon concrete advocacy mission is expanding from its home base in New York to New Jersey, with Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and even the UK not too far behind!
Introducing NJ LECCLA
For the past few months, I’ve been working with OpenAir’s NJ volunteers, focusing on bringing NY’s Low-Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA) to NJ. We are a growing, passionate group with diverse backgrounds and skills, including Sean Mohen (Executive Director of Tri-County Sustainability), John Sanchez (Harvard student and creator of the Carbon Removal Academy), Jeff Feddersen (energy faculty at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)), and me (Sustainability & Energy Coordinator at a carbon-neutral community college). OpenAir co-founders Chris Neidl and Matt Parker as well as NJIT’s Matthew Adams, Ph.D., provide us with ample support and resources. Working together, we’re already making a difference: today Asm. Andrew Zwicker introduced the NJ LECCLA bill (A5223) in the Assembly!
NJ LECCLA Webinar
Our next steps are to ask local organizations and companies to support the bill, approach Assembly members to co-sponsor, and reach out to the NJ Senate to find a sponsor. To those ends, in February, NJ League of Conservation Voters is hosting an informational webinar about low-carbon concrete and the NJ LECCLA bill. We’ll announce details soon.
If you are interested in contributing to the NJ LECCLA effort or joining the NJ team, or if you have questions, please contact me at Susan.Dorward@raritanval.edu or find me on the OpenAir Discord as @Sue.
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Sue Dorward spent the last decade working as Sustainability & Energy Coordinator at Raritan Valley Community College, the first community college in the country to become carbon neutral for scopes 1 & 2. She studied carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), natural climate solutions, alternative energy, and climate law at Columbia University. She is particularly interested in highly scalable, engineered climate solutions such as direct air capture, geological storage, and low-carbon/carbon-negative concrete.
