NYC Office of Nightlife

How might we map, measure, and decarbonize the NYC Nightlife sector while catalyizing a greater movement towards reaching NYC climate goals?

Audience

NYC Nightlife Stakeholders

Location

NYC

Timeline

Ongoing

Links

Overview

NYC defines nightlife as "leisurely activity between 6:00 PM and 6:00 AM." This includes five main establishment subcategories: Arts, Bars, Food Service, Sports & Recreation, and Venues. The role of the Office of Nightlife is to be an intermediary between other government entities on issues connected to nightlife such as safety, noise pollution, and drug use. With climate change touching every aspect of our lives, day and night, the Office of Nightlife realized an opportunity for "green nightlife." That's where we come in.

Role

Our primary invitation was to demystify the steps nightclubs could take to be "more environmentally friendly" through a webinar series aimed at NYC nightlife stakeholders. As we dove into our research we quickly realized the greater opportunity for nightlife to catalyze a larger social cultural movement.

Process

We started with a deep dive into the ONL's annual reports, understanding their agenda, objectives, and action plans. We then studied the New York State "Scoping Plan" to give us a sense of our high level climate goals. With that, we prepared the first of a series of webinars for the NYC Mayor's Office youtube page. Next, we sought to understand public perception about the future of nightlife in the climate context through pop-ups, joining panel discussions, and inviting the ONL to exhibit at the Marketplace of the Future during Climate Week NYC. In addition, we contacted a trusted climate resource Resources for the Future and appeared on their acclaimed podcast, Resources Radio.

Outcome

Through our research we learned that 70% of New York City's GHG emissions come from the building sector. Equipped with this knowledge, we moved from the "low hanging fruit" of eliminating single-use plastics like straws and cups to a higher order strategy for nightclub environmentalism that includes overall building electrification and efficiency. As this project develops our role is evolving from communication designers, to matchmakers, connecting nightclubs with implementation partners and access to government funding.

🟢 This is a live project that's being developed in real time.