final

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

INDEX

Executive Summary

Analyzing stakeholders

and funding

Challenges anticipated

and mitigation plans

Future Scope & Conclusion

Pro tip: Click

on the boxes

to directly

access

respective

sections

Proposed solution

Implementation roll-out

plan

Introduction

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

1. Executive Summary

The NYC Department of Education’s sustainability program is a pioneering endeavor to

include schools and students in the war against the most important enemy of our times –

Climate Change. The DOE and its schools are putting their best foot forward; however,

they struggle with scaling and innovation without easily accessible expert help and

support. In this paper, I recommend a solution of data and technology and manual efforts

that can help build a decentralized collaboration between NYC Schools and NYC

Businesses (for-profit and non-profit) to help enhance school sustainability efforts and

quality of sustainability education amongst students. The meaningful partnerships

facilitated can ensure that schools are not just ramping up their existing improvements,

but also play an important role in ensuring that the next generation is mentored well and

prepared to take charge. The future is green!

2. Introduction

2.1 NYC DOE Office of Sustainability

New York City has formed a dedicated Office of Sustainability in its Department of Education. The Office has designed programs to help schools participate in waste management, recycling, in-school gardening, energy upgrades, and most importantly educate and engage students in various sustainability initiatives and policies. Their key commitments are [1]: ▪ Improving school building environments by reducing greenhouse gas

emissions, maximizing waste diversion, and creating green spaces

▪ Empowering diverse school communities to create positive, sustainable

changes

▪ Creating meaningful learning experiences for all stakeholders by

developing coalitions and communities

▪ Developing new approaches, partnerships, and implementing technologies

to drive school facility improvements and address dynamic community

needs in a changing climate

2.2 Sustainability focused Businesses in NYC

NYC is an extremely fertile city for any innovation to take root and grow. Thus, it comes as no surprise that there are a plethora of businesses and non-profits with focus on solving urban sustainability problems, that call the city home. Some relevant examples are:

▪ Businesses:

a. BrightFarms - Designs, builds and operates ultra-local urban farms

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

b. Radiator Labs – Makes existing radiators in steam heated buildings energy efficient

▪ Not-for-profits: a. GrowNYC – Seeks to improve NYC's quality of life through

environmental programs b. NYSUN works - builds innovative science labs in urban schools

Many of them, especially non-profits already have worked with the Office of Sustainability in the past as vendors for individual projects or schools.

2.3 Challenges in existing sustainability efforts by schools The initiatives and constant effort by Office of Sustainability and enthusiastic participation by schools have led the program to be a visible success. As of FY20, over 1,600 NYC schools have designated a Sustainability Coordinator, and over 60% of them have a sustainability plan and Green Team in place [2]. Schools across the boroughs have benefitted from this and have started solar energy, in- school gardening, waste management and sustainability education projects. However, there are challenges and scope for improvement in existing processes. Following are a few challenges relevant to this proposal: • Schools have the willingness and funding to implement the initiatives, but not

the technical expertise and exposure [3] • Space and available infrastructure are limited, so schools need innovative

solutions for their sustainable upgrades [4] • Not all schools have a sustainability coordinator or a plan in place [2], such

schools need partnerships with a business for an offsite location, potentially shared by multiple schools for the initiatives [5]

3. Proposed solution: The Businesses for Sustainable Schools Portal (BSS)

3.1 Vision

A data enabled sustainability partnership portal between schools and businesses The project proposes the creation of a digital platform for connecting NYC schools’ current efforts with private companies, small businesses, non-profits etc. who are interested in helping build elements of sustainability as defined by DOE (such as waste management, recycling, in-school gardening, energy upgrades, raising awareness). The business gains space for development/ positive visibility for their firm, internships, and/ or meet their CSR goals.

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

3.2 The need of the portal and overview of its workings

The Office of Sustainability already partners with over 50 non-profits for different green initiatives [1], however the office itself becomes a bottleneck in the partnership process. Sustainability coordinators must go through the Office for reaching out to any vendor partners and do not have a decentralized way to make new partners [3]. Moreover, the existing process does not allow for for-profit collaborations.

The portal seeks to be a decentralized networking location, where schools and partners can input their information and needs. The portal will be connected back- end to existing databases with basic information about schools like their location, available resources etc. Sustainability Coordinators need to login and fill details about partnerships needed by the school. All existing and newly approved partners would need to login to the portal as well and fill in their basic details and resources being provided, and expectations from school. Schools can search for partners by location and facilities being provided and reach out to the partners directly.

3.3 Benefits of the solution over current process

Below are some key benefits derived is that this solution over current process: 1. Eliminates the need to funnel every request through the Office of Sustainability 2. Creates an easy database of facilities available for all schools to view and

access 3. Creates an accessible data environment for industry partners who are

interested in working with the schools

3.4 Data Collection strategy

Most of the data required for the solution is already available with Office of Sustainability or collected from schools annually through a survey [4]. Data required from business partners would need to be input into the portal and verified by an official.

▪ Key data required from schools are:

1. Available space/ resources 2. Sustainable features needed 3. Profile information (location, size etc.)

▪ Key data required from approved partners (mostly to be self-filled in portal): 1. Profile information (about, location) 2. Services being offered and associated details 3. Expectation from school for partnering in each service

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

3.5 Working of the portal:

3.6 Main features of the proposed portal, sections, and sidebars

If you login as a

school, you can see

some useful

resources, your

school’s details, your

existing partners, and

other businesses

offering partnerships.

Go on! Click on

“Explore Partners”

Logging in as a partner would

be very similar, except you

will see your account

information and would be

able to “Explore Schools”

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

The “Explore

Partners” page lets

you search for a

partner based on

location or services.

Partners are also

automatically

recommended based

on multiple factors

The “Explore Schools”

page lets you search

for schools on a map

[6]. Clicking on each

school gives you

detailed information

about the schools (a

map of all schools

along with key details

already exists and

requires some

tweaking for the

solution

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

3.7 Addressing security and privacy concerns for the portal

The technological solution comes with potential security and data privacy concerns which are imperative to address and constantly monitor. Because the solution asks schools to declare data about their resources and needs, it opens them up to businesses that might look to take undue advantage of them. Below are a few ways security and privacy concerns can be addressed:

1. A clear legal declaration of privacy rules and regulations to be followed by partners while dealing with school data

2. Thorough assessment of new businesses willing to be partners 3. Secure login credentials provided only to designated representatives on

both ends, and timely maintenance and update of portal security

4. Analyzing feasibility, stakeholders, and funding

4.1 Key stakeholders and beneficiaries

There would be three key stakeholders and beneficiaries in the process:

1. Schools and school sustainability coordinators, especially the ones

without networks and private resources

2. Businesses looking to give back to the society in profitable terms

3. The Office of Sustainability – if managed successfully, the portal would,

in the long run reduce their dependency on sustainability initiatives by

schools

4.2 Funding plans

Funding would be mainly required for setting up the portal, initial advertising to

businesses and schools, and operational costs of maintenance. This would need to be input by the Office of Sustainability.

The schools already receive funding for their sustainability initiatives which they

can channel to their partnerships. For e.g., In FY 2021, $492,601 was awarded to

a few winning schools as part of sustainability initiatives [7]

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

5. Implementation roll-out plan

6. Challenges anticipated and mitigation plans

▪ Funding and resource: The DOE and its school departments are facing challenges even with business- as-usual working in the post covid world. The timelines for implementing the idea might be shifted due to this

▪ Portal launch: 1. Generating awareness and interest amongst schools initially might be a

challenge. There would be trainings and pilot launch stories required 2. Advertising to city’s businesses and ensuring active engagement. The NYC

Department of Small Businesses can be partnered for this

▪ Acceptance from DOE and Schools 1. Like most governmental organizations of such large scale, the DOE has a

centralized authority over any administrative issues. Every partnership with the schools needs to be registered as vendors and fingerprinted with DOE, and the legal team gets involved [4]. A decentralized process can make the office

Research and

Planning

•Discussion with DOE officials about the initiative and understanding the formal and legal steps involved

•Inviting discussions from schools and Business partners to understand nuances and chalk out clear guidelines

On-boarding Partners

•Targeting existing partners first, understanding their perspective on the portal and onboarding them

•Advertizing to NYC businesses for potential partnerships and screening them in for on-boarding

Portal Launch

•Cleaning up and organizing available data with Office of Sustainability

•Reviewing data collection from annual surveys and adding relevant questions

•Creation of the portal and doing a pilot launch with volunteer schools

Operational Maintenance

•Launching the portal for all schools and providing log-in support

•Creating a linear process for on-boarding interested Businesses as they come

•Assigning a resource for portal monitoring and conflict resolution

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

uncomfortable and unwilling. A well planned and cautious implementation roadmap would be required to get the office on board.

2. Some school sustainability coordinators might also perceive the business partnerships as a threat to their own role [4]. The sustainability coordinator trainings could be used to explain the workings of the partnerships, and success stories could be posted. There is a need for buy-in from schools and not a push down from the Office here.

7. Future Scope

The long-term success of this initiatives requires constant engagement from all

stakeholders. Below are some future scopes of improvement once the program is

implemented:

▪ Continuous improvement in the portal based on the annual sustainability surveys (existing process) with all schools annually

▪ Automating enrollment and verification of interested businesses into the portal so

bureaucratic steps could be reduced

8. Conclusion

Gone are days when schools were only a space for formal education. Today schools play an important role in not just preparing students for professional success, but to also face an increasingly harsh world with depleted resources and mounting global challenges. However, schools need not be alone in this gargantuan task. People from all walks of the society are willing to contribute if they are provided an accessible way to do so, without getting inundated by administrative procedures. This paper serves as a guide for successful partnerships between school’s sustainability coordinators who are going above and beyond to expose their kids to sustainable living and businesses who are at the cutting edge of sustainability innovation and are willing to help schools ride along. Of course, having a portal does not guarantee successful partnerships, that responsibility still lies on schools and the Office of Sustainability. The portal can only be a catalyst, but it will hopefully help usher in an era of united front against climate change.

9. References

[1] DOE Office of Sustainability Resource Portal https://sites.google.com/view/ nycdoesustainability/about-us/meet-us-invite-us?authuser=0

[2] DOE Office of Sustainability Annual Report https://drive.google.com/file/d/12_jKezA4nPgkELf5tE5N7QQ5c4hw4v4H/view

[3] Interview with Mr. Jonathan Bradley, 6th Grade STEAM teacher and Sustainability Coordinator, NYC DOE

Vaishnavi Muthukrishnan (N13910281) Civic Analytics and Urban Intelligence Project Report

Project: Facilitating School-Business partnerships to enhance NYC DOE’s sustainability plans

[4] Interview with Mr. Thaddeus T. Copeland, Deputy Director of Sustainability, Office of Sustainability, NYC DOE

[5] Interview with Ms. Adrian Kerester, Strategy & Growth, Gotham Greens (personal views and does not represent Gotham Green’s views)

[6] NYC DOE Sustainability Partner Map https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3804e2da06ab4a42acaa4fb 4798eba70

[7] NYC DOE funding related information https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/funding/funding-our-schools