During an era of especially small budgets and limited resources, we at ioby have been very impressed with the efforts of very innovative environmental organizations to work together. We believe that we as a community of environmental activists have a lot of work ahead of us and that we have to work together to achieve real results. Fully acknowledging that collaboration is difficult, we are filled with admiration of the following groups for their collaborative efforts.
Collaboration Award Winner: Local Spokes is a coalition of 9 organizations – Asian Americans for Equality, Recycle-A-Bicycle, Hester Street Collaborative, Velo City, Good Old Lower East Side, Green Map System, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, Transportation Alternatives, and Times Up!
location: Chinatown and the Lower East Side, Manhattan
Local Spokes is a newly minted organization started in 2011 and comprised of community groups that together have 100+ years of organizing experience. Their mission is to engage local residents in envisioning the future of bicycling in the Lower East Side and Chinatown. Currently the coalition is in the midst of a series of community visioning sessions that are conducted simultaneously in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish.
Collaboration Award Winner: Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability
location: All of New York City
The Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability (OLTPS) was created in 2006. Since then two waves of a little document called PlaNYC 2030 have been shaping the future of New York City in a more forward thinking, holistic way. OLTPS, now led by David Bragdon, is focusing on 132 initiatives and 400 milestones for completion by the close of 2013 in all areas of NYC sustainability. In the last year, we have witnessed a massive effort on the part of this agency to engage every nonprofit and community group possible, and for that effort, we recognize their work to furthering collaboration among environmental civic organizations in NYC.