The support and power generated through our coalitions has propelled us to where we are today.  So if you see us out there, it isn't just us! It’s our EJ community and the private/public partnerships that we work within.  The South Bronx would be a different place without all the support and help we provided one another. 

These amazing partnerships include:

Legal

SSBx is fortunate to have the legal services of several top-notch law firms.  For general oversight of SSBx practices, Stroock, Stroock & Levan provides us with amazing support.  Additionally we receive support from Seward & Kissel, NYLPI, and LISNY on our fight against the city’s jail proposal for the Oak Point site. 

South Bronx Waterfront Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA)

SSBx is one of 5 members of the South Bronx Waterfront Brownfield Opportunity Area program: a team comprised of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, The Point CDC, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation and the Pratt Center to identify priorities for neighborhood development so the community has a voice in shaping its own future.

This is a State-funded, community-driven brownfield redevelopment project.  Our BOA is looking holistically at vacant and underutilized industrial properties in the Bronx River Corridor and the Hunts Point peninsula.

By identifying underused brownfield sites, the BOA team can make Hunts Point, the Bronx River, and Soundview healthier places to live and work with new jobs, new affordable housing, parks and improved access to the waterfront. 

The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance (SBRWA):

SSBx is a member of SBRWA: a coalition of local and citywide organizations committed to envisioning and realizing a new future for the communities along the southern reaches of the Bronx River. Our local partners include Mothers on the Move, Nos Quedamos, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, The Point CDC, and our citywide partners include The Pratt Center and Tri-State Transportation Campaign. 

Eco-Industrial Park

SSBx, in partnership with Green Worker Cooperatives completed a feasibility study for an Eco-Industrial Park, at the Oak Point site in the South Bronx. An Eco-Industrial Park operates as a community of manufacturing and service businesses that recover waste for remanufacturing, recycling, and reuse.  By recovering materials before they become waste, the total amount of waste exported from the Bronx is reduced and the City’s reliance on solid waste export is reduced, while simultaneously creating a new source of jobs and reviving the Bronx’s manufacturing sector - specifically in emerging green industries.  If implemented this development would alleviate the construction & demolition waste transfer station burden in the South Bronx, generate approximately $90 million per year, divert 30 million pounds of plastic per year, and 1,900 tons of C&D waste per day, build markets for recycled materials, reduce 86 truck trips daily and provide hundreds of living wage jobs for South Bronx residents.

Storm Water Infrastructure Matters!

SSBx is one of over 40 (it’s still growing – check out www.swimmablenyc.org) groups and organizations that are trying to get the City of New York to act more progressively toward addressing storm water infrastructure through natural, sustainable management practices in our neighborhoods. This approach is environmentally and fiscally responsible because it utilizes storm water, currently viewed as waste, as a resource. The problem is that large volumes of storm water overwhelm NYC sewage systems causing 27 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted storm water to be discharged into NYC waters through CSO every year. Capturing storm water on land can make our waterways swimmable, while meeting the city’s long-term sustainability goals, reducing energy costs and creating vibrant, healthy and green neighborhoods

O.W.N.

SSBx is a member of the Organization of Waterfront Neighborhoods (OWN), the citywide coalition of community-based groups in low income and neighborhoods of color that is working for an equitable, economically and environmentally sound solid waste management system for the City of New York. OWN was founded in 1996 and played a major role in the design and passage of 2006's Solid Waste Management Plan. OWN is heavily involved in efforts to implement the plan in order to realize the neighborhood and citywide benefits that it promises.

GREENROOFS

SSB has been a vocal advocate for green roofs in New York City-- and now we’ve launched an installation program! One of the many reasons we’ve had such insightful information to use in this advocacy and implementation is due to the amazing support offered by some amazing people. We want to send a very special thank you to Kate Bakewell, Joyce Rosenthal, and Gail Suchman for their past and continued support of our work. SSBx partnered with Joyce Rosenthal of Columbia University’s Cool Cities Project to assess the potential impacts of green and cool roofs in New York City. Since July, 2005, SSBx has used research from this partnership as a tool to advocate for the implementation of green and cool roofs in New York City, significantly contributing to the City’s recent proposal to provide over $1M in funding annually for green roofs, and to mandate cool roofs starting this July. SSBx also is working to implement the findings of the 2006 South Bronx Ecological Infrastructure Studio instructed by Joyce Rosenthal and Kate Bakewell of the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture Planning, and Preservation, and a 2006 Workshop The Hunts Point Food Distribution Market: An Opportunity for Greening an Industry: instructed by Gail Suchman of the School for International and Public Affairs. We also are grateful for the support provided by Green Roof Service, LLC. Together we are making green roofs happen in New York

South Bronx Greenway

SSBx partnered with the Point CDC in ensuring the Hunts Point community concerns are addressed in the creation of the South Bronx Greenway.  Together we’ve worked with the city’s Economic Development Corporation and Mathews Nielsen to create a network of bike and pedestrian pathways that will link the community and adjacent neighborhoods to the new Barretto Point and Hunts Point Riverside parks, waterfront and Randall’s Island.  The next chapter has begun and we are now working with several more community-organizations to ensure the maintenance of these new greenway networks is top-notch!

Hunts Point Monitoring Committee

SSBx often plays the role of watch-dog, but we’re certainly not alone in this role!  We are one of several members of the Hunts Point Monitoring Committee (HPMC), a group of neighborhood stakeholders charged with monitoring and improving the plans for the expansion of the Department of Environmental Protection's waste water treatment plant. Members of the committee include local residents Frank Marrero and Ralph Acevedo as well as the POINT CDC, Mothers on the Move, Community Board #2, the offices of City Councilmember María del Carmen Arroyo, Congress Member José E. Serrano, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión.  The HPMC has reviewed and commented on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the plant expansion and is fighting for protections and benefits for the Hunts Point community

NYOFCo

Sustainable South Bronx is part of a coalition of strong voices in the neighborhood struggling against the emissions and odors of the New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo). This struggle has included many neighborhood residents and, among others, the Hunts Point Awareness Committee, ACTION at The POINT CDC, Mothers on the Move, St. Athanasius School, the Corpus Christi Monastery, the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition (now defunct), as well as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility including the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, the Jesuit Province of New York, the Mercy Sisters Investment Program, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.