Climate Week NYC: Scaling Global Climate Solutions through Culture and Heritage

Symposium

Location

Gensler Family AAP NYC Center

11 E Loop Rd, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10044

Abstract

Heritage-informed decarbonization applies the wisdom, places, and practices of the past to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in the present and future. It safeguards and generates cultural value—the shared practices and identities that connect people to each other. Heritage-informed decarbonization solutions include the use of traditional, repairable, low-carbon materials; materials salvage and reuse; heating, cooling, and ventilation strategies; climate-responsive design features; occupant behaviors; urban planning practices; cultural practices and relationships; and the recovery, restoration, and transmission of knowledge. Through its Action Agenda, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has recognized the Plan to Accelerate Heritage-Informed Building Decarbonization as a framework to scale these proven solutions through policy.

This gathering at Climate Week NYC brings together community leaders, policymakers, and heritage and built-environment practitioners to explore the role of culture and cultural heritage in global climate action. Convened by the Climate Heritage Network, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Gensler Family AAP NYC Center, ICOMOS, ICLEI, World Monuments Fund, and Architecture 2030, panelists will focus on what steps are needed to strengthen policymakers’ capacity to integrate heritage solutions into climate change mitigation policies in the building and construction sector by 2030. Participants will learn about synergies with policy efforts that prioritize whole-life carbon reductions, energy efficiency, and materials circularity, as well as the coalition’s immediate goals for COP 31 and beyond.

Biographies

Woman with chin-length strawberry blonde hair wearing a blue jacket in a dark forest

Billie Faircloth, FAIA, LEED BD+C, Cornell Atkinson Center Scholar and Associate Professor, Cofounder of Built Buildings Lab

Billie Faircloth, FAIA, is a design leader who has transformed practice-based research and earned a national and international reputation for demonstrating its value, methods, and outcomes. As partner and research director at the Philadelphia-based architectural practice KieranTimberlake from 2008–24, Faircloth led the firm’s Research Group, a transdisciplinary team recognized for applying research, design, and problem-solving processes from fields as diverse as environmental management, industrial ecology, chemical physics, materials science, and sculpture. Her central message: inquiry is a newfound form of professional agency and a driver for practice transformation.

Andrew Potts, Preserving Legacies Director of Policy and Partnerships

Andrew Potts is the Director of Policy and Partnerships for the National Geographic Society-funded Preserving Legacies project. His work includes supporting Heritage Adapts! A campaign that aims to help thousands of heritage sites and cultural practices implement locally led climate adaptation actions by 2030 in alignment with the UN Global Goal on Adaptation’s cultural heritage target. Potts also serves as Heritage and Climate Action Adviser to Europa Nostra and is a member of the ICOMOS Climate Action Working Group. In his native United States, Potts served on the Expert Advisory Committee for the US Advisory Council on Historic Preservation during the administration of former President Joseph R. Biden. A policy and finance for development (FfD) lawyer, he has focused on cultural and climate change policy since 2015.

Lori Ferriss, Built Buildings Lab Co-founder and Executive Director

Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP BD+C, is Co-founder and Executive Director of Built Buildings Lab and an internationally recognized expert on leveraging existing and historic buildings for equitable climate change mitigation and adaptation. An award-winning architect and structural engineer, her work aims to elevate the environmental, cultural, and economic value of preservation and reuse to advance the systems of policy and practice that shape the built environment. She is a past Chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) and APT’s Technical Committee on Sustainable Preservation (APT TC-SP), and she serves on the Climate Heritage Network Steering Committee.

Meredith Wiggins, World Monuments Fund Senior Director of Climate Adaptation

Dr. Meredith Wiggins works at the intersection of climate action, cultural heritage, and sustainable development. As Senior Director of Climate Adaptation at World Monuments Fund (WMF), she guides climate strategy across WMF’s global portfolio, assessing environmental risks and opportunities while advancing practical approaches to adaptation for heritage places and landscapes. An archaeologist by training, Dr. Wiggins brings deep expertise in heritage protection, policy, planning, and international development to her work. She currently oversees WMF’s Climate Heritage Initiative and leads ‘Cultivating Resilience,’ a global program focused on risk assessment and adaptation for biocultural landscapes.

Ege Yildirim, ICOMOS Türkiye Climate Co-coordinator

Dr. A. Ege Yildirim is an urban planner specializing in heritage conservation, with over 25 years of experience related to cultural heritage policy and governance, UNESCO World Heritage, and sustainable development. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Pratt Institute (New York), Senior Fellow for Archaeological Site Management at Koç University (Istanbul), and a Salzburg Global Seminar fellow. Her previous positions include heritage planner at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage, site manager for the Historic Guild Town of Mudurnu, and ICOMOS Focal Point for the SDGs. She founded Terra Mudurnu, a social venture for heritage-based sustainable development. Ege is currently supporting ICOMOS Türkiye, Europa Nostra, Heritage Adapts!, and the Climate Heritage Network for the Culture at COP31 platform.