Mayor Adams Announces “Good Clean Fun” Initiative During Climate Week to Make New York City Events More Sustainable

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today marked Climate Week by announcing the launch of “Good Clean Fun,” a citywide initiative to make New York City’s thousands of public events more environmentally sustainable. Good Clean Fun provides practical guidance and resources to reduce waste, cut emissions, and protect public spaces without sacrificing the energy that makes New York City’s events iconic.

The guidelines were developed based on input from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management (CECM), city agencies, and various major event producers.

From street fairs to major concerts to cultural parades and more, New York City hosts thousands of events each year that draw millions of attendees, and generate significant carbon emissions and landfill waste. Good Clean Fun offers a new path forward, helping event organizers make smarter, greener choices around energy, transportation, food, materials, and waste. If every major New York City event adopted these practices, the city could divert thousands of tons of waste and cut millions of pounds of carbon emissions each year.

“New Yorkers know how to have a good time and now we’re making sure it is not as harmful to our environment,” said Mayor Adams. “With ‘Good Clean Fun,’ we’re turning down the carbon emissions and turning up climate consciousness. We are making it easier for event producers to reduce their carbon footprint, meet our city’s climate goals, and keep the parties going for generations to come.”

The Good Clean Fun sustainable event guidelines include:

• A sustainable event checklist covering planning, food and beverage, waste, energy, transportation, and venue selection.
• Templates for waste and energy plans to help track and measure impact.
• Sample sustainability commitments to align vendors with sustainability standards.
• Resources from partner agencies, including the New York City Department of Sanitation’s donateNYC platform.
• A metrics tracker to help event producers measure impact of waste diversion, energy use, and emissions.

Good Clean Fun builds on New York City’s “PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done” climate goals, including protecting New Yorkers from climate threats, improving quality of life, and building the green economic engine. The Adams administration continues to focus on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, specifically from large buildings through the Local Law 97 mandate. The implementation of this law aims to significantly reduce carbon emissions from large buildings, targeting nearly 6 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions by 2030.

“It’s an honor for Global Citizen to contribute to the ‘Good Clean Fun’ sustainable event guidelines,” said David Beame, vice president, global events and experiences, Global Citizen. “Over the past 13 years, we have developed all aspects of the Global Citizen Festival — from production to catering — by employing battery power and carbon offsetting to become the most sustainable music festival in New York City. Working with incredible partners across many industries to harness best practices and innovate toward an ever-shrinking carbon footprint has been a high priority from the start of our movement to end extreme poverty and defend the planet, and we’re proud to share our learnings with music festivals across the city and the world.”

“Kudos to Mayor Adams and CECM for launching such an important initiative. Event producers of all sizes will benefit from the guidelines put forth in ‘Good Clean Fun,’” said Tom Russell, co-founder, Governor’s Ball Music Festival. “We applaud everyone involved for working collaboratively and creatively toward a more sustainable city.”

“As a global championship that’s redefining our sport, SailGP is underpinned by purpose, always racing for a better sport and planet,” said Fiona Morgan, chief purpose officer, SailGP. “We are therefore excited to support New York’s citywide ‘Good Clean Fun’ initiative, having contributed our best practices and expertise to support the development of the guidelines to help other event organizers make smarter and greener choices.”

“At New York Road Runners, sustainability isn’t just a goal, it’s a responsibility we embrace with every event we produce,” said Rob Simmelkjaer, CEO, New York Road Runners. “Year-round, we collaborate with vendors and our city agency partners to be environmentally conscious and leave New York City’s streets and parks cleaner than we found them. We’re proud to contribute to the ‘Good Clean Fun’ initiative and share best practices to ensure all New York City events are not only world-class but also sustainable.”

“We’re thrilled to be part of the New York City mayor’s office ‘Good Clean Fun’ program. Special events are a defining part of New York City’s culture and identity, and this program gives us the opportunity to make them greener, smarter and more responsible,” said Amir Shayegan, partner and executive vice president, permitting and logistics, IDEKO.

“Usually, when someone tells us to clean up after ourselves, it’s because we’ve left behind confetti, pizza boxes, or the occasional traffic cone. This time, it’s about building a real path toward sustainability in events — and we couldn’t be more excited to roll up our sleeves to make it happen. Big thanks to the New York City mayor’s office for letting us be part of the fun.”

“We are honored to share our event experiences and wisdom with the City of New York in order to increase our industry's sustainability practices,” said Robert Barwick, president, Barwick Marketing & Events Group.

“Cities across the world are creating innovative and exciting ways to reduce trash, keep public spaces clean and reduce emissions,” said Kate Johnson, regional director, North America, C40 Cities. “New York City’s new event guidelines demonstrate how local governments can push progress forward — ensuring world-class, high-quality events that help sustain our world.”

“The Good Clean Fun initiative demonstrates that New York City’s leadership in sustainability goes hand in hand with being an iconic destination to host events,” said Victoria Cerullo, director of urban engagement, New York Climate Exchange. “This Climate Week NYC, the New York Climate Exchange supports the city’s efforts to cut emissions and waste from events by launching guidelines that help event producers take action for a cleaner, more sustainable city. We look forward to sharing this solution with other global cities.”

###