Schwarzenegger lends some muscle to green attack plan.

Flanked by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week announced a plan to tackle the environmental assault on the city.

The mayor announced a series of initiatives that include the creation of an Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability and a a major greenhouse gas inventory to measure the impact of the city's own operations on climate change.

During his visit with Schwarzenegger to Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale, California, the Mayor talked about the State of California's groundbreaking sustainability initiatives and toured the facility, which manufactures fuel cells that generate power by converting hydrogen into electricity and produce only water as exhaust.

"Sustainability is all about ensuring that economic growth and development today is compatible with the ability of our children and grandchildren to meet their needs in the future," said Bloomberg.

"To that end, in May I made a pledge to the New York League of Conservation Voters to establish the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, and create an advisory board comprised of New York's leading experts, activists, and businesspeople in this field to set goals, and help shape and guide the City's sustainability agenda.

The Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability is led by Director Rohit T. Aggarwala--within the Mayor's Office of Operations, headed by Director Jeffrey A. Kay--and the Office's mission is three-fold: to help develop a plan for the City's long-term growth and development; to integrate sustainability goals and practices into every aspect of that plan; and to make New York City government a "green" organization.

In addition, on an on-going basis, the Office will coordinate the City's various efforts that contribute to a cleaner environment and make more efficient use of our resources. Finally, once a long-term sustainability plan is established, the Office will be responsible for tracking, measuring, and reporting the City's performance against the targets set in the plan.

As a first step, the City has been undertaking a greenhouse gas inventory to measure the total climate change impact of the municipal government's operations since a key element in achieving sustainability is reducing the volume of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we discharge into the air. The results will be released this Fall.

Further, the Mayor announced the launch of an unprecedented effort to measure the entire carbon emissions of throughout the City. This much broader effort, with a target completion date within six months, will give us the first picture of the total carbon impact of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits New York City. The Sustainability Advisory Board will be chaired by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff.

The objectives of the Sustainability Advisory Board will be to assist the new Office in identifying the highest-priority issues the new sustainability agenda should address; setting the targets the City should aim to achieve; and choosing the best methods of achieving those goals.

Among the board members are Robert Fox, Partner, Cook + Fox Architects, Daniel Tishman, chairman and CEO, Tishman Construction Corporation and Robert Yaro, president, Regional Plan Association.