​-- THE CHALLENGE

TWO ENDURING BURDENS

Hunts Point, a peninsula in the southern tier of the poorest urban congressional district in the United States, confronts two enduring challenges: environmental inequity and economic insecurity.

Tractor trailers carry waste and wholesale food through the neighborhood each morning while resources — from fresh food to paychecks — flow out each evening. Smaller local delivery trucks traverse the community day and night, passing dense residential blocks and historic rowhouses adjoining a vast industrial zone.
​
These twin challenges have yielded undercapitalized small businesses, a disadvantaged labor force, and households with disproportionately high healthcare needs compared to other New York City neighborhoods.
Environmental Inequity
Diesel truck traffic through residential streets creates disproportionate air quality burdens for Hunts Point residents, contributing to chronic health disparities.
Economic Insecurity
​The industrial zone offers residents few opportunities for meaningful economic participation. Wealth flows through the neighborhood, but rarely stays in it.
Brownfield Legacy
​Long-vacant contaminated land has sat idle, a persistent environmental burden with unrealized potential for community-driven revitalization.

$10M
--
NYSERDA Clean Transportation Prize

Awarded November 2022 to reduce air pollution, advance freight electrification,
​and support clean mobility in one of New York's most underserved communities.
​-- THE SOLUTION

Three Pillars of Change

The Bronx is Breathing addresses public health and economic development through freight electrification, worker ownership, and community-scale charging infrastructure — all rooted in Hunts Point.

Electric Trucks

​​With food rescue organization City Harvest as a deployment partner, the project will model emissions reduction by delivering a fleet of all-electric refrigerated Volvo trucks and a fleet of all-electric Mack refuse truck deployed to Royal Waste’s fleet at Hunts Point Food Distribution Center (FDC) while addressing food insecurity in The Bronx. The zero-emission trucks deployed by City Harvest will feature battery-electric transport refrigeration units (eTRUs) and utilize the EV charging hub for charging.​

Green Jobs

​Four additional all-electric Mack Medium Duty trucks will form the basis of the Electric Truckers Co-op, A new worker-owned, zero-emission logistics company will be developed and owned by members, providing access to medium duty electric trucks. The co-op will help ensure that the clean transportation transition is a just one that distributes opportunity equitably, especially in communities like Hunts Point that have been disproportionately impacted by the fossil fuel economy.

Charging Hubs

​The Charging Hub will be a public, freight-focused charging hub proposed for a 3.2 acre remediated brownfield site in the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center (FDC). The hub will establish a supportive ecosystem for zero-emission freight in Hunts Point and address the often-prohibitive cost of fast charging deployment on space-constrained sites.

-- HUNTS POINT ELECTRIFICATION ROADMAP

$1.7M DOE AWARD

In 2023, the project team was awarded $1.7M by the U.S. Department of Energy to engage Hunts Point stakeholders in electric vehicle planning through a series of community listening sessions and a published replication toolkit.
① 

Engage the Community

Empire Clean Cities forms an Advisory Committee and holds in-person Community Listening Sessions in Hunts Point to gather feedback on electrified transportation needs and inform the Roadmap.
② 

Deploy EV Charging Stations

The Advisory Committee — made up of planning and electrification experts and experienced fleets — shapes project implementation and updates the community-driven EV deployment plan.
③ ​

Publish & Replicate

The project team publishes the Hunts Point Electrification Roadmap and a replication toolkit for deploying EV charging equipment and hubs on former brownfields across the country.