​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 and 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 that offers residents few opportunities for meaningful economic participation. 
​These twin challenges impact health outcomes and economic well-being in the area and have yielded undercapitalized small businesses, a disadvantaged labor force, and households with disproportionately high healthcare needs compared to other neighborhoods in New York City. ​By returning a long-vacant brownfield to productive re-use, ​Hunts Point residents will have successfully addressed a longstanding environmental burden while ensuring its reactivation can be a source of wealth-creation and ownership opportunities for community members.​​

The Solution

​The project was awarded a $10 million New York State Energy Research and Development (NYSERDA) Clean Transportation Prize in November 2022 to reduce air pollution, advance freight electrification, and support clean mobility in one of New York’s most underserved communities.   The Bronx is Breathing will address both public health challenges in Hunts Point as well as longstanding economic development imperatives and will feature the following three components: 

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

​In 2023, the Bronx is Breathing project team was awarded $1.7M by the U.S. Department of Energy to further its work of engaging Hunts Point stakeholders into electric vehicle (EV) planning. ​​The "Hunts Point Electrification Roadmap" consists of a series of community listening sessions, encompassing any and all business and residential stakeholders who will be a part of Hunts Point's electrified transportation future. The project will be conducted across three main tasks:​

Engage the Hunts Point Community to Develop an EV Deployment Plan

​Empire Clean Cities will form an Advisory Committee and hold in-person Community Listening Sessions in Hunts Point to gather feedback on electrified transportation needs to inform the Roadmap. ​

Deploy EV Charging Stations in the South Bronx

​The Advisory Committee, made up of planning and electrification experts, experienced fleets, will shape the project implementation and update the Community-Drive EV deployment plan.

Accelerate the South Bronx Transition to Zero-Emission Technology and Beyond

​The project team will publish the Hunts Point Electrification Roadmap. A replication toolkit for deploying EV charging equipment and EV charging hubs on former brownfields.
​​Community listening sessions will be held in person at the POINT CDC at 940 Garrison Avenue, Bronx, NY, ​10474. The next listening session will occur in September 2024—please visit the contact us page to sign up for more information!