A Smarter Guide to a Greener New York, From Refillable Fragrance to Reclaimed Design

At this year’s Spring/Summer New York Fashion Week, the most unexpected accessory was a planting list. After Ulla Johnson staged her spring 2027 show outdoors at Gotham Park on Sept. 14, she pledged to work with the park’s landscape architects on 750 native plants and 12 trees for the public space beneath the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. No installation date has been announced, but the timing was hard to miss: Climate Week begins Sept. 20, bringing the fashion and climate calendars into the same patch of Lower Manhattan.

Beyond the event calendar, the city’s climate work is changing the texture of an ordinary day. The MTA says 27 million fewer vehicles entered Manhattan south of 60th Street during the congestion-pricing program’s first year, an 11 percent drop. The shift reaches home, too: since October 2024, New Yorkers have been required to separate compostable waste at home, with fines in effect since April 1, 2025. Along the harbor at The Battery, a raised section of the wharf opened in June, giving visitors a waterfront walk and the city more protection from coastal flooding. Builders brought some materials by barge and used low-carbon and reclaimed materials. The city says those choices cut the project’s embodied carbon by more than half, with the final phase due in 2027.

For a visitor, the payoff comes at street level: a Lower Manhattan that is easier to navigate and a waterfront better prepared for higher water levels. The guide follows that practical streak indoors, where a greener New York becomes something a visitor can touch and taste.