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Leslie Lowe has been director of ICCR's Energy and Environment Programs since 2003. She has guided ICCR members as they press companies to reduce greenhouse gases, expose polluters and convince corporations that a good environmental record is critical for a healthy bottom line.
Leslie entered the burgeoning field of environmental law in the early 1980s when she took on land-use cases as a law clerk, and discovered how often environmental topics become intertwined with issues of social justice. After serving as an assistant commissioner for a New York City agency, Leslie represented community gardeners in their efforts to prevent the sale of scores of gardens that they had built on vacant lots neglected by the city.. She later became executive director of New York City's Environmental Justice Alliance, a city-wide network of 16 community organizations based in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. She helped a coalition of groups fight for equitable siting of garbage transfer stations and other polluting facilities, too often located in low-income neighborhoods.
Leslie has seen companies evolve in their view of environmental sustainability, from skepticism to a growing realization that they must minimize their ecological footprint. “Economic analysis is about value creation, not just value extraction. It’s about natural capital. ICCR, as a leader of the social responsibility movement, views our economy as involving natural social and moral capital as well as financial capital.”
A proud, second-generation New Yorker, Leslie was born in the city. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She received a B.A. from Bennington College and did post-graduate research in economics and social history at the University of Paris. She is a member of the American Bar Association's Committee on Environmental Disclosure and serves on the board of the Social Investment Forum, the Highlander Center and the River Network.
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