Rich Kassel, Group Leader, Energy, Environment and Sustainability, Capalino+Company

 

Rich directs Capalino+Company’s Energy, Environment + Sustainability group, advising businesses and not-for-profit clients on a wide range of issues to help them thrive in the New York market.

Rich Kassel has been actively involved in the New York and federal environmental advocacy community since the 1990s, and is known for his creative issue-based advocacy campaigns. As leader of Capalino+Company’s Energy, Environment + Sustainability group, Rich works with companies and non-profit organizations to develop and implement low-emission, sustainable business strategies, and to facilitate the adoption of innovative building, energy, resiliency, solid waste, transportation, and water technologies, products, and projects.

Prior to joining Capalino+Company, Rich spent more than two decades working on a wide range of air, energy, climate, land use, parks, and transportation policies and projects at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and directed the New York office of Gladstein, Neandross & Associates, a leading environmental consulting firm.

In those roles, Rich created NRDC’s “Dump Dirty Diesels” Campaign, which resulted in the clean-up of New York City’s transit buses and new federal programs to reduce diesel emissions by more than 90 percent. He also worked closely with the Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations on the transportation components of their PlaNYC and OneNYC programs, played a major role in the creation of the Hudson River Park, and co-founded an international organization that led the successful campaign to eliminate leaded gasoline worldwide.

Rich serves as co-chair of the NY chapter of Environmental Entrepreneurs and EPA’s Mobile Sources Technical Review Subcommittee where he advises the EPA on transportation and air quality issues.