Aaron Ordower

Aaron Ordower serves as Senior Policy Deputy for Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Krekorian.  Aaron staffs the councilmember on the Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice and the Housing committees of City Council.  Aaron’s portfolio includes work on Los Angeles’ 100% renewable energy goal, regulations on local oil and gas production, tackling the scourge of plastics, waste diversion and recycling reform, and strategies to expand production and preservation of affordable housing.     Aaron Ordower formerly served as Assistant Director for Strategic Initiatives in the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, where he worked on policy development and technical assistance programs related to energy efficiency and clean energy finance. He led a team of Policy Advisors that manage New York City’s programs to support private building owners in completing energy retrofits: the Carbon Challenge, Retrofit Accelerator and Community Retrofit NYC. He was particularly engaged in new policy development promoting deep energy retrofits, building electrification, and clean energy solutions for low income households. He also oversaw the City’s efforts to establish a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.   Prior to joining the Mayor’s Office, Aaron was Program Coordinator for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Green Housing Preservation Program – a first of its kind affordable housing program targeting energy efficiency and water conservation, and a signature initiative of Mayor de Blasio’s 300,000 unit Housing New York plan.   Aaron believes that smarter urban development requires harmonizing economic development with environmental protection in order to slow the impacts of global climate change. Aaron worked for five years at the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, where he focused on the Sustainable Development investment lending program for Latin America. He supported the implementation of projects in urban development, disaster risk management, transportation, water and sanitation, natural resource management, and energy supply. He is interested in ways these diverse sectors complement and impact one another and how lessons from the global south can be applied to American cities.   Aaron completed his Masters in Urban and Regional Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where he focused on Urban Sustainability and Real Estate Development. At UCLA, he worked on two California Air Resource Board-financed studies evaluating economic impacts of Smart Growth and Transit-Oriented Development. Aaron received his Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Latin American Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.