Cristina Garcia

Program Manager, Residential Energy Efficiency & Heating Electrification, Con Edison

2020 Advocacy Award Winner

Cristina Garcia is the Program Manager of Residential Energy Efficiency & Heating Electrification for Con Edison. In this role, she manages programs offered to New Yorkers to help decarbonize and weatherize their homes. Before joining Con Edison, she was Deputy Director of the Building Electrification Institute, an organization that equips cities across North America with knowledge, tools, and resources to accelerate building system transitions from fossil fuels. Her role focused on inclusive labor and workforce policies for building electrification to enable an equitable transition. A New York City (NYC) native, Garcia also served in the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability for nearly three years, leading electrification and workforce development initiatives. She created an internship program, the Retrofit Accelerator Internship Program, that trains local college students in building systems science, energy efficiency, and clean energy technology. These students are then connected with local sustainability employers that offer semester-long internship opportunities.

Garcia’s passion for workforce development and increasing diversity in the sustainability industry led to her founding Latinxs in Sustainability (LiS), which aims to inform Latinx students and young professionals about sustainability careers and opportunities, and to connect and grow the Latinx professional community working in the sustainability and energy sectors. Since founding LiS in 2017, the group has hosted over 50 events and is now in three major cities: NYC, San Diego, and Chicago. In 2023, she organized another workforce initiative, CCNY Sustainability Level-Up to help expose and connect students to professionals in the local sustainability industry. For her involvement with Latinxs in Sustainability, she was honored in 2023 as one of New York’s 40 under 40 by Negocios Now, recognized as a rising star in the 2022 Crains New York 40 Under 40, and featured among the 2022 Coors Light Lideres of the Year. Garcia also serves as an Advisor to Women.NYC, an initiative within the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Garcia is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM), an EcoDistricts Accredited Professional, and a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate, as well as a Climate Reality Project Leader, an Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and Clean Energy Leadership Institute Fellow. She holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Engineering from the City College of New York.