He received a high and green honor.
The World Energy Engineering Congress awarded a Cambria Heights engineer with the title of Energy Manager of the Year for the Entire U.S. Northeast in Atlanta on Sept. 26. Cyril Toussaint, the director of energy management and sustainability at New York City Health and Hospitals, received the award for his revolutionary leadership in changing the scope of the energy usage in city hospitals. He was more than thrilled with the recognition, and thankful of the team that assisted him.
“This is truly an honor for me but I could not accept this without the help of so many individuals and colleagues who helped me get this incredible award,” said Toussaint. “It’s a reflection of so many efforts and the work we have done for energy efficiency in hospitals.”
Since Toussaint took on the post, he and his crew helped the corporation see a 26 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2007 and 2017, and last year reported an overall 10 percent decrease in the use of energy, according to the hospital system.
As part of an energy efficiency mandate proposed by Mayor De Blasio last year, requiring that city buildings aim to reduce harmful gases by 2050, Toussaint said he and his team did a great deal of work and are on the way to achieving that goal ahead of its time with exceptional efforts.
“We’ve already reduced greenhouse gas by 50 percent and we are well on target to achieve that goal within the next eight years,” he said.
Under his management, many hospitals around the city saw aggressive overhauls, as new equipment was installed, older machinery saw replacements, and the energy-saving lighting was introduced and upgraded. In a year a significant drop was reported and that took a lot of work, said Toussaint.
“We had to address a number of measures and upgrade a lot of our tools and energy efficient boilers at number of our facilities,” he said.
Toussaint, who is of Grenadian background, went to the University of Guyana where he majored in economics, before finishing at Fordham University, where he took on some engineering courses. He found his penchant for energy during his studies.
“I’m extremely passionate about it because when we all finish our time on earth, we must be able to name something we did in terms of climate change,” said Toussaint. “We got to think about our well-being and what we leave for future generations and it’s extremely important that we make that contribution to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.”
His fellow colleagues also feel the same way about his dedication to a safe environment.
“We are so proud of Cyril and the team he represents,” said Roslyn Weinstein, vice president of operations at NYC Health + Hospitals. “Our health system has ambitious energy management goals, and we are achieving them, thanks to hard work, thoughtful planning, and creative problem solving. This award is certainly well deserved.”
Achieving the honor stands as a reminder to Toussaint, to continue his work and improve the state of energy across the city.
“The recognition of this award only serves as a motivation for me and everyone else at New York City Health and Hospitals,” said Toussaint. “This journey was challenging but the bottom line is the award was far more rewarding, and this encourages me to continue working hard on energy.”
