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This Sunday marks the start of the highly anticipated annual convergence of corporate executives, NGO staff, and government officials to “drive the transition, speed up progress, and champion change that is already happening.” This time, the event arrives at the conclusion of a summer marked by deadly climate-fueled fires, hurricanes, heat, and floods. Climate scientists are warning that we need to get off fossil fuels while we still have a “tiny window” to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change — “not some time when we’ve allowed companies to make all the money they possibly can.”

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As the only headline partner of Climate Week, the top level of sponsorship for the event, Saint-Gobain will have the opportunity to host discussions like a “Sustainable Construction Talk,” dedicated to “preserv[ing] our planet, while providing everyone with comfortable, decent housing“ and “building a comprehensive response to climate change.”

But Saint-Gobain’s history in New York tells a very different story. In 2016, Hoosick Falls residents filed a large class-action lawsuit against Saint-Gobain, 3M, and Honeywell that eventually led to a $65 million settlement for damages and long-term medical monitoring for around 1800 residents and property owners. Saint-Gobain and Honeywell agreed to pay an additional $45 million for PFAS remediation this year.

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Judith Enck, President of Beyond Plastics and a former EPA Regional Administrator for New York at the time of the contamination, called Saint-Gobain’s sponsorship of Climate Week “such a slap in the face to the residents of Hoosick Falls, New York, Southern New Hampshire, and Bennington, Vermont, where they’ve had their public water supply decimated by pollution from Saint-Gobain. It’s just unconscionable,” she said.

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