Eric A. Goldstein is a senior attorney and New York City Environment Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (“NRDC”). More than four decades ago, he helped create NRDC’s Urban Program. Over the years, he has been one of the New York region’s leading environmental advocates on such issues as solid waste reform, drinking water protection, clean air and environmental justice. 

As an advocate, Goldstein gained nationwide attention in the early 1980s for spearheading the public campaign to get toxic lead out of gasoline. He helped draft, support and enforce New York City’s landmark 1989 mandatory recycling law; successfully lobbied for prohibitions on plastic carry-out bags and polystyrene foam food and beverage containers; and worked to enact and implement a transformational reform of the problematic system for collecting commercial waste. He has also guided environmental group efforts to safeguard New York City’s irreplaceable water supply, block over-sized development projects in the upstate watersheds, jumpstart city acquisition of 180,000 acres of fragile watershed lands, and protect the all-important Kensico Reservoir.

As a litigator, Goldstein brought successful lawsuits against New York State and New Jersey to compel implementation of state air quality plans that reduced ozone emissions from thousands of gasoline stations and other industrial sources. He sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to trigger compliance by states with the Clean Air Act directive to achieve health standards for lead in the air. And he represented West Harlem and South Bronx environmental justice groups in litigation that curtailed sewage odors in their neighborhoods and built community power.

As a communicator, Goldstein co-authored the award-winning "New York Environment Book"; co-wrote Encyclopedia of New York entries on “pollution” and "drinking water;" and published over 100 opinion pieces and blogs on New York environmental problems and solutions.

As an educator, Goldestein has mentored dozens of younger NRDC colleagues and taught advocacy skills to hundreds of law students as Co-Director, for more than 25 years, of New York University School of Law's Environmental Law Clinic.