Charles C. Copeland is an American infrastructure engineer who has helped preserve and maintain several well-known New York City buildings and has developed innovative energy-conservation initiatives.
He began addressing energy needs in 1974, designing an early, influential solar collector thermal installation for a homesteading group resurrecting an abandoned building on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The dispute rose to the New York State Public Service Commission, where the homesteaders – represented pro bono by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark – prevailed.
[9] The ruling was a crucial forerunner of federal enactment in 1978 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, which was key to enabling safe connections to the electrical grid.
In 2018, he oversaw the preparation of a geothermal screening tool for every lot in New York City, which was honored with a Platinum Award by the Association of Consulting Engineers Council.