Climate Week NYC Coming in September

The Eagle received this press release:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group; and Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, today announced Climate Week NYC, a five-day program of events being held throughout New York City from September 21 – 25 that will address the urgent need for action on climate change.

The Climate Group, an international organization that brings governments and businesses together to tackle climate change, will serve as the secretariat for the Climate Week NYC activities, which will focus on carbon emission reduction, alternative energy, LED lighting and super grids. As a member of the HSBC Climate Partnership, The Climate Group works with New York and other world cities to accelerate low carbon development.

“This fall, our City will be honored not only to host the annual UN General Assembly, but also to enthusiastically support Climate Week NYC and the summit on climate change on September 22. The summit will spotlight the urgent need for action, both to slow the pace of climate change, and also to adapt to the environmental effects of global warming that are already underway,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

“We are far beyond the point of debate over whether climate change is real,” said Secretary-General Ban. “I have seen the impacts of climate change first-hand. I have met families whose crops have been withered by droughts. Billions of people are at risk. Never before has there been such universal acknowledgement that now is the time for decisive action. And just as we have collectively contributed to the creation of this problem, we must also collectively implement solutions. I commend the Climate Group for creating a dynamic platform through which the public, organizations and private business can participate in this process in a direct and meaningful way.”

The event will coincide with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Ban announced that he is inviting all world leaders for a one-day summit on global climate change on September 22, a day before the opening of the general debate of the UN General Assembly. Over a hundred leaders are expected to participate and provide political impetus and direction to the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations to reach agreement on a new climate deal in Copenhagen in December.

The United Nations Foundation is a vital member of the Climate Week NYC team, working to connect a diverse array of advocacy groups with their counterparts in the UN system in order to jointly push for a new climate deal in Copenhagen.

The Climate Group is launching a Web site, www.climateweeknyc.org, that will be updated regularly with details on descriptions, locations and times of events, and information on how the public can participate or attend. Some events will be coordinated directly by The Climate Group, while others will be organized by other partner organizations. Organizations that wish to have their events partnered with Climate Week NYC can call can call Callum Grieve at 646.233.0552, or e-mail him at cgrieve@theclimategroup.org.

“Influential US partnerships and smarter choices will be critical to tackling global warming and setting the world on a pathway to a prosperous low carbon future,” said Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group. “As world leaders gather in New York, Climate Week NYC will let everyone know that the time for change is now.”

Back to homepage

Con Ed Power Breakfast This Week

This Thursday, June 25, at the Brooklyn Public Library's Business Library, Con Edison will sponsor a "Power Breakfast," in which a panel of environmental experts will discuss innovative and affordable business practices.

Panelists will be Catherine Barton, Spec it Green; MaryEllen Etienne, NYC Materials Exchange Development Program; Debera Johnson, Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation; and Paul Mankiewicz, the Gaia Institute.

The breakfast will start at 8:30 and run until 10:30. To register, visit www.biz.brooklynpubliclibrary.org or call (718) 623-7000 and select option 4.

Back to homepage

A Reason to Recycle

For people skeptical of recycling, here's a message from an expert:

"There's a link between recycling and climate change. Everything that goes in a landfill is creating methane," says Julie Walsh, assistant director of the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC).

After carbon dioxide, methane is the greenhouse gas that has the highest impact on global warming. So when you choose to recycle, you know that diverting those materials from a landfill will help reduce global warming. Of course, it's always best to reduce your garbage.

"Recycling is good, but waste prevention is even better," Walsh noted.

Back to homepage

NYC Carbon Counter

Have you ever wondered just how much greenhouse gases are contributing to global warming? Crain's New York reports that a 70-foot-high billboard is outside Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and will track in real time the growing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The sign uses low-energy light, offset by carbon credits and is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Back to homepage

Coalition Convenes to Bring NYC to Fore of Emerging Green Economy

The Eagle received the following press release:

For over a year, more than 170 organizations have worked together to put forward a just and comprehensive workforce development strategy to prepare New Yorkers for green collar jobs. The multi-stakeholder campaign, the Green Collar Jobs Roundtable, met for its third convening Thursday to celebrate its work and launch the next phase of its dynamic process.

“We are very humbled by the great work done by so many important organizations invested in the future of our City,” said Joanne Derwin, Executive Director of Urban Agenda, convener of the Roundtable campaign. ”This was not only a truly grassroots process, but a unique undertaking, and the culmination of a lot of hard work over a sustained period of time. The breadth and depth of the process has helped identify several salient recommendations to ensure that all New Yorkers can benefit from the emerging green economy.”

The Roundtable process has tapped the collective knowledge of green employers, unions, workforce development providers, and environmental and environmental justice groups to chart a Green Jobs Roadmap — a blueprint that articulates specific, targeted steps to direct the City towards a comprehensive, coordinated, citywide strategy to train New Yorkers for green collar jobs. The Roadmap is due to be released in the fall, and will be shared with mayoral and city council candidates in the upcoming election.

“Just look at the size and diversity of this group,” said Ed Ott, Chair of the New York City Apollo Alliance, “we all share a common goal of creating good, green collar jobs that pay family sustaining wages, build sustainability, and create pathways out of poverty for all New Yorkers.”

“This is the moment to act," he added, "the Roundtable represents the best shot we have to show what’s right for workers and good for business, to talk about government’s role and bring communities’ voices to the table.”

Back to homepage

New Views Greenway Party Tonight

Despite the rain, New Views 2009, a benefit for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, hosted by the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, will take place as scheduled tonight starting at 6 p.m. It will be at IKEA Brooklyn's Erie Basin Park (under a tent).

Online ticket sales have closed, but if you still want to go, $60 tickets can be purchased with cash or check at the door.

Manhattan-dwellers interested in going need not worry about getting home: a NY Water Taxi shuttle will depart from IKEA at 8:15 p.m. to take guests back to Pier 11 in Manhattan.

Recycle-a-Bicycle has donated a mint BMX bike for a special raffle, and the Transportation Alternatives Brooklyn Committee will be providing valet bike parking.

Should be a great night!

Back to homepage

Boro Hall Greenmarket: Highly Sustainable

Reaches Quarter-Century Milestone

Sure, greenmarkets and local eating are all the rage now, but they’ve been around longer than you might think. The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), which was started in 1970, has been opening and maintaining greenmarkets for more than 30 years.

“The first market opened under the 59th Street Bridge in 1976,” said CENYC assistant director Julie Walsh. Today, CENYC operates 49 greenmarkets in the city, with 11 in Brooklyn. The newest is in Bay Ridge, which opened in October of 2008.

This month the Borough Hall Greenmarket, one of the city’s oldest, will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Monthlong festivities will culminate in a celebration on June 27, which will include a seafood cook-off, pizza baking with Bread Alone Bakery, and a solar panel demonstration from environmental education group Solar One. Sustainable food advocates Just Food will have a table at the event, as will CENYC’s Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE).

On Cadman Plaza at the intersection of Court and Montague streets, the Borough Hall Greenmarket is held on Tuesdays and Saturdays year-round and Thursdays from April 2 through Dec. 24.

Fred Wilklow, head farmer of Wilklow Orchards, has been selling at the Borough Hall Greenmarket since it started. Back then, he said, customers came from all over because it was the only one in the area. Even now, some of those same people shop at the greenmarket.

“I’m looking forward to [the party], I’ll see a lot of people who have been customers since the first day,” Wilklow said. “I’ve seen families grow up, my family has grown up. It’s become my second hometown.”

Wilklow Orchards, along with Phillips Farms, provides fresh picked fruits and vegetables, plants and flowers, and grass-fed meat to the market. Also available are fresh fish, eggs, buffalo yogurt, cheese and meat. New this year are Long Island wine producers Paumanok Vineyards, along with organic vegetables, chicken and eggs from Fishkill Farms.

Michael Hurwitz, CENYC Greenmarket program director, said the Borough Hall Greenmarket “demonstrates the strength of the market, the farmers that are there and the community around the market.” He added, “You can go there on a Saturday and buy anything you want that’s edible. There’s a diverse array of products.”

CENYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen says the greenmarket “is an example of all that we’ve been able to accomplish,” and that it’s one of the organization’s most popular greenmarkets.

Helping the City Live Better

CENYC’s mission is to “give people the tools and the education and the resources to make New York City a more sustainable environment,” Walsh said. “It’s by the people, of the people, and for the people.”

In addition to greenmarkets, CENYC brings fresh food and produce to underpriveleged areas with its Youthmarket program.

“Communities that are food deserts, that really need access to fresh healthy food, they can’t support a traditional farmer’s market model, so what we do is we buy wholesale from the farmers in our Greenmarket program and set up a farm stand that’s staffed, operated and managed by community youth,” Walsh explained.

In some cases, the presence of a youthmarket has helped make neighborhoods safer. Walsh told about one particular youthmarket in a south Bronx neighborhood near a police surveillance tower. “Within two weeks of the market operating, [the police] were able to leave,” she said.
With CENYC’s Open Spaces Greening program, 57 community gardens have opened in New York City since 1978, 26 of them in Brooklyn.

“We want people to engage in behaviors that will make a more sustainable city — behaviors that they will carry with them,” Walsh noted. “People can see the link. When you go to a community garden you see the importance of preserving nature.”

CENYC also has a presence in 13 city schools with its environmental education program, one of those being Madison High School in Midwood. Through Training Student Organizers (TSO), students have built and demonstrated solar ovens, planted trees, removed invasive species and learned about New York City’s watershed.

In 2006, the Office of Recycling Outreach Education (OROE) was created by CENYC. This part of the organization is specific to the five boroughs, each having its own recycling outreach coordinator. These coordinators target specific neighborhoods that have low recycling diversion rates.

“[OROE] teaches people how to properly recycle,” said CENYC development and communications specialist Amanda Gentile. She said that in the past, OROE has set up a table at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket and conducted a “recycling challenge.” Its purpose is “to make recycling as easy as possible,” she added. OROE will hold the recycling challenge at the Borough Hall Greenmarket’s anniversary celebration.

But no matter what CENYC does, it’s always with a positive outlook. “There’s not so much talking about negativity,” Gentile said. “We’re simply doing things that are directly making improvements, and trying to get people involved in doing that with us.”

Photo above, by Don Evans, is Eva Skillicorn from Wilklow Orchards

Back to homepage