Pick Up Free Trees at Locations in Brooklyn From MillionTreesNYC

MillionTreesNYC will be giving away free trees at six Brooklyn locations now through June. Residents can attend any of the giveaways to pick up one free trees per household. Simple tree planting and caring instructions come with every tree, you just need a place to plant, a shovel and access to water.

Trees can be planted on private properties such as front and back yards, community gardens and faith-based centers throughout New York City with permission of the property owner. Trees must be planted in the ground, rather than in a planter or a container, and all MillionTreesNYC trees must be planted within the five boroughs of New York City.

Emily Laskodi, who works for MillionTreesNYC and will be staffing the first Brooklyn giveaway this Saturday, said that the trees weigh about 30 lbs and are about 7-8 feet tall. “We suggest people bring either a cart to transport them or a car, or a strong back!” she noted in an email message. “Generally the events are very successful — sometimes there will be a line of people waiting before the event starts — no trees will be given away before start time — and other times there will be a steady flow throughout the 2 hours. Any leftover trees after 12 p.m. will be given to people who want additional trees or the community partner will be responsible for distributing them.”

Here is a list of the Brooklyn giveaways:

March

Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill and FAB Alliance Tree Giveaway

March 26, 10:00 a.m. to noon

Putnam Triangle, Putnam Ave. and Fulton St.

300 trees — cherry trees and dogwoods

April

Green-Wood Cemetery Tree Giveaway

April 16, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

500 25th St.

100 trees — redbud, carolina silverbell, cherry and bur oak

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Tree Giveaway

April 23, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton St

130 trees — redbud, magnolia and pear trees

May

Grand Street Campus Tree Giveaway

May 1, 10:00 a.m. – noon

850 Grand St.

300 trees — eastern redbud, kastura, dogwood, magnolia and pear trees

Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush Tree Giveaway

May 7, noon – 2:00 p.m.

Holy Cross Church School Yard, 2530 Church Ave.

200 trees — serviceberry, katsura, dogwood, magnolia, pear, bur oak and littleleaf linden trees

June

Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation Tree Giveaway

June 4, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Blessed Sacrament Church, 198 Euclid Ave.

250 trees — eastern redbud, cherry and callery pear trees

The giveaways are sponsored by American Express and JetBlue.

Launched in 2007 by the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) and the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, MillionTreesNYC is one of the goals set forth under Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, the city’s long-term sustainability blueprint. MillionTreesNYC is a public-private initiative with an ambitious goal — to plant and care for one million new trees across the city’s five boroughs by 2017.

Composting Pilot Program Introduced at Greenmarkets in Brooklyn, City

If you're like me, every time you throw out food scraps or egg shells, you feel a little guilty. But I don't have a worm bin, and to be honest, it grosses me out a little (yeah, I read and saw No Impact Man, I know about all the bugs you get when you compost in your apartment. Otherwise I'd jump on that bandwagon). So I'm super happy about GrowNYC's new composting program.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and GrowNYC, joined by Ron Bergamini of Action Carting, announced the launch of a pilot program to provide composting services to NYC residents at six new Greenmarket locations, 10 in total. The pilot was developed by GrowNYC’s Greenmarket and Office of Recycling Outreach and Education programs.

In Brooklyn, composting services will now be available at the McCarren Park Greenmarket (Union Ave between Driggs and N 12th St) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Fort Greene Greenmarket (Washington Park at DeKalb) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the Borough Hall Greenmarket on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Composting drop-off sites were already in place at the Fort Greene Greenmarket (conducted by the Fort Greene Compost Project), the Union Square Greenmarket (held by GrowNYC and the Lower East Side Ecology Center) and two Greemarkets in Queens (conducted by the Western Queens Compost Initiative).

Accepted materials include fruit and vegetable scraps, non-greasy food scraps (rice, pasta, bread, cereal etc.), coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, egg and nut shells, pits, cut or dried flowers, houseplants and potting soil. Unacceptable materials: meat, chicken, fish, greasy food scraps, fat, oil, dairy, dog or cat waste, kitty litter, coal or charcoal, coconuts, diseased and/or insect-infested houseplants/soil or biodegradable/compostable plastics.

Food scraps can be collected in large yogurt containers or other covered plastic containers, plastic bags, milk cartons or in commercially-available compost pails. To reduce odors at home and at the Greenmarket, store items in the freezer or refrigerator. A layer of shredded newspaper at the bottom of your storage container also helps.

Food comprises about 17 percent of NYC’s waste stream. When this material is sent to a landfill it contributes to NYC’s disposal costs and creates greenhouse gas emissions. When composted, food scraps and other organic waste become a useful product that adds nutrients and improves the quality of soil for street trees, gardens and more.

“Last year in my Food Works speech one of our goals was to get more people to compost their scraps. You could throw a banana peel or apple core in the garbage but that’s just wasting valuable energy,” said Quinn. “I’m  thrilled to be able to support the opening of these new compost drop-off sites, and what better place to offer them than at the Greenmarkets, where many of the fruits and vegetables sold benefit from the rich, nutrient-filled compost NYC residents will be contributing to every time they drop their food scraps.”

“We’re thrilled that Speaker Quinn and the New York City Council is helping us offer residents a tangible resource that will shrink their trash pile-up and create a precious resource that will benefit local gardens and farms,” said GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen. “Compost collection complements other services GrowNYC offers city dwellers looking to lower their environmental impact, including Greenmarkets, textile collections, cell phone and battery recycling, environmental education and technical and material assistance we provide community and school gardens.”

Based on the success of the pilot, GrowNYC will explore running the 6 new collection sites on a permanent basis.

Coming Up: Winter Stop 'N' Swap

Looking to get rid of some clothes or housewares? In the mood for a wardrobe or home makeover on a budget?

On Saturday, Feb. 26, GrowNYC, a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs, will offer a Stop 'N' Swap in the M.S. 113 lobby in Fort Greene from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Members of the community are invited to bring unwanted but still usable items — books, toys, fashionable clothing, housewares and working electronics — along with a bag to fill up with items they would like to take with them. (All items should be portable so others can easily carry them away.)

Whatever is left at the end of the day will be sorted and donated or recycled. According to GrowNYC spokesperson Amanda Gentile, about 300-500 people come out to these swaps. Ninety percent or more of what comes in ends up getting reused. 

“Stop ‘N’ Swaps have hit at the right time. In this economy, they’re a great way for residents to find things they need without having to pay and they are reducing the amount of garbage that NYC generates,” said GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen. “In fact, it’s a triple-win; in addition to economic and environmental benefits, they also build community as New Yorkers come out and meet their neighbors.”

M.S. 113 is located at 300 Adelphi Street between DeKalb and Lafayette avenues.

NY Times Feature on Habana Outpost Owner

Check out this feature in the New York Times on Sean Meenan, owner of Fort Greene eco-friendly restaurant Habana Outpost. Among the local hot spot's sustainable elements are "solar panels, a rainwater-collection system that feeds the toilets, a recycling and composting station, wheat-board wall paneling, corn-based plastic cups and a blender powered by a bicycle."

According to the Times, Meenan opened another location in Malibu and will soon be expanding to Las Vegas and LA.

Tour de Brooklyn 2010

The Tour de Brooklyn is back for its sixth year and it’s bigger than ever. The 18-mile family-friendly bike tour, which takes a different route through the borough every year, is held by biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives (TA). TA Spokesperson Wiley Norvell said they expect around 2,500 riders this time around, 500 more than last year.

The ride will take place this Sunday, June 6, and will start at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Online registration has already filled up, but “there will be several hundred spots available on the day of [the ride],” Norvell said. Prospective riders are suggested to get there at 8 a.m., but not before. Check-in is at McCarren Park, and concludes at 9 a.m.

While last year’s ride took bicyclists through southern Brooklyn and Coney Island, this year’s will start and end in Williamsburg, touring Greenpoint, East Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights along the way, with a brief respite in Red Hook Park.

Since riders of all ages participate, this ride is not a race, instead it is treated as a rolling parade, about five to 10 minutes from front to back. “It’s a slow, leisurely pace,” said Norvell. The group is escorted by the NYPD.

This particular route was designed with sustainability in mind, he noted, with riders going from Newtown Creek to the Gowanus Canal. “We’re highlighting different pieces of the [Brooklyn] Waterfront Greenway,” Norvell explained. “Bringing New Yorkers closer to their waterfronts.”

If you missed online registration, there are plenty of places to watch the ride. Norvell said the ride will be going down McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint in the morning. A good vantage point would be at Nassau Avenue and McGuinness, which he called “a very dramatic place to watch the ride pass.”

Other optimal views will be in East River State Park, at Kent Avenue and N 8th Street. The ride will also travel on Fourth Avenue for about 20 blocks, Norvell noted, between Bergen and Ninth. Or you can watch the ride on Van Brunt in Red Hook in the afternoon.

“It will be lovely to watch the ride come down Bergen Street in Prospect Heights, or Carlton Avenue [in Fort Greene]. You can hang out and have brunch or go to Fort Greene Park afterwards,” Norvell said. “But the best vantage point is as a rider.” 

Photo by Emmanuel Fuentebella

Efforts Announced to Expand Recycling in City's Public Spaces

Pictured at Fort Greene Park, from left to right are Councilmember Jessica Lappin, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Councilmember Brad Lander, Eric Gioldstein of the Natural Resources Defense Council, William Alatriste of the New York City Council and Solid Waste Management Committee Chair Letitia James. Legislation was announced to expand recycling in the city's public spaces, including expanding plastics recycling (the city only collects numbers 1 and 2 at this point), improving recycling at city schools, and improving outreach and education.

Currently, there are approximately 300 recycling bins at public spaces throughout the city. Providing New Yorkers with more opportunities to deposit glass, paper, plastic, and aluminum recyclables in parks and other highly visited areas, this new legislation would require the Department of Sanitation to greatly expand the number of recycling bins in or near public parks and other highly trafficked areas. Similar to existing containers, the bins would be distinctively colored and placed near existing wastebaskets.

Fort Greene Park is the site of a public spaces pilot program to improve recycling. Solid Waste Management Committee Chair James called it a "perfect example" of "how the City Council has followed through with improvements to make it easier for everyone in New York City to recycle."

Photo courtesy of the City Council

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Sustainable Designs at BKLYN DESIGNS in DUMBO this Weekend

This weekend, BKLYN DESIGNS will return to DUMBO for its eighth year. If it's anything like last year, many exhibitors will feature sustainable designs. A lot of buzz has been generated surrounding Red Hook-based Uhuru Design’s new Coney Island Line, created from wood reclaimed from the demolished Coney boardwalk.

Pieces in the line include the Cyclone Lounger (above), made to mimic the structure of the iconic ride; the Wonder Coffee Table, which also mimics the ride it’s named after; the Drop End Table (right), influenced by the Parachute Jump; and the Drum Lamp, which is inspired by concrete-filled oil cans around the Coney landscape.

Sustainable design blog Inhabitat.com will award the best green designs at the show with its second annual Editor’s Choice Awards. Will Uhuru get recognition for its innovative ways of saving pieces of Brooklyn’s history? (Last year, “Best in Show” went to Fort Greene-based designers Ecosystems, for the BADA table/chair.)

Photos courtesy of Uhuru Design

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EARTH DAY 2010

Every year since 1970, thanks to an idea by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson, we’ve celebrated Earth Day on April 22. As eco-consciousness spreads, Earth Day has expanded into Earth Week, and even Earth Month. Below is a sampling of Earth events coming up throughout the borough:

Thursday, April 22 (Earth Day)

Green in BKLYN, 432 Myrtle Ave, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Green in BKLYN’s B-Earth Day Celebration. Not only is it Earth Day, but it’s the first anniversary of Green in BKLYN, a green home goods store in Clinton Hill. Visit the shop for the day-long party, which will feature a book signing by Brooklyn author Leda Meredith, Clinton Hill-based Vandra Thorborn answering questions about composting, Brooklyn artist Claudia Pearson signing her children’s book, and an organic wine reception. Visit greeninbklyn.com for all the details.

OutPost Lounge, 1014 Fulton St. from 4 to 10 p.m.: GREEN BKSTYLE. The April Brooklyn Fashion Week designers move toward more sustainable marketing and production. Visit OutPost Lounge to shop and see the green fashions featured. RSVP required. Visit www.brooklynfasionweek.com for more details.

Word Bookstore, 126 Franklin St. from 7:30 to 9 p.m.: Author Emily Elizabeth Anderson will discuss ideas from her new book, Eco-Chic Home: Rethink, Reuse and Remake Your Way to Sustainable Syle. She will talk about projects that make the home stylish and eco-conscious at the same time, demonstrating a paper crane chandelier, a CD case light and plastic bag flowers. Free, RSVP encouraged but not required. Visit www.wordbrooklyn.com for more information.

East River Bar, 97 South Sixth St., 8 p.m.: Earth Day is Every Day After-Party. Time’s Up, NYC’s Direct Action Environmental Organization, will be holding a bike ride for Earth Day, starting at Union Square Park South and ending in a barbeque at East River Bar in Williamsburg. Wear green for the ride and after-party, which will feature a DJ, dancing and eco art show of ecological and environmental prints by JustSeeds Cooperative.

Saturday, April 24

Flatbush Food Co-op, 1415 Cortelyou Road from 9 a.m. to noon.: Plant swap co-sponsored by Flatbush Food Co-op and Sustainable Flatbush. Trade perennials and other plants, swap gardening tips and get started with a garden. You don’t have to bring something to take something. Rain or Shine. Visit sustainableflatbush.org.

Fifth Avenue Family Festival, Fourth Street at Fifth Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Puppetry Arts and the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID team up to bring a family event to the neighborhood filled with crafts, games and giveaways. The event also has activities in celebration with Earth Day. Children can make puppets out of recyclable materials found in restaurants and stores located along Fifth Avenue, such as “pizza puppets” made out of pizza boxes from 7-Eleven. Free.

Audubon Center at Prospect Park, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.: Earth Day 40th Anniversary Celebration. Find out how Earth Day began and learn about how you can help nurture and preserve our planet. Calculature your carbon fooprint, bring old tee-shirts or sweaters to make a one-of-a-kind tote bag with Bags for the People, turn cereal boxes into wallets with Replayground, and Bash the Trash will be building recycled instruments and performing live. Free. Visit www.prospectpark.org for more information.

Brooklyn Flea, 176 Lafayette Ave (Saturday, April 24), and 1 Hanson Place (Sunday, April 25): Greenmarket’s Annual Flower Sales. Choose from hundreds of local, seasonal plants and flowers: annuals, assorted pots, bulbs, herbs, perennials, cut flowers, vegetable plants and more.

Sunday, April 25

McCarren Park, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The 3rd annual Go Green! Greenpoint! Earth Day Celebration. Event will feature vendors selling earth-friendly merchandise, organizations promoting earth awareness, school and community group participation, music, a health and wellness demonstration area, a recycling station and healthy food. Free. 

IKEA/Erie Basin Waterfront Park, One Beard St., from 1 to 5 p.m.: The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy Enviromedia Mobile Earth Day Celebrations 2010. Activities include: catch and release fishing, live underwater video exploration, electronics and sneaker recycling, kite flight, tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and live music. Event will also feature a ceremonial launch of a giant floating “earth ball” to 100 feet, signifying the 100 percent commitment to mitigation of impacts on climate change and ocean acidification. Free, for more information call (347) 224-5828.

Ongoing

The Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, 290 Conover St. at Pier 44: "A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things." April 23 to May 9, Friday to Sunday at 7 p.m. A “floating fantasia” of a show performed on a docked barge in Red Hook about a man floating on a shrinking iceberg, a smuggling sea captain delivering messages in bottles, and a marooned sea creature. They will all collide in a mythical place called Florida. All tickets $18 through SmartTix. Visit www.polybeandseats.org/slimy.html for more details.

Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard: 5th Annual Eco-Festival, April 27 to 30. Theme for this year is “Sustainable NYC.” Various speakers, film screenings, environmental books on display, an afternoon of poetry, music and fashion, a green trade fair and more. Free and open to the public. For more information visit www.kingsborough.edu/eco-festival.                                  

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James Cameron Coming to Brooklyn Tech

This Saturday, as reported in the New York Times Local blog, James Cameron will be visiting Brooklyn Technical High School to present the first annual "Avatar Award." The student who gives the best two-to-three minute speech on how to best apply the environmental lessons from the blockbuster film will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship. Cameron will also give a presentation on environmental issues and projects he is currently working on, according to the Local.

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Free Trees in Clinton Hill

On Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill and the FAB Alliance, in partnership with MillionTreesNYC and the New York Restoration Project, will be giving away 200 free trees at the “Putnam Triangle” in Clinton Hill (Fulton Street and Grand Avenue).

All trees will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. All you need is a place to plant and access to water. The trees will be available to individuals, families and community groups for planting on private property only, and not in containers or on rooftops. Limited quantities are expected for certain species: Eastern Redbud, Dogwood, Cherry, Oak and Sweet Gum

Tools will be available to borrow, help will be available for those who need it to get a tree home, or don’t know how to plant the tree. Horticulture specialists will be on hand to answer questions and provide species selection recommendations. Simple tree planting and care instructions come with each tree.

Volunteers are needed to give out trees, transport trees, help neighbors plant their free trees, publicize the event in surrounding neighborhoods and answer questions about tree planting. To volunteer, contact Marilyn Shaw at volunteer@greenfgch.org

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New Yorkers Recycle Half Million Pounds of Textiles at Greenmarkets

The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) has announced that New Yorkers have recycled 530,000 pounds of used clothes, shoes, linens, towels and other textiles since 2007, the year that it launched its textile-recycling program at its greenmarkets.

The program is a partnership between CENYC and textile recycling company Wearable Collections. More than 20,000 people have participated in it, at greenmarkets city-wide, including those at Grand Army Plaza, Fort Greene and McCarren Park.

Collected textiles are taken to a sorting facility and categorized based on reusability and type of fabric. They are then taken to specific markets where they are in demand.

For more information about CENYC’s textile-recycling program, visit www.cenyc.org/recycling.

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Recycling Outreach in Brooklyn

I’m sure many of you, while dutifully putting your paper recyclables in the green bins, and metal, glass and plastic recyclables in the blue bins, have often wondered: When the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) picks these up, do they really go to a recycling center?

According to David Hurd, director of the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) at the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) — which is not a city agency — they do.

“So many New Yorkers want to believe that the Department of Sanitation is actually not recycling the recyclables that they pick up,” he said. “That’s absolutely false.”

In some cases, people are recycling less or not recycling at all. So, through OROE, “What we try to do is basically get people to understand the program,” he explained. “To debunk the classic myth.”

CENYC, which is almost 40 years old, created OROE in 2006. Five outreach coordinators tackle each borough by community district, using a Residential Waste Characterization Study conducted by DSNY to target the districts that have low recycling diversion rates first.

Brooklyn’s recycling outreach coordinator, Jae Watkins, says of her approach, “I try to find active community groups in the districts.” At their meetings she does a presentation with samples, “a collection of things that are both recyclable and not recyclable. I clear up the confusion about the program.”

Much confusion is generated from what DSNY does and does not collect. Plastic bottles are the only type of plastic that can be recycled; yogurt and takeout containers are not recyclable. Milk cartons seem like they should go out with paper and cardboard, but they actually get recycled with plastics and metals. Also, household items that are at least 50 percent metal — pots and pans, irons, toasters and wire hangers — can be recycled.

Watkins mostly speaks to building owners, giving them tips about ways to make recycling easier in their buildings, such as making sure their bins are in places that are well-lit and clean.

Of the neighborhoods Watkins has tackled so far, she said, “I started out in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area a couple of years ago and then I moved to Bed-Stuy, and then Bushwick, and now I’m working in the CB 2 area, Fort Greene.”

Once she’s established herself in a community district, Watkins says she remains a resource for recycling questions and requests. She gets calls every once in a while from building owners who are looking for more ways to educate their tenants, such as getting signs in languages other than English.

“A lot of people, they have all these questions but they don’t know who to ask,” Watkins said.

Though she has covered a lot of ground in her three years at CENYC, Watkins still has a ways to go. “It takes six months to really get in good in a community district, and there are 18,” she said.

“What I think makes us effective is that staff really does try to completely absorb the neighborhood,” Hurd said. “Not only do we use data from the Department of Sanitation study, but we also use demographic data from the Department of City Planning to identify larger target population groups.”

OROE also identifies the other opportunities that exist in neighborhoods, such as composting, appliance repair shops, or shoe repair shops, Hurd explained, to make objects last longer rather than be thrown out.

“We’re trying to get people to remember that whole concept, that garbage is a choice that we make,” he continued. “There are a lot of things that are perfectly good but we decide that they are no longer good for us. We try to talk about changing that mentality where we can.”

For more information about recycling, visit www.cenyc.org.

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See Brooklyn's Parks at Museum of the City of NY

In October photographer Joel Meyerowitz released Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks, a collection of photographs documenting the almost 9,000 acres of parks in the five boroughs of the city.

Commissioned by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, the book features 250 photos of green spaces from Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx (the largest park in the city at over 2,700 acres), to Riverside Park in Manhattan, to High Rock Park in Staten Island.

Naturally, there are a large number of photographs taken in Brooklyn, most from Prospect Park. Eagle editor Raanan Geberer spoke with Meyerowitz last month, you can read his story here. Last week, I took a tour of the accompanying exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, given by the photographer himself.

Split into three rooms, works in the first two rooms are printed on large sheets of recyclable Tyvek paper. Meyerowitz explained that he also used biodegradable ink for the prints, “a green process for a show about the environment.”

Upon walking into the exhibit, you are literally in the Bronx River, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling photos and a photo on the floor, “so you can walk on water,” Meyerowitz said. Going to the next room, you proceed “from river into woodlands” he explained, where there are more Tyvek prints, this time of various trees and woods throughout the city.

The final stage of the exhibit is a larger room with dozens of photographs separated by Borough. Brooklyn is represented by Prospect Park, Fort Greene Park, Marine Park, Louis Valentino Jr. Park, Owl’s Head Park and Sunset Park.

I thought the exhibit was amazing, particularly Bronx River room — it was as if we actually were in the river. I was blown away by these photographs, because when I think of New York City, I don’t really think of wilderness. So many of the pieces have no urban elements, if I didn’t know they were taken in the city, I would never guess.

Meyerowitz gives a fresh and much-needed look at the green spaces around us, and I think (I hope) as people see his photos, they have a new appreciation and respect for what’s in them.

The Legacy photography exhibit will continue through March 21. For more information, visit www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/Legacy.html.

All photos of Prospect Park. Top photo: Long Meadow, autumn. Middle photo: Wellhouse Drive, spring. Bottom photo: woods in the Ravine, autumn.

Copyright Joel Meyerowitz, Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, NY

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Panel Explores Green Business Solutions

For the small business owner at a loss about how to adopt greener business practices, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) Thursday held a panel entitled “Green Solutions For Small Businesses,” sponsored by Con Edison.

The panel was moderated by Debera Johnson, the director of Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, and the Academic Dean of Sustainability at Pratt. Panelists were Catherine Barton, founder of NYIRN’s (New York Industrial Retention Network) Spec it Green educational series and member of Green Depot’s advisory board; MaryEllen Etienne, managing director of Reuse Alliance New York; and Paul Mankiewicz, director of Gaia Institute.

Presentations by Johnson and the panelists were followed by a question and answer session. Some of the themes most emphasized by the group were investigating and thinking about the entire life of a product, reusing unwanted materials and investing in green technologies.

Johnson spoke about Pratt’s recently launched Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS), which educates students about sustainable practices, provides innovation workshops and helps launch start-up businesses from alumni. One of those start-up businesses, Johnson said, creates household items out of discarded pieces of wood.

“This is a really interesting model, I think it’s relevant to every one of us in terms of rethinking the life cycle of products and services,” she explained. “We have to think about what happened before it got into my hand and what happens after it leaves my hand... it’s a really great decision making tool of how you bring products into your environment.”

Barton touched on this theme as well, giving the example of a company that supplied building materials for the Bank of America tower in Manhattan, which is on track to achieve LEED platinum certification. Because of this goal, the packaging from the building materials would have to be diverted from a landfill. In response, that company created reusable packaging crates that they now use exclusively. The $14 million they were spending to take care of the packaging waste turned into $2.5 million maintenance costs.

In addition to choosing products after examining their entire life cycle, it’s also important to make sure products are what they claim to be. Barton spoke about greenwashing and emphasized truthful business practices.

“Be clear and truthful, both with yourself and the people that you represent your products and services to about who your company is and what your goals are,” she said. “Really try, if possible not to overstate.” Many companies that produce green products sometimes use heightened language to describe them. A good way to weed out those products is to educate yourself about the different certification processes and labels. Barton explained that Greenseal, Rugmark, FSC, Greenguard, Energy Star, Watersense and LEED are all trustworthy labels.

Being aware and knowledgeable about the products you use in your business is good, but reusing those products and materials is even better. Etienne is the program director of an online service called NY Waste Match, where members post materials they don’t want anymore, giving it to someone else who might need it.

“Businesses find homes for things they no longer need,” she said. “It’s a very valuable thing for start-ups.” This “matchmaking” system, as she called it, is beneficial because it saves businesses money and diverts waste materials from landfills.

One NY Waste Match product is OROE, the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, part of CENYC (the Council on the Environment of New York City). “We outfitted them with an entire office,” said Etienne.

“Always reuse first,” she added. “Where you can’t, try to find a place to recycle.”

Mankiewicz, as director of the Gaia Institute, works with the relationship between humans and the environment, developing soil for green roofs and increasing the number of community gardens and trees in the city. While new green technologies, such as green roofs and solar panels, are pricey right now, he said, “the horizon is good. The technology is just getting there... the more we build, the better off we are.”

Small businesses taking steps like these will have an impact on the environment. Diverting waste from landfills will reduce greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, and increasing the city’s tree canopy and green spaces will also reduce emissions.

“It will drop the body temperature of the city,” Mankiewicz said. “We will see this almost immediately.”

“There are tremendous opportunities in the green economy,” Barton said. “I like to think of it as the triple bottom line: the social benefits, the environmental benefits and the economic benefits. I encourage you to look for conversations about sustainability because it’s really more than just the environment, it’s about the whole community.”

Photo above left to right: panel moderator Debera Johnson, director of Pratt’s Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation; panelist MaryEllen Etienne, managing director of Reuse Alliance New York; Stuart Leffler, manager of Economic Development at Con Edison; and panelist Paul Mankiewicz, director of Gaia Institute.

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Chamber Recognizes Green Buildings

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and its Real Estate and Development (RED) Committee announced the winners of Building Brooklyn Awards for this year. Of the 12 recipients, two are green buildings: Galapagos Art Space and the Perry Building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Carl Hum, Chamber president and CEO, said that past winners have been environmentally friendly, but this year was the first year a specific award was given to a green building. This would be the National Grid Award for Energy Conservation, which the Perry Building received.

Opened in early April, the Perry Building (above) is the nation’s first multi-story green industrial facility. It is on track to receive LEED gold certification and features the first permanent building-mounted wind turbines to be operating anywhere in New York City.

The turbines, combined with rooftop solar panels, will provide electricity for the building’s lobby and other common areas, which will amount to about 10 percent of the overall energy. Other green features of the Perry Building are reflective roofing and pavement to reduce surface temperatures, the use of recycled rain water in toilets, recycled building materials, high-efficiency lighting fixtures, natural ventilation systems and special accommodation for bicyclists and low-emission vehicles.

Awarded in the Arts and Culture category, Galapagos Art Space (above) has shown a commitment to the environment from the get-go. A LEED-silver certified building, all of the steel is 80 percent recycled, the concrete is 30 percent recycled, the toilets are low flush and the sinks have low water flow. The 1600 square foot lake inside the venue is filled by a well, so as not to waste city drinking water.

Galapagos director Robert Elmes has said, “if the arts can’t show leadership, who can? ... We have a responsibility to lead with social issues.”

The ceremony and cocktail reception for the awards will be held on July 15 at Stage 6 at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a green building in the yard that will apply for LEED Silver certification, in part for the adaptive reuse of a 150,000 square-foot WWII era building.

For more information and the full list of recipients, see the story here.

Photos courtesy of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

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Table Is Chair And Vice Versa; How BADA Can That Be?

Have you ever had guests over to your home and wanted to maximize seating, but your table was in the way? Or during a dinner party, did you ever wish you had more table space and fewer chairs? Do you need a chair and a table, but your living room doesn’t have room for both?

The answer to these questions (and any others involving a choice between a table and a chair) is the BADA table, just launched by green design firm EcoSystems. It’s a table that transforms into a chair — a love seat or bench, more appropriately — by inserting a credit card into two slits in the side, unlocking a piece of the table that flips over to become the seat.

Made from FSC-certified wood, the BADA table also represents sustainability because it’s a way of conserving space and resources — using less, but getting more. It was previewed at BKLYN DESIGNS, where it was awarded “Best in Show” by green design blog Inhabitat.

EcoSystems has its headquarters — and manufacturing operation — based out of 33 Flatbush Ave., a building populated by start-up businesses sharing space in three different co-working initiatives: Treehouse (managed by EcoSystems), Green Spaces and MEx.

Andrew Personette (pictured above right), co-founder (along with Matt Tyson — pictured above center — and Pablo Souto) and executive director of EcoSystems, says the BADA table (below) is “a symbol of the collaboration going on at the building.” It’s based on an antique that building owner Al Attara (pictured above center) acquired 25 years ago that’s actually 125 years old, Personette said.

BADA stands for “Brooklyn Arts and Design Arena,” he noted, a name that refers to the building itself. The table, which can function as a desk, dining table or a seat, was designed so that it could “possibly be the only piece of furniture you own,” Personette said.

While the table isn’t available for purchase yet, it will be in the next few months, he explained, along with a new line of furniture, dubbed the “Snug-it!” collection. Recyclable aluminum hardware and FSC certified plywood (that has no VOCs) make up the Snug-it! line, designed to be totally user-friendly.

EcoSystems has designed several different pieces in the Snug-it! collection: a Snug-it! desk, a Snug-it! shelving unit and a Snug-it! entertainment center.

Personette said that the Snug-it! collection is about “creating an easy user experience — making it fun and simple to have something beautiful and sustainable.”

Sustainability has always been a key factor in EcoSystems’ designs. One of their previous pieces, the BAMBA chair (right), is eco-friendly from start to finish. Made from bamboo, a rapidly renewable resource, the seat, back and arms of the chair are cut from the sides and pack into each other for shipping, minimizing waste.

The chair requires no tools for assembly and the cushions are made from recyclable, organic materials. “You can recycle the hardware in regular aluminum recycling,” Personette told the Eagle. “And the rest of the chair is compostable.” EcoSystems will even pick up the product after its first life to recycle or reclaim the materials — green from start to finish.

For more information about EcoSystems, visit www.ecosystemsbrand.com. Also check out the sites for Inhabitat, Treehouse, MEx and Green Spaces.

All photos courtesy of EcoSystems

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Brooklyn Entrepreneurs Share Values and Space In ‘Co-working’ Building

From the outside, 33 Flatbush Ave. doesn’t look like much. Someone passing on the sidewalk might not even notice it. But on the inside, the building is anything but ordinary.

Al Attara acquired the building around 30 years ago and began filling it with salvaged materials. Now he’s adding start-up businesses.

Three floors of the structure are managed by different companies: Ecosystems, Green Spaces and Interboro. Each of these companies leases space out on the floors to start-up businesses, creating a co-working environment. Ecosystems and Interboro created separate entities — Treehouse (above) and MEx, respectively — under which they rent space.

“Treehouse is a co-working initiative,” said Ecosystems co-founder Andrew Personette. “This is a place where people can come and work together and share resources. We offer the cheapest possible way to have an office outside of your home with all the resources you need.”

For approximately $250 a month, an entrepreneur can bring in their laptop and work, taking their things with them at the end of the day. For around $400, that entrepreneur can have a permanent desk space. “If you have more than one person in your company, it’s slightly discounted for each additional person,” Personette explained.

Which floor a business is assigned to depends on what kind of business it is. Ecosystems, being a sustainable design firm, hosts businesses through Treehouse that are geared toward design: graphic design, furniture design or web design, for example. Green Spaces hosts green entrepreneurs and MEx hosts architecture and urban planning businesses.

Personette said that as of now, there are at least 50 start-ups working out of the building, maybe more. There is a media company called Good News Broadcast, which only reports on good news, a fair trade coffee bean importer and a company that does carbon trading, among many others.

Because there are so many different businesses of different natures, the benefit of working in this space isn’t the price, it’s the shared experiences. “You just hear how so many different people handle their start-ups,” Personette said. “It’s really the right place to be if you’re a start-up because everyone here has the same energy, the same questions.”

All the furnishings are provided by Attara, who has a seemingly endless supply of found objects, ranging from an antique wheelchair, a metal donkey from a game on Coney Island, a spotlight from an old theater in Brooklyn, and several cast iron bathtubs.

There’s so much Attara has collected over the years that the second floor and the basement of the building are completely filled. He built a working kitchen on the fifth floor that is shared by all the tenants, and has everything he would need to build a restaurant if he wanted.

“You could call him a junk collector, but man, he’s got really good taste,” Personette noted. “The whole building is about reclaiming, recycling and creative re-use.” In fact, one of Treehouse’s tables is a granite slab.

Everything in the building is shared among its tenants: space, the kitchen, internet, printers and a wood shop on the second floor.

The wood shop is mainly for small-scale production. “We do everything it takes to get to the point of manufacturing. So, designing, prototyping, all the evolutions of thought processes to get to the product, but then we don’t do large production runs here in this building,” Personette said.

While this co-working community has done so much in such a short time (only a few years), there still is a long way to go. One goal for the future is to create an entity to encompass the building. And also to make sure all the floors have proper heating.

Personette said there will be rooftop farming in the near future. “We already have somebody signed up to raise bees on the roof and gather their honey. We’re planing to make this a really productive space,” he said.

And even farther in the future, “Al would like to share ownership with the inhabitants of the building,” Personette said.

“What’s going on in the building is amazing. As a whole this is totally rare, I don’t know of any other places where there’s a building owner saying ‘Let’s make this amazing.’"

Click for information about Treehouse, Green Spaces and MEx.

Photo courtesy of Treehouse

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