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.

Mayor Breaks Ground on Recycling Facility in Sunset Park

Mayor Bloomberg today broke ground on a new Sims Municipal Recycling Facility that will serve as the principal processing facility for all of the City’s metal, glass, and plastic recyclables.

The new, state-of-the-art facility is located at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park and will create 100 new jobs when opened, which is expected in December 2011. 

“This recycling facility will reduce the distance that our collection trucks currently travel by more than 260,000 road miles each year by allowing recyclables to be delivered by barge,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This will help advance two of the biggest goals of PlaNYC: cleaning the air we breathe and shrinking our city’s carbon footprint. The Sims recycling facility will also help us revive Brooklyn’s working waterfront.”

Sims Metal Management is investing $44 million to create the new 100,000-square-foot facility, which will include processing and storage buildings, and a Visitor Education Center where school groups and visitors can learn about recycling. The facility will receive collections from Brooklyn by no more than 100 trucks per day, while the remainder of the City’s metal, glass, and plastic recyclables will be delivered to the facility via barge from two existing Sims facilities in the Bronx and Queens.

The facility, designed by Selldorf Architects, will incorporate sustainable elements including green roofs and renewable energy production, on-site stormwater treatment, and landscaping that serves to offset heat and provide a pleasing visual aesthetic for the surrounding community. It will operate 24 hours a day, six days a week.

Currently, New York City spends more than $90 million each year to deliver recyclables collected by the Department of Sanitation to three different facilities in the Bronx, Queens, and Jersey City. The City is investing over $80 million on infrastructure upgrades to support the development of the Sims facility and an adjacent auto processing and cargo handling facility for the Axis Group, currently under construction.

Mayor Releases Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Mayor Bloomberg this week released the 2010 Inventory of New York City Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the City’s fourth annual comprehensive carbon inventory. The entire city, including the City government, reduced emissions in 2009 below 2008 levels, putting the City on track to achieve the carbon reduction goals in PlaNYC, the Mayor’s long-term vision for a greener, greater New York.

In 2009, New York City emitted 49.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, a 12.9 percent reduction from 2005 levels and a 4.2 percent reduction from 2008 levels, even though the City’s population grew and the number of buildings increased. The reductions are attributed to less carbon-intensive and more efficient electricity generation, reduced per capita energy consumption, and reduced emissions of sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas. The City is on track to achieve PlaNYC’s goal of a 30 percent reduction in citywide greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.

In fiscal year 2009, municipal government greenhouse gas emissions were 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, 1.1 percent below fiscal year 2006 levels and 3.5 percent below fiscal year 2008 levels. These reductions occurred largely as a result of less carbon-intensive and more efficient electricity generation, City improvements in the efficiency of streetlights, reductions in emissions associated with the transport of solid waste to final destinations outside the city, and reduced City government energy consumption. 

To view the inventory, visit www.nyc.gov.

Mayor Bloomberg Announces Plan to Update PlaNYC

Mayor Michael Bloomberg commemorated the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in Times Square by launching a public process to update PlaNYC — discussing the need to develop a comprehensive, sustainable approach to solid waste. This approach builds on the City’s solid waste management plan and recycling program by including a far-reaching strategy to encourage New Yorkers to generate less waste, reuse more of what they consume, and develop new ways to utilize any waste that is discarded.

“We have made great strides to improve our environment, build our economy, and enhance quality of life for all New Yorkers, but more remains to be done,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Through PlaNYC, which was launched just three years ago, we are transforming New York into a greener, greater city – even as we prepare for a million more New Yorkers. In doing so, we continue to prove that being more sustainable isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing.”

Local Law 17 of 2008, enacted by the City Council with the Mayor’s support, requires that PlaNYC be updated every four years.

In addition to evaluating the existing goals and initiatives in the original plan, updating PlaNYC is an opportunity to consider addressing policy areas that are not currently included.

The Mayor announced that solid waste would be included in the update where it wasn’t before. PlaNYC will build upon the Department of Sanitation’s recycling program, which is the largest and most ambitious in the nation, and the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan, which is transforming how the City disposes of waste by removing thousands of heavily polluting trucks from city streets and shifting solid waste transportation to barge and rail.

As part of the update for PlaNYC, the City will comprehensively review where New York’s 25,000 daily tons of waste comes from and formulate innovative policies designed to focus first on reducing the amount of waste generated, which has the greatest environmental impact, and then on initiatives that utilize waste as a resource, rather than considering it solely a by-product.

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Bloomberg Releases PlaNYC Study of Future of Electric Vehicles in NYC

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the results of a study of what the city government and other sectors can do to foster the use of electric vehicles and what factors would lead New Yorkers to drive them.

Developed in partnership with McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, the study found ways to facilitate adoption of this technology in the short-term. Transportation emissions currently account for 22 percent of New York City’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The study found that there is a potentially large group of New Yorkers in all five boroughs who are willing to change their behavior to accommodate electric vehicles and become “early adopters.” Market research projects that by 2015, up to 16 percent of all new vehicles purchased by New Yorkers could be electric.

The study found that early adopters are willing to change their habits to adapt to an electric vehicle, including switching from an on-street parking space to a parking garage that has a charging station (see New York's first — in Brooklyn — here). The research also found that consumers’ attitudes, rather than their driving or parking behaviors, are strong indications of their willingness to adopt electric vehicles.

Early adopters also understand that electric vehicles will cost more than a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle — and they appear willing to pay that premium for the benefits that electric vehicles will offer them. This suggests that in the short-term tax incentives may not be necessary to attract additional demand.

Manufacturers have announced more than a dozen highway-capable electric vehicle models for introduction between 2010 and 2012, in limited global production. Because the demand of early adopters is projected to outstrip the available supply of electric vehicles to the New York market for the next five years, the study suggests targeting early adopters and delaying a focus on the “average driver” for several years.

Ways to help early adopters enter the electric vehicle market include providing clear information on the benefits and challenges of using an electric vehicle and developing a convenient and easy-to-understand process to install charging equipment.

The study also found that the projected level of adoption of electric vehicles will not unduly tax the electrical grid as long as most chargers are configured to allow charging to take place during off-peak hours.

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Mayor Bloomberg Announces Progress in Reducing New York City Emissions

The Eagle received the following press release:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced three developments in the City’s use of alternative fuel vehicles, part of the PlaNYC effort to reduce the amount of carbon emitted by municipal government 30 percent by 2017 and to reduce the entire City’s carbon emissions 30 percent by the year 2030.

The Mayor announced that the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) will use two new hybrid electric diesel collection trucks, a hybrid hydraulic collection truck and a hybrid rack truck, the first in the country designed for heavy-duty applications; that the Parks Department and the Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT) will field test ten all-electric MINI E vehicles on loan from the BMW Group; and that the Administration has launched a study to understand the electric vehicle market in New York City and how that market can be developed.

“Through PlaNYC, our vision for a greener, greater, New York, we’ve been dedicated to reducing pollution and improving the air quality in our City,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We are encouraging people to leave their cars at home by making mass transit more accessible and attractive, but no matter how much we modernize our public transportation, there will still be trips that have to be made by car. So we want the vehicles driven in New York to be more energy efficient and use cleaner fuels. I am proud to say that City government is leading by example, with the help of good corporate citizens such as the BMW Group.”

DSNY Hybrid Collection Trucks are First in the Nation

The DSNY has added to its fleet three new first-of-a-kind hybrid refuse collection trucks and one diesel-hybrid electric rack truck. The collection vehicles, which will soon be picking up residential garbage in the city, and the rack truck, which is used for lot cleaning, snow operations and for hauling of heavy materials, are the first such vehicles to be used in the country.

These vehicles will reduce truck emissions, decrease fuel consumption and truck noise, and help collect some of the over 11,000 tons of garbage and recycling DSNY picks up every day.

SCOUT Inspectors Drive MINI E Vehicles as Part of the BMW Group’s All-Electric Vehicle Development Program

SCOUT Inspectors, part of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, drive every City street once per month and report conditions that negatively impact quality of life to 311. The SCOUT team will use the MINI E vehicles to complement their current vehicle fleet, which includes the three-wheel Interceptor scooter and city-owned sedans.

The MINI E travels about 100 miles on a single charge and provides the agility and handling of a MINI Cooper. It is powered by a 150 kilowatt electric motor with the equivalent of 201 horsepower. The energy supply comes from a high-performance rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The MINI E SCOUT vehicles are among 450 currently in the U.S., as part of a year-long field test. The City will provide important feedback to the BMW Group about the cars.

The MINI Es will be charged at DSNY garages and Department of Transportation facilities in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx. MINI is installing a special wall box in each facility that can fully recharge a completely drained battery in about two-and-a-half hours.

Electric Vehicle Study

Automotive manufacturers have made it clear that they will be producing electric vehicles in significant numbers in the next five to 10 years. The City has launched a study to understand who would be among the first to buy these vehicles and what the City could do to help accelerate their adoption.

Electric vehicles can contribute to the PlaNYC goal of reducing transportation emissions by 44 percent by 2030.

The study will examine New York City driving and parking patterns. Most New Yorkers do not own a car and even those who own cars may still rely on mass transit for daily commuting purposes. Many New Yorkers also park their cars on the street or in commercial parking garages, rather than in driveways or their private garages. All of these characteristics are important in identifying how to make electric cars a visible option for more New Yorkers.

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Mayor Bloomberg on Reducing GHGs in New York City

In response to Governor Paterson's goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in New York State by 80 percent below the levels emitted in 1990 by the year 2050, Mayor Bloomberg issued the following statement:

"I applaud Governor Paterson for taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York State. The Governor and the Public Service Commission are already important partners with the City on PlaNYC, including our initiatives underway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York City. I look forward to working with them and the new Climate Action Council as they create a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide and then implement initiatives to achieve it."

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Hundreds of Trees To Be Planted In Red Hook This Weekend

At this point, there’s a lot of talk about what everyone should be cutting back on or eliminating from their lives to reduce their impact on the environment. But there’s at least one thing we always need more of: trees.

It’s estimated that one mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds per year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two human beings (coloradotrees.org).

Trees are not only good for reducing carbon emissions, they also provide shade to buildings. This reduces the need for air conditioning in the summer, curbing energy consumption.

Sounds good, right? But how do you plant trees if you don’t have a yard? Or, if you have a yard, where should you go to get trees? MillionTreesNYC has the answers for you.

An initiative started by Mayor Bloomberg as part of his PlaNYC program, with the New York Parks Department and the New York Restoration Project, MillionTreesNYC has an ambitious (if not obvious) goal: to plant one million trees in New York City in the next decade.

Drew Becher, executive director of the New York Restoration Project — which was founded in 1995 by Bette Midler — said that Midler proposed the MillionTrees idea to Mayor Bloomberg in the fall of 2006 to increase the tree canopy of the city.

So far, more than 200,000 trees have been planted in the city since MillionTrees was first implemented. And this weekend, Brooklynites have an opportunity to participate in a public tree planting — American Express “Make a Difference” Community Volunteer Day — at Red Hook Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., community members who have signed up as individuals or in groups will work toward planting the 300 trees procured from tree farms within a 180-mile radius of the city, said Becher. “Anyone can do it, it’s open to the public,” he noted, saying that many volunteers bring their children to help out.

Working in groups of three to five, volunteers first dig holes for the trees. “You can dig up a lot of interesting stuff,” Becher said. They plant and water the trees, then clean up the trash in the surrounding area. “At the end, the space looks really nice.

“It’s a great community thing,” Becher continued, noting that volunteers who don’t know each other often work together to plant the same tree.

“All of our public tree plantings have been incredible,” Becher said. “It’s a great day, doing something great for the environment.”

To get involved in this Saturday’s tree planting — or any other upcoming plantings, Becher said there will be about 10 this spring — visit www.milliontreesnyc.org.

Plant Your Own

Can’t make it to a public tree planting? MillionTrees has another option for you. Its Tree Coupon Program was launched in April and continues through spring planting season.

Anyone interested can log on to the MillionTrees web site and download a coupon (or just click here) for 20 dollars off the purchase of a tree — a one-inch caliper or larger — at participating nurseries throughout the city.

The five participating nurseries in Brooklyn are the Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook at 444 Van Brunt St.; Dragonetti Brothers at 1875 Ralph Ave.; the Gowanus Nursery at 45 Summit St.; Kings County Nurseries at 625 New York Ave. and Liberty Sunset Garden at 204-207 Dyke St.

“If you’re going to plant a tree anyway, why not get 20 bucks off?” asked Becher, who said that everyone who does plant a tree should visit the MillionTrees web site to register it and count it in the city’s goal of one million trees.

“If you plant a tree and then go see it 10 years later, it’s humbling,” Becher said. “Especially in these times, giving back to your community is a good thing.”

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Brooklyn Chamber and National Grid Celebrate Earth Day

Panel Discusses Energy Programs, Incentives

Appropriately on Earth Day, businessmen and women converged on National Grid’s Brooklyn headquarters for a panel entitled “Building Sustainable Businesses... Green Ways to Save.”

Presented as the inaugural event of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Real Estate and Development (RED) Committee, National Grid sponsored the panel that was a discussion about making green changes to save money.

“It’s really inspiring to see businesses like National Grid lead the way to make sure that we are green and we are efficient and that at the end of the day we are preserving the planet for our children, our grandchildren and our great-great-great-grandchildren,” said Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you’re a small business, a retailer, a homeowner or a developer, there is something here for everybody.”

Moderated by Amanda Daly — the former director of education at the now-closed Center for the Urban Environment and a current adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College — the panel consisted of three presentations by energy experts in New York City.

Clararose Voigt, assistant project manager of energy programs at NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority), spoke about energy-efficiency project incentives given out by the corporation.

“The general program structure of NYSERDA follows through the initial identification stage, where we go into your facility to evaluate and identify what energy-efficiency measure we can undertake there, what needs to be improved,” Voigt explained. NYSERDA “then follows through onto the installation phase, where we provide work incentives to actually implement those measures that we identify.”

Building Incentives

For commercial and industrial programs, the incentives can be given to both existing buildings and construction projects. The process is split for existing buildings, which get incentives for energy studies through the FlexTech/Technical Assistance Program (for medium/large customers) or the Audit Program (for small customers), then get incentives for installation through the Existing Facilities Program. For construction projects, the New Construction Program provides incentives from program identification through installation.

Voigt said the Existing Facilities Program is then split into two categories: pre-qualified incentives for spot retrofits and small projects, and performance-based incentives for large-scale projects. Projects can receive up to $30,000 with pre-qualified incentives, and for performance-based incentives, the amount is based on the energy savings or demand response. For information, visit www.nyserda.org.

Julie Hughes, assistant vice president of energy efficiency at the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), focused her presentation on steps the city government is taking to reduce the city’s energy consumption. This is part of a 10-year plan initiated by Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC program.

PlaNYC’s goal is to reduce emissions in New York City by 30 percent by the year 2030. This will be done by investing in clean power, establishing more efficient transportation, and, most importantly, making the city’s existing buildings more energy efficient.

“What we really need to address is the building stock that’s already here,” said Hughes. By 2030, she said, an estimated 85 percent of emissions will be generated from buildings we already have as opposed to new construction.

Hughes went on to explain that the capital needed to complete this plan is higher than the city’s available funds, so part of the strategy is to invest in projects that will save the most energy and have the quickest payback period.

Reaching Out to Broadway

The mayor has also reached out to universities, hospitals and Broadway — because of its use of so much electricity — to follow the City’s lead. Fifteen universities have already signed on, the EDC is currently in talks with hospitals, and Broadway has “taken the program and run with it,” Hughes said.

James Madsen, manager of energy efficiency at National Grid, spoke about the company’s gas and electric efficiency programs and incentives.

“In 2008 we had 53,000 participants in our gas programs that resulted in 12.2 million therms saved, equivalent to 71,000 tons of CO2 avoided. Our electric programs have even more participants: 372,000, with 420,000 megawatt hours of electricity saved, and 236,000 tons of CO2 avoided,” Madsen said. “Taken together, that’s about the equivalent of keeping 50,000 cars off the road for a year.”

Madsen urged everyone present to research high-efficiency products in case their older equipment needs to be replaced immediately. Most of the time, he said, repairpersons will offer replacements that only have standard efficiency.

Incentives from National Grid can be applied to many different products or improvements, ranging from standard heating equipment to kitchen equipment to solar water heaters. The energy company will also evaluate non-standard products for incentives. For more information, visit www.nationalgridus.com or www.thinksmartthinkgreen.com.

An example Madsen gave of a Brooklyn facility to take advantage of incentives was the Aviator Sports Complex in Floyd Bennett Field. For installing radiant heating, high-efficiency water heating and a high-efficiency boiler, among other things, the complex received $100,000 in incentives.

Joe Rende, National Grid vice president of energy services solutions, said, “By working together, with that power of action, we can make a big impact in tackling climate change, starting right here today on Earth Day.”

“Its no secret that I think Brooklyn is the center of the world. So when we celebrate Earth Day, I can’t help but think we’re celebrating ‘Brooklyn Day’ as well,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz. “Brooklyn is a green jewel for the rest of the country to emulate.”

Photo at top is, from left to right: Panel Moderator Amanda Daly, the former director of education at the now-closed Center for the Urban Environment and a current adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College; Presenter Julie Hughes, assistant vice president of energy efficiency at EDC; Presenter Clararose Voigt, assistant project manager of energy programs at NYSERDA; Joe Rende, National Grid vice president of energy services solutions; Rick Russo, VP of member services at the Chamber; Lori Raphael, director of real estate and development at the Chamber; and Presenter James Madsen, manager of energy efficiency at National Grid.

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Visit the Green Exhibit at the Museum of the City of NY

The Museum of the City of New York has an interesting exhibit showing now through Earth Day, April 22. It's called "Growing and Greening New York: PlaNYC and the Future of the City," and if you haven't seen it yet, you should check it out.

The exhibit takes you through a day in the life of a "typical" New Yorker, touching on six different features of the day: water, transportation, energy, open space, land and climate change.

You can sit in a "green" living room, examine a solar panel up close, see a model of the Bronx Zoo Lion House (the first LEED gold retrofitted New York City landmark), and much more.

Everyone who visits the exhibit is guaranteed to learn something; useful facts and information abound. For example, did you know that a leaky faucet wastes 20 gallons of water a day?

It's so important in these times to learn as much as you can about the environment and what you can do make an impact. The museum geared the exhibition toward individuals, showing them that it's possible to reduce the effects of global warming one step at a time, said Deputy Director Sarah Henry.

Here is a list of upcoming programs associated with the exhibit:

• Big Apple Brownfield Awards, Monday, April 13, 10 a.m. The Partnership for Brownfield Practitioners celebrates New York City's most successful brownfield clean-up and redevelopment projects. Reservations required, $15 general admission, $10 museum members, seniors and students.

• PlaNYC: Innovations and Legacy, Wednesday, April 15, 6:30 p.m. A discussion of the relationship of PlaNYC to the history of urban planning. With Dan Doctroff, president of Bloomberg LP, former deputy mayor for Economic Development and the originator of PlaNYC; Hilary Ballon, university professor ans associate vice chancellor for NYU Abu Dhabi; and Thomas Bender, university professor of the humanities, NYU. Registration is required.

• From Fram to Table: New York City's Local Food Movement, Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 p.m. Panel discussion on being a "locavore" in the city. With Dan Barber, executive chef/co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Blue Hill; Michael Hurwitz, director of Greenmarket; and Ian Marvy, director and co-founder with Michael Hurwitz of Added Value and its Red Hook Community Farm. Gabrielle Langholtz, editor of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn, will moderate. Reservations required.
  

To make reservations, order tickets online at www.mcny.org or by phone at (212) 534-1672 x 3395. Visit www.mcny.org for more information.

Photographs by C. Bay Milin

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