Less Garbage From Red Horse Cafe

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn reports that the Red Horse Café at 497 6th Avenue in Park Slope will not serve beverages in disposable paper or plastic on Earth Day

The eatery will debut a new line of stainless steel and ceramic mugs with the its rocking horse logo. Guests of the café are also encouraged to bring their own mug.

Read about this as well as other green initiatives at the Red Horse Café here.

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Let the Earth Day Celebrations Begin

Every year since 1970, April 22 has been celebrated as Earth Day. The idea was hatched by then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who wanted to spread awareness about the environment and what needed to be changed in our habits as stewards of the planet.

Now, 40 years later, with the economic climate combined with the climate crisis, Earth Day seems even more important.

We have to take action, to save our planet while also saving money, maybe by replacing light bulbs with ones that are more energy-efficient, buying used clothing, or cutting down waste by bringing lunch to work (or school) instead of buying it.

Making changes in your daily habits to positively impact the environment will also increase an appreciation for that environment. Earth Day celebrations held throughout Brooklyn do just that: celebrate and appreciate the Earth by raising awareness.

Here’s a list of some upcoming Earth Day events:

New York Aquarium Earth Week Green Fest
Now through Sunday April 19 including April 22, New York Aquarium, 610 Surf Ave
The week features a Green Fest — a celebration of all things “Green” at the aquarium. Exhibits and vendors will be on hand to help you and your family learn about what you can do to protect our planet. The event will feature: sea lion shows, demonstrating how to protect our sea life; keeper chats with the help of animal ambassadors; an Earth Day mural, where families can help create an artful tribute to the planet; a chance to make an Earth Day souvenir using recyclable materials; music with a “Save the Earth” theme; local public school children displaying murals created from recyclable art; and canvas shopping bags for children to decorate.
Admission is $13 for adults, $9 for children ages 3-12 and $10.00 for senior citizens (65 and older); children under 3 years of age are admitted free. For information, call (718) 265-FISH or visit www.nyaquarium.com.

Earth Day Celebration with PACC
Saturday, April 18, 10 a.m. -1 p.m., Gibb Mansion at 218 Gates Ave. between Classon and Franklin avenues
Be a part of the 45th anniversary celebration of the Pratt Area Community Council and make Gibb Mansion greener. Prep soil, plant flowers, build a raised vegetable bed and pick up gardening tips from a Brooklyn-based landscape architect. Also available will be coffee and breakfast from a local bakery, desserts by Michael Allen.
RSVP to rsvp@pratt area.org. Call (718) 522-2613 ext. 14 for more information.

Earth Day at Habana Outpost
Saturday April 18 and Sunday, April 19 from noon-6 p.m., Habana Outpost, 757 Fulton St., corner of South Portland
The two-day free event will feature green crafts and face painting for children sponsored by Habana Works and The Leadership Learning Lab; a children’s eco-fashion show with the Scrapkins; and a recycled art show featuring the art work of local students. There will be information for adults from groups including Green Homes NYC, Transportation Alternatives, Green Spaces and Brooklyn Green Drinks, as well as Habana Outpost suppliers, Solar Energy Systems, Tri State Bio Diesel and Rolling Press.
For more information and a schedule of events, visit www.HabanaOutpost.com or call (718) 858-9500.

Earth Day Celebration at the Greene Grape
Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19, 753 Fulton St. at South Portland and 765 Fulton St.
Plant sale, April 18 and April 19 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.: Outside Greene Grape Provisions, 753 Fulton St. at South Portland, the Brooklyn Brownstone Garden District will hold an edible plant sale and help kids make ‘seed bombs’ using recycled coffee grounds from the coffee bar.
Wine tasting, Saturday, April 18 12 p.m.– 7 p.m., Think Global, Drink Local: The Greene Grape Wine store at 765 Fulton will be holding an all-day tasting of environmentally-friendly wines, featuring the founder of Brooklyn Oenology, a Brooklyn label that uses New York grapes and labels by Brooklyn artists, who will pour Social Club White 2007; and three wines will be opened from the Greene Grape’s monthly New York Cork Club, which features two new wines each month from the Empire State.
Wine tasting Sunday, April 19, noon-7 p.m., Economical and Earth-Friendly: The Greene Grape Wine store at 765 Fulton St. will be holding an all-day tasting of environmentally-friendly wines, featuring four organic wines all under $15 including a 1-liter Malbec (a type of wine) in a tetrapak (Yellow+Blue Malbec 2007).
For more information, visit brooklyn.greenegrape.com or call (718) 797-9463.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts National Grid “Earth Month” Celebration
Sunday, April 19, 5 p.m., Walt Whitman Theatre Plaza at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Road
The second day of the second annual National Grid Earth Month celebration, to be held following a performance of Montana Repertory Theater’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Educational materials, give-away items and family activities will highlight the need for conserving energy, recycling in the home, and having a heightened awareness of the global issues that we face today. The Council on the Environment of New York City’s Office of Recycling, Outreach and Education will present interactive family recycling games, the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust will be on hand to promote urban composting, and the New York City Fire Department will provide life-saving tips on fire safety in the home. Live music by Showstoppers and large-scale puppets from the Brooklyn College Community Partnership program will also be featured.
National Grid Earth Day Celebration events are free and open to the public. Tickets to To Kill a Mockingbird may be purchased through the BCBC Box Office.
For more information, visit www.brooklyncenter.com.

Celebrate Earth! Festival at Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Saturday, April 25, Sunday, April 26, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave.
The new Celebrate Earth! Festival features events including: hands-on art and science workshops that focus on the planet’s resources and the ways people can care for them; crafting a pressed flower or a book cover from candy wrappers; an eco-scavenger hunt through the museum; discovering the science behind wild weather; help creating a sculpture from recycled items; touring the green features of the new museum, and more.
For more information and a schedule of events, visit www.brooklynkids.org or call (718) 735-4400.

10th Annual Gowanus Canal Earth Day Flotilla Spring Clean-Up
Saturday, April 25, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., meet at 2nd and Bond streets at the Canal
The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy will guide eco-volunteers on an ecological cruise to explore, rediscover and help collect floatable debris in and along the historic Gowanus Canal.
To register, call (347) 224-5687, (347) 224-5828 or e-mail theurbandivers@yahoo.com.

Block Institute Earth Day Celebration
May 6, all day, both Block Institute locations, 376 Bay 44th St. and 2214 Stillwell Ave.
Featuring an Earth Day-themed lunch; art projects made from recycled materials; spring planting and garden preparation; a recycling drive; and a Mother’s Day/Earth Day sale of green bags, plants, wooden roses, arts and crafts and note cards. Special guest Miss Brooklyn 2009, Keelie Sheridan, will be attending.
For more information, call (718) 946-9700 (Bay 44th Street location) or (718) 947-3200 (Stillwell Avenue).

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Green Books Donated to D.A’s Family Justice Center

The Family Justice Center at the Brooklyn D.A.’s Office just got a little greener.

Brooklyn-born author Suzanne Corso visited the center yesterday to donate 10 copies of her new book, Sammy and Sue Go Green Too. District Attorney Charles Hynes (pictured with Corso) was on hand to receive the donation.

Hynes called Corso a “wonderful, aggressive entrepreneur, who is generous and kind to donate 10 books to our Family Justice Center.” He added, “I can speak as an expert because I have 16 grandchildren.

Born and raised in Bensonhurst, Sammy and Sue Go Green Too, is a collaboration with Corso’s 10-year-old daughter, to whom she has taught eco-friendly habits.

Since she instilled green values — such as shutting off the lights, eating organically and using eco-friendly paints — in her daughter, Corso figured, “If I could teach her, I could teach anybody.” So she started her company, Sammy and Sue Enterprises, which is a company geared toward educating children about all things green.

Sammy and Sue Go Green Too is the first in a series of children’s books Corso will release about environmental awareness. While she donated the books to the Family Justice Center this week, the official release of her book will be on Earth Day, April 22.

Corso wants to urge parents to “teach your child one thing a week, one thing a month,” about being eco-friendly. “We have to hit this generation,” she said.

The Family Justice Center, opened by D.A. Hynes in 2005, is a support center for domestic-violence victims and their children, offering a variety of services, including legal support.

Last month, thousands of books were donated to the center to create the Brooke Jackman Library and Literacy Center, in memory of the 23-year-old college graduate who perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Visit www.sammyandsuellc.com for more information on Corso’s books and company.

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Rep. Velázquez Discusses Efforts to Help NYC Small Businesses Lead in the Green Economy

The Eagle received this press release:

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez sat down with local businesses and community leaders on Tuesday to discuss ways for New York City to lead the nation in developing sustainable manufacturing and green jobs. She also toured a number of environmentally-friendly businesses in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Congresswoman’s district, which includes the Navy Yard, contains some of the most significant clusters of green manufacturers in the United States.

“The efforts being spearheaded in Brooklyn show small businesses across the country the benefits of developing and using new technologies,” Velázquez said. “These entrepreneurs are opening new businesses to manufacture green products, and have drastically cut their overhead costs by increasing energy efficiency. This is a business model for the nation to follow.”

At Tuesday’s Green Manufacturers Business Roundtable, co-hosted by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation and the New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN), Velázquez highlighted the assistance available for entrepreneurs to continue leading in the development of green products and technologies.

New York City is home to as many as 25,000 green collar jobs, but that number is projected to skyrocket in coming years. The Navy Yard, where 30 businesses currently employ 350 people, expects to triple its green manufacturing operations in the next three years.

“New York City’s economy will benefit from the green revolution. As other sectors scale back, these industries continue to grow and bring good-paying jobs to our communities,” Velázquez said.

As Chairwoman of the House Small Business Committee, Velázquez worked to ensure the Energy Independence and Security Act signed into law last year included initiatives that give entrepreneurs the tools to acquire efficient technologies and increase renewable production. This year, the Committee plans to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which helps small firms get the capital needed to develop new, cutting-edge products.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also helped business development by renewing green energy tax credits and making it easier for small businesses owners to obtain loans. With small firms making up 84 percent of New York’s manufacturers, these efforts will help as they shift focus to environmentally-friendly products and technologies.

“Small business owners face unprecedented challenges in today’s environment, but their ingenuity and determination is untouched. By supporting efforts to bring sustainable manufacturing and green jobs to our City, we can help small firms pull the nation out of this economic downturn,” Velázquez said.

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Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails Forward On Wind and Solar Power

Mayor Bloomberg came to the Brooklyn Navy Yard (BNY) yesterday to open the new Perry Avenue Building, the nation’s first multi-story green industrial facility. The $25 million building, which began construction 18 months ago, 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 building “heralds the emergence of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the city’s most successful industrial business, as the nation’s greenest industrial center as well,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
He also announced the creation of Duggal Greenhouse, a 60,000-square-foot LEED platinum certified facility that will be a “center for designing and manufacturing eco-friendly products.”

These projects, as well as other green initiatives, will create 800 new construction jobs and “more than 1,700 new permanent jobs over the next two years, many of them in green manufacturing and design,” the mayor said. Right now, there are 350 green jobs at the Navy Yard, but “within two years we project that there will be nearly three times that many.”

Mayor Bloomberg made his announcements on the roof of the building, in front of the new wind turbines. He was accompanied by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Lieber, BNY Development Corporation Chairman Alan Fishman, BNY Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Council Member David Yassky and Assembly Member Joseph Lentol.

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. The rest comes from a power plant in the Navy Yard, which uses natural gas.

Other green features of the Perry Avenue 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.

SurroundArt will lease the building, and will create a Museum Resource Campus to serve the art industry and institutions in New York City.

Five wind- and solar-powered street lights (below), created by Duggal Visual Solutions (who will create the Duggal Greenhouse), have been installed in the Navy Yard. Eventually, there will be 90 of these street lights in the facility.

“Not only do the [wind- and solar-powered street lights] cost 35 percent less to install than their more conventional counterparts, they’ll also save the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation about $11,000 annually in the cost of electricity,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Borough President Markowitz said of Baldev Duggal, the mastermind behind the wind-solar street lamps, “these are the kind of visionaries that this city is investing in. That’s why I know that our future is going to be superb. It has to be. New York, and especially Brooklyn, among the most environmentally active communities across the country, will lead the way.”

President and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, Andrew Kimball, said, “It’s easy to be green when you have a mayor who’s become an international/national leader on urban sustainable issues ... it’s easy to be green when you have local elected officials who are pushing us everyday to create those jobs, particularly green jobs.

“Most of all it’s easy to be green when you have tenants like SurroundArt and Duggal Visual Solutions and 30 other green manufacturers already doing business inside the Navy Yard,” Kimball continued. “People across America are talking about green jobs, they’re talking about the future. We have those jobs here today at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

The expansion of the Navy Yard and creation of green sector jobs is part of the city’s “Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan.” This plan will “help New Yorkers find work today, create jobs in diverse sectors in the future, and make our neighborhoods more affordable and more green as we go,” said Deputy Director Lieber.

New York City is implementing a $250 million capital funding program to improve and modernize the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s infrastructure. The expansion will add over 1.5 million square feet of new space. Mayor Bloomberg announced last month that the city’s $35 million project to reconstruct several roadways in the Navy Yard area and upgrade water and sewer systems will benefit from nearly $5 million now available due to the Federal stimulus allocation to the city.

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Green Condos on the Market

DUMBO NYC reports that the condos in the green building at 100 Gold St. in Vinegar Hill. The 5-story, 10-unit building is being marketed by Corcoran and is the first green building in Vinegar Hill.

Check out the prices and info here.

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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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