Brooklyn Residents to Team Up for Solar Energy

Solar energy can reduce electricity costs and your impact on the environment, but the initial investment can be huge, and the technology and installation process can be confusing. That’s why One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) is trying to make the transition to solar both cheaper and easier.
With the 1BOG model, residents of the same [...]

News Roundup: LGBT Homeless Youth, Alternative Energy Theme Park, etc.

News from the past week:

Arts Education and Graduation Rates (New York Times)
Lanes for Buses Only, and New M.T.A. Chief Means It (New York Times)
Ruling Eases Transgender Name-Change Process (City Room)
Competing visions spark turf war in Longwood Park (Hunts Point Express)
Green Energy Alternatives: The Theme Park — It’s Happening, on Ward’s Island (gbNYC)
Hot for farmer! (New [...]

The First Carbon-Neutral Net-Zero Energy Building in NYC

Solar One, the little environmental awareness center on the edge of the East River, is about to begin construction on a much bigger facility called Solar 2. The new building will be ten times larger than the current facility, and will let them expand their public programs around energy efficiency, renewable energy, green building, and [...]

News Roundup: Lack of Diversity, Car-Free 42nd Street, etc.

In the news recently:

Diversity Diminishes Closer to the Top at NYC Nonprofits and Foundations (New York Nonprofit Press)
Flood Harvesting Housing Brings Tidal Power to New York City (Inhabitat)
Without Cars, a Different Sort of 42nd St. (New York Times)
Poster-Loving Civic Groups Protest Steep Fines (City Room)
Scandal Leaves Lack of Service in Its Wake (City Limits)
The Immigrants [...]

Interns Help Small Businesses Go Green in Chinatown, LES

The Win-Win Campaign sounds to me like it would deliver about four big “wins.” So, who wins?

Youth: The training and internship program equips young people with green job skills, preparing them for work in a growing sector.
Small businesses: Small businesses can cut down on expenses by increasing energy efficiency, and better communicate their greening [...]

Take the Stairs (If You Can)

There’s a short article in last week’s New York magazine about city health commissioner Thomas Farley’s initiative to encourage New Yorkers to get exercise by taking the stairs. The article cites some eye-opening statistics:

“Two additional minutes of stair-climbing per day (approximately three floors) can burn more than enough calories to eliminate the average adult’s annual [...]

Could Revolving Doors Help Green Our City?

Have you ever thought about the energy that can be generated by simple, everyday actions such as turning a revolving door? Two former Columbia architecture students turned this spark of an idea into a design prototype for an energy-harvesting revolving door called the Revolution Door. They are also developing a way to capture the energy [...]

News Roundup: New York Statistics, Parody Ads, etc.

What’s going on this week:

New Yorkers Assess Their City (interactive map!) (New York Times)
A Love Affair With Lever Voting Machines (City Room)
Who Opens their Windows in the Winter? Or rather, Who Doesn’t? (Sustainable Cities Blog)
Craig Hammerman: The Blogosphere is Emptier Without Bob Guskind (Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn)
Solar Advocates Pump Out 70 Letters At Party [...]

Visualizing PlaNYC

Do you know about PlaNYC? For a while it was one of those names that I would always hear kicking around, but I never knew any details about it. Well, I looked into it and it turns out that it’s kind of a big deal.
Luckily, it’s easy to learn about! The NYC government website for [...]

Solar Panels On the Funny Pages

I’m loving the latest K Chronicles comic:

New York’s doing a bit better than Los Angeles, I’d say.
(Thanks, WireTap.)