Learn how to build a lightweight green roof and save thousands of dollars when you install it yourself!

By taking our workshop Saturday, June 27th, you will not only learn the process how to build a green roof, you’ll actually build one too!

A green roof expert will explain the ins and outs of the process and installation techniques.

PLUS you’ll get info on NY State’s green roof tax abatement, a guide book, tour Eco-Brooklyn’s brownstone (22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY), and more!

Visit our website to learn more and REGISTER ONLINE NOW: www.greenroofworkshop.com

You may have read about us here back in January. ioby.org is now live.  Visit ioby (eye-OH-be), search for environmental projects in your borough, find one that is meaningful to you, click to make a tax-deductible donation to support it or volunteer to get involved.

ioby stands for “in our backyards” and the belief that environmental knowledge, innovation, action and service begin and thrive at the local level.  On ioby.org groups with environmental projects can quickly connect to the donors and volunteers they need to make positive, environmental change for New York City neighborhoods.

Visit ioby.org or call us if you have questions 212-228-6947.  Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook. Read about us on the American Museum of Natural History blog or listen to us on WNYC.

Today’s NY Post Real Estate section features a really nice article — Fresh Start: It’s Easy Being Green — about green building and energy conservation. It’s a great read filled with stats, tips, and real-world examples of New Yorkers going green in their homes or helping develop the green building industry in our city.

As can be expected, Brooklyn is heavily represented. We start with Sarah Beatty, founder and CEO of Brooklyn based Green Depot:

“The last five years have seen exponential growth in the number of high-quality [green] products that have come to market.”

Then me:

One good starting point, says Ethan Oringel, publisher of the greenbrooklyn.com blog, is giving your apartment an energy audit. Take out your heating and electric bills, make a checklist of all the ways you use energy and look to see if any can be made less wasteful.

It sounds mundane, but given that 80 percent of New York City’s greenhouse emissions come from its buildings, making sure your home uses energy efficiently is one of the greenest things you can do.

Then Eitan Baron, the brains behind Brooklyn Greenstone (and the guy in the photo above):

“To me, [proper sealing] is worth as much as any solar panel on the market,” says developer Eitan Baron, who recently did a green renovation on the Park Slope brownstone that houses his 1,700-square-foot duplex. “It’s the parts you don’t see that are the most important.”

[...]

This work hasn’t just helped save the environment — it’s saved Baron money, as well. He estimates his heating bills this winter were about 60 percent less than they would have been in a typical brownstone.

Also mentioned was one of GBK’s favorite companies from last year’s Green Buildings NY convention and expo — green roof and green wall start-up, NYC-based Greensulate.

Check out the full article at NYPost.com.

And many thanks to the author of the article, Adam Bonislawski, for both including myself and the Green Brooklyn website in the article and helping raise awareness about the importance of energy efficiency and green building in NYC.

Join this crash course on greening your school — from the issues you’ll encounter installing a green roof to creative ways of incorporating sustainability themes into the classroom. Join local experts to discuss easy to implement projects, ways of getting environmental projects funded, opportunities for nonprofit partnerships, and what has (and hasn’t) worked in local schools.

Panelists Include:

Alive Structures, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education and Center for the Urban Environment.

Where:
Center for the Urban Environment
168 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 (btw 2nd and 3rd Aves)
718-788-8500

When:
Thursday, March 19
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

How:
Train: Take F train to 4th Avenue or R train to 9th Street.
Walk over 2 blocks north to 7th Street and 1st Avenue west to 3rd Avenue.

$10 Suggested Donation

Limited Space. Pre-registration recommended: bcueinfo@bcue.org

Every Third Thursday of the Month, New Yorkers from across the boroughs converge in the Center’s state-of-the-art green building to learn and live sustainably. Drop in and join these exciting screenings, workshops, and discussions and be inspired to take action! On-site recycling: CFL light bulbs, cell phones, and alkaline batteries accepted.

Find out more about what we do at www.thecue.org

The 2008 Environmental Justice Community Impact Grants are in. Some of the projects funded by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation include: community gardens and green roofs, air- and water-quality monitoring, lead poisoning prevention, urban forestry, subsistence fishing education, environmental education for urban youth, inventories of local pollution sources, and an international climate justice conference.

The 12 Brooklyn organizations — including some of our favorite friends — won a combined total of $357,669 in grants. Congrats to all!

Here is the list of winning Brooklyn orgs and the projects funded:

• Added Value – Brooklyn - $25,000 – for construction of a rain water capture system for a community garden to reduce the garden’s ecological footprint, along with community education to promote rainwater capture and use.
• Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation – Brooklyn - $25,000 – for partnership with Pratt Center for Community Development to reduce energy consumption by providing: (1) free energy audits and energy conservation education to low-income residents; and (2) job training and apprenticeship opportunities in energy retrofits.
• Brooklyn Art Incubator, Inc. – Brooklyn - $24,800 – for community residents to develop ways to improve local air quality, followed by construction of a community garden and other green infrastructure at the Magnolia Tree Earth Center.
• Going Coastal, Inc. – Brooklyn - $22,400 – for a survey of subsistence anglers’ knowledge and attitudes about fish health advisories, research into health advisories and fish contamination, and education of anglers.
• The Newtown Creek Alliance – Brooklyn and Queens - $46,041 - for health-based interviews of community residents, with results presented in a unique internet GIS interactive map.
• OUTRAGE - Brooklyn - $47,000 – for a community-based study of environmental and public health hazards from local solid waste facilities and attendant truck traffic, with community education and development of mitigation proposals based on the results.
• Phoenix Community Garden – Brooklyn - $22,000 – to expand operations of a 19,000-square-foot community garden and outdoor environmental education center.
• Prospect Park Alliance – Brooklyn - $25,000 – for a summer ecological research camp for inner-city Brooklyn youth at the Rheinstrom Hill Audubon Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Hillsdale, Columbia County.
• Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation – Brooklyn - $25,000 – for renovation of an abandoned building into a green community arts and cultural center with environmental education programs.
• United Community Centers, Inc. – Brooklyn - $24,415 – for development of sustainable systems and community education programs for two urban farms and a farmers’ market.
• UPROSE, Inc. – Brooklyn - $46,013 – for a study of local air pollution and related health effects and other environmental burdens, followed by environmental education tours of Sunset Park.
• Wildlife Conservation Society – Brooklyn - $25,000 – for a partnership with the New York City Aquarium to provide training and job opportunities for inner-city teens as aquarium docents and interns and to engage the participants in hands-on stream conservation projects.

For the complete list of winners throughout the state, go here (pdf)

Go here for the grant announcement at NYS DEC.

Go here to read more about the grant program and how to apply for next year’s grant.

What is Environmental Justice?

Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Environmental justice efforts focus on improving the environment in communities, specifically minority and low-income communities, and addressing disproportionate adverse environmental impacts that may exist in those communities.

Click here to read more and for resources on this important topic.