Owner Sean Meenan’s green labor of love — Habana Outpost — will be kicking off its 2009 season with an Earth Day Expo taking place this weekend, April 18 and 19.  The eco-eatery boasts a Human Powered Bike Blender, picnic tables made from recycled soda bottles, rainwater harvesting that flushes the toilets and irrigates the plants, and a company car that runs on vegetable oil. 

Keeping with the tradition of all things green, Earth Day weekend seemed like the perfect time for the Outpost to reopen its doors to the public.  Some highlights of the 2-day event include: Council Woman Letitia James speaking in the kick-off ceremony, an eco-fashion show, local area vendors giving out free info and samples, and an exclusive screening of enviro-documentary FLOW: For Love of Water. 

Habana Outpost
757 Fulton Street (Corner of South Portland)
C train to Lafayette / G to Fulton / N,R,4,5 to Atlantic–Pacific
E-mail: info@ecoeatery.com
Phone: 718 858 9500

Full schedule of events as follows:

Saturday, April 18, 2009

12 noon
Owner Sean Meenan and Council Woman Letitia James Opening Ceremony

12-3 pm
Kids Corner crafts and games with Habana Works and The Leadership Learning Lab

1-1:30 pm
Kids Eco Fashion Show with the Scrapkins

3-4 pm
Recycled Craft Jam with the Scrapkins

Going on all day 12-6 pm
Live DJ
Face Painting
Free information and samples from local green vendors and companies

Sunday, April 19, 2009

12-3 pm
Kids Corner Crafts and games with Habana Works and The Leadership Learning Lab

2 pm
Exclusive screening of enviro-documentary FLOW, presented by Engineers Without Borders

2-3 pm
Recycled Craft Jam with the Scrapkins

3-4 pm
Kids Bingo with the Scrapkins

Going on all day 12-6 pm
Live DJ
Face Painting
Free information and samples from local green vendors and companies

Local participants include: Alive Structures, Brooklyn Green Drinks, Brooklyn Public Library, Christie Caiola face painting, Engineers Without Borders, FLOW the movie, Funky Lobes, Green Edge NYC, Green Spaces NY, Greene Grape Provisions, Greene Harvest CSA, Imperial Bag and Paper, Leadership Learning Lab, Letitia James, Masani Designs, Rolling Press, Root for Trees, Scrapkins, Solar Energy Systems, Still Hip Brooklyn, Tri State Bio Diesel, Tribal Alphabet, Via Nativa

More here: ecoeatery.com

Our friends at Brooklyn Clothing Exchange share this great event:

February 22 from 1 – 4 p.m.
at Community Space 123
www.123communityspace.org
123 Tompkins Avenue @ Myrtle Avenue in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
G to Myrtle-Willoughby
J/M/Z to Myrtle Ave

Bed Stuy based organization Brooklyn Clothing Exchange is hosting a clothing swap in collaboration with 123 Community Space (see www.123communityspace.org) - an awesome grassroots organization in north Bed Stuy.

Swap * Meet is a social gathering that aims to lessen the amount of clothing/textiles in Brooklyn that will end up in landfills. Through this form of recycling, participants will benefit by swapping their unwanted clothes (or other wearable accessories), meeting like-minded people while satisfying the desire for attaining something ‘new’. Swappers will not accumulate debt, guilt or stress from swapping.

For this event, there will be several sewing machines (the sewing workshop is hosted by Freegan.info) to accommodate any creative inspiration or alterations once acquiring your new gear.

There will also be a bake sale to benefit the community space.

For more information visit www.myspace.com/bkswapmeet or contact la organizer at bkce.swap.meet@gmail.com.

As we move forward in building our local community we also welcome you to join our online communities at Facebook and www.meetup.com (keyword: Brooklyn Clothing Exchange).

Center for the Urban Environment bring us their 4th Annual sustainability symposium, this year entitled: “Green Brooklyn…Green City”

September 18, 2008
11:30am to 5:30pm

Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon Street
Downtown Brooklyn

How do you green a city? Start in Brooklyn! The Center for the Urban Environment attracts city dwellers from all five boroughs to its 4th Annual Green Brooklyn event. A full day fair and symposium, attendees can learn first hand from local experts about social conscious investing, how to solar your building, choosing non-toxic home products (and of course where to buy them!), how real urbanites compost, shopping eco-chic, and what New York City is doing to create a more sustainable future. Alongside Borough Hall’s Greenmarket this year, attendees can visit booths, make art from recycled products, catch a film, and more! Free giveaways to all workshop attendees.

Green Brooklyn will be held indoors and outdoors at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Thursday, September 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Visit www.greenbrooklyn.org for more information. FREE and open to the public.

Travel Directions

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, N, R to Court Street/Borough Hall
Bus: B25, B37, B38, B45, B65

See the impressive list of exhibitors and the full day of workshops scheduled!

For more information about this great event, please go here: www.greenbrooklyn.org!

And remember, it’s FREE!

Read more about Green Brooklyn event producer Center for Urban Environment here: www.bcue.org!

This tip comes to us from Natasha of Ft. Green Artisan Market fame:

The current green roof systems planted atop the Five Borough Administrative Building now include nearly 7,000 square feet of vegetation. Unlike most traditional green roofs, the one on Randall’s Island is made up of 12 distinct systems, each one differing from the next in growing medium, plant type, or installation model. Thus, the Administration Building roof serves as an experimental station in which the performance of many different systems can be monitored and compared. The lessons learned from these comparisons can be applied to future installations around the city.

[...]

The green roof atop the Randall’s Island Administrative Building serves many ecological purposes, including storm water retention, mitigating the urban heat island effect (the absorption of heat by built structures that make cities 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the surrounding suburbs or countryside), and energy conservation, to name a few.

UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of Green Roofs, there is a really good overview of NYC’s green roofs up at the Gotham Gazette. They also throw in a mention to GBK and have an embedded video from Business Week on green roofs in NYC. Check it out.

Bay Ridge’s Green Spa is one of five finalists in the “Best Green Spa” category of SkinInc.com’s Best of the Best Awards.

Go vote!