Sustainable Pratt

Zoning In On Green Zoning Wed July 15th

2009-07-08T17:04:00.005-04:00

Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Bar Association of the City of New York, 42 West 44th Street
RSVP: NYC Bar Association or at the door

Summertime is the right time for a public forum to rethink how land use planning and the NYC Zoning Resolution can advance long-term urban sustainability and help deal with local climate change impacts.

Sponsors: The Bar Association of the City of New York, Committee on Land Use, Planning and Zoning, Sustainability Sub-Committee and the Sallan Foundation

Welcome:
KENNETH FISHER, Cozen O’Conner, LLP
Introduction:
CAROLINE G. HARRIS, Goldman Harris LLP
Moderator:
NANCY ANDERSON, Ph.D., Executive Director, The Sallan Foundation
Speakers:
PROJJAL DUTTA, AIA, LEED, Director of Sustainability Initiatives, Metropolitan Transportation Authority ADAM FRIEDMAN, Executive Director, Pratt Center for Community Development MARK GINSBERG, FAIA, LEED, President, Citizens Housing and Policy Council SANDY HORNICK, Deputy Executive Director for Strategic Planning, NYC Department of City Planning

Zero Net Energy Buildings: Financial Incentives and Valuation

2009-05-31T12:11:00.007-04:00

June 4, 2009 6:00 PM-8:00 PM FREE for Academy Members
Zero Net Energy Buildings: Financial Incentives and Valuation
7 World Trade Center, New York, NY
www.nyas.org/financial

Adopting new design practices and incorporating new technologies required to construct a zero net energy building may add substantially to initial costs. However, the investment in technologies to achieve net-zero energy usage is recouped over the life-time of the building. In order for developers to make this investment, sufficient financial incentive needs to be provided. This panel will address the valuation of the energy-generating and efficiency features of zero net energy buildings.

This meeting is the final discussion in a 4- part series focused on achieving zero net energy in buildings. Renewable energy technologies, global best practices, and how to retrofit existing buildings are just a few of the topics covered this year.

As a neutral third party, the Academy formed a network of the key players in New York in the areas of green buildings and sustainable design. This collective includes architects, engineers, scientists, policy makers from city and state, foundation and non-profit leaders.

Abstracts

Financial Incentives and Valuation of Zero Net Energy Buildings
Scott Muldavin, The Muldavin Company

In this fourth and final presentation in our series on Zero Net Energy Buildings, Mr. Muldavin will address the critical role of financial incentives and valuation to achieving zero net energy buildings. In order to bridge the growing chasm between public and private energy efficiency goals and actions, and meet societal needs, private property energy efficiency decisions must move beyond cost considerations to fully integrate the true value of carbon/energy efficiency.

Mr. Muldavin will present GBFC's Sustainable Property Performance Framework, a new approach to understanding how sustainable properties need to be measured to support financially based decision-making. Next he will outline GBFC's six-step methodology for financial analysis of sustainable properties that provides a practical means for integrating non-cost related energy benefits, as well as potential health and productivity benefits, into value and energy efficiency investment decisions. Finally, the relative importance and role of financial incentives will be discussed, along with observations about society's evolution to a Zero Net Energy society.

Re-Skin Our Cities
Ron Dembo, Zerofootprint Inc.

We know how to build new buildings with a low carbon footprint, but little attention has been paid to the thousands of existing structures worldwide that are extremely inefficient and have a massive carbon impact. In North America alone they account for 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions. To address this we need not only a technical solution, but a financial one. The goal of the Zerofootprint Building Re-Skinning Competition is to drive the state-of-the-art in retrofitting the built space-in design, materials, technology, and in retrofitting systems that may be scaled to large numbers of buildings. The hope is to create a methodology for creating zero net energy buildings worldwide. A big part of this is developing the financial model that can also be replicated. Ron Dembo's talk will explore ways in which we can get from here to there.

Registration
Members: Free
Nonmember students: $10
Nonmember: $20

June 16th, Big Apple Brownfield Workshop: Where is the Money?

2009-05-31T11:54:00.008-04:00

The Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) invites you to attend the Big Apple Brownfield Workshop: Where is the Money? on June 16th at CUNY Graduate Center. This event is directed towards developers, land owners, BOA groups, community development organizations, non-profits, consultants, students, and the public.

workshop_flyer9.pdf

The workshop will consist of educational presentations on financial resources accessible to investigate, remediate, and develop brownfield properties in NYC. Presentations will be given by experts in the industry, followed by a panel with a question and answer session on financing brownfield deals in the current market. The event will also feature a networking lunch and display presentations highlighting projects, available resources, and industry expertise.

When: June 16, 2009
Where: CUNY Graduate Center, concourse level, 365 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY (at 35th Street)

Time: 8:30am to 1:30pm

Preliminary Agenda:
New York City environmental remediation programs-Daniel Walsh, MOER
EPA brownfield grants-Lee Ilan, MOER
NYC Acquisition Fund, Metro Fund loan programs-Mark McIntyre, MOER
Start-Up Pool-Laura Truettner, New Partners for Community Revitalization
NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program tax credits-Phil Bousquet, Green Seifter
NYS Brownfield Opportunity Area program, Curtis Cravens, NYS Department of State
NYS incentive programs-Joe Tazewell, Empire State Development Corp.
NYS energy incentives-Michael T. Colgrove, NYSERDA
NYC business incentives-Don Giampietro, NYC Department of Small Business Services
Panel of attorneys, brokers, lenders, developers discussing financing brownfield deals in the current market-moderated by Andrea Kretchmer, The Kretchmer Companies
Question & Answer session
Lunch

May 29-31: Second New York Loves Mountains Festival

2009-05-31T11:47:00.005-04:00

The Second Annual New York Loves Mountains Festival is coming up at the end of May to raise awareness and promote a ban of mountain top removal coal in NY State. This year's lineup will feature a reading of a new play "Light Comes", a rally in Union Square and a concert at The Bell House in Brooklyn. For complete details, visit www.nylovesmountains.com.

Friday, May 29th
Playreading and Reception @ Philip Coltoff Center, 219 Sullivan St.
7:00-11:00 p.m.
Light Comes by Sarah Moon, an epic play on mountain top removal and the history of electricity. A reception with live music by Ben Sollee and refreshments will precede and follow the reading.
NEEDS: Wine/Liquor donations
VOLUNTEERS FOR: Reservation check-in, usher, wine service

Saturday May 30th
Rally/Press Conference @ South End of Union Square
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Coalfield Residents, City council members and state representative Daniel Squadron will join to speak about mountain top removal and efforts to ban its use in New York State
NEEDS: loudspeaker and mic, small platform
VOLUNTEERS FOR: Overseeing information & action table, handing out fliers

Sunday, May 31st
To Save the Land and People Concert @ The Bell House, 149 7th St., Brooklyn
7:30 p.m.
VOLUNTEERS FOR: Checking people in

GENERAL NEEDS:
Providing overnight stay for out-of -town guests

Posting fliers in your neighborhood

MATERIALS for a NEW CITY:Alternatives to Tropical Hardwoods for Public Outdoor Infrastructure

2009-05-27T11:38:00.003-04:00

Friday, May 29, 2009

12 noon-3:30pm (lunch provided)

Manhattan Borough President’s Office

1 Center Street, 19th Floor South

*free event, open to the public*

Powering the Future: Residential Energy EfficiencyWed April 29th, 2009

2009-04-11T00:11:00.003-04:00

8:30am to 11:00am
NYU Wagner's Rudin Family Forum for Civic Dialogue
The Puck Building; 295 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012

The NYLCV Education Fund, NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and its Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems, and Con Edison invite you to an informative and lively discussion about the state governments role in shaping energy efficiency policy.

The first of two forums focuses on Residential Energy Efficiency, which will focus on state policy affecting individual home owners and residential building managers. How can government assist in accessing the enormous range of efficiency products? What methods are truly cost effective? How are governments and utilities creating incentives and/or mandates to address these problems?

Click above to RSVP

Panelists include:

Rohit Aggarwala, Director, Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, Office of NYC Mayor
Jeff Brodsky, President, Related Management Company
Rebecca Craft, Director of Energy Efficiency, Consolidated Edison
Michael Lappin, President, Community Preservation Corporation
Brendan Mitchell, Director of Development, Full Spectrum NY
Hon. Francis Murray Jr., President & CEO, NYSERDA

Moderated by:
Ashok Gupta, Air & Energy Program Director, NRDC

Zero Net Energy Buildings: Reality or Fiction?Wed April 22nd

2009-04-10T23:50:00.003-04:00

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences
7 World Trade Center, New York City
www.nyas.org/wbcsd

Recommendations from the WBCSD Report
This meeting is the third of a 4- part series focused on achieving zero net energy in buildings. At this meeting, William Sisson, Director of Sustainability at United Technologies will present the recommendations from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development report on Energy Efficiency in Buildings released in September 2008. Guy Battle, founder of dcarbon8 will respond with a discussion about the carbon implications of new and existing buildings, including how the carbon footprint of buildings is calculated, monitored, and controlled.

Moderator: Noel Morrin, Senior Vice President Sustainability, Skanska

Live Event Registration
Academy Member: Free
Nonmember: $20
Nonmember Student: $10

Webinar Registration
Academy Member: Free
Nonmember: Free

This live event is also available as a webinar.
For more information about the live event, visit www.nyas.org/wbcsd.
For more information about the webinar, visit www.nyas.org/webinar.

Design Green Now "Energy" Wed April 15th

2009-04-10T23:41:00.005-04:00

Parsons, New School of Design | Energy

Wollman Hall
65 West 11th Street at 6th Ave.
5th Floor
(Enter at 66 West 12th Street)
New York, NY 10011
Map

6:00-6:30	Check In
	There is limited capacity at each event, please register to ensure a seat.
6:30-8:30	Panel
	Presentations by: (60 min) Serge Appel, AIA - Associate Partner - Cook+Fox Architects LLP Stephan Von Muehlen - Co-Founder - Energy Hub Brent Baker - Chief Executive Officer - TriState BioDiesel Anthony Pereira - President and CEO - altPOWER Moderated Discussion lead by: (30 min) Susan Szenasy - Editor in Chief - Metropolis Q&A with Audience (30 min)

Safeguarding History and the Environment: Commonalities and Conflicts between Preservation and SustainabilityWed April 15th, 2009

2009-04-10T00:02:00.000-04:00

6:30 - 8:00 P.M.
AIA Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place

A Panel Discussion
Join moderator and Director of Research and Education at the World
Monuments Fund Erica Avrami on this panel tackling the various
conflicts and commonalities that exist between preserving buildings
and making them sustainable. Explore the importance of both historic
preservation and sustainabilityâ&euro”and how they can work togetherâ&euro”
through in-depth discussion of both fields and case studies of East
Village tenement buildings and the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn.

Preservation and sustainability are both big issues, especially in
the current economic environment, but the two movements have not
always worked had in hand. This panel will seek to start the
conversation about the common ground and differing perspectives of
the two.

Featuring panelists Chris Benedict, a sustainability architect and
Pratt Institute faculty member known for her work in adaptive reuse;
Fiona Cousins, an expert on all aspects of sustainable design who has
worked on both renovations and new builds; Scott Demel, an associate
architect at Rogers Marvel Architects whose work has focused on
restoration with a commitment to sustainable design; and Ned Kaufman,
a heritage conservation specialist and founder of Place Matters, a
nonprofit dedicated to discovering and protecting places that matter
in New Yorkâ&euro£s diverse communities.

This event is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects
Historic Buildings Committee and the Neighborhood Preservation Center.

http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/
Reservations required.
RSVP to rsvp@gvshp.org or (212) 475-9585 ext. 35
Free for GVSHP & AIA Members; $20 all others: Click here to make payment

Sustainable Pratt Meeting Wed April 8th

2009-04-05T13:21:00.005-04:00

Our next monthly Sustainable Pratt meeting is Wednesday, April 8th, from 12:30 - 1:45 pm in Engineering 108 on the main Pratt campus.

GREEN WEEK 2009!!! GREEN WEEK 2009!!!

2009-03-16T23:29:00.007-04:00

The Sustainable Pratt Committee is proud to announce Green Week 2009, Pratt Institute's third Annual information blitz on Sustainable Design, March 30-April 3. This year the event-packed week will be followed by a Biomimicry Workshop on Saturday April 4, 9:30-4, organized by Jenny Lee, and open to the public.

A calendar of events, locations, and times can be found at: sustainablepratt.org/greenweek.

Student Eco-Reps and members of Envirolution are collaborating with Faculty volunteers to create the biggest and most varied campus-wide celebration of environmental action to date on the Brooklyn campus.

Highlights include displays, films, forums and lectures in Higgins Hall, the Terian Design Center in Pratt Studios, the Pratt Center/ ARC, as well as outdoor events throughout the campus. In addition, the recently formed program, CSDS /Curriculum Studies in Sustainable Design, directed by Debera Johnson, will launch its new sustainable materials research library in the Engineering Building.

Some of the many guest speakers include a design team from FXFOWLE and a representative of the Audubon Society; Bianca Ramsey of the US Green Building Council; designer Brian Collins and architect Kevin Bone, editor of Water-Works and professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union.

This Spring Pratt's greening campus will become an open forum and creative canvas for all who want to learn more and do more to protect our planet and our community.

Better Site Development WorkshopThursday, December 4th

2008-12-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

Sustainable Pratt and the New York City Soil and Water Conservation District are sponsoring a workshop on "Better Site Development" to be held on Thursday, December 4th, 8:30am - 1:00pm, Pratt Institute Manhattan (144 W 14th St), Room 213.

This workshop will provide landscape architects, designers, and city planners the tools to develop sites with a sustainable design. Presenters will give attendees examples and resources focused on redeveloping NYC buildings and landscape to improve environmental quality, reduce the burdens on current city infrastructure, enhance site aesthetics, and protect surrounding natural resources.

Topics will include an overview of Low Impact Development (presented by Tatiana Morin of NYCSWCD); pros, cons and structural precautions for LID implementation (presented by Tim Conover White of eDesign Dynamics, LLC); and stormwater BMP design and construction (presented by Marit Larson of City of NY Dept of Parks and Recreation).

For more information and registration details, download the flyer: BetterSiteDevelopmentFlyer.pdf

To register, contact Tatiana Morin of NYCSWCD (tatiana@nycswcd.net)

Sustainable Pratt MeetingWednesday, December 3rd

2008-12-01T15:14:00.002-05:00

Our next, monthly Sustainable Pratt meeting is Wednesday, December 3rd from 12:30 - 1:45 pm in Engineering 108 on the main Pratt campus.
On the agenda:

Brief updates of member activities
Third-Year Design update (Brent Porter)
CSDS and the "Green Campus Initiative" (Deb Johnson)
Sust Pratt priorities for Spring 2009

Events (Green Week 2009!)
Budget

New leadership for the Spring

To add items to the agenda, contact Damon Chaky at dchaky@pratt.edu.
Sustainable Pratt meetings are held monthly, on the first Wednesday of the month.

Spring 2009 Sustainable Design CourseINT-525P with Prof. Carol Crawford

2008-12-01T15:04:00.003-05:00

Carol Crawford (NYSCID, member U.S. Green Building Council) is once again offering INT-525P Sustainable Design as a two-credit course in the Department of Interior Design. In Spring 2009, the class will again be a major player in creating campus awareness and providing information during Green Week.

The course description:

This course addresses sustainability as an over-arching design issue as well as a philosophical and ethical one: Through slide lectures, films, case studies, site visits, special projects, and discussions with experts, we will explore what sustainability means theoretically and practically for the design community, how it developed and what global & local issues drive it; how it impacts upon the very substance and appearance of what we create and build. Most particularly, we will discover how sustainable initiatives inspire innovative design concepts and the creation and use of new materials and technologies. We will connect all these issues to the guidelines for L.E.E.D.

The goal of the course is to enable designers to develop a solid rationale for making environmentally-sensitive decisions, and the basic, working knowledge of how to implement them. Students may tailor a research or creative project to their individual interests.

For more information, contact Carol Crawford (carol@ccenvironments.com).

Sustainable Pratt MeetingWednesday Nov 5th

2008-11-03T14:55:00.005-05:00

Our next, monthly Sustainable Pratt meeting is Wednesday, November 5th from 12:30 - 1:45 pm in Engineering 108 on the main Pratt campus.
On the agenda:

Brief updates of member activities
Sust Pratt priorities for the year:

Themed meetings (seminar series?)
Events (Green Week 2009!)
Budget (We have one! How do we use it wisely?)
New leadership for the Spring

To add items to the agenda, contact Damon Chaky at dchaky@pratt.edu.
Sustainable Pratt meetings are held monthly, on the first Wednesday of the month.

National Campus Sustainability Day Wednesday, October 22nd

2008-10-16T15:45:00.012-04:00

On Wednesday, Oct 22nd, Sustainable Pratt, the campus Eco Reps program, and the Center for Sustainable Design Studies at Pratt are participating in National Campus Sustainability Day.

11:00 am - 2:00 pm: Sustainable Lunch and Displays at the Juliana Curran Tieran Design Center (sponsored by Sustainable Pratt):

Low Calorie Lunch - see how low!
Miniature Golf Challenge (recycled material for clubs, balls, traps, etc)
Dr. Schutte kick off, 11:00 am on Front Lawn
CSDS - Eco-friendly Material Display
Solar One and the Zero Energy Building
NYSERDA presentation on Energy Programs by Wendy Fleischer, 12:30am - 1:00pm
Pratt & Sustainability Discussion by Tony Gelber, 1:00pm - 1:30pm
Facilities Planning and Design

524 Myrtle - Gold LEED - update
The Greening of Grand Avenue

Faclilites Management at Studio Lobby

Recycling Updates
The new Utility Data Management Program
Electricity Standard

Pratt IT at Studio Lobby

Electric Car Swipe Card Invention
The Paperless Classroom

Security, on Front Lawn

Electric vehicle

Student work exhibit

5:00 - 8:00 pm Lights Out Block Party on Main Campus (Organized by Eco Reps and CSDS):

The Solar Punch Band

solar powered band and sing along

NY Hot Dog BBQ

all grown and processed in NY State

No-Bake Cakes and Cookles
The Go LOCO Campaign Kickoff

A Lights-Out Display to promote lights out, computers off, every time you leave the room

FIRST MEETING OF THE FALL SEMESTER

2008-09-09T17:32:00.007-04:00

Sustainable Pratt will hold its first meeting of the Fall semester on Wednesday, September 9th, in Engineering 108 on the main Pratt campus.

At the meeting, we'll discuss

The new EcoReps program, underway now
The launch of the Center for Sustainable Design Studies and opportunities within
Sustainable Pratt's budget (yes, we have one!)
Sust Pratt and CSDS website resources
Green Week 2009 and other local/regional/national events
"Themed meetings" for the fall (an idea with strong support at our last Spring '08 meeting)

Fall 2008 Sustainable Design Course

2008-08-05T12:35:00.002-04:00

Pratt Institute's Interior Design Department and Professor Carol Crawford will offer the Sustainable Design Course in the Fall 2008 semester. The 2 credit course will be offered on Thursdays from 2 - 4:50 pm on the Pratt Brooklyn campus. The goal of the course is to enable designers to make environmentally-sensitive decisions and how to implement them.

Students may tailor a research or creative project to their individual interests.

Please contact Carol Crawford at carol@ccenvironments.com

Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies Faculty Stipends

2008-07-20T13:25:00.004-04:00

Pratt's Academic Director of Sustainability, Debera Johnson, has recently announced a Faculty Stipend Program a series of efforts to engage and support Pratt's educational community in creating innovative ways to bring environmental awareness to students. The program is offered through Pratt's Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS), created and funded by the FIPSE grant awarded to Pratt last year, "Greener by Design".

The program consists of 3 types of stipends:

CSDS faculty Development Stipends: to support research, conferences and activities that will help faculty integrate sustainability into existing courses link to an application here.

CSDS Creative Cluster Stipends: to support workshops, lectures and the development of courses and projects that include faculty from different departments

CSDS Living Lab Stipends: to support faculty in integrating facilities and academic initiatives through the greening of Pratt's campus

Urban Planning, Passed by the Campaign Trail

2008-07-20T12:36:00.002-04:00

Randall Crane, Vice-Chair of Urban Planning at UCLA, contributed a provocative opinion piece to Planetizen, entitled Cities: The Missing Presidential Campaign Issue. Crane also co-author of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Urban Planning, frames his writings on the advice he would give to presumptive Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain. That advice in one word...Cities!
Crane makes some interesting points about place making and policy and how the importance of Cities as the agents of change concerning these issues is often overlooked. "Because the downtowns and suburbs of cities, where the supermajority of Americans toil, relax, and puzzleout their lives, are invisible in the 2008 campaign."

He goes on to point out that only one candidate, Obama has a statement on urban policy.

Agreed, this is an important issue, as the majority of our population now exists within urban areas. And it brings about a lot of questions.....why is rural policy the favorite of presidential campaigns, if the majority of voters reside in urban areas? Has Campaign strategy just not caught up with the population shift from rural to urban? I think not....Perhaps it is the political homogeneity that exists in cities, the majority tend to be Democratic, so possibly this is why the campaign targets those voters that do not consistently vote democratic and associate more with rural lifestyles.

"Renewable" Petroleum

2008-06-24T21:18:00.006-04:00

Yes, that's right, a "renewable" form of the black gold we are all advocating against. But this petroleum is not a fossil fuel, it just combusts like one.

When the founding members of LS9, Inc. asked the question..."If you removed all constraints, what would the ideal biofuel be?" Their answer was petroleum.

It is no surprise that such an idea would come from LS9's President, Bob Walsh, who spent 30+ years employed with Shell Oil.

Before counting the ways in which calling petroleum a biofuel is totally absurd, let's look at the science....

LS9 has patented a process for turning fatty-acids into hydrocarbons or what they call petroleum replacement products.

Where are they getting the fatty acids? From "renewable" sugars. The novel part comes from the process by which they ferment the sugars to create hydrocarbons. Most of us understand fermentation as the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide, like in beer and wine, a reaction driven by yeast, the enzyme that breaks down sugars into fatty acids then alcohols and CO2.

The magic of LS9 is a proprietary process that converts sugars into oils not alcohols. How do they do it? With patented microbes that have patented enzymes that convert sugars (Carbons, hydrogens and oxygens) into hydrocarbons (carbons and hydrogens) so what are the patented microbes and their patented enzymes doing with the oxygens? Where did the oxygen go?

LS9 will tell you its NOT contrary to the laws of thermodynamics, its just pushing the frontiers of synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology....!?!

TRAIN Your Produce to Go Green

2008-06-24T12:43:00.006-04:00

Last week the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council hosted a "brown bag" lunch presentation featuring Railex the newly formed closed loop track, 55 refrigerated car train line. Railex runs from Wallawalla Washington to Upstate New York in 5 days, hauling a mile long produce train of 55 refrigerated cars, each car containing 4 truckloads- roughly 190,000 pounds of produce per car - for a total of 200 truckloads per train.

With the ever growing interest in local foods, Railex may not, at first, seem like a sustainable solution to our current food system. However as consumers continue to demand out of season lettuce and strawberries, a cost effective, diesel truck alternative to meet these demands is an environmental asset. Each train saves 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel and avoids the release of 85,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents.

And that is just the first train route! Railex has plans to expand its territory, beginning in September they will run a similar train from California to New York, with plans to add facilities and acquire track in Tennessee and Florida, connecting all 4 corners of the US. Each route removing diesel trucks from the roadways and avoiding significant CO2 emissions from the air.

Railex operates cost effectively on routes greater that 150 miles, and has therefor not pursued regional distribution from its facilities, ie. upstate NY to Hunt's Point in the South Bronx. However they are committed to building relationships and collaborating with Amtrak. Through such collaboration a distribution line from Selkirk, NY. to Oak Point and Hunt's Point may be possible....Cleaner Air for South Bronx!

DOT Releases "Sustainable Streets"

2008-04-29T10:47:00.004-04:00

New York City DOT has released a new strategic plan, Sustainable Streets. NYC has 6,000 miles of streets, about 1/4 of our land mass and the DOT has a plan to make our streets the safest and most pedestrian friendly of all big cities. A clear initiative in the report is to make the streets safer, most potential bikers and pedestrians feels the traffic on the streets is unsafe and are deterred from alternative transit. Other ideas include, Bus Rapid Transit Corridors, practices to decrease parking spot cruising and doubling bike rider-ship in the city.

NYS DEC Offers Green Schools Challenge

2008-04-22T23:50:00.003-04:00

Earth Day, April 22, 2008
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in collaboration with the Department of Education announced a new Green Schools Challenge contest to bolster recycling efforts in every school across the state.

The year long competition will see just what schools, all public and private elementary, middle and high schools can do to:

Recycle paper, metal glass and other materials

Buy and promote recycled products, and reuse packaging

Reduce waste and toxins

Conserve water and energy

Jumpstart composting programs

Winners are eligible for prizes and will be announced on Earth Day 2009!

Pratt Begins an Eco-Reps Program

2008-04-16T16:30:00.002-04:00

Living and Visualizing a Greener Campus through Peer to Peer Outreach

Engage* Empower* Conserve* Invest

The Eco Reps Program, originally started at Tufts University directly involves students in applying their creativity and sustainable design skills to their own lives on campus. Through this program, students will be empowered to decrease their environmental impact and engage their peers and ultimately the whole campus to do the same.

Through training and workshops Eco Reps will learn sustainable practices for energy & water conservation, waste management, recycling, sustainable food systems and eco-consumerism. Eco Reps will be the "go to" people on campus to inform all others of these best practices as well as disseminate updates on campus-wide events and initiatives.

If you would like to learn more about the program or apply to be an Eco Rep contact info@sustainablepratt.org