January Forum: Green Catwalk

January 1, 2013

Join us for our first forum of 2013!  As is traditional for January, we’ll be having a Green Catwalk Forum.  These forums focus on the new or little-known aspects of Green Building and we try to book as many speakers as we can to get a broad spectrum of ideas.  This year is no exceptions, we’ll talk about materials, new technologies, a new study on energy use in multi-family homes, and much more!  It’s always a great way to familiarize yourself with what’s up and coming!  We hope to see you there! This forum is free and open to the public! Date:  Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Time:  6:30pm – 8:00pm Place:  Knoll Showroom, 76 9th Ave. #11, Manhattan, NY 10011 Click here to RSVP! Due to venue requirements registration will close at noon on Tuesday the 15th.  Be sure to register in advance! Our speakers will include: We’ll post speaker bios as they become available! Britta Riley – Window Farms Britta Riley is the Founder and CEO of Windowfarms, a social urban farming company that empowers city dwellers to engage in their own high quality fresh food production. Windowfarms members enjoy an experience of nature at home and harvest continually for full nutrition, gorgeous appearance, and fullest flavor just steps from the table. The social enterprise’s highly designed vertical hydroponic gardens are engineered to keep food plants thriving indoors in windows and a membership delivers locally-grown seedling food plants with roots ready for transplant into a Windowfarm. Members have access to online social education community to learn to care for their living greens, herbs, and small veggies.  Riley’s interactive environmental design work has been featured at the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, the Whitney, and MoMA. . Elizabeth Derry – Graduate student at Rutgers, Community Preservation Corporation ElizabethDerry is a candidate for a Master’s in City and Regional Planning with a concentration in green building and real estate at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Her thesis research is focused energy use in multifamily buildings, the spread of use, and measures taken to improve efficiency. She currently works at the Community Preservation Corporation in their Energy Efficiency department and as a Research Assistant for the Rutgers Center for Green Building. . Frank Zammataro – Rentricity Inc. A New York native, Mr. Zammataro has over 30 years of operating experience with large and small organizations primarily in the development and marketing of emerging technology. Prior to founding Rentricity, Mr. Zammataro served as the Chief Marketing Officer of w-Technologies, a wireless software company, where he drove the global market and product strategy, business development, and corporate communications activities.  While at Merrill Lynch, he served as FVP/ Managing Director of Investments and Alliances in the Private Client Division, where he maintained overall responsibility for technology related strategic alliances, investments, marketing, and sales. Mr. Zammataro has been a contributing columnist, spoken frequently at leading industry events, and participates in various industry, municipal, and academic organizations. After graduating from St. John’s University with a B.A. in Political Science and Communications Arts, Mr. Zammataro attended New York University pursuing a Master’s in New Media. Mr. Zammataro also completed the Executive Leadership Development Program at The Wharton School. . Joanna Wong – formerly of EMPA Dr. Joanna Wong is a material scientist who has spent a year developing silica aerogel-based composite materials for thermal insulation systems in buildings as a post-doc at the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (EMPA) near Zurich, Switzerland.  She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the ETH Zurich, her Masters degrees from ESIEE-Paris and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and her bachelor’s degree in Nanoengineering from the University of Toronto.  Joanna is the author and co-author of 10 scientific papers and several conference proceedings.  She came to New York in July 2012 and is currently seeking exciting career opportunities in sustainable technologies. . Laura Adelman – National Grid Laura Adelman is an Associate Analyst at National Grid, working on Commercial Energy Efficiency Programs.  Laura is working on one of NYS’s first Small Commercial Energy Efficiency Program that employs on-bill financing, what many consider to be the future of investment in EE.  She will talk briefly about the program and its results.  She graduated from Skidmore College with a BA in Environmental Studies. . Peter Syrett – Re:Place Urban Studio Peter Syrett is a founding Partner at Re:Place Urban Studio. Re:Place is dedicated to creating better cities by examining the links between natural and man made systems; public health, and regenerative design. His twenty years of experience in sustainability and living built environments allows him to guide clients towards a deeper understanding of sustainability, one that looks beyond green rating frameworks such as LEED, towards a paradigm of creating healthy and thriving ecological systems. Peter’s work ranges in scale from large urban planning projects down to critical analysis of the substances we use to build.  Peter led the effort in 2009 to develop the Precautionary List, the architectural industry’s first major list of substances to avoid using in building design. He has written extensively on material health, including a white paper for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on asthma and building materials.  He is currently the Chair of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative, which created the Health Product Declaration (HPD) Open Standard that systematizes reporting language to enable transparent disclosure of information regarding building product content and associated health information. . Rebecca Louie – The Compostess Rebecca Louie, The Compostess, is the Founder of The Compostess, an eco-friendly business that helps New Yorkers get down to earth.   She provides private in-home consultations that cover compost basics, tips and strategies to make a system thrive in urban spaces from tiny studios to sprawling brownstones. The Compostess offers compost worm and outdoor bin maintenance, harvesting and troubleshooting, and hosts and educates a wide range of audiences at specialty eco-taining events including childrens’ parties, potlucks and drinks with friends.  Rebecca is  a certified NYC Master Composter.