Are you about to renovate and want to donate your building materials but don’t know if that’s possible? Well it is and there are companies that will welcome your donation and provide financial incentive to do so. Donating your building materials is (generally) tax-deductible, saves you disposal fees, helps NYC reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, and helps folks build a green industry!

We’ll be talking about reusing and recycling building materials at the August 19 “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Retrofit” session of the Green Building Monthly Forum!

Read on for a list of places that will take your donation of building materials! (more…)

I own a brownstone in Brooklyn and want to have an energy audit and a review of ways to make the building greener in general. Can you offer any recommendations of programs, companies, consultants that do this? Does the city have any incentives or programs to help?
-Kippy

Kippy,
The short answer is yes — there are programs, consultants, etc to help you evaluate green renovations for your brownstone. (more…)

I work at a large, well-known internet company and would like to approach the powers that be with a proposal to implement sustainable business practices that will save them money. Where can I go to find information to back up and support such a proposal? Also, do you know of a place in New York City where I can obtain training on conducting energy audits?
-Michelle

Hello Michelle,
We focus mostly on residential green building, but that’s no excuse! Helpful resources regarding sustainable business practices include the http://www.thegreengrid.org web site and http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency. The former is an industry consortium on greening data center operations, and the latter is an EPA-sponsored effort addressing data center energy efficiency. As for training for conducting energy audits, you can check out AEA’s training programs (http://www.aeanyc.org/site/c.dhJJJTOzFoH/b.1676911/). There are also other training programs that let you earn a Building Performance Institute certification, but they happen occasionally and not necessarily on a predictable schedule. You can check the web site of Steven Winter Associates (swinter.com) to see if they plan to offer classes soon.

Here are three questions from a student at Rutgers who was working on a paper about the costs, benefits, and barriers of retrofitting affordable housing to improve energy efficiency:

1. Are the tenants of green affordable homes seeing true savings?
2. Are they increasing awareness about other environmental issues to communities that normally wouldn’t?
3. How are policies creating incentives for developers to build green when the savings goes mostly to the tenants?

These are good questions and ones that are difficult to get definitive (or in my case, short) answers. (more…)

Where in the NYC region can we buy an FSC-certified, custom wood entryway? We love wood and want something dramatic and functional, but *green*. In priority order: Certified reclaimed lumber, Certified newly cut lumber. Recycled glass would be nice. We’d like a BIG patio door too - same stipulations and decent R-value (U factor) too.
Thanks in advance.
- Mitch & Jan

I would say that the greenest wood products are recycled or salvaged and you can find some products like that at Build It Green in Queens.

If you want something new though, you can find local vendors of FSC certified wood from a guide the Rainforest Alliance put together.

Hope this helps, and good luck on your project.

I apologize for the broadness of this question, but I was wondering about the overall sustainability of New York City. Does its population density compensate for the concentrated pollution? How does it compare in terms of energy consumption per capita to other cities? Rural areas?
- Janelle

Janelle,

The short answer is a resounding YES! Most of the factors that contribute to environmental impact are lower in New York per capita than in less dense areas. New Yorkers drive less, and so use less energy and emit less pollution for transportation. NYC’s transit usage is much higher (50%) than any other American City (25-31% for San Fran, Chicago, and Philly and 15% or less for others). Additionally, the share of commuters using automobiles is much lower, meaning more walkers and bikers. Jonathan Rose, a local green developer says that in some areas of the country, more energy is consumed traveling to and from a building than within the building. While I can’t vouch for that in every circumstance, it’s definitely important.

New Yorkers also live in smaller spaces, so they use less energy to heat, cool, and light them and less material to build and maintain them. The
average home size in 2004 nation-wide was 2,300 square feet, while New York City’s is likely close to half that (NYC Dept. of City Planning uses 1,000 square feet as a standard home size in multi-unit buildings). New Yorker’s use an average of about 4,700 kWh/year of electricity in their homes, beating San Francisco (6,750), Chicago, (8,150), and other cities (over 10,000).

New Yorkers also live in less land area per capita, allowing for more land to remain unsettled. New York has 305 square miles not covered by water. If everyone in New York lived at the density of the State of New Jersey (not exactly apples-to-apples but it is the densest state) we’d cover 6,700 square miles (about 90% of NJ). Under more consistent suburban conditions we’d probably cover about 2,000 sqare miles, so we’re living very efficiently. (To be fair, LA is actually denser than NYC, but we’re up there. We’d probably win if you exclude Staten Island - which we would never do).

So per capita, we’re definitely consuming less, and polluting less. However, we are concentrating our pollution so that the effects may be worse in specific areas within the city. While each of us causes fewer truck miles to be driven, they are mostly driven in a tight space in high proximity to people, leading to smog and illness. We have high rates of certain health problems like asthma b/c we are exposed to a higher amount of the pollution we do cause. Urban soil is generally more contaminated b/c there is and has been much more going on there. In fact some states have different standards for cleanliness of urban soils b/c background concentrations (i.e. the level you’d find almost anywhere) are higher for most contaminants.

So while we are living more sustainably and have a lower per-capita impact on many measures, we are directly exposed to more of the impact we do produce. It is one major reason cities have forged ahead where states (and certainly the Federal government) have stalled on sustainability planning and legislation. In NYC and other cities, sustainability issues have become community planning issues, and are being solved in novel and effective ways. In a way, we are taking responsibility for more of the negative impacts of modern life than other communities, and we can be proud of that.

Dear Green Expert,
I am rehabbing a kitchen and found a sink I really like that is made of 80 percent granite and 20 percent acrylic and resin. The material is called Silgranit and manufactued by Blanco. Are these eco-friendly materials? The manufacturer’s website says very little on this issue so I’m dubious.
Thank you!
- Brenda

Brenda,

Hello. I have not seen this product mentioned as a particularly “green” product, but at the same time I cannot find much that is objectionable about it. I couldn’t find any info on their manufacturing processes, but here are the factors that one should consider and/or find out more about.

What goes into the product? It appears to be made of an acrylic binder and granite aggregate (i.e. small pieces or dust of granite held together with acrylic). Acrylic is not particularly toxic so I don’t believe that should be a worry. They can probably use granite that is unsuitable for use in other applications b/c it’s too small, is flawed, or is already pulverized so they may get their granite as a post-industrial waste product, which would be good. Don’t be shy in asking a sales rep about where they get their materials. If they don’t have an answer for you, that’s their problem, but maybe they will, or would be willing to find out for you. The high degree of heat resistance indicates that the material may be heat treated, which would use a lot of energy, but probably not as much as a stainless steel sink. One thing I would make sure of is that you get a sink manufactured in their New Jersey facility (rather than Canada or Germany factories). This will help reduce the amount of energy used and pollution produced in getting it to your home.

How long will it last? This product sounds pretty durable but I’ve never used one (that I know of). Ask them how long the warranty is and when it might need to be replaced. Better to get something that uses slightly more resources, but lasts twice as long.

What will become of it when it’s disposed of? Their website’s claim about recyclable materials is not particularly convincing b/c while acrylic and granite may be recyclable, once you mix them together like that, they’re hard to reuse again without a specialized recycling process. So unless they are taking the sinks back (which would be great if they are) the sink will either be reused or thrown away. How easy would it be to take out of the counter and salvage/reuse? If thrown away, it won’t be toxic, but it will fill up a landfill, whereas a stainless steel sink will likely be recycled.

Hope this helps you choose a sink, or know more about your sink if you already chose it.

Hi,

I am a New York City public high school teacher. We are investigating installing a green roof system on our school roof with the help of graduate students at CUNY. Do you know if any of the state or local utilities might help fund this effort? We are having some trouble raising the money for the project.

Thank you!

Jessie Jenkins

Jessie,

That sounds like a great idea. I hope you are still pursuing it.

Unfortunately, utilities are not offering as many incentives for green roofs as for other things because they are not the most cost-effective way to achieve energy savings. However, the Bronx Borough President has a $2M revolving loan fund energy projects including green-roof projects in the Bronx. And of course I would check with Earthpledge’s GreenRoof Initiative or www.greeninggotham.org for more information on incentives or assistance. Earthpledge also offers grants for some green roof projects.

You may be able to find some funding programs through NYSERDA but I don’t believe they have any.

Some of the more pronounced benefits of green roofs come from stormwater management, because they help retain water during rain events and prevent it from entering the sewers all at once. So agencies or groups focused on wastewater treatment or watershed protection like NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection or NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Division of Water may also offer incentives.

Best of Luck,

PS - Since the original writing of this post, NYC passed a tax credit that makes green roofs about 25% cheaper. The tax credit will provide a one-time property tax abatement of $4.50 per square foot of green roof (which is about 25% of the cost of installation for most green roofs) up to $100,000. Inquire with the NYC Dept of Finance for details on how to apply.

I was wondering what some of the specific health concerns there are for buildings that are not created in the “green construction” fashion. What are some health benefits of green constructed buildings.
- Liz

Liz,

This is a pretty basic question, but it’s one that is often overlooked by advocates, who simply assume that green buildings must be better, so it’s good that you ask.

Benefits to the actual inhabitants of green buildings generally come from improved indoor air quality, and enhanced lighting. Many buildings use materials with toxic components that slowly evaporate into rooms and interior spaces. Lead paint and asbestos are old-fashioned examples that are not used today, but are still present in many homes and businesses. Vinyl composite tile (VCT) flooring, or paints with volatile organic compounds are more contemporary examples. In poorly ventilated buildings, these substances can accumulate to concentrations that cause health problems over time such as asthma or cancer (a building won’t give you cancer right away, or perhaps even by itself, but many of the substances used in building materials are carcinogenic - i.e. cancer-causing). This also applies to cleaning products with toxic chemicals used inside living spaces. Poorly ventilated spaces can also cause the accumulation of moisture and the growth of mold, which contributes to asthma and other respiratory ailments.

Good ventilation and climate control can also help reduce illness by eliminating drafts and areas within the home with drastic temperature changes. Good indoor air quality, combined with better lighting involving more natural sunlight, has been attributed to increased productivity and
fewer sick days in office and industrial buildings.

Those are some benefits. The opposite, or “health concerns” as you referred to them are not always present in buildings that have not been intentionally built green. However, because much of green building is also about building well (e.g. properly designed and installed ventilation, good envelope sealing, etc), they will be concerns in poorly built structures. Additionally, in cities like New York there is a very strong link between energy consumption and health b/c of the concentration of people around energy production facilities and the presence of older coal-fired plants. The more energy we use, the more pollution is emitted, the more “bad-air” days we have where people need to go inside, etc. So the more energy efficient our buildings are, less energy is used, and the less pollution is emitted, the less bad-air days we have, which reduces health problems such as asthma. Buildings built on brownfield sites also help improve the health of communities by cleaning up a source of toxic substances in the
neighborhood.