November 26, 2020

GreenHomeNYC’s Pandemic Pivot Proves the Power of Commitment and Community

By Melanie Mason   We have spent the better part of our year in throes of the COVID-19 pandemic—social distancing, Zooming, washing our hands like crazy, and carrying out GreenHomeNYC’s mission from the kitchen table. This has almost begun to feel like a normal part of our routines. But at the beginning of the lockdowns back in March, the challenges to life as usual suddenly felt very far from “normal.” Just like everyone else, GreenHomeNYC had to quickly adapt to this new way of being. A testimony to our incredibly driven volunteers, together we dove headfirst into tackling how GreenHomeNYC would go from a live and lively in-person community to operating fully remotely.   Said GreenHomeNYC’s board president Lucie Dupas, “The board is so thankful for all the amazing work that our volunteers are able to get done safely from their homes—this year has been incredibly challenging in all aspects of life, and we are amazed on a daily basis by how passionate and resilient our whole community is!” (more…)

November 24, 2020

At Home for the Holidays: Sustainable and Safe

By Pamela Berns   Covid-19 has created disruptions in all aspects of our lives, challenging us to change our habits and lifestyles, only to have to change them yet again. “Pivot” and “shift” have become the buzzwords of 2020, and although it’s been exhausting, one might even say we’ve gotten enough practice to be become masters of behavior change. This holiday season is no different, unfolding like no other in memory, demanding that we revisit some of our most fundamental practices and revise our most cherished rituals. With social distancing and the unfortunate winter surge, more families are opting to go smaller at home. They are improvising strategies for virtual get togethers and seeking meaning in unfamiliar ways, hoping to compensate at least a little for lost hugs and after dinner walks.   If COVID-19 is calling on us to change the way we eat together, it also necessitates greater mindfulness in the way we plan and prepare and our meals. Smaller guest lists mean buying and cooking less, and ultimately wasting less. Many studies have shown that how we produce and consume food is one of the biggest drivers of our planet’s deteriorating health, wrote Brent Loken, Global Food Lead Scientist with the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) on October 8. (more…)

Indigenous Peoples: Centuries of Sustainable Living 

By Alexa Roccanova   Amidst a convergence of contemporary crises, private and public actors alike have championed sustainability as the ultimate goal for an environmentally, socially, and economically sound future. We’ve witnessed an inundation of seemingly “sustainable” alternatives for products, technologies, lifestyles, and systems that pose only slightly better versions of the status-quo — alternatives that by themselves, without a significant shift in the dynamic of our dominant systems, will not be enough to effectively mitigate climate change.   But there exist generations of people who have already been living sustainably for centuries. Indigenous peoples all over the world have been tending to the Earth, conserving local ecosystems, preserving biodiversity, and maintaining their ancestral cosmovisions, knowledges, and practices, despite incessant efforts by colonizer nations and institutions to displace, assimilate, and terminate them. The survival of their communities and lifeways is itself a testament to the sustainability of their culturally and spiritually guided relations with the environment.   “Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”– Chief Seattle, Duwamish (more…)

November 9, 2020

Viewpoint: Getting Back to Paris

By Evan Mason   In all the confusion and excitement of the post-election drama, some of us may have missed a piece of important news: the day after Election Day, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement became official. But that doesn’t mean it became permanent.   According to the NY Times, President-Elect Biden plans to inform the United Nations of his decision to rejoin the Paris Climate accord, by executive action. While it’s preferable to go through Congress instead of changing policy in this manner—effectively this stroke of Biden’s pen can easily be reversed by the next president in 2024–it’s clear that the President Elect recognizes the short deadline for reversing the impacts of climate change. (more…)

November 6, 2020

Monthly Forum – Ventilation, Airsealing and COVID-19

Staying Safe Without Wasting Energy   Please join GreenHomeNYC at this month’s Forums event for a panel discussion + Q&A to learn about the latest Covid-19 guidance from these respected mechanical engineers.   This month’s forum will focus on how to ensure living spaces are properly ventilated — an increasingly important issue as we enter the 9th month of Covid-19. Our aim is to provide you with your very own expert engineering consultants to help you navigate Covid ventilation issues, especially important now that it’s getting colder and we will likely spend more time indoors.   You may have a lot of questions: How safe is your own apartment? Is it safe to have friends over? How does ventilation work on subways? How can restaurants make their environments safer so for inside dining? Can the virus spread from one apartment to another? Lots of questions–come get guidance to help you make your own decisions, as we all navigate these uncertain times.  

Register here

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Ventilation and Air Quality in our Apartments in the COVID-19 Era

By Salmata Kaba   As we enter the ninth month of Covid-19 and transition to a cold-weather version of the “new normal” we are all trying to digest the advice that we are reading in order to stay healthy indoors.   Experts say increased ventilation and air filtration are key to maintaining indoor air quality and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses.  Even before the pandemic, proper ventilation was recognized by ASHRAE and other groups as a crucial element impacting inhabitant comfort and safety by helping rid homes of smoke, moisture and unwanted odors. (more…)

November 5, 2020

GreenHomeNYC Virtual Tour: Can We Fix Everything? Bring Sustainability Home

Join Sandra Goldmark, Barnard professor and author of Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet, for a quarantine-tour of her home.   Here’s an excerpt from the book:     “We know that as humans, we need stuff; we are deeply entangled with it. And we know that stuff can be a good thing, or at least that some stuff is better than other stuff. The caveat is that, as with food, there can be too much of a good thing. The surfeit of unhealthy stuff calories in our lives doesn’t only create clutter, or pollution. It helps to define who we are, as individuals and as a society: our stuff tells a story. As a result of a variety of influences, both external and internal, our shared story has become one of excess and of being overwhelmed, or heedlessly consuming and exploiting; but we are beginning to find ways out of all the mess and toward a simpler narrative, a healthier “stuff culture” that tells a story of balance and joy.   By learning to see our stuff not as passive, voiceless objects but as an active, contributing part of the story, we can consciously use our stuff to change the meaning of the tales we live. In our homes, we each design a real-life theatre set around ourselves, and we act out our lives on our little stage every day. We may be living a narrative of clutter or hoarding but want to shift to one of tidiness and joy. Or we may have an apartment that looks perfectly good, but where the practices of making our clothes and furniture are toxic to people and the planet alike. By learning how our stuff can shape our world, onstage and off, we can begin to design and live a better story, individually and collectively.”  

Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020

Time: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST

Location: Online   You can find more information and register here.

November 3, 2020

Climate Week 2020 Highlight: Project Drawdown

By Tamanna Mohapatra   Imagine a city as a sanctuary for nature, solar panels on all buildings, no need for cars, and regenerative farming practiced everywhere. So began “Drawdown 2020: The Time is Now,” a Climate Week NYC  talk sponsored by Ethical NYC, Drawdown NYC, 350NYC, and Climate Reality NYC in September of 2020.     Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to reach “drawdown—the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change — as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.” The way forward consists of 100 plus solutions, each of which reduces greenhouse gases by  avoiding emissions and/or by sequestering carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. (more…)

October 22, 2020

Remembering Cecil Corbin-Mark

It is with deep sadness that we convey that Cecil Corbin-Mark, the Deputy Director and Director of Policy Initiatives at WE ACT for Environmental Justice passed away on October 15, 2020.

  When we reached out to Cecil to ask him to speak at GHNYC’s June forum on “Sustainability in the 2020 Election Cycle,” in May, 2020, his emailed answer was, “YES, without hesitation!”   That was Cecil in a nutshell. Always giving and always there for you. Cecil was young, charming and whip smart. He had the gift of gab, but the content was always substantive, informative and important to take in and really think about. You can listen to his segment of our June, 2020 forum here and read a statement from the NYS Department of Energy Conservation here.   WE ACT for Environmental Justice asks us to: “Celebrate the individual, and his body of work. The bills passed, and the people mentored. Remember his laughter, and his smile. And then follow in his footsteps, fearlessly fighting to protect and uplift the health and well-being of frontline communities. Honor his memory by continuing to battle environmental racism and champion health and justice for all.”   Cecil was a gentle soul but he was a lion in the field of environmental justice.      

October 19, 2020

Election Days are Upon Us!

Election Day is November 3, but you can act sooner!     Registered Voters in New York State, don’t miss these deadlines! Apply for Your Ballot by October 27! The quickest and simplest way to request your ballot is by going to the Absentee Ballot Application Portal. You can find other options for ordering for your ballot here.   VOTE! Once you receive your ballot, you can cast your vote in one of the following ways:   Mail it! The State requires that your ballot be postmarked no later than November 3. However, the Post Office recommends sending it at least seven days before Election Day.   Drop it! At your early voting poll site:  October 24th to November 1 At your County Board of Elections Office:  Now to November 3 At your Election Day polling place:  November 3, 6am-9pm For details on absentee voting, early voting, and county office and poll locations and hours, click here.   New York City voters can get additional help here.   People living in other states in the US can find voting details for their states at  https://www.usa.gov/election-office and //www.vote.org/.   Read our recent post for more details on when, where and how to vote easily and safely and help others join you in getting the vote out.