October 1, 2013
Jordan Bonomo is a Multifamily Energy Auditor at
Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC), a long time GreenHomenNYC volunteer, head of the Green Building Tours, and a Student in
Columbia University’s Sustainability Management graduate program
GreenHomeNYC’s blog mentions that your interest in the environment was sparked while working on a climate change campaign for
MASSPIRG. Please recount this experience as well as others that have contributed to your interest in the environment and sustainable building.
After college I was living in Boston for the summer.
MASSPIRG, the state public interest research group there, was working on a climate change campaign to get Massachusetts to ratify the RGGI Bill. The
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a carbon cap-and-trade system for the Northeast states. I helped fundraise for that where I learned about the issue and the politics involved. It was also the summer that the Al Gore Movie, An Inconvenient Truth, came out. It was a very hot topic at the time. The initiative eventually went through in Massachusetts .
Living in New York City, obviously there are a lot of buildings. I know that buildings are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the city and a lot of the city’s energy use is from buildings. I thought that would be a great starting point for focusing on being more efficient and more sustainable.
Please describe how you became involved in GreenHomeNYC.
I randomly googled green buildings in NYC and came across GreenHomeNYC. I shot them an email and went to meetings and met other people that were interested in the topics. I didn’t know anything about it at all at the time but I started volunteering so that I would learn. One of my first assignments was to make informational note cards that we would post on the website. I did one about passive houses. I researched passive houses, passive lighting, and passive heating systems. This was a good way to learn about one aspect of green building and now it’s a pretty hot topic everywhere. It was cool, a good way to get my feet wet.
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April 17, 2011
Spring is in the air, which has seemingly resulted in a lot of announcements from City Hall. Info on free rain barrels from the DEP, green commercials leases, water leak notifications, green roof legislation, greening historic properties, and a study on the City’s green policy, all after the jump!
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May 12, 2010
Alison Kling, Assistant Vice President of the Energy Policy Department, NYC Economic Development Corporation.
Alison, thank you for speaking with me. Now what does that job title mean? What do you do – what does your job entail?
EDC is an economic development organization, doing a lot of development, planning and real estate transaction services, and our group – there are seven of us – focuses on energy policy. We’re the advisors to the Mayor and City government on New York City energy policy. So basically that’s everything from energy efficiency and clean supply policy initiatives to representing the City in regulatory cases in front of the New York State Public Service Commission, and working with the utilities. A lot of it is working with the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, working on the PlaNYC energy initiatives. We helped write the energy chapter of PlaNYC and now we’re in the implementation phase, so that’s also everything from supply to regulation to public and private sector energy efficiency to fostering the renewable energy market and making it stronger in the city. In a nutshell that’s what we’re doing – and it’s a lot of policy work and then also project specific things that support that policy and research, and studies and outreach.
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