Did You Know...?
Green roofs (rooftops covered in vegetation and soil) combat the "urban heat island" effect in cities.
Traditional building materials soak up the sun's radiation and re-emit it as heat, making cities at least 7 degrees hotter than surrounding areas. On Chicago's City Hall, by contrast, which features a green roof, rooftop temperatures on a hot day are typically 25 to 80 degrees cooler than they are on traditionally roofed buildings nearby.
Source: Greenroofs.org
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Great Forest Metrics Available Online
The Great Forest Sustainability Metrics will provide a snapshot of your business' sustainability in three basic areas: energy, waste & recycling and water. These simple tools allow you to:
- Define a baseline
- Set sustainability goals
- Track progress
- Communicate your goals and progress through colorful visual aids.
Give it a try here
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Great Forest is a proud supporter of the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute, which works to solve life-threatening pollution problems in the worst polluted places. Blacksmith is currently engaged in over 40 cleanup projects in 19 countries.
NOTE: The Blacksmith golf benefit is now on Sept. 22. Join us for a good cause.
Blacksmith Project Highlight:
Just in time for the new school year, Blacksmith teams have completed removal of toxic lead at a kindergarten and other areas used by children (including playgrounds and sandboxes) in the region of Rudnaya Pristan in Russia. The area was listed in Blacksmith's Top Ten Worst Polluted report.
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About Great Forest
Great Forest provides sustainability consulting and project management expertise
To date Great Forest has worked with more than half of all commercial office space and hotels in Manhattan and over 1,500 buildings across the country, covering approximately 350 million sq. ft.
Contact Us Great Forest, Inc. 2014 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10035 Ph: (212) 779-4757 Fax: (212) 779-8044 www.greatforest.com
Improve Environmental Performance, Reduce Costs
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Visit Great Forest at the USGBC's first ever Urban Green Expo on September 22 & 23. We'll be at booth #216 with tips, freebies, and some treats. Come get answers to all your green business questions.
-The Great Forest Team |
Great Forest Q&A
Q: Is office composting feasible?
A: Yes. San Francisco, Seattle and Portland are among cities that have commercial composting programs. In NYC less than 3% of offices do and Great Forest has helped approximately one third of them set up composting programs. From our experience, the biggest myth about composting in the office is the odor. This fear is without basis when composting is done properly.
Here's how an office composting program works: Bins are placed in the cafeteria kitchen and in some dining areas to collect food scraps. At the end of each day, these bins are covered tightly with lids and stored (sometimes in a cold room) for pick up, separate from regular trash and recyclables.
In most cases, no actual composting is done on site. In NYC, office and commercial compost end up at one or two farms that process food waste into animal feed or nutrient-rich compost used for landscaping and farming.
Bottom line: implementing an office composting program is easy and your tenants/colleagues will not notice much difference. While there is a fee to handle compost, this may be offset by lower waste hauling fees. Remember, office composting programs could earn your building extra points towards LEED, but above all, it will improve your businesses' environmental impact.
Check to see if your building has a composting program or call Great Forest to discuss installing one.
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News Report
NYC Commercial Buildings Bicycle Access Bill
A bill was signed into law recently requiring all building owners and managers to allow tenants and their employees to bring bicycles into a commercial building via freight elevators.
Great Forest reminds building owners that facilitating the use of bicycles and public transportation for commuters may assist buildings seeking LEED or other green building certifications.
While the specific procedures and forms are being developed by the Department of Transportation, please note the following legislation details:
� This new law takes effect at the end of December 2009. � The request for bike access must come from the leaseholder, not an employee of such, on a form to be designed and provided by the Department of Transportation. � The law allows for access to the tenant space via the building freight elevator during freight elevator hours only. � The owner/manager is not required to provide bike storage. All bikes must be stored within tenant premises. � If the building cannot accommodate bicycles using the freight elevator, the owner/manager could be exempt from complying with the requirement. |
Incentives for Greening (and Whitening) Your Roof
Green roofs are becoming a major urban trend as cities see the benefits of reduced stormwater runoff, lower summer energy bills, and overall reduced 'heat island' effect.
Cities offering incentives for green roofing include Toronto, Chicago, Portland, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, and others are expected to follow.
For example, since 2008, building owners in New York City who install green rooftops on at least 50 percent of available rooftop space can apply for a one-year property tax credit of up to $100,000.
"Remember that planning for a green roof must include a structural engineering review of the space to assess weight bearing capacity and drainage issues. Care should also be taken with the choice of green roof landscape firms to avoid wasting money on inappropriate plant choices," says Barbara Fischer, who runs the Great Forest office in Armonk, NY, and is also a Cornell cooperative extension master gardener, a certified horticultural therapist, and chairperson of the steering committee of the Native Plant Center in Valhalla, NY.
Research has begun to find the most suitable plants for certain climates: the Chicago Botanic Garden has installed an evaluation garden, and the New York Botanical Garden provides information on plant species that are adapted to the Northeast here.
Another popular rooftop idea to reduce energy? White roofs.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has explained that this technique could reduce energy costs by reflecting the sun's rays rather than absorbing the heat.
"Whitening the world's roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world's cars for 11 years," Secretary Chu said. |
Great Forest News
Join us at the Urban Green Expo
Unlike other green building conferences that attempt to be all things to all people, the 2009 Urban Green Expo on September 22 & 23 is the first to focus on the needs of the densely developed urban environment at a challenging economic moment. The expo will connect real estate industry leaders with green products, services, top-level education and acclaimed speakers. Come learn how greening our cities and businesses can help you stay strong. Great Forest experts will be in booth #216 to answer all your questions. We will also be demonstrating the new Great Forest Metrics. |
Great Forest Consultant To Teach Course in Sustainability At Hunter College
Great Forest's Director of Sustainability, Anna Dengler, will draw on her experiences at Great Forest to teach students about green buildings, metrics and sustainability at Hunter College in NYC this fall. Anna will be assistant teaching the course called Sustainability, Green Buildings & Health with Dr. Caravanos, director of the MS/MPH program in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at Hunter College. Dr. Caravanos connected with Anna through his advisory work with Blacksmith Institute, the nonprofit that Great Forest supports. |
Ice Cream Sweetens Recycling Drive
Great Forest client 712 Fifth Avenue, managed by the Paramount Group, held an ice cream social recently and Great Forest was there to promote the building's recycling program to its many tenants.
The building already recycles nearly 400 tons of waste per year. The ice cream social was just a sweet way to encourage even more recycling. "Outreach like this is the key to increasing recycling rates in buildings with many tenants," says Anna Dengler, part of the Greast Forest team at the event. "We can talk to bigger groups at these face to face meetings and help more people understand the program."
Great Forest representatives spoke with approximately 100 people, answered questions, and handed out recycling fliers and stickers.
Want to facilitate a recycling event in your building? Give us a call. |
Great Forest Team Adds New Member
Nathan iel Kimball has come on board as the newest sustainability consultant at Great Forest. Nate holds a degree in Earth Science from Vassar College. He previously worked on recycling and energy efficiency initiatives in Poughkeepsie, New York, and also on tidal energy projects across the east coast and Alaska. Welcome Nate! | |
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