Sustainability News: Urban Green Expo Recap, America Recycles Day, NYC's New Water Laws

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--The Great Forest team

Recap: 2010 Urban Green Expo
Hatching butterflies from buildings and other new ideas

Great Forest's Director of Sustainability, Anna Dengler, reports from the Urban Green Expo:

Thanks to everyone who dropped by Great Forest's booth at the Urban Green Expo in late September. We came away with great ideas and insights from the various conference sessions and wanted to share some here.

Architect William McDonough gave a rousing keynote challenging the crowd to adjust the sustainability paradigm. He called on all to replace the objective of reducing negative impacts of commerce with a new goal of maximizing positive environmental impact. Instead of doing "less bad," McDonough wants us to do more good. For example, a building he designed in Barcelona actually includes a natural habitat for butterflies in the atrium.

Another great idea we learned - the importance of training operations and maintainance staff on efficiency techniques. In existing buildings, this could mean training staff to optimize the performance of old equipment instead of simply buying new models. In new buildings, this could mean making sure updated knowledge is transferred to staff so that they understand how the new high efficiency equipment is intended to work. I was reminded that sometimes simple educational solutions are overlooked.

Another session I attended explored the opportunities of using geothermal energy in urban areas. For our readers in New York, NYSERDA's Flex Tech Program will supply half the cost of a feasibility study for geothermal projects. Contact Sheila Sweeney, Great Forest's Director of Energy Services to learn more.

Nate Kimball, Great Forest's Sustainability Metrics guru, was inspired by a session on achieving deep CO2 reductions in large portfolios...or should I say, increasing our positive climate impact? It all lies in the data collected (as we say, "what gets measured gets managed,") and Nate learned a few new ways of looking at and interpreting information that will give a truer picture of actual energy use. Nate and I have been working hard on carbon footprint analysis and CO2 reductions for clients this past year. Please contact us for more details.

The Expo has inspired us for another great year of sustainability work and research.

America Recycles Day Coming Up
Plan an educational event with Great Forest

cardboard tower display America Recycles Day is November 15th. It's a great time to remind employees and tenants to make use of the recycling programs you have in place.

"The most common reason people have for not recycling is that they don't know about the recycling program. Increasing the visibility of your recycling program is key to raising awareness," says Amy Marpman, Great Forest's Director of Recycling and Maintenance Services. "America Recycles Day is the perfect opportunity to launch a new component of your recycling program or to stage an educational event. We find the events that make the most impact are visual displays demonstrating the amount of recyclables thrown away. The cardboard tray tower we created for the lobby of a building really got employees thinking about recycling."

Call your Great Forest consultant to help you plan your own memorable event with information sessions, educational tables, games, recycling displays and more.

[Photo shows Anna Dengler, Great Forest's Director of Sustainability, assembling the tower made up of 640 cardboard trays.]

Urban Green Gala Recognizes Leadership in NYC's Built Environment
Urban Green Gala will be held on November 4

Please join us in congratulating David R. Greenbaum, President, New York Office, Vornado Realty Trust, who will be honored at the Urban Green Gala on November 4 for his leadership role in improving the sustainability of New York's built environments. Great Forest is proud to be doing work with Vornado. Click the image above to learn more and to register.

NYC's New Water Laws
Four laws implement recommendations from NYC Green Codes Task Force

This month, the New York City Council enacted four laws that are expected to improve water efficiency across the city and save billions of gallons of water annually. The bills below anticipate the water supply crunch that is expected around 2017 when the city shuts down the Delaware Aqueduct for repairs.

Introduction 271 will enhance water efficiency standards for plumbing fixtures like toilets and faucets.
Introduction 268 will reduce leaks from major water-using equipment by requiring the installation of meters.
Introduction 263 prohibits the installation of new "once-through" cooling systems, which emit heat into drinking water, which is then dumped into the sewer systems.
Introduction 264 will improve access to drinking water by requiring faucets for filling bottles on new drinking fountains and limits the use of water dispensers.

Call your Great Forest representative to talk about cost-effective water-saving efforts.

NYC Green Infrastructure Plan
New York City Curbs Water Runoff

New York City wants to curb water runoff that sends sewage into city waterways through the use of "blue" roofs that have a series of drainage pools and "green" or grass- or ivy-covered roofs, reports Reuters.

A new plan, called "NYC Green Infrastructure", would replace the existing approach for sewer overflow control with a mix of green and traditional infrastructure measures that are expected to reduce sewer overflows into waterways, reports Sustainable Business.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Reuters that he estimates the city could save $2.4 billion over 20 years if the state allows it to use this 'green' technology instead of a "grey infrastructure" strategy that includes the use of storage tanks and tunnels.

"Our PlaNYC goal of making 90 percent of city waterways suitable for recreations requires us to do more, and that means reducing the combined sewer overflows that have plagued the city for decades," said Bloomberg in a statement.

Other green infrastructure measures cited by Reuters include the adoption of rain barrels and porous parking lots that could capture an inch of rain in 10 percent of the older neighborhoods, and sidewalks planted with strips of greenery that also could absorb rainwater.

Did You Know...?

Several articles above discuss issues relating to water in urban areas. Most modern urban cities do not have major concerns about the quality of the water supply, though the United Nations reports that nearly one billion people across the globe lack basic access to safe drinking water. On October 15, bloggers from more than 100 countries participated in Change.org's Blog Action Day for clean water. The purpose of this event was to debate, brainstorm and raise global awareness around clean water. A few important stats about water:

In July, the UN declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right.
Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year.
Today, 40% of America's rivers and 46% of America's lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
Americans drink an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled.