sustainableflatbush.org

For those of you who are interested in following New York State environmental politics, a great online resource is Environmental Advocates of New York. I also receive their email alerts, and was pleased to learn that my State Senator, Kevin Parker, supported all four Environmental Super Bills that were being considered in the state legislature [...]

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Rebecca’s container gardening demonstration
Last Sunday’s event, “Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are” was a huge success! The Sustainable Flatbush Gardening Committee assembled a stellar program of speakers and [...]

Lots of interesting local developments occurred during my two-week foray into the world of Carnaval in Brazil (still catching up!), and here’s one of my favorites: NYC is seeing the light on addressing the Combined Sewer Overflow problem – where even a minor rainfall can send sewage into our waterways and beaches – through progressive [...]

NY Times’ City Room blog continues its Q&A series with experts on various urban planning issues (the first was with recently-appointed Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan). For the garbage/recycling geeks among us (I include myself here), this is a very interesting read.
And if we are going to think that expansively about how we might use [...]

I attended this seminar two years ago, and it completely changed my thinking about water use. Hint: if you think you know how much water a leaky toilet wastes, think again!

Water Conservation: Quench Your Thirst for Information
What better way to jumpstart a sustainable summer than to learn about water conservation! Join us in our upcoming [...]

This article in Fast Company magazine, “Message In A Bottle” by Charles Fishman, brings the bottled water discussion to another level. While I highly recommend reading the entire article, here are a few selected bits:
• Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We–a generation raised on tap water and water [...]

We had a full house for Friday’s lecture by Wilton Duckworth and Joan Ewing of Green Phoenix Permaculture.
Wilton provided some fascinating historical perspective on New York City’s infrastructure; I was particularly intrigued to learn of our transition from a city that was once able to sell its “night soil” (waste from outhouses) to farmers on [...]

Riverkeeper has created a great report on CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) which illustrates the extent of New York City’s sewer system overflow problem and outlines a number of very simple and affordable solutions. While none of the ideas presented are new to sustainability advocates, what has changed is the level of receptiveness in our city [...]

After the torrential rains of last week, I received an email from an organization called SWIM (StormWater Infrastructure Matters). If you are not yet aware of the major problems New York City faces regarding stormwater runoff, read on.