sustainableflatbush.org

While in Portland, I was eager to check out some of the projects spearheaded by a local organization called City Repair (”an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live”). One of their traffic calming “intersection repairs” turned out to be a few blocks from where I was staying, so I encountered it by accident on the way to breakfast:

These two women are also not locals, and when they asked me about the origins of this traffic circle I was proud to be able to speak with some knowledge about it (thanks to all the Portland promotion on Streetfilms).

This sheltered bench, located outside the Hawthorne Hostel, is an example of a centuries-old natural building technique called “cob” construction. It is one often used by City Repair because cob is an easy material to work with for those with little or no experience — requiring no forms, bricks, or wooden framework — and is well-suited to sculptural structures like this one. As I would soon learn on my upcoming sustainability-themed bicycle tour, cob is not made from corn cobs! It is made from clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, and formed by hand into bricks or blobs or whatever. After the structure is established the material can be shaped by hand like modeling clay. Portland is filled with cool hangout spots like this, thanks to City Repair’s annual Village Building Convergence (”a 10-day event in which neighborhoods activate to build shared public places that they have envisioned, designed, funded, and will maintain for themselves”).

What can I say? I’m impressed. And trying to envision a what Brooklyn version would look like. And planning a visit to next year’s Convergence.

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 forum where we will discuss how to use water efficiently and focus on water conservation technology readily available for both residential and commercial use. Our speaker will provide a combination of practical points for homeowners and specification information for design professionals from a regional and global perspective.

When: Wednesday, July 18, 2007, 6:30-8:00 pm

Where: Church Street School for Music & Art
74 Warren Street, Manhattan
1,2,3,A,C trains to Chambers Street; R,W trains to City Hall

Speaker: Warren C. Liebold, Director, Technical Services/Conservation, Bureau of Customer Services, New York City Department of Environmental Protection

Greening Your Home: Living Sustainably in Brooklyn

Four free seminars conducted by Ellen Honigstock, a Registered Architect and LEED Accredited Professional.

A green home uses less energy, water and natural resources; creates less waste; and is healthier and more comfortable for the occupants.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 7pm
Lonelyville Cafe
154 Prospect Park Southwest, Windsor Terrace

Friday, July 27, 2007 7pm
Vox Pop
1022 Cortelyou Road, Ditmas Park (around here we call it Flatbush!)

Monday, August 6th, 2007 7pm
Perch Cafe
365 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope

Thursday, August 16th,, 2007 7pm
West Elm
45 Main Street, DUMBO

As promised, a report from Solar Summit 2007, by guest blogger Mike Adams of NY Wind. About Mike:

• Mike Adams considers himself a citizen of the earth. He currently splits his time between working with Community Energy to spread the word about wind power and electric choice, working on an two organic farms, Sun One Solar Farm in Bethlehem, CT and Regeneration CSA in High Falls, NY, and teaching math. He feels the true beginnings of sustainability will come when it becomes discussed that large decreases in consumption are essential. He has lived in NYC since the blackout of 2003.

Mike can also answer questions about renewable energy options for NYC residents, including how to change your home electricity bill to “green power”. Feel free to post questions or comments at the end of this report, and be sure to visit NY Wind’s website.

Solar Panels on roof of MTA Stillwell Ave Station (photo by tigre)

NYC Solar Summit, June 21, 2007 at the Museum of Natural History.

About two weeks ago a group of solar installers, policy makers, academics and others interested in the solar industry and how NYC will develop its own solar resource congregated on the day with the most sun to discuss NYC’s solar situation. Many thanks to Bronx Community College and the Center for Sustainable Energy for bringing together this event.
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A request came in this morning from Solar One, the wonderful sustainability education center located on the East River in Manhattan. Their Green Renter lecture series is a fantastic resource for learning about all sorts of environmental topics, and their outdoor festivals in the summer, which feature films, music, dance, and “green” vendors, are lots of fun.

This looks like a cool and creative way to keep plastic bottles out of the landfill (at least until the Bigger Better Bottle Bill is passed):

CALL FOR PLASTIC BOTTLES!
For Solar One’s Citysol festival this summer to take place July 12-15, artist Jasmine Zimmerman will be constructing habit-able castles of recycled plastic bottles. We’ve estimated needing up to 8,000 used plastic bottles for this project and are hoping to collect them from the homes and offices of New Yorkers. We will deconstruct the structures after the festival is over and recycle them properly. We will be collecting bottles at Solar 1 (located at 23rd Street & the East River) we are generally here Monday-Friday, 9-5pm. We can also arrange for pickup if you’re unable to come to our site. 16-20oz. bottles will be easiest to use, but anything you have would be great!

Please e-mail jenn@solar1.org for more information.

Additionally, this will be a community building project, so please stay tuned on how you can participate — we’ll be adding to the structures throughout the festival so they will be constantly changing in form and scale with the voice of visitors.

Take a look at http://www.citysol.org for a brief overview of this year’s events and check back as information is updated in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I attended an orientation seminar for building professionals seeking to become partners in NYSERDA’s Multi-Family Building Program. I felt somewhat like a spy since my actual goal is to enroll my co-op building in this program, making me a customer rather than a vendor; but it was very illuminating to learn of NYSERDA’s new plan to help buildings to install energy efficiency improvements by providing incentive-based grants (the goal is to reduce energy consumption by at least 20%!), low-interest loans, and consultation all the way through the process. This program sounds like exactly what I have been looking for (and complaining about the lack of!) ever since my building commissioned an extensive energy audit last year and was unable to follow through with any of the recommendations.

One of the ideas they mentioned that I think will be really positive is the creation of an “Energy Smart Building” award for buildings that go through the program and reduce their energy use by 20% or more. It may seem superficial, but a title like that allows the whole idea to be promoted and marketed the way that LEED ratings are used to promote new construction projects as “green” (a proven sales booster).

I will continue writing on this topic as I learn more, and hopefully will be reporting from the trenches on the energy-efficiency retrofit process.

Streetsblog reports that a community-driven traffic calming project, similar to that profiled in a previous post on Portland, Oregon’s Village Building Convergence, will happen here in Brooklyn this summer. It is unfortunate that the choice of location, Third Avenue and Baltic Street, is motivated by tragedy (a four-year-old boy was killed there by a Hummer in February); it is outrageous that the Department of Transportation pledged to build its own traffic calming improvements along this stretch of Third Avenue in 2004, after two boys were killed several blocks away, and never followed through.

So now that the community will be taking the initiative for making its own streets safer, we can envision a Brooklyn version of the picture below:

photo by StreetFilms

Last week I attended a two-day course on Building Science Fundamentals. Why, you may ask, would a non-architect opt to use their spare time (and money) in such a way? Well… aside from having been interested in architecture since childhood, I was encouraged to attend by several (also non-architect) friends in the name of learning more about Green Building. This particular course came highly recommended by Chris Benedict, a NYC-based architect who is known for designing extremely energy-efficient buildings at a LOWER than average cost (and what could be more “Green” than that?). The two lecturers, Dr. Joseph Lstiburek and Dr. John Straube, are considered gurus in their field; I am happy to report that they are also quite entertaining, which is how I was able to avoid being knocked unconscious by the wealth of highly technical information as it flew right over my head. Mixed in with architectural and scientific terms were statements I could easily understand and contextualize, such as the notion that constructing a poorly-insulated building that guzzles energy but cannot breathe and thus provides a breeding ground for mold is… STUPID.

What I walked away from this course with is the idea that a truly “Green” building is one built to consume as little energy as possible, and to last for generations while providing its occupants a comfortable home free of contaminants. The key to all this, according to Joe and John, is the building enclosure – the outside and inside walls and everything in between. Unfortunately, despite all the hooplah around LEED standards and bamboo floors and recycled glass countertops and solar panels, not to mention the hypocrisy of calling a 12,000 square foot single-family home “Green” (!!), very little attention is being focused on this simple solution of creating intelligently-designed, appropriately-sized, well-insulated buildings. Why? Well, I guess to some people it’s not very sexy. But, really… what could be sexier than NOT being STUPID??

My friend Clarence (from Streetfilms) has just returned from the 7th Annual Village Building Convergence in Portland, Oregon. This is a 10-day-long event where “neighborhoods activate to build shared public places that they have envisioned, designed, funded, and will maintain for themselves”. One of my (and Clarence’s) favorite projects is the homemade traffic circles that are not only cool works of public art but also help to calm traffic at residential intersections. Although there is no actual 3-D structure, the painted designs actually DO cause drivers to slow down… maybe so they can admire the artwork!

Anyway, more photos and reporting (plus a film later this week) can be seen here. Wouldn’t it be great to do this in Brooklyn??

photo by Streetfilms