New York

Green Spaces NY - where eco entrepreneurs get down to business.

Green Spaces office space for eco entrepreneurs in New York IMAGE

If you are an eco entrepreneur, imagine all the people who work around you are so too. Wouldn’t that be super productive, highly motivating and very efficient? Well, such a space exists in New York It is called Green Spaces, and brings together leading green entrepreneurs by offering shared work space, resources and a community to launch their business. So how does it work?...

Source: TreeHugger

Recycling Helium from the Thanksgiving Day Parade

pikachu float photo

Pikachu is full of helium, which the New York Times describes as "a finite and increasingly scarce resource, produced extremely slowly by decaying uranium and thorium." Like anything else, (gas prices anyone?) when it gets scarce and expensive, people start thinking about using it more carefully.

So this year, instead of just releasing it into the air, the are going to try and recover it.

Source: TreeHugger

New York City Considers Bike Share Program...From Danes

Brooklyn Prospective Bike Share photo
Goodmorning got an honorable mention for a bike share program it designed for Brookyn for the Forum for Urban Design.

In New York City only 1% of the city's commuter trips are estimated to be by bicycle. But overall ridership in NYC has increased 344% since 1980.

Source: TreeHugger

New Yorkers and Food Politics

Manhattan-Borough-President-Scott-Stringer-Photo.jpg
Manhattan Borough President Stringer telling it like it is
photo via the Observer

Source: TreeHugger

Dame vs. Syracuse Gridiron Rivalry Goes Green on Carbonrally.com

notre dame vs syracuse photo

With Notre Dame set to play Syracuse this upcoming Saturday on NBC in a carbon-free football game students, alumni and fans of the two schools are upping the rivalry by going head-to-head all month long in the name of sustainable living on Carbonrally.com. As each school works to create the largest green team with the largest reduction in their carbon footprint, and NBC throwing down some serious cash to help fund sustainable initiatives across the winning campus.

But which school is currently winning?
...

Source: TreeHugger

World Class Streets Have More Pedestrians, Fewer Cars.

flushing streets image

Danish Architect/Planner Jan Gehl and Janette Sadik-Khan of the NY DOT recently prepared a report for New York City called "World Class Streets" (PDF here). It suggests that "a vastly disproportionate amount of space is allocated to parking cars than to public seating spaces." For example, Main Street in Flushing squeezes twice as many pedestrians into one-third of the space....

Source: TreeHugger

Greenhouse Nightclub Opens in NYC...Not the City's First Eco-Saloon, Though

Greenhouse Nightclub NYC photo

Long-awaited in New York City is the "environmentally conscious" Greenhouse Nightclub on Varick Street in New York City's Soho neighborhood, which had a "soft" opening last week. Greenhouse comes right on the heels of GustOrganic, the first "100%" USDA certified organic bar.

Source: TreeHugger

Incredible Sculptures Made of Raw Meat

Hommage A Meret Oppenheim
Betty Hirst

Many have denounced contemporary art as a series of shock tactics, lacking the taste and relevance of classical art had during the periods when they were considered contemporary. Now a new exhibition at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, Manhattan will be showcasing meat art, which will either delight or abhor depending on your tastes.

Source: Environmental Graffiti - environmental news blog

6 Cents Per Plastic Bag: New York City’s Mayor Wants Everyone to Pay Up

plastic bag skyline photo
photo: d.billy

The latest in a series of environmental initiatives undertaken by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg takes on plastic bags. Already the city requires that pretty much any store which gives customers plastic shopping bags also accept them back to be recycled. The Mayor’s most recent plan would go one step further and require stores to charge 6 cents per plastic bag used (the city would get 5 cents of that, with a penny going to the store). Here are some more details, such as there are, on the Mayor’s plan:
...

Source: TreeHugger

USGBC and Sen. Clinton Offer Energy Saving Solutions for Schools Via Upcoming Webinar Series

If you’re as interested in seeing our schools cutting energy costs and their total carbon footprint as Sen. Clinton and the United States Green Building Council are then there’s no doubt you’ll want to get involved with their upcoming series of webinars aimed to help schools across the country get a better idea of just how valuable some simple investments in green infrastructure can...

Source: TreeHugger

Quote of the Day: Felix Rohatyn on the Green New Deal

rohatyn photo

Few people know how to pull a rabbit out of a hat better than Felix Rohatyn, who is credited with saving New York City in its fiscal crisis thirty years ago. Today in Forbes he calls for an "investment oriented stimulus package", noting that paying for infrastructure is not a bailout but an investment in the future. After the usual suspects like roads, bridges, transit and schools, he goes on:

Source: TreeHugger

Alternative Infrastructure: Canals and Railways Far Surpass Highways in Efficiency

erie canal photo
Sung Park for The New York Times

In the closing days of this election there is all kinds of talk of a New Deal scale investment in infrastructure. But what? Roads? Bridges? A great example of forward-thinking infrastructure investment is the Erie Canal that has been connecting New York City and the Atlantic ocean with the Great Lakes since 1825. This year traffic almost tripled over the previous year. The reason? Christopher Maag writes in the New York Times:

Source: TreeHugger

Jenny Hwa of Loyale is an Oprah "Leader in Training"

Jenny Hwa photo
Photo credit: Loyale

TreeHugger would like to congratulate Jenny Hwa, owner and designer of eco-chic fashion label Loyale, for making O the Oprah Magazine's White House Leadership Project.

More than 3,000 women applied for the contest last spring, and the 80 winners were invited to attend a three-day crash course in New York CIty on creating change in the world, with coaching from top women leaders in the country.

...

Source: TreeHugger