NYC.gov Environment -- Information on water, air quality, recycling and more.
plaNYC -- Official government site for making NYC a sustainable city,
Hudson River Foundation -- Supports scientific research and the management of the Hudson ecosystem.
New York City Environmental Fund -- Fosters active community stewardship of waterways, shorelines, parklands and open spaces in and around New York City.
The Council on the Environment of NYC -- A non-profit dedicated to greening neighborhoods, creating environmental leaders of the future, promoting waste prevention and recycling, and running the largest farmers market program in the country.
Adobe Systems, Incorporated has taken a significant plunge into renewable energy, completing installation of 20 Windspire wind turbines at its San Jose, Calif., headquarters.
“With the installation of the Windspires, we’re adding renewable energy to a long list of green measures Adobe has taken to lessen our environmental impact,” said Randall H. Knox, III, senior director, Global Workplace Solutions, Adobe. “We’ll continue to seek innovative green technology solutions to reduce our energy dependence and inspire others to go green.”
The new towers are located on Adobe’s sixth–floor patio, which doubles as a rooftop garden and recreational area above an office parking garage. Adobe’s three office towers create a wind tunnel effect from sustained winds off the Pacific Ocean.
Retrofitting doesn’t always get the attention that new green building generates, with its “net zero” and passive solar designs.
[caption id="attachment_9488" align="alignright" width="198" caption="Empire State Building (Photo: Empire State Building Co.)"][/caption]
But the impact of retrofitting can be great, and it comes with the bonus of preserving historic and treasured structures — like the Empire State Building.
Plenty of small to mid-size businesses are environmentally friendly, but organizing those efforts and conveying that commitment to a skeptical public can be another matter. One possible solution: Green Business Certification from the Green Business Bureau.
With more and more sports venues thinking green these days, Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins have opted to make a bit of environmental history when they open their new home park, Target Field, this year.
Working in conjunction with sports sponsorship agency GreenMark, Minneapolis-based Pentair will donate and install a custom-designed Rain Water Recycle System (RWRS) to capture, conserve and reuse rain water in the new facility. The system is expected to reduce the need for municipal water by over 50 percent, helping the stadium qualify for LEED certification while saving more than two million gallons of water annually.
By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now
Walgreens, the largest drugstore chain in the nation, is going green in Southern California. The retail chain celebrated the grand opening on Wednesday of a new store in Mira Mesa outside of San Diego, that is expected to be the first drugstore in the US to meet Leadership in Energy and [...]
It can be a challenge to update an historic building, let alone transform it into a model of green modernity. Rattling pipes crowd walls that need new duct work; old fixtures adhere stubbornly to aging walls and facades retain character, but heating and cooling – not so much.
Still, the historic Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland has recently undergone two green upgrades, and is determined to become a model of sustainability, while sacrificing none of its landmark historic elegance.
The 81-year-old Heathman, like most vintage urban hotels, has been through many nips and tucks over the decades. It got its first green redo about three years ago with the renovation of the guest bedrooms and living areas and the addition of a new heating and cooling system. The project, which won financial incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon, and included switching to CFL light bulbs, proved enlightening: The changes trimmed energy usage by 20 to 30 percent at the 150-room hotel.
“My return on investment, we realized that in less than two years; a year and half for the HVAC investment,” said hotel general manager Chris Erickson. “It was a wise idea and now as we move into the future, it’s all straight to the bottom line.”
The top 10 are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle.
Los Angeles ranked first with 262 buildings earning the Energy Star rating, which can be applied to rehabbed and new properties. San Francisco had 194 buildings; Houston, 145; Washington D.C., 136 and Dallas, 126.
Energy Star, the EPA’s label for high efficiency, sets standards for everthing from light bulbs and appliances to buildings.
They said it couldn’t be done: A LEED platinum house for $100 per square foot in hard construction costs.
Builders, architects, real estate developers, among others, have expressed skepticism that green building could be done inexpensively. One persistent notion is that sustainable home building is expensive because of higher upfront costs for cutting edge technology and design. Its become conventional wisdom, in some corners, that green building carries a 10 percent upcharge, at least.
The first daughters’ new school, Sidwell Friends in Washington, has been awarded the top LEED rating of platinum. But learning institutions across the nation are joining the ranks of LEED-qualified schools, as educators recognize both the health benefits for children and the long term energy savings of building greener.
Sidwell earned 57 out of a possible 69 points on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rankings. At the recent Green Build conference in Boston, the USGBC recognized several schools, including Sidwell, for their green advances.
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The National Audubon Society headquarters in New York City has distinguished itself as a builder not just of avian habitats, but of green, sustainable office spaces too, earning a LEED Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
In fact, the society’s 27,500-square-foot headquarters at 225 Varick Street received the highest [...]
Hollywood is known for conspicuous environmentalism, but its legendary movie studios were built many decades before anyone thought about a production’s environmental impact. Now a team including former Paramount Pictures president David Kirkpatrick hopes to change that by building “the first all-union built, green, SMART studio facility in the world” — in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The team behind Plymouth Rock Studios announced this month that it “has registered its entire development project with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in order to pursue campus-wide, new construction certification under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) standards.”
Want to stay at a verifiably green hotel for your next vacation? Soon you’ll be able to choose from among dozens of hotel and resort projects, in various stages of construction or remodeling, that have registered with the US Green Building Council, aiming to achieve silver, gold or platinum LEED certification.
But so far only a handful of resorts, hotels and lodges, 14 at last count, have completed the LEED certification process.
[/caption]
Working in conjunction with sports sponsorship agency 
