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.
The Department of Energy announced $10 million has been awarded to 16 cities for 40 new Solar America Cities Special Projects. The funds, made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will enable the cities to increase solar energy use in their communities through innovative programs and policies that the government believes can be replicated across the nation.
The cities chosen for these awards came from the group of 25 large U.S. cities that are part of the DOE’s Solar America Cities program, which recognizes the participating cities as partners highly committed to solar technology adoption at the local level. Those cities already have been given millions of dollars in funds and technical assistance to accelerate solar adoption.
King County Metro in Seattle has ordered up to 500 diesel-electric hybrid buses from Daimler Buses North America. The first year order includes 93 hybrids, and the transit service took options for up to 200 more buses.
Daimler says the first Orion VII diesel-electric hybrids will be delivered to Seattle beginning in mid-2010.
With the latest orders, Daimler Buses says it will have a total of more than 2,900 diesel-electric hybrid transit buses in revenue service or on order for various transit authorities throughout the U.S. and Canada – making it the largest hybrid provider worldwide.
Somewhere in between the sleep-away camps, beach excursions and baseball games of summer, kids and parents alike generally see the appeal of the sand-free floors and refrigerated air of a good museum. Institutions across the country know this is a great time to squeeze some education into kid-friendly, entertaining exhibitions; here’s a list of some of the best nature-oriented attractions for vacationers who’ve felt a bit too much heat this month.
Puget Sound Energy announced it has distributed more than 10 million free and discounted compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to its more than 1 million electric customers in Western Washington since the residential lighting program launched in 2002.
The utility said there is now an average of 10 energy-saving bulbs in use for every customer in the utility’s 9-county electric service area. PSE has distributed the bulbs to electric customers through local retailers, events and special promotions.
You know your car is a gas hound. But what about the water it requires?
Keeping a car clean, whether you rinse it off in your driveway or get it scrubbed at a professional wash, uses buckets of agua, more than you might realize.
If you’re careful, washing your car at home might use 10 gallons of water, but probably more like 25 or 50. A car wash can use much more, in the range of 75 to 100 gallons.
America’s urban centers are becoming ever greener, with the National League of Cities holding its first ever Green Cities Conference last month. While many cities have recently taken up environmental causes, some have been carrying the banner for years.
Seattle, home to such earlier innovations as the 60s Space Needle, Microsoft, and grunge rock, is one such green leader.
In 2008, Seattle was anointed the nation’s leader in LEED-certified buildings by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), culminating an eight-year-old sustainable building policy calling for city-funded projects to be LEED-qualified at the silver level.
Seattle also can boast about its:
Impressive bike trails system with about 30 trails and 20 bike lanes, making bike commuting commonplace in Seattle, home to the Cascade Bicycle Club, which claims to be the nation’s largest bicycle club
Community-based home energy efficiency program, called SWITCH, that started last year and has sent neighbors door-to-door with thousands of CFL light bulbs.
Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.
The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in ten major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Learning not to waste – whether it’s food, electricity or water – is not only good in these economic times, but even more important, it’s beneficial for the environment.
The Nalgene Least Wasteful City Study, released this week, ranks the country’s 25 largest metropolitan areas on wasteful behavior. San Francisco led the group with the least wasteful habits, while Atlanta ranked at the bottom.
Nalgene’s least wasteful city study, which was produced from a survey of 3,750 Americans in the top 25 largest cities that sought to probe their “mindset”, asking them about their green habits like whether they used public transportation and reusable grocery bags or composted and reused containers — resulted in San Francisco taking top honors as the most mindfully-least-wastefully green city:
Photo: Green Apple Network
From Green Right Now Reports
Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network have released the 2009 line up for the free “Green Apple Thank You Concerts” for volunteers in major cities across the country over Earth Day Weekend (April 17 through 19).
Performers at the flagship event “Earth Day on the National Mall” in [...]
Next month we celebrate Earth Day, the calendar hub of environmental action in the United States and around the globe.
The event, launched back in 1970, has enjoyed enduring life, inspiring countless mid-April tree plantings and “trash offs” No doubt many adults today remember canvassing a ditch for soda cans and paper litter sometime during their childhood.
Lately, Earth Day has been enjoying a resurgence as green aspirations break out in corporate offices, Jaycee meetings and kindergarten classrooms across the land.
While the vast majority of Americans are car bound, rising numbers are getting on board with public transit, commuter and light rail, trolleys and buses.
Those riding the rails and buses took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008, a 4 percent increase over the number of trips taken in 2007, according to a ridership report by the American Public Transportation Association.
During the same period, the number of vehicle miles traveled on roadways declined by 3.6 percent, the group reported, citing the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The 
