Bushwick Campus Greenhouse Gets Expansion Funding
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012In 2010, Solar One helped initiate a greenhouse project at the Bushwick Campus which contains the Academy of Urban Planning, Academy of Environmental Leadership, Brooklyn School for Math and Research, and Bushwick School for Social Justice.
This project grew out of our Green Design Lab project that was recently highlighted in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. Now, the Greenhouse project will be taken to a new level thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $16,500.
Working with EcoStation:NY, students will develop the existing structure to “make it an environment for year-round growing and learning by building shelves, tables, and workbenches, installing solar panels, aquaponic and hydroponic systems, winterizing it for year-round use, and implementing a water catchment system for rainwater harvesting.” From there, it will be used in some new classes covering Agriculture, Hydroponics, etc. that will be available to students at the schools. Other plans include “cooking classes, guest teachers, and field trips,” and it’s all in service of the project’s goal “to connect the dots between the food system, economics, health, the environment, social justice, and sustainable agricultural practices.”
We want to extend our congratulations to everyone involved in making this project happen and hope that it inspires other schools to take up similar projects that educate while improving our local environments. We are looking forward to seeing the completed work in effect in the near future. For more background on the project, check out the Bushwick Campus Farm YouTube Channel.
Posted in Education, Food, Green Design Lab, Organic Farming | Permalink
Solar One’s Green Design Lab Featured in the Wall St Journal!
Friday, December 9th, 2011Check out this awesome video from the Wall St Journal about Solar One’s Green Design Lab program in the NYC Public schools! You can also read the article HERE at WSJ Online.
Big thanks to the NYC DOE and to all the partners and funders who have helped us this program a success. And congratulations to the Education Team on their incredible work!
Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, New York City, S1 in the News | Permalink
UPDATE! DIRT! Repostponed Due to Rain! 2011 Solar-Powered Film Series Begins Next Thursday August 18 with DIRT! the Movie
Saturday, August 20th, 2011| August 18, 2011 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 11:00 pm |
UPDATE! MORE THUNDERSTORMS SUNDAY NIGHT, DIRT! THE MOVIE CANCELED AGAIN
Please check back here to find out when we might be able to screen DIRT!
Due to thunderstorms on Friday, the screening of DIRT! the Movie has been postponed until TONIGHT Sunday August 21 at 7pm (film will screen around 8:30).
The summer is more than half over, and you know what that means- time for Solar One’s annual Solar-Powered Film Series! As usual, we’ll have 6 programs of (mostly environmental) features and shorts, with a few surprises and special guests thrown in. Also as usual, we’ll be partnering with the always-amazing Green Edge NYC, a social network that helps New Yorkers live more sustainably. This year’s Film Series is also sponsored by Chapin Hill Advisors, a financial planning and wealth management firm with a strong commitment to the environment. We’re excited to welcome them to the Solar One family!
Also new this year: the first week of films deal with the themes of food and urban agriculture, and we’re incredibly excited that the urban farmers of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm will be coming to Solar One and setting up a farm stand where attendees will be able to buy popcorn, snacks and produce grown right across the river in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! Eagle Street is close to Solar One’s heart not only because of their farming venture, but also for Growing Chefs, a great program that teaches schoolkids to not only grow food, but to prepare it as well.
Come and meet them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday August 18-20!
And now, more about the first film we’ll be screening- DIRT! the Movie:
From the website:
DIRT! The Movie–directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow–takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility–from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.
The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, “dirt is very much alive.” Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. “Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt.”
DIRT! the Movie–narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis–brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.
DIRT! the Movie is simply a movie about dirt. The real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. The movie teaches us: “When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked.” But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT the Movie is a call to action.
“The only remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is connecting them to it again.”
What we’ve destroyed, we can heal.
Speaker: Leanne Spaulding, Program Coordinator for the Western Queens Compost Initiative will talk abut the latest in compost initiatives and how YOU can get involved! Find out more about WQCI on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/wqnscompost.
You can see trailers and get information about the entire Series HERE, and check back here in the coming days for more details about each program!
Posted in Education, Film, Food, green roof, New York City, Organic Farming, Solar One Events, Sustainability | Permalink
Deadline to Apply for 2011-12 Green Design Lab Extended to June 10th
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011We’ve been getting a lot of applications from schools hoping to participate in the Green Design Lab during the 2011-12 school year. And we’ve also been hearing from school who would like a little more time to complete the application. In addition, there is a final NYC Dept. of Education Sustainability Coordinator Training on June 6th at which Solar One will be presenting information on incorporating sustainability into school curriculum (using the Green Design Lab as an example) and we felt it was best to wait until after the training to have applications due.
As a result, we are extending the deadline for completed applications to be submitted to June 10th at 5:00pm. All applications will need to be e-mailed or faxed to us by that time. You can learn more and download the application and instructions at our Green Design Lab site here. Any questions should be directed to gdl@solar1.org and we will do our best to respond within 24 hours. We look forward to working with another great batch of schools starting this fall.
Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, New York City, Sustainability | Permalink
Green Design Lab In The News & Applications for 2011-12
Thursday, May 26th, 2011Solar One’s Green Design Lab program has been going strong this school year as we have delivered the program to 10 schools across New York City. The program teaches students about energy and sustainability through a variety of lessons and activities using their own school to demonstrate how buildings and their occupants use resources. Students then take these lessons and apply them to greening projects that reduce consumption by bringing together teachers, students, administrators, janitorial staff and parents to effect changes.
Last week, the program got some nice coverage from the Manhattan Times – a bilingual newspaper serving Inwood and Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. The article focuses on our work with PS 187 in Washington Heights where Solar One educators have been helping students save energy as part of the Green Cup Challenge and create the beginnings of a rooftop garden to reduce cooling costs for the building.
PS 187 students load soil into jean planters to be used in the rooftop garden for their school.
The program has been a rousing success and we are thankful to see such a warm write-up of the program and its accomplishments. We are already gearing up to implement the program in more schools during 2011-12. If you are interested in bringing the program to your or your children’s school next year, you can download the application from the Green Design Lab site, or click here to download it in PDF or MSWord format.
Posted in Education, Energy Efficiency, S1 in the News, Solar One | Permalink
