Click on the image above to explore this fascinating interactive map of energy use by building across the city. Usage was calculated statistically, based on this study on spatial distribution of urban energy consumption (in other words, no utility records or private information was used). Congratulations to Professor Vijay Modi and PhD student Bianca Howard of the Modi Research Group at Columbia- the map’ been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNET.

Directed by Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson and originally screened in collaboration with Rooftop Films and IFP, the film tells the story of 26-year-old Daniel Dembele, who decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels.  As it follows his progress from startup to viable business, the film touches on themes of climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency.  Check out the trailer:

Congratulations to Cambria and Morgan on getting their film in front of a nationwide audience! Also check out our update from March that features a 7-minute video by Morgan called “Burning In The States” focusing on the efforts of local NYC students building small-scale projects.

Considering that we’re supposed to have a hurricane this weekend, we may have to cancel more than one film for the second week in a row. We are going to try and reschedule for later in the year- please check back here and on the Film page to find out what the plan is for DIRT!, Urban Roots and An Evening with Matthew Modine.

Please come tomorrow to the screening of Dirty Business,  a new film about coal.

Our speaker tomorrow night will be Lyna Hinkel from 350.org:

With a background in international children’s television and documentary film production, Lyna has a long history of environmental activism.   She is presently organizing the 350.org Moving Planet NYC climate march and rally coming Sept 24^th.

350.org is an international organization working to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. With over 500 partners and tens of thousands of active volunteers in 192 countries, we have thus far successfully organized the two largest coordinated days of climate action in the planet’s history. This year, our third mobilization is called Moving Planet: A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels and will take place on September 24.

Moving Planet NYC

Out of the 300+ events scheduled to take place from coast to coast, NYC will be home to the spotlight Moving Planet event in North America. It will consist of a bike/march and rally from Columbus Circle to the United Nations Dag Hammerskold Plaza, with participants highlighting the need to move beyond fossil fuels and asking their elected leaders to push for clean energy solutions and a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa.

Dirty Business
Friday August 26 at 7pm (film will screen between 8-8:30)
At Solar One (Map)

120 years and one symposium later, solar powered hot water heating systems may finally be getting the attention they deserve in New York City. Since their invention in 1891 by American businessman Clarence Kemp, Americans on the whole  have been very slow and reluctant in adopting renewable energy water heating systems. However, that has not stopped solar hot water systems from becoming extremely popular in China and Europe; Germany, according to EarthKind Solar’s Ron Kamen, installs as many as 200,000 systems a year.

Fortunately, New York City may be just the city to put solar hot water systems back on the map for Americans. Executives from Quixotic Systems Inc., EarthKind Solar, and Sunnovations reported that the existing technology functions excellently in New York City’s temperate climate –especially atop buildings that have flat roofs and are 13 stories or lower (the majority of buildings in the city). In addition, building owners and managers such as Peter Bourbeau, of PWB Management Corporation, described how installing solar hot water systems in two of his rental buildings have lowered fuel oil expenses as much as 30 percent.

So should New Yorkers expect to see their neighbors tossing out their rusty old hot water heaters in exchange for shiny, green, solar powered systems? Perhaps not immediately, but progress is definitely underway: CEC is assembling a task force to follow through on the issues that the symposium raised.

What is our relationship to water as NYC residents? How often do New Yorkers think about water or even remember that four of our five boroughs are located on islands? In the mind’s eye of the average resident, New York is more likely to be a city of concrete canyons, not bays, rivers, and wetlands that are home to other species besides people. Perhaps that is because today we are used to seeing waterways as dividers that lie between our useful spaces, stormwater as a nuisance for the municipality, and potable water as a problem for engineers. The average New Yorker neither has an active relationship with the water bodies that surround the city nor gives much thought to how we know that the quality of our tap water is safe and secure. But when we start thinking more about water, we find that it has seeped into many seemingly unrelated aspects of our urban lives a long time ago.

On a large scale, it is no exaggeration to single out water as humanity’s most precious resource.  After all,  it is the foundation of life itself. Water is much a part of our bodies as it is an unseen but essential component in the production of food, clothing, energy, and in the operation of industry, buildings, and transportation. In nature, it is a renewable resource thanks to the brilliant simplicity of the hydrologic cycle. In places of dense human activity, however, its lifecycle is often linear: from fresh water to wastewater, which, even when treated, never regains the purity that makes it again suitable for human use. Considering that only 1% of the Earth’s water is suitable for human use, we must reconsider our relationship to water to make it more sustainable for the sake of ecological stability as well as our own security.

The City of New York has an intimate relationship with water. Water defined our city’s physical boundaries and laid the foundation for its financial prosperity. New York, like many cities before and after it, was founded on water for reasons of transportation and, therefore, trade. The City became the financial powerhouse we know today largely due to the Hudson River and the Eerie Canal. And yet today NYC’s port has shrunk dramatically, prompting industry and advocates to re-envision the function of the waterfront in an innovative and sustainable way.

New York’s waterways still retain the polluting footprint of recent heavy industry. While water quality in the Hudson and East Rivers have improved, other waterways, like the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek have recently earned federal Superfund designations due to heavy post-industrial contamination. Government-led efforts are on the way to clean them up, and community groups are teaming up with landscape designers, ecologists, and engineers to devise strategies to keep those waterways clean after the remediation is complete. Some strategies focus on limiting the volume of water that washes over our streets, into sewers, and then into water bodies when it rains while others explore how we can use water in our buildings more smartly and reuse it when possible.

The remaining piers that bristle out of the water all around Manhattan appear to most New Yorkers as the most visible vestige of a more active waterfront. Some have been reclaimed by enterprising individuals and organizations to be transformed into destinations; the Frying Pan on Pier 66 comes to mind. Nevertheless, such destinations are endpoints, often of a lengthy journey from the nearest subway. Rethinking transportation, some urban planners and designers are re-imagining these endpoints as hubs and positing that waterborne transportation can relieve NYC’s roads and subways that chocking with traffic. In that case, water can once again become a connecting medium instead of a divider, much like it had been in the days before Fulton’s Ferry was made obsolete by the Brooklyn Bridge.

Our waterfront must innovate not only in the interest of health, commerce, and connectivity, but also to engage people by offering them access to water and opportunities for recreation. Destinations like the Brooklyn Bridge Park and Hudson River Park, water sports like kayaking and small boating, all serve to grant access and allow New Yorkers opportunities to learn from and relax on the water.

Water, however, is both our friend and foe. As a coastal city bounded by water, New York is especially vulnerable to sea level rise. Last year’s exhibition “Rising Currents” at the Museum of Modern Art asked several groups of architects and landscape designers to imagine how the city’s landscape might cope with the disastrous invasion of water. If one were to take this scenario a step further, one could imagine the world transformed by an excess of water, both of the macro level of society and the micro level of individual human lives. This feat of imagination is being undertaken by artists and actors to help us glimpse one possible dystopian future, a future that, unwittingly, we might have helped to bring about.

We at Solar One think a lot about New York’s relationship water. After all, we are an organization located on the East River next to a combined sewer overflow discharge point; we manage a park of water-saving native plants; and we look forward to building a water-smart building, Solar 2. As part of our ongoing series, NYC the Future Metropolis, we invited some of our friends to share their thoughts about the importance of water to New York City on Sunday, May 8. We hope you can join us as well.

Please see the event page for more details: solar1.org/nycfm

It was enlightening to hear stories from all over the country about how damaging dirty energy can be.  Speaking with people who have had the environment in their county destroyed by mountain top removal coal mining, or with those fighting for clean air and water against the hydrofracking natural gas industry, made me realize that, more than ever, it is essential for the leadership in our city to do the right thing and combat climate change.  There are many easy things that every New Yorker can do to get involved and make a difference.

Check out wearepowershift.org to get ideas and hear stories from the convention.

Do your part! Keep an eye out for Solar 1′s events as well as all of our partners.  You can meet and greet with tons of like minded people through out the city at these events and learn how you can become a greener New Yorker

Last Thursday, Solar One partnered with Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program to show Carbon Nation, Peter Byck’s climate change solutions documentary. The screening on Thursday was a phenomenal success, with a full house, a great discussion with director Peter Byck, Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins, Solar One Green Workforce Development Director Diallo Shabazz and “green hawk” Dan Nolan. Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

However, if you weren’t able to be there, you can still see Carbon Nation this week at the Cinema Village at 3:30pm and 7pm from now through Thursday February 17. You can get tickets HERE!

After Thursday, Carbon Nation is going on the road, and if you happen to live in one of the following cities, you’re in luck:

Los Angeles, CA- February 18
Austin, TX- February 25
Portland, OR- March 4
Seattle, WA- March 4
San Francisco, CA- March 11

Group tickets are available for the above screenings- please contact Jackie Papier, jackiepapier[at]hotmail[dot]com.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program and Solar One Co-Present Carbon Nation at the Walter Reade Theater on Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm

Screening followed by a Q&A with the director Peter Byck, Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins, Solar One Green Workforce Development Director Diallo Shabazz, and a reception.

On Thursday February 10, Solar One is proud to be co-presenting the film Carbon Nation with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program at the beautiful Walter Reade Theater. Carbon Nation is a film by Peter Byck that explores potential alternatives to carbon fuel from one-armed Texas cotton farmer Cliff Etheridge’s efforts to pull together an enormous wind farm, to green jobs innovator Van Jones. This inspiring film presents vital solutions to a thorny problem and in the process reveals a thriving tradition of American ingenuity.

Friends of Solar One may purchase tickets at the $9 Affiliate price, a $3 discount off the general admission price. Film Society members purchase tickets at the $7 Member price. A great bargain for a great film!

Purchase tickets online by selecting the “Affiliate” ticket type HERE.

You can use this link that goes straight to the online purchase page for CARBON NATION:
http://www.filmlinc.com/tix.php?p=22298&b=1

Or purchase in person at the Walter Reade Theater’s Box Office:
The box office opens at 12:30 PM Monday-Friday, and one half hour before the first screening on Saturday/Sunday. It closes every day 15 minutes after the start of the last show. If there are no evening screenings, the box office closes at 6pm. For more information call 212-875-5601 during hours of operation.

IMPORTANT: Please printout this page! You will need to present the printout at the Walter Reade Theater Box office to purchase tickets or redeem an online order at this discount price.

Visit FilmLinc.com for more information about Carbon Nation. http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/gs/carbonnation.html

View the trailer for the film: http://carbonnationmovie.com/

Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, Upper Level
Bet Broadway & Amsterdam Aves

Some of the pictures map positive changes, like the reclamation of Mesopotamian marsh lands in Iraq, but most show more sinister changes like the growing hole in the ozone, the shrinking of the Aral Sea in central Asia and other harbingers of potentially catastrophic climate change. Fascinating, albeit scary, stuff!

About a month ago, Solar One hosted climate organization 350.org as the NYC stop on their Solar Road Trip, an attempt by 350.org founder Bill McKibben and a group of students from Unity College in Maine to convince the White House to return one of the solar thermal panels that Jimmy Carter installed to the roof of the White House. The initial administration response was pretty chilly, and the students were disappointed that their request wasn’t taken more seriously.Here’s a picture of the vintage panel, signed by all the people who attended the Solar Road Trip events in Maine, Boston, New York and DC:

But now the White House has reversed their position, and, as reported here on the NY Times Green blog, will be installing both a solar PV and a solar thermal system on the roof at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Here’s part of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s statement:

“This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Secretary Chu said in a statement. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”

This news comes at a great time, as 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party to address climate change kicks off this Sunday. To find an event near you, check the 350.org Invitation page. And congratulations to 350.org, Bill McKibben and especially the students at Unity!

NYU Earth Matters is throwing a party for Earth Day’s 40th birthday, and you’re invited! Check out a fabulous exhibit of eco-art from the NYU community and beyond, eat delicious food from the Dosa Man and check out some exciting live entertainment from MC Andrew WK, Cold Cave, Oberhofer and North Highlands, plus a Special Secret Guest so exciting we won’t be able to reveal their name until Saturday morning!

This event is free and open to the public, rain or shine! We hope to see you there!

Check out these stats from WIRED Magazine comparing

artificial trees to the real thing

ARTIFICIAL TREES

-There were 8.9m artificial trees imported to the United States in 2008.

-A typical artificial tree contains 7.3lbs of plastic, mostly poluvinyl chloride (PVC).

-It takes 20 years of re-use for an artificial tree’s carbon footprint to be lower than that of an actual tree’s.

-In an entire year, approximately 600,000 U.S homes could be powered using the energy required to run decorative lights during the holiday season.

THE REAL THING

-In 2008 there were 28.2m real trees sold in the U.S.

-Each year, 5.8lbs of pesticides are sprayed on real holiday trees in North Carolina.

-There are approximately 4,000 tree recycling centers in the U.S.

-It is estimated the average conifer tree can absorb 1 ton of carbon dioxide over 60 years.

TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR HOLIDAYS GREEN!

*

Check out www.greenpromise.com/resources to find organic, pesticide-free tree farms near you.

*

Switch to long lasting LED holiday lights and use approximately 90% less energy per string. Visit the New York Energy $mart Lighting Page for more info on LEDs. Visit www.holidayleds.com to recycle your old incandescent lights.

*

To find out where your tree can be turned into compost or woodchips, go to www.earth911.com.

]]> http://solar1.org/2009/12/08/the-greenest-tree/feed/ 0 http://solar1.org/2009/12/01/follow-us/ http://solar1.org/2009/12/01/follow-us/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:31:10 +0000 Jamie http://solar1.org/?p=4485 Well, we could only hold out so long before we caved to the allure of Twitter.  All the jokes have become cliche, so we’ll just put the link out there and ask you to follow us and pass it on.

http://twitter.com/solaronenyc

We will use this for quick links,  announcements, event updates, stray thoughts and anything we feel is worth passing along.  We also will have Chris Neidl posting updates from the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen beginning December 14th.  He will also have more detailed video updates posted daily in this space.

Thurs Sept 17: A Sea Change, 2008, 85 mins.
Fri Sept 18: The Garden, 2008, 80 mins.
Sat Sept 19: Burning In the Sun, 2009, 65 mins.
Rain Date for any of the above: Sun Sept 20

For trailers and descriptions, please visit http://solar1.org/events/film.

Saturday September 19th

Short: Blue Marble Ice Cream (from From Elegance to Earthworms)

Feature: Burning In the Sun
WORLD PREMIERE! 26-year-old Daniel Dembele decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels – the first of its kind in the sun drenched nation. Burning in the Sun tells the story of Daniel’s journey growing the shaky startup into a viable company and of the business’ impact on Daniel’s first customers in the tiny village of Banko. Taking a controversial stance on climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency, the filmmakers shed light on progress in Africa, and infuse optimism across culture. This 2008 IFP Documentary Lab selection will be shown in collaboration with Rooftop Films and IFP.

Speakers: Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson (Directors)

Cambria Matlow is a founding filmmaker of Birdgirl Productions, and Burning In The Sun marks her debut as a documentary feature director. She began production of the film in 2005 and has garnered national support from LEF Foundation and the Brooklyn Arts Council. Before her work with Birdgirl, Cambria directed and lensed several short narrative films which crossover styles lending a ‘documentary’ feel to fiction filmmaking. Cambria’s abilities are anchored by her dynamic background in filmmaking, foreign language ability, rich intercultural experience and political awareness.

Morgan Robinson worked as field producer and cinematographer for documentary filmmaker John Halpern. Previously he worked in the production department of Spike Lee’s HE GOT GAME andSUMMER OF SAM. Currently, In addition to co-directing Burning in the Sun, Morgan works for Punched in the Head Productions making MTV True Life documentaries. Morgan wrote, directed and produced the award winning short film CATABASIS, and JI DUMA: BRING THEM WATER.

Tonight’s Event is full. Space is still available for the 1/25 Green From the Inside Out.

Solar One in partnership with the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education will be touring Green from the Inside Out, a three-part workshop on recycling, energy efficiency, and rooftop possibilities for multifamily buildings, throughout New York City.

These workshops are designed to give building owners, shareholders, and managers the tools, resources, and information they need to green their multifamily building.  Look below for the workshop descriptions, to see the date and location of the next workshop, and to reserve your spot.

If you would like us to bring these workshops to your neighborhood, contact Celia Salgado at celia@solar1.org, or 212-505-6050.

A Survey of Solar Energy Roof Applications for NYC: Solar Thermal, Photovoltaics, Green Roofs and White Roofs

In this workshop Solar One will introduce, define and discuss the economic and quality of life implications of three solar rooftop applications that have considerable promise in the five borough area: solar thermal technology, photovoltaics and white roofs.

Navigating NYC’s Recycling Landscape

Hear about new recycling laws and old misconceptions. Find out how to avoid fines, improve your recycling program and get your tenants to recycle.  Learn about other ways to reduce waste, recycle more and help make NYC a little greener. OROE is a program of the Council on the Environment of New York City.

Combating Rising Energy Costs with Energy Efficiency for Multifamily Buildings

Find out how to reduce fuel and utility costs while improving resident comfort and building performance. Solar One’s NYSERDA Energy $mart Communities Coordinator will present cost-effective ways for residential building owners and managers to make lighting, appliances, heating and cooling more energy efficient. Learn about the government and utility incentives that are available for your building, as well as the Community Preservation Corporation’s new Neighborhood Energy Loan Program that provides financing for retrofitting multi-family apartment buildings for energy efficiency.

WHEN:  Wednesday, January 20

6:00pm to 8:30pm, plus post-event mixer!

WHERE: Central Park Arsenal

830 5th Avenue, Suite 318, NY

RSVP’s required.  Send email to celia@solar1.org to RSVP.

And from 8:30-10:00pm we are hosting a special event! Only on this special evening we will be hosting a Winter Networking Mixer overlooking Central Park! Invite your clients and business partners to partake in this unique networking evening. Find out what’s going green, and who’s going green in the Upper East Side! Entrance is free and drinks can be purchased.

RSVP’d guests can arrive at 6:00 to speak with Vendors about products. Presentations will start at 6:30pm and run until 8:30pm. There will be breaks in between presentations to talk to Vendors.

Free!  Refreshments will be served.  Vendors will be available to answer any technical questions about energy audits, different roof applications, and recycling.

GREEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT is a product of Solar One, in partnership with the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education. This series was made possible by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Solar One would like to thank all who attended last night’s screening of Earth Days, as well as Rooftop Films, Nevette Previd, Yellow + Blue Wines and Living Librally for helping make the event a success.

The film debuts theatrically today at Quad Cinema in Manhattan.

Photo: Erik Martig

The urban built environment simultaneously shapes and contributes to many of our most persistent quality of life challenges while also embodying our greatest potential for achieving a sustainable society. In this lecture Jean-Loup Msika, the founder of Sustainable-City-Project, and Dan Heyden AIA LEED AP, will lay out ways in which we can begin to rethink the relationship of the city’s built structures to one another and to the enormous energy resources of the sun with passive solar design at an urban scale.

Artist Talk: Ecoartspace, Solar One and Ronald Feldman Gallery are pleased to present an Artist’s Talk with collaborative team and Eco Art pioneers, Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison. They will speak in New York City at the Ronald Feldman Gallery on Tuesday, January 13th at 6pm in conjunction with their new exhibition Global Warming (opening on January 10th).

SPACE IS LIMITED: TO RSVP contact Sarah Paulson at (212) 226-3232 sarah@feldmangallery.com
or amy@ecoartspace.org

Where:  Ronald Feldman Gallery | 31 Mercer Street (at Grand Street)

When: January 13th | 6pm

About the Artists: Among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the collaborative team of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison (often referred to simply as “the Harrisons”) have worked for over thirty years with biologists, ecologists and urban planners to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.

The Harrison’s concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context. (From www.greenmuseum.org)

The potential of wind turbine technology to provide for our growing electricity needs on a utility scale increases every year as technology improves and its costs decline versus rising fossil fuel prices. However, wind power is limited by two key factors: time and location. Put simply, the wind doesn’t always blow and the areas with the highest wind resource are often located far away from population centers or in areas where development is controversial.

Developing turbines miles off shore along coastal shelves, where wind is more constant, speeds are higher and the imposing 30-story scale of today’s turbines are minimized to the size of thimble from land, may help mitigate both of these obstacles going forward. In spite of these advantages, recent large scale project proposals to develop offshore wind in the the Northeast have either succumbed to local opposition or escalating project costs. However, new proposals, including a few in the New York City harbor area, are again on the table, and important allies – including Mayor Bloomberg – have come to advocate for its development in the region.

KC Sahl, the New York Project Director for Bluewater Wind, one of the nation’s leading developers of offshore wind projects, will speak about offshore wind turbine technology and potential in the local context.