Starting January 30, New Yorkers will be able to conveniently finance energy-efficient upgrades to their homes through a charge on their electric bill. On average, this charge will be less than the money saved by the improvements, so participants should not see their bills rise on a yearly basis. And if you act soon, you won’t have any payments due until June 2012.

This is the new On-Bill Recovery Loan Program, which we explained in November. The program will be available to homeowners who are customers of Central Hudson Gas and Electric, Con Edison, Long Island Power Authority, New York State Electric and Gas Corporation, National Grid (upstate NY customers only), Orange and Rockland, and Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation. The program will soon be offered to small businesses, not-for-profits, and multifamily building owners, although it is not yet available for these groups.

NYSERDA recently released the details of the On-Bill Recovery program, which offers lower interest rates than its current financing programs.  For a rundown of the newly released details and an explanation of how the program will benefit you, continue reading after the jump.

EmPower New York services are provided free to households earning 60 percent or less of the statewide median income (HEAP eligible). Services include high-efficiency lighting, replacement of inefficient refrigerators and freezers with new ENERGY STAR® qualified models, heating system upgrades, insulation and air sealing, and health and safety testing to ensure the home is properly ventilated and gases are not escaping into the living space. To ensure quality, all EmPower New York services are provided by Building Performance Institute (BPI)-accredited contractors, and the work is reviewed to make sure it has been done correctly.

Applicants may apply directly or be referred to the program by participating utilities, local Offices for the Aging and Weatherization Agencies. Energy efficiency services are prioritized based on the potential for cost-effective energy usage reduction. For additional information call 1-800-263-0960 or request an application online. For more information on all NYSERDA programs, call the Energy $mart Communities Coordinator at 212-785-0734.

Read the complete NYSERDA Announcement

Get your spooky fun on this Friday at BuildItGreen!NYC’s brand-new space in Gowanus, Brooklyn! From 3-6pm, kids can stop by the BIG!NYC/GrowNYC costume swap and trade their old finery for new, plus watch family-friendly Hallowe’en films, do some eco-crafts (Solar One will be making cardboard animal masks), play games and much more!

Then at 7pm, it’s time for more adult fun at BIG’s costume fundraiser. Tickets start at just $10 and are available HERE!

BIG!NYC Costume Swap and Fundraiser
Friday October 28, 2011
Costume Swap at 3pm, Fundraiser at 6pm
69 9th Street, Brooklyn
Get directions HERE!

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

The first grant comes from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) through their Green Innovation Grant Program (GIGP). The EFC is a public benefit corporation providing low-cost capital and expert technical assistance for environmental projects in New York State while promoting innovative environmental technologies. The GIGP program is a competitive process that contributes “seed money for projects which spur green innovation, build green capacity, and facilitate technology transfer throughout the State.”

Solar 2 will receive a grant of $712,500 through the GIGP that will help to pay for many of the water conservation, treatment and re-use technologies that will be found in Solar 2.  Among these features are a rainwater collection system, a rainwater garden and wetland, a roof garden, on-site biological wastewater treatment, a vertically-integrated greenhouse, waterless urinals and low-flush toilets and more.  Taken together, these technologies will work toward our goal of net-zero water use in Solar 2 and will be unlike any other systems in use in public buildings in New York City.

The second grant comes from the J.C. Kellogg Foundation in the amount of $375,000.  This money will help us complete the final design processes needed to begin bidding and construction and will also contribute to the actual construction of the building. This grant fills an immediate need and will help us keep the project moving forward while we work to secure the remaining funds to cover the full cost of construction.

This support adds to the growing list of funders supporting the development and construction of Solar 2, including Mayor Bloomberg/PlaNYC, the New York City Council, the Manhattan Borough President, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the New York State Assembly/New York Dormitory Authority, the Schmidt Family Foundation, ConEdison, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Geoff and Sara Gund Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.  We are pursuing a number of other funding and sponsorship options as well and hope to have even more good news to report very soon.

If you or your organization are interested in funding Solar 2 or learning about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our Executive Director Chris Collins at chris@solar1.org or by calling 212.505.6050. For more information on the project check out the Solar 2 page and the project page of our architects, Kiss + Cathcart.

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Multifamily Building Analyst Training & BPI Exam

Nine Wednesday Evening Classes, April – June 2011
Dates: April 27, May 4,11,18,25, June 1,8,15, 22
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Get the BPI Certification you need, and still get to work!
If you are an energy professional working in multifamily buildings or just want to learn more about energy audits in multifamily buildings, this is the certification for you. GreenHomeNYC is bringing in one of the people that helped develop this certification, at a schedule that meets your work schedule, so that you can be certified by BPI as a
Multifamily Building Analyst.

$1600 Fee includes BPI Certification exam fee.
A non-refundable deposit of 25% is required to hold your seat in the class – please pay via credit card or check.  Additional details available at greenhomenyc.org/bpi.

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.

Solar One has partnered with Superintendents Technical Association (STA) to reach building operators in New York City and provide them with an “Intro to Green”. Although targeted towards superintendents, property managers and coop board members could also benefit from this technical seminar.

On Monday, October 18th from 6-9pm, a new three-hour course will introduce the concept of green and how it relates to buildings in New York City.

This introductory course will help building operators, property managers, and coop boards manage their buildings in a more energy efficient and cost-effective way. The course will orient building stakeholders in green terminology and concepts; review NYC’s new green laws for existing buildings; discuss NYSERDA incentives available for New York buildings; and determine if future education and/or certifications may be right for the attendees.

For more information or to register, please visit nycsta.org

Monday, October 18th, 6-9pm
230 E 90th St.
Pre-register: $55.00
STA Member & non-members: $65.00 at the door

For more information, contact Mary Tchamkina at Solar One:
646-576-5663
mary@solar1.org



The NEW New York: GreenHomeNYC’s DIY Green Block Party, Saturday October 2nd 10am – 6pm, will give New Yorkers tangible experience with ways to live green(er). Catering to citizens anywhere on the green spectrum from curious to committed, this event will bring concepts to life through hands-on activities. For example, a local compost vendor, Vokashi, will sell compost k its as well as have compost on hand to smell and examine up close. Recycle-A-Bicycle will demonstrate how to repair a bike and take donations of old bikes. Bring your old clothes to be recycled through Wearable Collections, and your e-waste through the Lower East Side Ecology Center. In addition to over 45 vendors, there will be special neighborhood tours such as a “ride-along” on a brownstone’s energy audit, a trip to a green roof, and a tour of Third + Bond, which is anticipating LEED-Gold.

In keeping with the theme, the NEW New York itself will be green: using biodiesel and compostable food containers, recycling trash and composting food-waste, minimizing trash by asking vendors to present paperless, and purchasing carbon off-sets.

Visit our website for more information, and to sign up for events,demonstrations, and building tours. Solar One will be running activities for kids!

10:00am- Make insect/butterfly/native creature puppets!

12:00pm- Make seed bombs that will turn into wildflowers in the spring!

2:00pm- Make a solar racecar and see how fast it will go!

www.greenhomenyc.org/thenewnewyork

Third St between Bond & Hoyt Sts in Brooklyn

F/G to Carroll Street

You can also check out an article in the NY Observer about Solar One, Solar 2 and the Platt sisters HERE. It’s official: Chris Collins is dapper!

New energy efficiency legislation that will drastically impact your building is fast approaching and you don’t want to be caught unprepared.  Join us for an interactive session with leaders in the field of energy efficiency.  Learn how you can take advantage of these required changes, and benefit from cost saving measures.  You will also hear about all of the potential funding and financing opportunities available to help with project costs.

June 17, 2010, 6:00-8:00pm,

followed by networking a reception

Sony Wonder Technology Lab Auditorium

550 Madison Ave (at 56th St.)

PANELISTS

Representative from the City of New York:  NYC Green Building Codes

Kate Grossman, Greenwich Energy Solutions:  Energy Audits and Qualifying Buildings

Brett Greenberg, Bovis Lend Lease:  Implementing Energy Efficiency Measures

David Gibson, Lutron:  Advanced Lighting Technologies

Cliff Schorer, Greenwich Energy Solutions: Financing Options

Diana Pangestu, Solar One:  NYSERDA Incentives and Case Study

Seminar Cost:  $25

To register, click on the following link:

It’s Build it Green’s 5th birthday, and we’re celebrating with a joint fundraiser under the tents! Come and enjoy delicious organic vegetable and lamb bar-b-que, beer, live music with the amazing Amayo’s Fu-Arkestra, the DJ skills of Tony Lowe and entertainment from the always-entertaining BIG!NYC team. Tickets are a wallet-friendly $20 adv/$25 at the door, and all proceeds will be split between Solar One and Build it Green! Show us how much you care about a sustainable NYC, come party at Solar One!

Advance tickets available HERE or at the BIG!NYC warehouse in Astoria.

Under the Solar One Tents Map/Directions

Saturday June 12 from 6pm-10pm

NYU-Poly Panel w Engineer Kareem 4.19.10

Join Solar One, McKissack & McKissack, CRDF, and the New York Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders as we host a discussion on the success and challenges of the U.S. Department of State’s Iraq Engineer Enhancement Program (IEEP) at NYU-Poly. The panel will explore the challenges of rebuilding Iraq’s scientific and technological infrastructure, and the urgency of embracing sustainable technologies.

Date: Monday, April 19, 2010, 6:00-8:00pm

Location: NYU-Poly, 160 Varick St. 19th Floor, New York, NY

Register:  Email Diana Pangestu at diana@solar1.org, or call (212) 785-0734

Listen as an Iraqi executive and engineer charged with reconstruction of Iraq’s damaged infrastructure describes the technical, professional and societal challenges facing Iraq today.

Learn more about “science diplomacy” as embodied in the Iraq Engineer Enhancement Program (IEEP), a U.S State Department program managed by the Civilian Research and Development Foundation that is designed to connect Iraqi engineers and professionals with the knowledge they need to rebuild their country.

Connect with a growing network of friends and supporters.

Panelists:

Engineer Kareem, CRDF Fellow at the Iraq Engineers Enhancement Program

Micah Kotch, Director, NYC ACRE Incubator at NYU-Poly

Lex Heslin, President and CEO, Beautiful Earth Group / renewable energy development

Jonathan McClelland, MJ Beck / financing renewable energy projects

Woody Crouch, PE, AECOM / solar power infrastructure, emerging markets

Andrew McNamara, Vice President of New Construction & Renewables at Bright Power Inc.

Moderated by:

Alaa Majeed, Iraqi-American journalist

Andrew Daquesian, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Chair, Green Design & Construction Committee

The Greener Greater Buildings Plan, New York City’s green building legislation, was passed in December 9, 2009.  Solar One, in partnership with NYSERDA,  the City of New York, the Alliance for Downtown New York,  the New York Academy of Sciences, and the New York Building Congress, bring to you the first of a series of workshops to better explain this legislation to the audience it affects – commercial building owners and managers.  In addition to legislation, we will present an overview of the NYSERDA incentives available to commercial buildings that will help offset the costs for energy efficiency upgrades.

Green Within Reach, hosted by the Alliance for Downtown New York, will take place on April 15 from 8:00-11:00am at The New York Academy of Sciences.  While we expect a large amount of interest, we especially invite those who are decision-makers over commercial buildings in the downtown area to attend.

The New York Academy of Sciences
Seven World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10007

Event will feature presentations by NYSERDA and the City of New York. Opening remarks by Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert M. LiMandri.

Agenda
8:00am Breakfast & Networking
8:30am Welcome & Introductions
9:00am Program Begins
10:30am Q&A

EVENT IS FREE. SPACE IS LIMITED.
RSVP here by April 12.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Hewitt at ehewitt@downtownny.com .

First Annual Green Finance Series

A Constellation of Events Presented by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and ACRE at NYU-Polytechnic

Public and private sources of capital talk about current equity and debt programs to fund businesses and projects in the green space. Find out from government and non-government experts how best to fit their offerings with your business projects and investment needs.

Speakers include:

Diana Pangestu of Solar One (NYSERDA Programs)
Kevin Stone of Kevin Stone International, Inc. (SBA & other loans)
Michelle Bhattacharyya of NYC Business Solutions (NYC, Seedco, community based funding)
Michael Huerta, Bright Path Energy (private equity/Wall St capital markets)
Edward Wu, Senior Partner, Cora Capital Advisors
Sean Patrick Neill, Managing Director, Transcend Equity Development Corp.
William G. Lashbrook, III, Senior VP, PNC Real Estate
Betty McCain, VP, Citibank

Moderated by Ann Kayman, CEO, New York Grant Company

Presented at ConEdison, Con Edison
4 Irving Place, 19th Floor

$15/$25, please click here to register.

You can read the interview here.

From NYSERDA:

The New York State Green Residential Building Program (GRBP) will promote green design and building practices throughout New York State by offering incentives to Owners of newly constructed or substantially renovated green residential buildings of fewer than 12 units. A green residential building is a structure that incorporates design and construction practices that can lower energy costs and production of greenhouse gases, reduce waste and water use, and improve indoor air quality.

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.

6:30pm: 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.

7:15 pm: 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.

8pm: 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.

WHEN:  Monday, January 25th

6:30pm to 8:30pm

WHERE: Sol Goldman YM-YWHA

344 East 14th Street New York, NY

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

RSVP’d guests can arrive at 6:15 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.