Upper Green Side

Regarding Carbon Emissions and Offsets.

Here at Upper Green Side, we are very concerned about taking personal responsibility for our carbon emissions that contribute to Global Warming. Changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescents or driving less is a way to reduce your carbon output, but even the most conscientious environmentalist will be personally responsible for some carbon emissions. You can do things to offset those carbon emissions, but first it’s good to take stock of what is driving your emissions.

There are many good carbon calculators available on the web to help you figure out your carbon footprint. Some are more precise and require specific amounts of kilowatts, miles in automobiles or planes and/or heating oil/natural gas you use in a given year while others ask general information about your lifestyle to create an estimate of your footprint. Use these to figure out where you can make the biggest carbon savings in your own life. Try out a few of them and see if you get similar answers. Depending on the calculator, you may come out with somewhat different answers, but the general findings of what is driving your personal contribution should be similar.

Even after you have pared your carbon footprint down to the lowest level you are comfortable with, there are ways to help offset the remaining amount to zero or even beyond. The first and best next step you can do is talk about what you did with your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors about how you reduced your carbon footprint. You may even want to help spur them into action by making it even easier for them by buying them Compact Fluorescent bulbs to install in their homes. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool because the message is usually practical and from trustworthy sources. Focus on the positive aspects of what you have done and how it makes you feel. In addition to talking to people you see on a regular basis, consider sending out custom emails to several people you know well detailing what you personally have done and what web resources that you found helpful and would recommend to others looking to make better decisions to reduce their carbon emissions. Ask local businesses what they are doing to lower the amount of carbon they are responsible for as well. If enough people ask, they might see a marketing opportunity to attract customers like yourself.

There are many new organizations that are working on projects to reduce carbon emissions that allow individuals to buy offsets of their individual emissions, like TerraPass (for profit) and the Carbon Fund (non-profit). Grist magazine did a review of all the major carbon offset programs and the basics of how they structure their programs and how they spend the money donated. Consider all the information you read on their websites and decide what program you like the best. All of this is to help people consider carbon emissions in all the major decisions about where to live, how to to get around, what food to eat, what appliances to buy and use.

So in general, do what you can individually, discuss with others what they can do and give money to organizations and support businesses that are working to reduce their carbon emissions.

Drink Tap Water for a Cleaner Environment

Ok, I drink bottled water every so often, like when it’s the only thing around. And I’ll re-use bottles several times before I put it into the recycling bin. Mostly I carry around a reusable Nalgene bottle and fill it with tap water. But there are many people in New York City who consume most, if not all of their water from bottles instead of the tap. All of that water is delivered by trucks from hundreds or thousands of miles away. For instance, Fiji water comes from nearly half a world away.

One way that NYC could become a role model to the rest of the nation is by going back to the tap. This was recently highlighted in Brooklyn Papers about one woman’s effort in Park Slope to steer people away from bottled water.

Continue reading Drink Tap Water for a Cleaner Environment…

Where Can I Find Non-Toxic Cleaning Products?

There have been huge advances in the development of non-toxic household cleaners that can do the same job as old hard chemical cleaners. Green cleaning products are good for the environment by preventing toxic agents from entering our sewage system which can be dumped into our waterways. They are also good for the health of you and your family. To learn more about the potential harmful effects of toxic cleaners see Seventh Generation’s webpage on household hazards.
There is also a non-profit group called “Wellness in the Schools” of concerned parents piloting the use of non-toxic cleaners in the city’s schools. They state that “children are uniquely vulnerable to toxins” because;

• pound for pound children take in more contaminants than adults,
• they have certain behaviors like lying on the floor or hand-to-mouth behaviors which expose them to more toxins,
• schools are cleaned every day with industrial strength cleaners which leave behind residues,
• researchers have found that early exposure to environmental toxins appear more likely to produce chronic disease than simliar exposures encountered later in life,
• many conventional cleaners contain asthmagens (asthma triggers)
• asthma is the number one cause of absenteeism in the NYC public schools.

And to ask the question at the top of the page, here’s a short list of stores that sell at least a few non-toxic cleaner, including Seventh Generation products:

Give them a shot and you’ll be surprised and impressed. And send us emails about other good non-toxic cleaning products that you would recommend to your neighbors.

Support Your Local Thrift Shops

The Upper East Side has many thrift shops that support good causes and serve as a great way for used items to find a new home. They are a great way to get rid of unwanted clutter in your apartment - like clothing, books, kitchen goods, working electronics, etc. In return you get to write off the fair market value for those items. It’s also a place to find great deals if you’re in the market for the same items.

Housing Works, which has a thrift shop located on 77th between Second and Third Avenue, raises money to provide services and advocate for the 30,000 New Yorkers living with HIV that live in homeless shelters, on the street or in otherwise inadequate housing conditions. Below is a list of other thift shops in our area. Call ahead to find out what they accept and what their hours are.

Feel a Breeze? Weatherize Your Windows!

As Winter finally reaches us here New York, many people are only for the first time feeling the cold air whip into their apartment through all the little leaks and cracks in their windows. If you have major points where air is coming through your windows, you should call your building’s super or maintenance person to see if they will come seal them up. You might remind them that sealing this up is a good way for them to save money on the building heating.

But many of us find that building supers are not as responsive to these requests as one might hope. And many times the leaks are small enough that they are easily fixed by the application of some tape, weatherstrips and plastic covers. Thankfully, there are many simple and inexpensive ways to seal up these cracks to help keep your apartment warm.

First find where all your leaks are and make a note of how many windows need to be weather stripped. If you want to be really exact, measure out the widths and lengths of your windows and add them up to make sure you buy enough supplies.

Then go to your neighborhood hardware store and ask about “weather stripping”. This will include soft cushioning tape to put at the top and bottom of your windows to provide a more tight, snug seal at those points and “cold weather tape” that is clear tape to seal up small leaks around the edges of your windows.

To provide even more complete protection across your whole window, there are a variety of clear film shrink wraps that can help prevent drafts and increase the insulation effect of your windows significantly. With these you just apply the double sided tape to the edges of your windows and then put the plastic wrapping around the edges, cut off the excess and then use a blow-dryer to seal the plastic to the window. When Spring comes and you are ready to open your windows again, the wrapping easily peels off.

You can purchase all of these supplies at your local hardware store for less than $20. Your apartment will be better insulated to keep you warm and you will be doing your part to save energy and reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Get Involved in Your Local Community Board

Let me be upfront, if you care about environmental issues and want to get involved at the grassroots level, now is the time, and Community Boards are the place. APPLY NOW (Manhattan Community Board Application)

Community Boards are often overlooked as a place to have a real impact on environmental policy. Many environmental activists focus on state or city level legislative or adminstrative bodies, businesses or important leaders and get a lot of good done on a variety of issues. However many times all this work falls short of connecting some of the larger environmental issues like Global Warming or Resource Depletion to the neighborhood or community level. As a result, local community boards or low level government bodies don’t necessarily make the connection between parking rules or zoning/building regulations to environmental issues like reducing automobile dependency or increasing the energy efficiency of major local development projects.

Here in New York, community boards serve a vital function of representing their neighborhood to city officials, developers, local businesses as well as providing a forum to discuss a wide range of public policy topics. Community Boards can pass resolutions (non binding) that have a strong influence on elected officials in an area and can also influence how money is spent by government agencies in that area. They are the true grassroots of New York politics. And they need a continuous supply of fresh members to keep them connected to the changing neighborhoods they represent.

Here in Manhattan, Borough President Scott Stringer is making a strong push toward reforming Community Boards to be more representative of their local communities and act on important issues of the day, like a rational transportation policy that prioritizes pedestrians and bicycle safety over automobile usage.

Next Week, Borough President Stringer is organizing an information session to encourage more people in Manhattan to apply for Community Board membership. Please bring a resume and you can apply on the spot. Here are the details of the information session:

Monday January 22nd, 6-8pm
Berkeley College, 12 E. 41st Street (between 5th and Madison),
Manhattan
Room B-202

It’s co-sponsored by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer,
Transportation Alternatives, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, NYPIRG’s
Straphangers Campaign, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Citizens for
NYC

And features presentations by:
*  Manhattan Borough President’s Office - What Is a Community Board and
How Can You Get on One?
*  Transportation Alternatives, Paul Steely White, Executive Director -
Local Advocacy for Healthier, Greener, More Efficient Streets
*  WE ACT, Peggy M. Shepard, Executive Director (invited)

APPLY NOW 

Tips for Saving Energy (and Money) Doing Laundry

Doing laundry in the city is a common chore that people have to do. Sure you can wear some items a few times before washing, but there’s no two ways about it: dirty clothes need to be washed. And there are amazingly simple ways to dramatically reduce your energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The most important suggestion if you are in the market for new laundry machines is to look for the energy star label!

Below you can read everyday tips to save energy, save money and do your part for the environment, while still getting your clothes clean.

Continue reading Tips for Saving Energy (and Money) Doing Laundry…

Electronics Recycling: Sunday January 7th, Union Square

Electronic Waste Recycling Drop-Off Event - 4th annual ‘After the Holidays’ event at Union Square Park - North Plaza 17th St & Broadway - Sunday, January 7th, 2007, 8am to 4pm

The Lower East Side Ecology Center is collecting electronic waste. This is important because while electronic waste represents less than 1% of our waste stream, it represents 70% of the toxic waste. Here’s a list of items that you are allowed to bring:
Working and non-working:Computers (laptop & desktop), Servers, mainframes, Monitors, Printers, scanners, fax-machines, copiers, Network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.), Peripherals (keyboards, mice, cables, etc.), Components (hard drives, CD Roms, circuit boards, power supplies, etc,)
TVs,VCR & DVD Players
Audio visual devices
Radios/Stereos
Cell Phones, pagers
PDAs,Telecommunication (phones, answering machines, etc.)
Media (floppies, cd’s, zips, VHS tapes)

This Weekend: Mulchfest 2007