Sunday, April 22, 2012

10 ways the Big Apple is a Green Machine


Happy Earth Day Everybody!!!

What are you doing today to make this a greener world.  Start small and do a little something that you won't normally do, like recycle something.  When you realize that didn't hurt too much do a little more like buy a plant for your house or for someone you love.  If you want to go crazy and be adventurous join me in your local park and bring two bags, one for garbage and one for recycling.  I'll be in my park cleaning and enjoying the beautiful park hopefully for years to come.  Happy Earth Day, celebrate it anyway you can but celebrate if only for a moment.

Here is an encouraging article I read in the Daily News today.  Go Green NY!!!

Here are 10 ways NYC is setting a sustainable example.
1. We’ve planted 562,023 trees (and counting) since 2005. Trees clean pollutants from the air, cool streets and sidewalks, and boost property value, which is why the MillionTreesNYC initiative is dedicated to sprucing up the city with a million new trees over the next decade.
2. New York Harbor is cleaner now than at any time in the last century. More than 116 square miles (75%) of New York’s side of the harbor meets pathogen standards for swimming, and more than 130 square miles (95%) of the harbor is open for boating, according to the 2011 PlaNYC report. “You didn’t want to be near the water in the old days,” says Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “Now people swim in the rivers, which was unthinkable in the ’70s.”
3. Our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have fallen 13% below 2005 levels. A New Yorker’s carbon footprint is already one-third that of the average American because our densely populated city makes for an energy-efficient lifestyle. But now more than 100 buildings have had energy-efficiency retrofits to reduce GHG emissions 30% by 2030. Planting trees and adding hybrid vehicles to the mass transit fleet have also cleared the air.
4. New York is lit with energy-efficient bulbs. The Great White Way has seen the light, with 38 Broadway theaters converting to LED and CFL bulbs on their marquees, saving 2 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, according to the Broadway Green Alliance. MTA bridges and tunnels have been replacing the old 100-watt necklace lights on the Verrazano-Narrows, Robert F. Kennedy and Throgs Neck Bridges with efficient LED fixtures since April 2008.
5. 29 of the NYC Green Codes Task Force’s 111 recommendations have been passed into laws and practices. By 2030, these new codes under the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan will cut citywide carbon emissions by almost 5%, lower daily water consumption by the equivalent of 30 Central Park Reservoirs, and divert 100,000 tons of asphalt from landfills every year — while also creating 18,000 construction-related jobs.
6. More than 30% of the city's yellow cabs turned green. There are 2,774 gasoline-electric hybrid cabs and 1,677 hybrid buses on the road, reducing GHG emissions from some of the city’s heaviest-used vehicles. NYC also boasts the largest municipal electric vehicle fleet in the country, with 430 in use by the police, fire, sanitation, transportation and parks departments.
7. NYC has the highest concentration of Certified Green Restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. The Green Restaurant Association says 71 local eateries (from the 5 Napkin Burger chain to Mario Batali’s Babbo) meet their standards for using sustainable food and building materials, water and energy efficiency, waste reduction and recycling.
8. Our recycling program will divert 550,000 tons (or 30%) of solid waste from our landfills annually by 2017. It’s also setting up 1,000 public recycling receptacles by 2013 (nearly 10 years ahead of schedule) and working to expand the types of plastics that can be recycled.
9. More than 1,000 community gardens are flourishing across the boroughs. Some 80% of these are growing food, mostly in neighborhoods with limited access to fresh produce and healthy food. GrowNYC has 61 registered greenmarkets around town, as well, with 41 accepting EBT.
10. The city added 200 miles of bike lanes in just three years. Now more than half a million New Yorkers are cycling across the boroughs, and commuter cycling more than doubled from 2007 to 2011. Every person on a bike avoids polluting the air in a vehicle while getting exercise, to boot.


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