Eco Brooklyn’s director, Gennaro Brooks-Church will be giving a presentation at New York’s 2012 Passive House Symposium. The topic of his presentation is “Radical Sustainability and Passive House.” The all day event is filled with interesting speakers and is a must for anyone interested in the worlds most cutting edge energy efficient building technique. …
Many Brooklyn homeowners have inherited a common problem: contaminated backyards. This is a result of over 100 years of garbage incineration, car fumes and toxic paint. In New York, soil is deemed contaminated if there are more than 400 ppm of lead present in the soil (in Euro the maximum is 100ppm!). A few months …
Brooklyn’s Baggage: Soil Contamination in our own Backyards Read More »
Earlier this week, Eco Brooklyn received an email for a South Park Slope resident who operates a community garden. She explained that the community garden on the corner of 6th ave and 15th called 6/15 Green is being threatened by the construction of a new building. The developer plans to build a 4-story structure adjacent …
If you believe in voting with your dollar, then Green America wants to be your ballot box. The organization is like Consumer Reports’ older brother that joined the Peace Corps and goes to protests on the weekends. It evaluates businesses that aspire to sustainable and ethical perfection with their Green Certification system, posting those they deem exemplary on their …
Last week students from the International Center of Photography came by to photograph the show house green roof and back garden. Here is what they came up with. Our Favorite: Eco Brooklyn NY green roof service is doing well and we are now expanding to provide natural swimming pool construction services for New York …
12×12 is the maximum dimensions a shelter in North Carolina can be before it legally becomes a house, subject to property taxes. For this reason it is a hallowed number among the off-the-grid set, and the title of a popular book on one man’s foray into the world of tiny houses. It is also the …
Demolished Buildings Get a Second Life as Contemporary Furniture Read More »
On June 7th, Van Alen Books hosted a panel discussion on architect David Bergman’s book Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide. Susan Szenasy, Editor-in-chief of Metropolitan Magazine, moderated the panel, which was made up of architect and professor David Bergman, Terreform ONE co-founder and Planetary ONE partner Mitchell Joachim, and NYC Department of Design and Construction …
Recap of Panel Discussion on Green Design as (Un)usual Read More »
In the past decade there have been a flood of green building certifications developed as guidelines for contractors, architects, and developers to follow in order to build a “green building”. Just in the U.S. there are half a dozen very popular ones. If we focus on a world scale there are even more. Here is …
Advantages and Disadvantages of Green Building Certifications Read More »
Cork comes from the bark of the Cork oak (Quercus Suber). It is the outer most layer of the bark that is harvested when the tree is mature after about 25 years old. The tree grows to be about 65 feet tall and is and evergreen so is won’t shed its leaves in the fall. …
One of the things we have realized is that if you build a green home but the inhabitants are not green you have lost half the benefit. As a New York green contractor we learned that educating ourselves and our clients in green lifestyle habits is an important part of the green building process. One of the …
