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Carbon footprint. CO2 emissions. Low carbon. Carbon neutral. More and more, businesses eagerly attach themselves to buzzwords like these in order to present an environmentally-friendly face to today’s green-conscious market. I learned a new one the other day: “carbon offset.” What is it? Carbon offset providers, like carbonfund.org, offer companies and individuals the opportunity [...] First 2000, and now 2012: Years in which people think the world might possibly end. The world probably won’t end with a bang, but might just crumble beneath the accumulated consequences of our actions. Meanwhile, American politicians’ opinions of science, especially climate science, are at an alarming low. Sometimes TV makes me wonder if [...] As a New York green contractor we are especially sensitive to the effect chemicals have on humans. New York city has many environmental stressors. You have noise, lots of people, lots of cars and a million other things in the environment that cause stress to the body. There are also a million chemicals that contact [...] Since the Occupy Wall Street events this fall I have immersed myself in information that questions existing paradigms and searches for solutions to current problems. I’ve always done this, and as a green builder I do it on a daily basis, but the recent Occupy Wall Street events has given my ongoing education a focus and timely reference [...] I heard somewhere that the building industry is more honest than other industries when it comes to greenwashing. Building only lies 96% of the time as opposed to the average of 98%. I don’t know if that is true but Eco Brooklyn tries not to focus on negative elements like greenwashing or environmental destruction [...] We’re Brooklyn-based green builders dedicated to turning our local neighborhood green, but we’re always following the latest developments in global standards for more sustainable living. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met in Durban over the past two months in order to hammer out a plan for extending the Kyoto Protocol. [...] As New York green contractors we follow the latest developments in NY building codes very closely. Yesterday, the New York City Council enacted three proposals from the Urban Green Task Force. The new codes, effective July 1, 2012, mandate more stringent regulation of waste, recycling, and pollutant filtration, representing a step forward for green [...] I have tolerated Mayor Bloomberg because he has done some good things for New York’s ecology. He isn’t the mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark. Now that is a city worth looking at in terms of ecology and social planning. But Bloomberg could have been a lot worse. His plan NYC is an acceptable plan, the bare minimum [...] When I was 25 I paid a lot of money to have my fortune read from a palm leaf. Turns out a wise man way back when in the depths of Eastern India scratched down on palm leaves the destiny of every soul who was to incarnate on the earth. So I tracked down [...] As a New York Green Contractor, here at EcoBrooklyn we focus mainly on one aspect of reaching sustainability, and that is by green building. But of course, this is just one way to approach sustainability. Colleges for instance, are trending towards setting up sustainability initiatives. They generally include some specific measures that will make [...] I attended last Saturday’s Occupy Wall Street march to Times Square because as a New York green contractor I feel alligned with many of the issues brought up in the Occupy Wall street movement. There was a big crowd and for the first time in my life I saw more New Yorkers than tourists [...] On 10/11/11 Eco Brooklyn, a green builder and supporter of a better America and world, went down to the Financial district to check out Occupy Wall Street. Nearly 30 days ago, a diverse group of citizens took to the street in NYC, and marched down to Zuccotti Park, formerly “Liberty Plaza Park”, placed in [...] As a New York green contractor the truth is that our work is very much about things not in NY. Each time we salvage wood from a dumpster we aren’t saving a NY tree. We are saving a Canadian of Brazilian tree. As a company we may be acting locally but our vision is [...] I am very happy that gay marriage has been legalized because the more open our society the better nature will fare. Legalizing gay marriage is one step closer to an enlightened society where plants and animals have the same rights as humans. The fact that gay marriage has not been legally recognized up to [...] I came across a video that struck a chord and I have shared it below. I realize your food habits may not appear to be a green building topic. But the definition of green builder is somebody who puts the welfare of the world ecosystem before all else. And it all starts with what you put [...] The year has ended and a new one has begun. I have prepared a state of the union statement for where Eco Brooklyn has been and where it is going. Here goes…. 2010 was a turning point for Eco Brooklyn: we became too successful for our size. Up until last year our love for [...] If you haven’t signed a petition against Fracking please do so with this link. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/676/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4322&tag=youtube If you want the negative view on Fracking check out this three minute Video. And yes Haliburton and Cheney are once again part of it. It is so funny how they pop up wherever there are mass deaths, ecological [...] I see the Brooklyn Farmers’ Market as the antithesis of a Twinkie. The Twinkie is always the same. It lasts forever, is full of chemicals and is made on some distant planet. And never does it create a healthy sense of community. The Brooklyn Farmers’ Market on the other hand is possibly the most powerful community force [...] On the Eco Brooklyn job sites we have certain green building concepts that we use. They are mostly coined by me to help the crew and clients understand what Eco Brooklyn’s core goals are. They are easy rallying points to help us all stay on track. These terms can be searched on this site [...] I love the psychology of sales. It is what distinguishes humans from numbers. The sale item that a shop keeper takes a loss on to get people in the door so they buy other things. Half price drinks at the bar with the hope people will stay and buy full price drinks. Pricing something [...] A Benefit Corporation is a new corporate entity offering entrepreneurs and investors the option to build and invest in businesses that meet higher standards of corporate purpose, accountability and transparency. NY Assembly will vote later this week on whether to pass [...] When people say green kitchen design they usually mean recycled glass counters or something. But the actual design of the kitchen doesn’t change much. For me a green kitchen design alters the behavior of the inhabitants so that they better the environment without extra thought or effort. For example we all know recycling and [...] The other day I passed by a Manhattan condo renovation and saw they were throwing out good stuff: metal studds and flooring. The contractor told me it was a 3,000 sq.ft. condo that right before the current gut reno it had just been gut renovated! It had high end everything: Poggen Pohl German kitchen, [...] When most people think of wood they don’t think cancer, but studies have shown that wood workers have a higher level of respiratory cancer. This was brought to my attention when a local lumber supply sent me the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for wood . At first I thought, ” Why do you [...] I had an interesting call just now. A developer called me wanting me to go check out a brownstone he had just bought and wanted to renovate. He buys a lot of properties, renovates and sells. He didn’t know about Eco Brooklyn but somebody had given him my number and said we did good [...] We are destroying ourselves and the planet with our current eating process. The solution is simple: LESS MEAT LESS JUNK MORE PLANTS Repeat it over and over again with each bite. [...] I think new construction is to building like heroin is to health. It should be outlawed as a threat to our well-being. There are enough old buildings for us to renovate. New construction is a needless act of arrogance and self destruction. There’s really not much more to say. I could explain why I [...] Go Green Expo NYC is coming up next week. See below to get the $10 special rate. I went last year and it was ok. It is really a subsection of Architectural Digest Home Design Show, although I’m sure it will be bigger this year. Go Green Expo NYC in my opinion is profit [...] We are on holiday. This morning my daughter asked, “Why wherever we go in the world there are so many houses? Why are there so little open fields with flowers?” What have we done to this world? I don’t care if all the houses are green. We’ve got too many of them. We are [...] One of the many differences between renovating a Brooklyn brownstone the old fashioned way and doing a green renovation is the difference in cycles. A normal brownstone renovation is very similar to all post-industrial activity: MAN OVER NATURE. And ever since the “triumph of science” we have been able to overpower the earths natural [...] |
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