Ethics
No Fracking in NY
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 disasters and wanton [...]
Brooklyn Farmers’ Market and Twinkies
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 since Indians sat [...]
Eco Brooklyn Green Building Terms
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 for more [...]
Green Building Sales – Art of Bid Pricing
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 at $99 [...]
Action Needed: Sign Petition for Benefit Corporation
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 this new entity. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION NOW TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT OF THIS BILL.
In a traditional corporation, fiduciary [...]
Green Kitchen Design
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 composting are [...]
Waste, Toxic Homes
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, slate counters, [...]
Wood, Cancer and Boiled Frogs
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 need MSDS [...]
Turning Work Down
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 work.
I [...]
Food Industry is bigger than oil
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.
New Construction Should be Outlawed
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 guess but [...]
Go Green Expo NYC
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 based. Green [...]
Why So Many Houses?
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 in Aruba, a desert [...]
Green Building is More Dependant on Natural Cycles
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 cycles and [...]
Permaculture, Pigs and Bees
Here is a cool insight into nature. It is by Michael Pollan. He also talks about the Polyface Farm which is run by “grass farmer” Joel Salatin. Joel is interviewed a lot in the Food Inc Movie. Check out the talk below, follow the links above. All very cool stuff.
Not directly connected to green contractors [...]
Building Green Book
This book has a long title: Building Green: A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs. But then again it is a big book.
Written by Tim Callahan and Clarke Snell this book overflows with 600 pages and 1500 images. The book aims to [...]
Food Inc and Green Building
I had been avoiding the movie Food Inc for a while. I’ve seen lots of animal rights movies: they are depressing. They make me angry because of the barbarity and frustrated because I feel helpless.
But one evening I was feeling especially brave. It turns out the movie is UPLIFTING!
Sure it jumps all over the place [...]
Waste, Reuse and Cheese with Worms
I was just speaking with an Eco Brooklyn intern who is an architect for a non-green firm in Queens. She was lamenting a current job she is working on where they are tearing out beautiful cherry wood details to turn the building into crap rentals.
All my workers have similar stories and one of their main [...]
LEED Green Building Myth
I don’t know if it is a mainstream thing or what but I don’t get LEED. I even became a LEED AP in the hope that I would see what the big deal is but I still don’t get it. Why would you want to spend all that money and time so that you can [...]
Green Building Material Delivery
I just came across this craigslist add with the title:
green building materials delivered-brooklyn (red hook)
Being a green contractor in Carroll Gardens right next door to Red Hook, I thought, “Cool! I can get green building materials delivered to our job site!”
The add went on to read:
“Hello, we are a green company specializing in home delivery [...]
Gennaro Brooks-Church and Henry Gifford Discuss Energy on the Radio
Gennaro Brooks-Church was on a radio show with Henry Gifford last week. Henry is a great building energy technician who has pointed out that LEED houses and the USGBC are not exactly transparent in their energy efficiency statements.
Turns out LEED buildings are not as energy efficient as USGBC would like us to believe. In [...]
Congresswoman Joan L. Millman
As a green builder in Brooklyn we have very definite views on how development should unfold in the neighborhood. This ties us willingly or not to the politicians since they have influence on development.
Today I got a generic brochure in the mail from Congresswoman Joan L. Millman and out of random curiosity I decided to [...]
Green Building as Humility
A green builder is a humble builder. They listen to the land and surroundings and take their cues from that. They see what nature is offering in the locality and use those resources, thankful for the gift. They build as a servant to the local nature, not a conqueror of it.
Like hunters of yore who [...]
The case against meat
I am still fighting it out with my fellow green builders on a list serv. I still eat meat, although a lot less, and am still not sure if my body is made to not eat meat…..but…here is what I wrote:
After cooling off a bit I am ready to come back in. I have a [...]
A green builder is a reluctant builder
A green builder should be treated the same as a coroner or dentist. You don’t call them if you don’t have to.
The greenest building is to not build at all. At the industry’s current evolutionary state in building it is best to avoid building if possible because building inevitably consumes resources and destroys things.
So as [...]
Material Delivery
When material gets delivered to the job site there is a crucial window of time from when the truck arrives to when it leaves.
The driver is usually in a hurry to unload and take off. There is a flurry of excitement over the new arrival of materials and people are busy running around taking care [...]
Green Builder’s Case For Vegetarianism
Lately I have been looking a lot at how we use the world’s resources. As a green builder it interests me how we do this because it directly relates to what resources I will use in our green building in Brooklyn.
Another reason I like looking at resource allotment is that it is more factual and [...]
Eco-Luxe Media Showcase
I just got invited to a greenwashing event called “NEW YORK CITY’S FIRST EVER PRESS ONLY SHOWCASE OF ECO-LUXURY PRODUCTS & SERVICES FROM THE PRODUCERS OF GO GREEN EXPO”:
You are invited to showcase your environmentally friendly LUXURY product or service at New York City’s premiere Eco-Luxury Press Event on September 22nd. Leverage Rubenstein Public Relations’ [...]
Case for Vegan
As a Brooklyn green contractor we are always looking for ways to save resources. The key ones are water, electricity, and raw materials. We don’t mind using up human energy. It’s good exercise and pretty much limitless.
But when you hear facts like the ones in the video below you realize how important it is to [...]
How Bad It Is – Brooklyn Wake Up Call
Most people have no idea what state the ecology of the world is. They still think it is about saving the wildlife.
But they are terribly wrong.
The wildlife has already been decimated. The forests, plants and animals are for the most part destroyed. Not some of it but the majority of it. We have these little [...]