The NYCMEDP runs a number of ongoing service, outreach, and research programs.  The NYC Waste Match, for example, is [...]]]>

Eco Brooklyn has partnered up with the NYC Materials Exchange Development Program, a great non-profit that keeps reusable materials out of the trash by connecting people with unwanted materials to others who can reuse them.

The NYCMEDP runs a number of ongoing service, outreach, and research programs.  The NYC Waste Match, for example, is a free service that can help green builders salvage materials efficiently by connecting us directly with businesses and individuals doing demolition and construction.  Waste Match also helps these people save money on disposal costs while building an environmentally friendly image.  Salvage is a win-win situation, and we hope that more people will choose to reuse materials now that the NYCMEDP is providing an easy way to do it.

Check out our member page on their site!

Green design is a broad term. In an attempt to narrow it down, we are looking at how green design and “universal design” or lifespan design are linked. First of all, you’re probably wondering what universal design means. Here are the seven principles that define universal design, according to North Carolina State University [...]]]>

Green design is a broad term. In an attempt to narrow it down, we are looking at how green design and “universal design” or lifespan design are linked. First of all, you’re probably wondering what universal design means. Here are the seven principles that define universal design, according to North Carolina State University (check out the link here http://www.ncsu.edu/project/design-projects/udi/):

1. Equitable use
2. Flexibility use
3. Simple and intuitive use
4. Compatible and perceptible information
5. Minimal hazards
6. Minimal physical effort required
7. Size and space appropriate for use

But how are these related to green design? Focusing on numbers 1, 2, and 7 will show how green design and universal design are similar. Being sustainable and “green” are all about sharing, being resourceful, and generally creating a solution that can be sustained through changes that may come in the future. According to adaptiveenvironments.org “Green design focuses on environmental sustainability, Universal Design on social sustainability”. However, I think that both environmental and social sustainability are two sides of the same thing – sustainability overall. Sustainability calls for fair outcomes, both for people and the environment. Universal design calls for a sustainable space that can be continually and easily used by people for changing purposes. At the heart of green design is sustainability – using recycled materials, and installing green roofs are all steps towards an overarching goal of conserving resources for the future.

Universal design is about using your existing space for different things. For example, a couple moves into a small house. Then they have two children, but instead of moving into a larger house, they adapt their space to accommodate their children – building an extra room within a larger room, or adding one on. They can also child proof their house with simple amenities such as adjustable counters, or by adding carpets. Basically, both green design and universal design are about using what you have and working with it.

If you would like more information about the concepts of green building and universal design, check out Yes! Magazine at yesmagazine.org, and specifically http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/sustainable-happiness/how-to-build-a-tiny-house, for an article on green houses and universal design.

This wood has [...]]]>

A typical thing happened today in the life of Eco Brooklyn. One of our workers noticed a dumpster full of wood and called it in to the office. I dispatched our “Rescue Truck”, Eco Brooklyn’s veggie oil pickup, to go salvage the wood before it was carted off to the dump.

This wood has sat in a brownstone for over 80 years. It is beautiful douglass fir, in the form of studs or joists. Nice thick wood with another hundred years of life left to it, at least. It is beautiful wood. You can sand it down and put oil on it for a kitchen counter or island. You can cut it down and use as siding. Or cut it into planks for flooring. Or put it back into a house simply as joists or studs. It is like art. Art direct from nature.

You can’t get this wood today. It comes from old trees and has had a hundred years to cure. It is part of a long ago history when wood was as abundant and healthy as the bison.

When the driver and helper got to the dumpster the workers on the site had started putting soil on top of the wood. We asked if the contractor would stop for a few minutes to give my guys time to take out the wood. We don’t push the ecological logic in this situation. We point out the financial logic that the dumpster will cost about $800 and if we take half the wood we save the contractor maybe $400.

But the contractor refused. So my guys worked frantically to save the wood as the other workers poured soil on top of it. We got only six beams before the soil became too much to move. We watched as they covered up the other sixty beams.

Today we didn’t succeed. Some days we do but it is a constant fight.

Throwing away this wood should be a crime. The waste is so saddening. Such ignorance, such arrogance.

It is so frustrating that this is legally and morally acceptable. Thousands of dumpsters a year, millions of board feet a year thrown into the trash heap.

Sometimes I think I am surrounded by insanity. Or maybe I am insane.

One client I met with today just came back from the Amazon forest recording sounds. He has been going for ten years. He says it is getting hard to go because the forest is disappearing so fast before his eyes he can’t bear the pain. He said on the plane he overheard some forest company workers joking about how they had lied to government officials about the origin of a certain tree in order to log it. They thought it was funny.

We live in a spiraling time where we have the power to destroy or save the planet in an astoundingly short time. Never in the history of humanity have we had this power. There is a crisis in the world. Wake up. Become humble. Do good.

The one consideration is fire. This was done in a restaurant, which means it shares the ceiling with an apartment upstairs, which means the ceiling has to be [...]]]>

Here is a cool example of creative salvaging. They have taken planks from an old brownstone roof and flipped them upside down as a ceiling.

The one consideration is fire. This was done in a restaurant, which means it shares the ceiling with an apartment upstairs, which means the ceiling has to be 2 hour fire rated, which the wood planks clearly are not. So to be code you need 2 hours of fire rated sheet rock above the planks.

At that point the planks are purely aesthetic. From a green point of view they are an unnecessary use of extra resources.

As a green builder we are always looking to create at least two synergies with every step of construction. For example a counter not only has to look great but it also should be recycled. Or the plumbing not only needs to perform to code but also must save water. By leveraging synergies you conserve materials, space, money and ultimately build a more streamlined green brownstone.

A Brooklyn green contractor is constantly looking where these synergies come together during the brownstone renovation and is part of the holistic view instead of the more conventional category view of a non-green renovation where each segments is isolated from the next – the plumber does his thing, electrician his thing etc.

In a green brownstone renovation the plumber is asking the electrician how to best calibrate the water pumps so they use the least amount of electricity. The electrician is talking with the carpenter to see where the light shelves are going to be built since that will effect the increased efficiency of electric usage.

In a sense instead of each person having their specialized interests, they share a broader interest along green building lines such as efficiency, conservation and ecology. These are things that are not immediately relevant to their job and most plumbers for example don’t see a connection between world ecology and putting food on their table.

But a green builder sees a direct connection. Maybe the biggest difference between a green builder and a non-green builder is the amount of connections between all the elements. A green builder sees a lot more.

So with the ceiling planks shown above where most people would be “wow, cool salvaged wood ceiling, that is really green,” a green builder would say that too but would go a step further and ask if it would have been more synergistic on a floor for example where they are not just a nice to look at but also serve another purpose.

But hey, the ceiling looks great nonetheless.

Eco Brooklyn is guilty of making some concrete counters too.

I just read Concrete at Home by the concrete fanatic Fu-Tung Chen. He [...]]]>

I realize concrete has huge embodied energy and creates tonnes of CO2 during it’s manufacture but I still can’t resist reading up on the uses of concrete for residential interior applications.

Eco Brooklyn is guilty of making some concrete counters too.

I just read Concrete at Home by the concrete fanatic Fu-Tung Chen. He has definitely cornered the market on interior concrete applications with his little empire of books, CD’s and concrete products. He took a highly expensive niche service and made it available to the masses.

With his products pretty much any contractor can make a concrete counter top for their client at reasonable prices.

So why would a green contractor like me be obsessed with a product that clearly contributes to our ecological problems? Concrete is possibly the largest producer of CO2 in the list of toxic building practices.

There is something deeply satisfying about building a concrete counter. It is an artistic process with real practical applications and such a combo is bliss.

Here are the pros and cons as I see it.

Pros

It is manufactured on site, keeping transport costs low and money local.

It lasts a long time, reducing future resource depletion.

Cons

It creates a lot of CO2.

It has a lot of embodied energy.

Concrete plants cause large environmental damage.

I don’t think the Pros outweigh the Cons…..which causes a dilemma for me. I have upcoming concrete jobs and eagerly look forward to them. Next week we are building a double sink counter for a bathroom that will be undulating like a wave. It will be made into a dark polished concrete counter that should look truly beautiful.

Obviously concrete counters made on site are better than any new counter on the market. I don’t care if it is Paperstone, Icestone or any recycled counter. They all use vast amounts of energy to produce. They are shipped all over the place. They are pretty low on the green scale in my eyes no matter what their sales rep says.

The only truly green counter is salvaged wood made by a local carpenter. After that it would be salvaged marble or granite. The difference between salvaged products are little. Anything salvaged is good as long as it isn’t toxic like a plastic counter or something that would hurt the users. But salvaged wood trumps marble in NY because there is a lot more salvaged wood available and thus less chance that it will be depleting resources and causing more demand for new wood. If you deplete the scarce amount of salvaged stone then you quickly increase demand for new quarried stone.

So what is a Brooklyn green contractor to do? Keep reading. Keep searching. We still have a little time before the planet is completely destroyed.