ECO BROOKLYN INC. » sustainable

Bringing Passivhaus to Harlem

Dan Hunter — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:41:41 +0000

Check out this great article about our Eco Brooklyn’s Passive House in Harlem. GreenBuildingAdvisor.com, a great online source for building, designing, and remolding green homes, sent Richard Defendorf to our Harlem site to check out our work. Read his write-up of all the techniques we used to seal our passive house!

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-news/bringing-passivhaus-harlem

College Sustainability Initiatives

Debbie Pierce — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:37:12 +0000

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 them more “green”, such as pledging to use biodiesel in all campus buses, or promising to spit out 30 research papers that are related to sustainability.

We looked at local Brooklyn College and the University of Michigan. These two schools were chosen based on their differing sizes, settings, and regions. Michigan is a very large school in a small city in the Midwest. Michigan recently started the Graham Institute, which pays students and professors to work on sustainability projects. They also have Planet Blue, which is more of a University wide program that includes promises like reducing carbon emissions 25% by 2025 (25 is a nice number).

Brooklyn College does not have the huge programs and institutions that Michigan does, but they do have a 10-year plan, which includes a pledge to reduce carbon emissions 30% by 2017. Brooklyn College is collaborating with PlaNYC as well as many other organizations across the city. BC also has a sustainability roundtable for students and faculty to engage in.

Although these approaches are very different, there is not an obvious winner. If you would like more information on either school, here are some links: http://www.graham.umich.edu/, http://sustainability.umich.edu/, http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/spotlite/sustainability/index.html. Or if you would like to start a debate, go ahead!

Eco Brooklyn is a member of Co-op America

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:09:59 +0000

Eco Brooklyn is a member of Co-op America. They are a great ordanization full of resources. Their tag line is: Economic Action for a Just Planet.

From their web site:

Co-op America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982.

Our mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

Our Vision

We work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.

What Makes Co-op America Unique

* We focus on economic strategies—economic action to solve social and environmental problems.
* We mobilize people in their economic roles—as consumers, investors, workers, business leaders.
* We empower people to take personal and collective action
* We work on issues of social justice and environmental responsibility. We see these issues as completely linked in the quest for a sustainable world. It’s what we mean when we say “green.”
* We work to stop abusive practices and to create healthy, just and sustainable practices.

Eco Brooklyn is a member of Northeast Sustainable Energy Association

Gennaro Brooks-Church — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:52:13 +0000

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
really tries to see the connection between energy and people. I think they do great work and am happy to support them as a business.

Life is all about energy. In our daily lives we try to live a sustainable life, i.e. we try to stay alive on an ongoing basis. That is what sustainable means. To be able to do it on an ongoing basis.

So sustainable energy means that you can use the energy on an ongoing basis. Oil is running out. It is thus not sustainable. NESEA is doing good work in supporting sustainable energy.