As a NYC composting toilet installer we are interested in the composting toilet regulations, or lack of, in Gotham City. Currently we install toilets without seeking permission from the department of buildings. Read pm for an update on the current situation of composting toilets in New York City buildings. Or don’t read on and know …
An Eco Brooklyn blog reader recently brought up the June 1st deadline for comments on the Brownfield Cleanup Program application submitted by Lightstone Group for their proposed 12-story, 700-unit development at 363-365 Bond Street, right on the edge of the Gowanus Canal. This reader shared with us that they are very much against building such …
When I first started mentoring interns one of the first things I told them was that they always had to leave their work area cleaner than when they came to it. Over time this metaphor became the most powerful thing I think I can teach them. Leave your surroundings cleaner than when you arrived….. If …
Leave Your Surroundings Cleaner Than When You Arrived Read More »
Before New York City as we know it today existed, the Gowanus was a tidal wetlands and stream ecosystem. In the 1860s, the area was dredged to become the Gowanus Canal, a major route for oil refineries, tanneries, chemical plants, manufactured-gas plants and other heavy industries who settled along the canal’s banks. These factories dumped wastes and leached …
Brooklyn’s beautiful summer days coax us outdoors to converse and lounge in our parks, backyards, and porches. In the heat of the summer, water features are a welcome cooling sight and draw the abundance of people looking to maximize their free time. However, these same water features are also home to pesky mosquitoes, diminishing the …
I read the book Design Revolution, 100 Products That Empower People by Emily Pilloton to see if any of the designs could apply to a New York green contractor. The book is organized into eight sections: Education Enterprise Water Energy Mobility Food Well-being Play There were plenty of great ideas that could be applied to a …
Design Revolution Book and a New York Living Machine Read More »
We are now accepting checks to buy oysters. Here’s the deal: around the corner from lies the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal. The industrial landscape of this former tidal creek is surreal in its bleakness – but to us it offers the exciting possibility of a rock bottom wasteland that has nowhere to go but up. …
As part of our service in the green renovation of a brownstone Eco Brooklyn looks at the brownstone plot in its entirety. This means we don’t just gut and renovate the interior. We also look at how the interior effects the exterior. As a NY green contractor we look at the whole system, from the …
NY Native Trees, Holistic Green Building and Water Read More »
Here is a great video of sewage overflowing into the Gowanus Canal. Very graphic! I have been a member of the Gowanus Dregders Canoe club for years and after seeing this video admit that perhaps I have been a little too nonchalant about the actual toxic state of the canal.
Yesterday I went to a workshop hosted by Expedition Gowanus an “underground” group looking at local and alternative ways (vs. Superfund ways) to remediate our waterways. Expedition Gowanus hosts a series of workshops on DIY sustainability techniques that will culminate in the final design of an off grid, regenerative, floating structure on the Gowanus Canal …
