On Demand
How Do They Do It? Green Cities
Amanda Taylor, "Conscientious Objector" columnist for the L Magazine, offers her list of other cities' environmentally friendly programs that she'd like to see implemented in New York and Michael Moyer, executive editor of Popular Science Magazine, discusses Pop Sci's list of the 50 greenest U.S. cities.
What's on your Earth Day wish list?
- About the Brian Lehrer Show »
- Staff Bios »
- Contact Us »
- Tapes and Transcripts »
- Latest Episode »
- Show Archive »
Features & Series
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
YOU PRODUCE The Brian Lehrer Show
Be a listener-producer with facts, questions and people you'd like to hear on the air.
More
The Brian Lehrer Show Scrapbook
Visit the scrapbook for daily photos and miscellany from The Brian Lehrer Show.
More
Shop at Amazon!
The Brian Lehrer Show picks
Start your Amazon shopping on WNYC.org and a portion of your total purchase goes to WNYC.
More
Comments
Refresh
My wish:
1. A Brooklyn contractor that specializes in green roofs! So hard to find.
2. Bike racks on buses like they have in Seattle
3. Rain barrels for watering my tree-pit garden
4. Tickets given out for trucks left running (or guys sleeping in their running cars)
That's it!
NYC CAN learn a lot from Bogotá, Colombia. This city has created a environmentally sustainable and socially-inclusive transportation system which includes Transmilenio Bus System, Bike path throughout a city of 7.5 million people, and Ciclovia (closing of major thoroughfares for biking and sport on Sundays and holidays).
I just found out yesterday that commercial laundry detergent often contains petroleum. Why isn't this an issue?
PBS Special on Bogotá's transformation can be seen at http://www.pbs.org/e2/episodes/teacher_209.html
Americans still drive cars that are too big and too fuel inefficient. Travel to any European city and you'll see small cars. SUVs should be banned.
someone at union square market on saturdays collects compost
To use*
Yikes, how'd I switch those two?
In Brooklyn at least (I dont know about the rest of the city) there are community gardens where you can bring vegetable scraps for composting. I keep a bag of veggie waste in the freezer. It doesnt decompose or smell, and then when its full I can just drop it off at the local garden. A little extra effort but its the only way to compost that I can think of here!
In London they pick up compost twice a week - curbside with the other recyclables - and you keep your food scraps in a very neat plastic bin on your countertop.
City-level initiatives are great! But, New Yorkers need to change their mindset. I moved here from San Francisco three years ago and people looked at me funny when I brought my own mug in to the corner coffee shop (rather than taking a disposable to-go cup).
People seem to be more used to my mug now. But I stiill know many conscientious New Yorkers who still use a LOT of disposable bags, cups and to-go containers.
The kingdom of Bahrain is currently undergoing an enormous building boom. This small island country, gets every drop of its oil from Saudi Arabia FOR FREE for agreeing not to drill its own oil fields. They have built a futuristic-looking large office building in its capital, Manama, in the shape of two tall wedges. Suspended in between these buildings are two turbines powered by wind, generating power for the building.
I buy a tangerine juice, by Noble, that comes in a biodegradeable bottle made of corn. It says it breaks down under the right situation. Do I recycle that in with the regular plastic bottles and hope it gets where it needs to be, or does that go to a compost bin?
Living longer. If people knew they had to live with the consequences of their actions the environment might finally get their attention. Of course, if they lived longer they would also contribute to the problem but it doesn't seem that anything other than self-interest motivates people to change. Forget about the world we leave our children, we live in the culture of now.
Could the city have some sort of policy towards LARGE office building should have some sort of solution for bike parking. Where they are not exposed to vandals or theives.
Scott:
It is against the law to idle your engine for more than 3 minutes. The fine, I believe, is $2,000, and it is issued to the _driver_, not the company that owns the bus/truck.
For an example of how this law is NOT enforced, see the commuter buses from PA that line up on Clarkson St. off West Side Hiway, and idle for _hours_.
LEED is a proprietary rating system for environmentally conscious design and construction. Amanda Taylor's explanation was a bit misleading.
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222
While LEED has been well marketed and has therefore become the standard, it is a fundamentally flawed system. Alternatives are discussed in the following white paper:
http://www.soloso.org/eKnowledge/Resources/Documents/AIAP026853
Easy computer/electronics recycling is also increasingly important.
well-maintained and expanded public transit
an easier way to compost than schlepping garbage on the subway once a week - i tried this and it defeated me - I live too far away from Union Square or LES ecology center I think composting at home - or at least collecting scraps, which is something small but something really worth it for teh environment
I'd also like a VIABLE bike/rollerblading path
Composting in an apartment is easy!
We have two worm bins next to our dining table, and we compost all of our food scraps.
Then we use the compost to amend the soil of Riverside Drive. You should see how different it looks with tulips instead of trash.
How about converting some of the roadways in each borough into strips of farmland to grow local produce? This would produce numerous jobs and local produce that would not need to be trucked into the city.
If NY received a 10 on transportation then I really question how Portland got a 6.4. Their "transit" system is just awful in comparison. Yes a lot of people bicycle but I don't think it's a realistic alternative for many people out here. There is a strong car culture out here, which I don't think the natives want to admidt. It's not as bad as California, but it's not a mass transit town.
An ex-NYer in Pland.
Chicago is replacing pavement in its alleys with permeable surfaces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/us/26chicago.html?scp=2&sq=chicago%2C+alleys%2C+permeable&st=nyt
I don't know why NYC doesn't put windmills on top of all the buildings! Surely there is a great amount of wind to be harvested up there.
As fun as being shaken to pieces sounds, how much energy is required to produce liquid nitrogen vs. the cost to burn a corpse?
In Toronto they offer trash bins on the subway with a narrow slot for newspapers. Less trash on the tracks, more newspapers recycled.
look into green burials
the ancient city of Petra had an ingenius way of channelingflash floods - we should do that all over teh country - too much paving paving paving - europeans make parking garages underground
An idea right from NYC: Whatever happened to the no idling rules? I see trucks, buses and cars idling all the time, but never any enforcement of no idling rules. What is the state of these rules and how can their application be strengthened?
I was reading this article in vanity fair about Cradle to Cradle design. Essentially, it's about removing the idea of waste going to waste.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/05/mcdonough200805
More:
http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_Cradle:_Remaking_the_Way_We_Make_Things
There is also a documentary film that was on Sundance yesterday that can be seen online here:
http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-3058533428492266222
What a lot of good ideas here.
Yet another example of how our gov falls down on the vision job.
A Moon-landing-level initiative should be launched to find, develop and encourage such energy-saving ideas.
This administration is hopeless, of course. They want to prove government doesn't work.
But what do YOU say, candidates?
I often wonder why the city doesn't have public recycling receptacles on the streets or possibly in the subway. This would not only enable recycling but also make it more visible; this visibility could be really important for people, particularly kids, to see that recycling really is going on around them.
A worry that I have is the boom in (and soon to be total switch to?) compact fluorescents. I've switched many of the bulbs in my house and am all for energy conservation, but these bulbs contain mercury and the warning/proper disposal labels on the packages are very small. In reality, when these bulbs burn out, most of them will go into the regular trash and into the environment. Could you do a segment on this sometime?
I don't think NYC provides free recycling for industrial neighborhoods; in my neighborhood in LIC businesses must pay a company for a recycling dumpster and pick-up. (And so must people who live in "illegal" commercial space in these places.)
Anyone who has an outdoor space can easily compost in a trash can with holes drilled into it.
I just moved from Seattle and I miss the green trees and open spaces.
Seattle and now Buffalo has a "RE-Use" store. In Seattle, the city residents can drop off their un-used hazardous waste products like indoor paint, which is then blended into one generic color. Then residents can come to the "Re-Use" store and pick up gallons of paint for free.
Seattle Re-Use Store:
http://www.govlink.org/hazwaste/house/reuse/
In Buffalo, non-profit organizations are coming together and recycling old building parts. This creates job training and leaves waste out of landfills!
Buffalo Re-Use Store:
http://www.buffaloreuse.org/ReSOURCE/ReSOURCE
TAXI STANDS (Paris, Brussels): you walk a couple of blocks to a nearby stand where cab drivers pull-up after dropping off a fare, shut their engines, get out and stretch their legs, make a call. IF you have luggage/bags as so many NY-ers do, telephone and a taxi is dispatched within a few minutes. THIS would cut down on a lot of traffic, pollution, gas waste and relieve exhausted drivers in a quasi sweat-shop style job (have you seen the new cabs with the plastic cages around the driver seat?) NYC would have to GIVE UP some parking fees, but the trade-off would be worthwhile. For businesses the lessened traffic might ease deliveries etc. Thank you.
I've been working on my LEED certification and have some real issues with the obvious flaws in this system - Aaron thank you for the alternative information.
As far as photovoltaic generation of electricity, while I think it is fantastic technology for "off the grid" uses, especially in third world countries, this technology are not green. It takes 10,000 watts of electricity to manufacture a single (Silicon or Gallium Arsenide type) cell that is 4"x4". The electrical payback period on this cell, when employed in a system will take approx 20 years to payback. For the moment, with the state of the art as it is, this technology should not be employed where normal electrical transmission & distribution exist. It is only being used as a feel good fix by politicians and corporations who are marketing themselves as green. Wind power and solar thermal are the only viable alternatives.
Someday organics and possibly nano-tube may be the technology that gives us viable photovoltaic power.
Recycling bins are not required any longer, except for white paper recycling in offices. Technology now exists to separate mixed waste and is being employed by several larger waste disposal companies – magnets to lift out ferris metals, eddy current devices to launch out non ferris metals, as well as vibrators and blowers to separate the paper from the plastics etc. Recycling bins would require separate pickups – wasting vehicle fuel and requiring more resources. I hope this helps.
For your wishlist #1:
New York City Green Roof and Landscape, and DiFrancesco Construction work in tandem
building green roofs and sustainable rehabs,
in a mindful manner.
www.newyorkcitygreenroof.com
If you're interested in learning more about innovations that could make our city greener and more livable in the not-too-distant future, attend the "Future Cities" program at the upcoming World Science Festival in New York City on May 30th. Great speakers on board. Here's the website:
www.worldsciencefestival.com
GAF Materials Corp, located in Wayne, NJ, is North America's largest roofing manufacturer and this year introduced a new Garden Roofing system far superior to ones already being offered. Part of its green roof initiative includes a certified contractor base for installing these garden roofs. GAF also offers recyclable, refective and solar roofs as part of their green roofing. For more info, contact dgola@gaf.com.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.