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The American Lung Association’s 2012 State of the Air report is out, and it contains some positive news for New Yorkers. According to the findings, the city’s air pollution is at its lowest levels since the reports began 13 years ago – but there’s still significant room for improvement. Overall, the city received C and D grades, with the Bronx declared to be the “dirtiest county in the metro region for high particle pollution,” while Staten Island received a failing grade for its ozone levels.

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Despite Mayor Bloomberg‘s many new sustainable practices that have been implemented through the PlaNYC initiatve, new data reveals that the city’s recycling rate has dropped over the last five years. New York City’s recycling rate slipped to just 15 percent in 2011, and it continues to fall. Aside from wasting valuable resources, the undiverted trash also costs the city millions of dollars to haul to landfills.

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Freshkills Park, the massive restoration project that’s transforming what used to be the world’s largest landfill into public green space, is one step closer to receiving its long awaited solar and wind power. The city issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from private contractors to build solar and wind installations on the site to power 6,000 homes. The plan for renewable energy in Freshkills Park has been talked about since the park’s inception, and this is a huge step in making the plan a reality.

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New York City makes a lot of waste – 3 million tons to be exact — and it costs the city $300 million to export it away from our lovely city streets. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is on a roll trying to divert that waste from the landfill and has now put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a waste management facility that can turn NYC’s solid refuse into energy. The city won’t help build the facility, but it promises to pay a per-ton fee for all of the refuse that it sends there once it is created. With NYC’s waste currently creating 728,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, building a low-emissions conversion facility is a great way to lower the city’s greenhouse gasses while putting to use all the things that residents throw in the garbage can.

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Aerial view of the area where the Brooklyn-Queens pipeline would run

Brooklyn and Queens homes may soon be powered by natural gas instead of heavily polluting number 4 and number 6 heating oils. On February 7, a bill for construction of a new three-mile pipeline sailed through the House of Representatives. The pipeline would traverse under Jacob Riis Park and the Gateway National Recreation Area in Queens and through a small part of southern Brooklyn. The plan has been met with little criticism, and NY1 reports that it is part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative for a more sustainable city powered by cleaner energy. However, we can’t help but be ticked off by this, as natural gas is not a sustainable resource nor is it a source of clean, renewable energy.

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced last week 25 percent of the proposed green building laws have been drafted into law over the last two years. The proposals were part of a green building report originally published by the Urban Green Council. Of the 111 recommendations in the report, 29 of them have been drafted into law, with an additional eight recommendations currently being codified. The new laws will reduce greenhouse emissions by 5 percent citywide, saving the city $400 million by 2030.

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The New York Hospital Queens (NYHQ), located in Flushing and serving a community of  about 115,000 people each year, is upgrading its 55-year-old infrastructure as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC ‘s green energy initiative. The hospital aims to find new ways to conserve its resources, preserve the environment, and cut costs through innovative retrofitting, while taking part in a citywide initiative to reduce hospital carbon emissions. As of September 2011, the NYHQ reported a 28% reduction in carbon emissions.

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As Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure approaches its end, many are discussing what his long-lasting legacy will be. Education and economic development have been pillars of his administration, but no doubt Bloomberg will also be remembered for PlaNYC. The 30 year sustainability plan made New York City a leader in green urban planning and city living, and it has spurred many other major metropolises to create similar blueprints. And while PlaNYC initiatives have had a tremendous impact on the city, some are concerned that the next mayor may not embrace the goals, and many are wondering whether or not PlaNYC is itself sustainable.

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New York public schools are being challenged to save as much energy as possible as part of an initiative with the Green Design Lab program. The thirty participating schools will have the chance to win grants totaling $30,000, sponsored by non-profit Solar One and the New York City Department of Education Sustainability Initiative and Division of School Facilities. The Energy Challenge will ask schools to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and electricity use by 5 to 10 percent.

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New York City has been named a recipient of the World Green Building Council‘s Government Leadership Awards for Excellence in City Policy for Green Buildings. The honor was announced on Monday during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP17, currently taking place in Durban, South Africa. The award acknowledges that New York City, as well as fellow recipient San Francisco, has made important advances in sustainable building and has innovative city-level government policies in place to help reduce carbon emissions and move us toward a greener future.

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Good news, New York! We are on track to hit the PlaNYC goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2017! Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement yesterday as he kicked off Climate Week. Our GHG levels are 12 percent below the 2005 baseline, and they’ve been lowered nearly 5 percent in the last fiscal year alone. The mayor outlined several of the city’s successes that lead to this, including the planting of nearly 500,000 new trees, passing a landmark green buildings law, and installing 250,000 lower-watt traffic and street lights.

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Mayor Bloomberg kicked off Climate Week 2011 yesterday with the release of the annual PlaNYC Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which reported a 12 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions since 2005. The success of Bloomberg’s green policies was a key part to the start of the Climate Group’s 3-year Clean Revolution campaign, which calls for global leaders in government and business to take steps to address climate change worldwide, and create a low carbon economy.

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Getting approval to modify buildings that are historical landmarks in New York City can be tough, even if the change is small. But thanks to green initiatives like PlaNYC, city agencies and other organization are working to change that. As part of an ongoing campaign to preserve historical buildings through green renovation, the Municipal Art Society (MAS) has teamed up with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to produce a guide on how to easily improve the energy efficiency of small landmark buildings throughout the city.

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At some point or another, we’ve all been frustrated by the mean streets of NYC. Whether it’s due to the congested roads, delayed and crowded mass transit, or the lack of sufficient bike lanes, everyone seems to have a different opinion on how to improve transportation in the city. But if the future of New York City’s infrastructure is anything like the Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn’s vision, then maybe there’s a glimmer of hope for addressing some of NYC’s difficult congestion problems.

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Have any green ideas that you think would help improve the city? Change by Us NYC, an innovative website created by Local Projects, is exactly what you need to get your voice heard. The site, dubbed “a social network for civic activity,” officially launched last week. The site has a sleek, easy-to-use interface, and it’s run by the city as a way for New Yorkers to share their ideas and organize green projects.

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Eco-friendly New Yorkers, take a moment and pat yourselves on the back. In a new survey on the sustainability practices and policies of American and Canadian cities, New York was named the third greenest city, just behind the historically top ranked cities of Vancouver and San Francisco. The survey, sponsored by Siemens Corp. and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, rated cities based on 31 other factors, including water consumption, percentage of waste recycled, and the number of LEED-certified buildings, which NYC has no shortage of.

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It’s no secret that stormwater runoff is a serious contributor to pollution in NYC waterways, especially in areas in southern Brooklyn and Queens. In East New York, a lower-income neighborhood in Brooklyn, old and overburdened sewers release foul odors and wastewater into Jamaica Bay. In an effort to combat this, the Department of Environmental Protection has selected East New York as the location for a sustainable experiment in stopping stormwater runoff. Rather than relying solely on expensive sewage systems and treatment facilities, the DEP is planting gardens, trees, and a wetland to attack the problem at its source.

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The New York Solar Jobs Act of 2011, a bill that aims to bring huge environmental and economic benefits to New York, is set to be voted on in the State Assembly today. In New York politics, the Anthony Weiner scandal and the hotly debated Gay Marriage Bill have overshadowed the Solar Jobs Act recently, but the bill would bring major implications and benefits to the entire Empire State. The bill would create more than 22,000 jobs, and it has a set goal of increasing New York’s solar power production to 5,000 MW.

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Gotham City? How about Solar City? Thanks to a brand new, highly detailed scientific map, New York City could see a massive increase in rooftop solar panels. In fact, NYC could more than double the entire nation’s solar capacity if all suitable rooftop space was used for solar power. Over the last year, the City University of New York worked with the city and the federal Department of Energy to collect detailed information about every single rooftop (literally – that’s not an exaggeration!) to create the NYC Solar Map in order to help advance New York’s solar energy. The research shows that two-thirds of rooftops are suitable for solar installations, which could generate enough power to meet half of the entire city’s energy needs at peak times!

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New York City’s public transportation system is one of the best in the country, if not the world, but the MTA is constantly looking for ways to make it even better and more efficient by adding new and improved elements — like water taxis. NYC officials have officially announced the start of the new East River Ferry service, which will transport commuters between East 34th Street and Pier 11 in Manhattan to Long Island City in Queens and to Greenpoint, Williamsburg and DUMBO in Brooklyn. The service officially launched this morning, with Mayor Bloomberg aboard the inaugural ride.

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The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the World Bank announced a new partnership that will help cities speed up reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and become more energy efficient. The C40, headed by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, signed the agreement with the World Bank Group in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 1.

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One thousand new superintendents graduated yesterday from “One Year, One Thousand Green Supers,” another exciting green initiative sponsored by the city. Now in its second year of operation, the program has been a huge success so far. The program is a 40-hour class that trains supers in the latest practices for energy efficient operations. The class also trains workers to tackle wasted energy problems and helps them create a green operating plan along with performing cost-benefit analysis for building owners and managers.

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More and more New York colleges are jumping on the green building bandwagon. Last week, Fordham University obtained LEED Gold certification for its recently built Rose Hill Dormitories, supported by $555,000 in NYSERDA incentives. The funding will also allow the University to reduce energy costs by $174,000 annually through new high performance lighting and occupancy controls, high efficiency chillers and boilers, a new heat recovery system, and numerous other energy efficiency measures.

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