NYC is stepping up its commitment to reducing kids’ exposure to pollutants by implementing a “Stop Idling” campaign at some of the city’s most trafficked schools. Commissioner Carter Strickland of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently announced the new plan to crack down on idling buses and cars in school areas known to have the highest asthma rates. Drivers found parked with their engines on for more than one minute will be warned, but if they’re caught a second time they’ll be slapped with a $350 fine.

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Enduring a brutally hot summer in New York City may end up killing you. A new study released this week says thanks to global warming and the “urban island” effect, NYC mortality rates due to warming temperatures are likely to increase by 20 percent by 2020 and as much as 90 percent by the 2080s. The report, released this week in the Nature Climate Change journal, was conducted by a team of researchers at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in collaboration with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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PHOTO CREDIT: DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizz

NYC Deputy Mayor Caswell Holloway recently announced plans to outfit the empty rooftop of a Department of Environmental Protection wastewater treatment plant in Staten Island with enough photovoltaic panels to power about 169 homes in the area annually. The new installation in Port Richmond will be the largest in a series of four solar panel arrays citywide between Staten Island and the Bronx. Collectively, the installations will eliminate as much as 1,636 metric tons of greenhouse gases a year, power 245 homes annually and aid in Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent by 2017.

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Columbia University Morningside Campus

Some of New York’s colleges and universities have been quietly making every day Earth Day with a series of efforts to boost sustainability and conservation. From adding green roofs to their buildings to installing new wastewater management systems, many of the city’s most notable educational institutions have been on board in doing their part to help reduce greenhouse gases by 2017 as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC. Read on to see how these schools are leading the charge to make New York a greener, cleaner place.

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New York City’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2017 has taken another step in the right direction. At a press conference at Rockefeller University yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the expansion of the PlaNYC Carbon Challenge initiative to include ten leading global companies - American International Group, BlackRock, Bloomberg LP, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Google, JetBlue Airways, JPMorgan Chase, and PVH. These new participants have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at their offices by up to 40 percent over the next 10 years.

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Mayor Bloomberg broke ground today on the ambitious High Bridge revitalization project to restore New York’s oldest standing bridge and the park area around it. Part of the Old Croton Aqueduct, the bridge links Manhattan to the Bronx. With the bridge’s restoration, community members of each borough will be able to travel from one side of the park to the other, and pedestrians and cyclists will be able to access the Highbridge Pool and Play Center in Manhattan with ease.

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The bill proposing a natural gas pipeline extension through the New York area that passed through the House of Representatives earlier this year has just been approved by the Senate. The Bloomberg administration gave a statement saying that the pipeline that would be laid through Jacob Riis Park and the Gateway National Recreation Area in Queens and down through southern Brooklyn will be given the green light when re-passed by the House in November. The controversial pipeline is meant to bring cleaner energy to the New York City area so that we are not reliant upon foreign oil, but natural gas brings a slew of problems of its own, such as fracking and potential hazardous leaks. In the fight for a more sustainable future, green energy sources like wind and solar power would be a much cleaner and less invasive solution.

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Recycling may not yet be a priority for our younger generation, but a new “Recyclarium” featuring fun interactive games that teach about sustainability has hit the streets of New York City in order to change that. The re-purposed trailer, designed by Sims Municipal Recycling, will travel from school to school in order to make learning about the importance of conserving natural resources fun for children. Among other upbeat teaching aids, the mobile education center includes wheels and doors that can be turned to reveal which materials can and can’t be recycled.

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This week marked the very first installation of a wind turbine at a New York City school. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited The Town School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side Monday afternoon to activate a wind power system at the landmark nursery- eighth grade school. The eddyGT wind turbine, designed by Urban Green Energy, will add to the school’s sustainability curriculum while also providing it with wind energy.

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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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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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©William Alatriste

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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