events

Green Week At Pratt

So much to do, so little time. Don't miss the Fourth Annual Pratt Institute Green Week Celebration, March 29 - April 3

Get your event schedule here!

Hydro-Fracking For Natural Gas

Has America found the "green ticket" to support our energy needs and reduce our dependency on foreign oil? Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, is a practice where drilling companies use a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals to "fracture" the rocks situated deep beneath the earth's surface in order to extract trapped natural gas. While drilling and fracking have been around for nearly 60 years, the verdict is definitely out on how the technological advances, coupled with exemptions from environmental regulations, will impact local communities ranging from rural areas in the Catskills to farms in Pennsylvania and the water supply in Texas.

Speakers: Dr. Theo Colborn, Dr. Michel Boufadel, Professor Albert Appleton and Professor Kevin Bone

Date: Thursday, April 15th, 6:30 PM

Location: The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, between 3rd & 4th Avenues

This event is free and open to the public

Minds In the Gutter: Storm Water Management In NY

Heavy rainfall frequently inundates New York’s combined sewer system and threatens the health of our waterways with untreated spills. The Storm Water Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) Coalition challenged designers to consider how the city can use its 6,000 miles of roadway and 12,000 miles of sidewalk as an opportunity for better managing its storm water. Join us for an installation of finalists’ innovative designs, followed by a panel discussion about the submissions moderated by Deborah Marton, Executive Director, Design Trust for Public Space, and featuring some of the competition’s jurors and other industry experts.

Sponsors: S.W.I.M and the Design Trust for Public Space

Date: Earth Day, April 22, 6:30 pm

Location: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue@103 Street

RSVP: Reservations required: 917-492-3395 or programs@mcny.org, $6 Museum members; $8 seniors and students; $12 non-members; $6 when you mention the Sallan Foundation

Earth Day At 40

So much to do, so little time.

Introduction To Green Jobs

Interested in a FREE Training and Introduction to GREEN Jobs? Brooklyn Workforce Innovations (BWI) is recruiting for classes beginning May 3rd!!

Green jobs provide products and services that: use renewable energy resources, reduce pollution, conserve energy and natural resources, and reconstitute waste.

For example Energy Efficiency Technician help people protect their homes from the weather by reducing the amount of energy used (oil, gas and electricity). The same principles can be applied to assist businesses.

This BWI course offers training about environmental problems and solutions; job health & safety (OSHA Certification) and career planning geared toward green collar jobs. Access to further training and job placement assistance, including Energy Efficiency Technician training is offered by the Association for Energy Affordability at no cost!

To be eligible you must be: an unemployed NYC resident 18 or older, have a low household income, eligible to work in the US, able to attend a full time training and ready for work. All men must be registered or willing to register for the Selective Service.

Dates: How to Apply: You MUST attend an open orientation on one of the following dates:
Monday April 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th at 1 PM SHARP! Classes start on May 3rd, 2010

Location: Orientations will be held at Brooklyn Workforce Innovations, 621 Degraw Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Park Slope Brooklyn. Take the R train to Union Street. Exit the train station at the corner of Union St and 4th Ave, walk two blocks on 4th Ave and take a left onto Degraw Street BWI is on the right. Or take the B, D, N, Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 trains to Atlantic Ave and Pacific Street. Exit at the corner of 4th Ave and Pacific Street and walk on 4th Ave towards Dean Street. Degraw Street will be about 8 streets down. Take a right on Degraw and BWI will be on the right.

*For more information call Erica Plasse at 718-237-2017 x 126

Retrofits: Proof-Postivie

Financial institutions and organizational budget officers speak a different language than energy efficiency experts. One side is concerned with dollars, the other with kilowatt-hours and therms. The forum will discuss new initiatives that seek to bridge these two worlds and potentially unlock the movement of capital into energy efficiency programs. The analysis of real energy savings data in real buildings could begin to change that in the very new future. Further, a multi-stakeholder initiative to analyze predicted vs. real savings in buildings that have completed retrofits could help to move lending institutions move closer to lending for energy retrofits. Join our policy forum to discuss the data and the opportunities, to see how they can help the market change.

Sponsor: GreenHomeNYC

Speakers: Sam Marks-Deutsche Bank; Michael Bobker- CUNY, Building Performance Lab; Luke Falk-NYSERDA

Moderator: Ashok Gupta, NRDC

Date: Wednesday, May 19, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Location: New York University, Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1 Washington Place

RSVP: Event is free but seating is limited. GreenHomeNYC

Building A Sustainable Future

Don't miss New York Institute of Technology's fifth annual energy conference; Building A Sustainable Future.

Date: Friday, June 4, *:30am - 4:15 pm

Location: New York Institute Auditorium, 1871 Broadway@61st Street

RSVP: For more information and registration form go to NYIT

Incubating Clean Energy Businesses

A day-long review featuring short reports from clean/renewable-energy business incubators and companies statewide whose technology- and business-development work has been supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA):
Clean-energy business incubators supported by NYSERDA in six regions throughout New York State, and selected early-stage companies being developed by these incubators;
Companies statewide supported through NYSERDA's Clean Energy Business Growth and Development Program;
Manufacturing-stage companies statewide supported under NYSERDA's Manufacturing Incentive Program; and
Several additional NYSERDA-funded assistance programs (display/networking only)

Who should attend: This program review will be of potential interest to anyone in the clean tech business: entrepreneurs, investors, service-providers, potential customers of innovative technology, and media. This is an opportunity to hear from and meet a range of exciting and entrerpreneurial clean-energy companies from across a wide geographic area in one spot at one time. The presenting companies encompass a range from startups to established companies with growth prospects in the clean-energy industry. Technologies include power generation, biomass, solar photovoltaics, wind energy, energy efficiency, transportation, and energy conversion and storage.

Sponsor: NYSERDA Business Development Program Review

Date: Thursday, June 10, 2010

Location: Rogers Hall at NYU-Poly, 6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn

Registration: NYSERDA

Airports: 21st Century Makeovers

Airports are vital to New York's regional economy. But they operate near or at capacity, with 20th century technology, and customer satisfaction is low. Learn about the innovations for overcoming these challenges.

Sponsors: Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute/CUNY, CUNY Aviation Institute/CIUS, University Transportation Research Center, Port Authority of NY & NJ

Date: Monday, June 14, 2010, 8:30 am - 3:15 pm

Location: McGraw Hill Auditorium & Gallery, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd Floor

RSVP: Newman Real Estate Institute/CUNY

Bright Lights Big City

Every New Yorker knows how hard it is to actually see a star - let alone a whole constellation - in the night sky, but there are ways to reduce the City's obtrusive artificial light. Join us for Darkening the Skyline, to examine light pollution, how it affects New Yorkers and ways to reduce it. See the big the big picture!

Sponsor: GreenHomeNYC

Speakers: Gita Nandan Architect and Co-Founder, The Thread Collective, Ian Cheney, Director, The City Dark

Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 6:30-8:00 pm

Location:: GE Monogram Design Center, Architects and Designers Building, 150 E. 58th Street, 10th Fl.,

RSVP: GreenHomeNYC This event is free and open to the public.

Himalayan Glaciers & Asia's Looming Water Crisis

The Himalaya is home to some of the world's most magnificent peaks and largest glaciers, which supply crucial seasonal flows to rivers across Asia. Yet they are disappearing at an alarming rate. See the photos. Hear the experts.

Sponsor: The Asia Society

Speakers: David Breashears, Filmmaker and mountaineer; Executive Director, GlacierWorks; Syed Iqbal Hasnain, Senior Visiting Fellow, The Henry L. Stimson Center; Bill McKibben, Environmentalist and writer; Founder of 350.org; Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society; Yao Tandong, Chinese glaciologist and Director, The Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research
Moderator: Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran Correspondent, The Economist

Date: Wednesday, July 14, 6 - 8:00 pm

Location: The Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue

RSVP: Asia Society. $7 members, $9 students and seniors, $11 general public

Lose To Win

Want to win at cutting home energy use in Brooklyn? Take the Lander challenge. Starts August 1 Yes you can in the 39th District

Rising Currents: Projects for NY's Waterfront

Now through Aug. 9. Don't miss it! MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center joined forces to address one of the most urgent challenges facing the nation's largest city: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. Though the national debate on infrastructure is currently focused on "shovel-ready" projects that will stimulate the economy, we now have an important opportunity to foster new research and fresh thinking about the use of New York City's harbor and coastline. As in past economic recessions, construction has slowed dramatically in New York, and much of the city's remarkable pool of architectural talent is available to focus on innovation.

An architects-in-residence program at P.S.1 brought together five interdisciplinary teams, including Architecture Research Office (ARO), to re-envision the coastlines of New York and New Jersey around New York Harbor and to imagine new ways to occupy the harbor itself with adaptive "soft" infrastructures that are sympathetic to the needs of a sound ecology. These creative solutions are intended to dramatically change our relationship to one of the city's great open spaces.

Dates: March 24 – August 9, 2010

Location: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, Architecture and Design Galleries, 3rd Floor

Eco-Fashion Going Green

The fashion industry has been criticized for the environmentally destructive consequences of its practices, But increasing awareness is bringing changes. Talks & Tours on Eco-Fashion, July 26, August 11 or August 23.

Sponsor: The Museum at FIT

Dates: Monday, July, 26, 6 pm, Wednesday, August 11, 10:30 am, and Monday, August 23, 6 pm

Location: Fashion Institute of Technology, Seventh Avenue/27th Street

RSVP: FIT

The Tragedy Of Beauty

The Tragedy of Beauty focuses on photography of land where the tragedy of the image becomes the aesthetic of the environment. The artists in this exhibition do not have a passive engagement with the environment; their aim is to demonstrate that global environmental struggles are creating an aesthetic.

Date: June 18 - August 28

Location: Exit Art, 475 Tenth Avenue, NYC

For more information: EXIT ART