The New York City Council approved on Tuesday a bill requiring new buildings to be constructed with bird-friendly materials. Considered the most extensive policy of its kind in the country, the initiative mandates new glass buildings, as well as projects undergoing a major renovation, to be equipped with materials that are easier for birds to see. Each year, between roughly 90,000 and 230,000 birds die each year in New York City from colliding with glass buildings, according to the NYC Audubon. Learn more
Photo courtesy of Green City Solution’s Instagram
Nearly 90 percent of residents in cities around the world breathe polluted air, which is the single largest environmental health risk, according to the World Health Organization. To address this global problem, Green City Solutions created a mobile installation of specific moss culture that has large surface leaf areas and that can remove pollutants from the air. As Curbed NY reported, this new mossy air filter has been installed in Oslo, Paris, Brussels and Hong Kong. According to the team, CityTree has the same effect as up to 275 trees but requires 99 percent less space and just five percent of the cost.
Happy Earth Day, friends! As climate change weighs heavy on many of our minds, it’s relief to know that there are developers and architects working hard to create a healthier, more sustainable built environment. Eco-friendly residential design has been on the rise in NYC over the last decade, with buildings today boasting everything from solar panels to greywater treatment to vitamin C-infused showers. CityRealty took a look at some of the newest LEED-rated constructions and green renovations sprouting up across Manhattan and found that the city counts 94 major eco-friendly projects. Another interesting tidbit: Battery Park City and West Chelsea boast the highest concentration of green buildings. How does your neighborhood stack up?
- Leading with LEED: A Look at NYC’s Eco-Friendly Housing
- Green City: Eight of the Biggest Eco-Friendly Developments Happening Right Now in NYC
- Even More Fun Maps on 6sqft
What’s a bioswale? (We know that’s what you’re saying to yourself.) It’s a curbside garden built to absorb stormwater. The city currently has about 255 of them, but will be installing an additional 2,000 throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx to prepare for the possibility of more intense storms in the future. Not only will the bioswales absorb an estimated 200 million gallons of stormwater each year, but they’ll therefore mitigate pollution in the Bronx River, Flushing Bay, Gowanus Canal, Jamaica Bay and Newtown Creek.
There’s nothing we love more than an innovative, green design that also carries a social message, and these contemporary HEDGE planters do just that. Aside from being a fun way to bring the outdoors in to small spaces, they are named after the pioneering women who broke into what were once the male-dominated fields of landscape and garden design. They include Gertrude Jekyll, Beatrix Farrand, Marian Cruger Coffin, and Florence Bell Robinson.
Cora Neil, a Los Angeles-based environmental designer, created HEDGE with these notable women in mind while working on a public garden space project at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. The colorful, indoor/outdoor planters look great anywhere, notes Cora. She also says, “It’s hard to find planters that fit—and actually look good—in your home or on your patio or balcony. The modern design and clean geometry make them fashionable solo, but look equally as good as a pair, trio, or sextet.”
You may have heard last year that scientists began exploring the idea of spray-paintable solar cells, and now researchers at Sheffield University in England have made a breakthrough that could bring this green energy dream one step closer to reality.
The advance comes from the use of organometal halide perkovskite, a mineral/crystal, organic/metal hydra, which offers the potential to combine high-performing, mature solar cell technologies with organic photovoltaics that have a low embedded energy cost.
While going green has more or less become the norm in most modern day construction in New York, some projects have really outdone themselves from the ingenuity of design to the sheer scale of size. This is a city where the new police academy will harness the power of re-usable rainwater, and where the Barclays Center‘s arena roof is being covered with 130,000 square feet of new garden space. New York is placing itself at the forefront of green design and green construction, and here are just eight of the biggest green projects happening right now.
Last year, a Kickstarter crowd funding project for an ambitious public pool in the East River passed its $250,000 goal. This month, the project entered its first phase by dropping a miniature version of the pool called Float Lab into the river, testing the water quality and concept of the pool. If all goes according to plan, Gothamites will be splashing in this river pool in 2016!