How many environmentalists does it take to screw in...

a GE Energy Smart™ Compact Fluorescent (CFL) Bulbs?

Here are answers to some of all of our questions to switching over our bulbs. they even have a handy link to find replacement CFL bulb for your specific standard ones.

http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/energy_smart.htm#benefits

Blackle - Terrible Name, good Idea

If Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year of energy consumption would be saved. In response, a black version of its search engine was created, called Blackle, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with lower energy consumption. Spread the word. www.blackle.com

Upcoming Recycling Event

Upcoming Event - Dept. of Sanitation Fall E-waste and Textile Recycling Collections recycle computers & laptops, monitors, printers & scanners (desktop only), keyboards & mice, TVs, VCRs & DVD players and cell phones at the following e-waste and textile recycling event. Here is the one closest to us. Great way to get rid of clothes that are not good enough to give away.

Manhattan - Sunday, September 9, 2007
8am - 2pm at Union Square North Plaza (southeast corner of 17th St. and Broadway; cars enter at 16th St & Union Square West).

The little things we do

I don't know about you, but unfortunately, I've been plagued with really bad allergies for the past five years. With 'em comes a lot of snot. So, instead of going through boxes of tissues every week, I now have in my possession 3 cloth handkerchiefs. Reusable, rewashable and quite soft on the nose!

-Melissa

Going Green Eating Greens

A friend to the Brooklyn Green Team (Elisabeth Pezzolla) sent us an article from the New York Times that points to raising animals for meat as one of the biggest contributors to global warming. See for yourself...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/business/media/29adco.html?ex=1346126400&en=5f6f1e6df5db37ec&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Farmers Markets

Lately I been trying to do lots of my shopping at the farmers market at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Usually you can find organic produce, honey, cheeses, natural meat, fish, milk, etc. Here is a link to a map which lists all green markets in NYC as well as thier hours, compliments of the Council on the Environment of NYC. Remember when you go to bring some plastic bags inside a tote so you don't have to take ten million new plastic bags home with you.

www.cency.org/site/pages/GMKT/map2007.pdf



Amanda

Crazy Clothes Challenge

So it's here Brooklyn Green Team's first ever challenge......The Crazy Clothes Challenge. In an attempt to give the powers that be a message, we have decided that our most powerful vote is the one we cast each time we spend a dollar. In this crucial era of our planet's history it is increasingly important to shift the consumer disposable culture into a new way of thinking. In an attempt to make a small difference and encourage others to make a small difference we have created The Crazy Clothes Challenge. When you take the challenge you agree to not buy new clothing for yourself until the end of December. This means any article of clothing that you purchase must be from a second hand or vintage shop. What are you waiting for...join the challenge!

Our Second Mission, Should We Choose to Accept It

Do you live in Brooklyn? Beacon's Closet( www.beaconscloset.com ) is a great second hand clothing store where you can trade in last seasons fashions(or in my case, last decade's) for cash or store credit. Round up whatever clothes you haven't worn in the last month, bring 'em in, and use the cash to start replacing the lights in your apartment with compact fluorescent bulbs. According to the people at http://www.greenlightsusa.com/ , replacing one 60 watt bulb prevents 504 lbs. of pollution and saves you $54 dollars. They also donate 10% of proceeds to environmental causes, and their bulbs seem to be a bit less expensive than the hardware store offerings!
-Jen
P.S. Sorry I missed the first meeting to do laundry. I did use an environmentally friendly soap.

First Meeting!

Amidst media frenzy, the Brooklyn Green Team Charter members arrived one by one from thier hybrid limos at the home of Johanna and William. Thanks to Johanna's efforts and culinary talents, Green Team members ate safe mushrooms and berries collected by Voutounou from the Clinton Hill area (along with mushroom risotto and beet and goat cheese salad, wine and cookies). Meeting attendees included Mike HJ Dowd, Johanna Voutounou, Melissa Browning, Noelle Gentile, and Amanda Gentile - Jennifer Bartels had to miss the teams first ever meeting in order to do much needed laundry. Issues discussed included the perils of plastic bags, organic wine and that its a good idea to drink it, and decided that each week there would be a new challenge. Then we posed the question of what to do with your incandescent lights - throw them away and replace them? or keep using them until they die. At a subsequent off-site annex meeting (the rental driving back from albany) five brave members of the Brooklyn Green Team made a pact not to buy new clothes until Christmas (other than new organic purchases on an as-needed basis). Excited by the thrill of a challenge, members noelle, amanda, and johanna will make a trip to Beacon's Closet on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn on Sunday or Monday along with another new vintage store also on 5th to do some fall shopping.

About the Brooklyn Green Team

After going to see the opening night of Leonardo DiCaprio's film The 11th Hour, a group of five like-minded Brooklynites embarked on a journey they would not soon forget (hopefully). The creation of a Brooklyn Green Team happened at a bar on the lower east side. The founding greeners, Amanda Gentile, Noelle Gentile, Johanna Voutounou, Melissa Browning, Jennifer Bartels, William Evans, Seth Markel*, and Mike Dowd*, decided that perhaps the best way to do something good for the environment was to get together, talk about what's going on, come up with ideas for one another, annoint one another with pine sap, and eat organic local food while saving the world - one borough at a time. We hope that our blog will provide you with some basic tips, specific resources available in Brooklyn and the larger NYC area, and will encourage good practices to help reduce our carbon imprint and harm we are all inflicting on our home - here on planet earth.

Amanda Gentile
Charter Member

*not particularly active participants.