ROCK THE VOTE! (hopefully you already have)

In the spirit of the elections, we thought we would share with you a group that works tirelessly on behalf of the voice of the environment within politics.  League of Conservation Voter's is your guide on politics and the environment. They advocate for sound environmental policies and to elect pro-environmental candidates who will adopt and implement such policies. They inform the public about the most important environmental legislation of the past Congressional session and show them how their own and other representatives voted. Get involved and hold your politicians accountable! 

Check them out. 

Reasons to Vote Tomorrow

Universal Health Care means more beautiful people.

Jesus didn't get a vote. Neither did Emily Dickinson, Harriet Tubman, or Leonardo Da Vinci. Eleanor Roosevelt couldn't vote until she was 36 years old. So that's one thing you've got on all of them.

The stakes have never been higher for the viability of human life on earth.

Five of the nine sitting justices on the Supreme Court are edging toward retirement age, which means five potential vacancies within the next four to eight years.

Margins of victory in swing states like Ohio and Florida have been as low as half a percent in the past two presidential elections.

It's so easy, even old people can do it. And they do. In 2004, only 47% of people age 18-29 voted; 73% of people age 65-74 did.  Are they voting for the person you want to win?

Because it's a slightly more important vote than the next American Idol.

and finally, if you don't, crotchety old war hawks can become president.

ROCK THE VOTE. reasons courtesy of Good

Smart Strip

One green team member recently made a green purchase worth sharing. The smart strip, which despite saying "as seen on TV," usually a deterrent to us green team members, is just that. Smart. If you plug in your television and all the extras like your DVD player and video games and stereo into the strip, as long as the TV is turned off, the other machines automatically turn off and there is no power being sent to them. It's as if you unplugged. You save money on your electric bill and no phantom power!

Smart Strip

An Important Message from Al Gore

He's our favorite. We can't help it. Here is his webcast from Wednesday specifically going out to college students (but we can all learn something from it). 

WATCH THE WEBCAST

and, please, send it to those young people in your life!!!

learn more about wecansolvit

Our Friends at Green Edge

You may have noticed our emails indicate that our challenges are presented in partnership with Green Edge Collaborative NYC. that's because they're our official partners (and friends). In short, Green Edge NYC is a social network that connects people with businesses, organizations and resources we need to build a sustainable future.

We invite you to link up with this great network. Think facebook, but for green folks in NYC. Their neighborhood supper clubs are spreading and are a great way to get out and meet like-minded individuals for dinner.

Join GreenEdge Collaborative.

Good News for People Who Like Good News

Mayor Bloomberg made an announcement today that the city would expand its pilot public recycling program by adding 33 new outdoor recycling locations throughout the City. By partnering with BIDS, the program will pass on little burden to us taxpayers. The colorful blue and green bins will let individuals drop their bottles and cans, and newspapers and magazines. What this means to you: 

NEW Brooklyn Recycling locations:

McCarren Park

Prospect Park (9th Street and Prospect Park AND the corner of Ocean and Parkside Avenues)

Intersection of 5th Ave and Ridge Parkway

Intersection of Church and Flatbush Avenues

Intersection of Adams, Fulton and Willoughby Streets

Intersection of Hastings Street and Oriental Boulevard

Intersection of Avenue S and East 32nd Street

Intersection of 44th Street and 7th Avenue

Learn More

Going Up Gowanus

Toll Brothers, a major suburban home builder, won approval from a Community Board 6 committee for its proposal to rezone two canal-side blocks currently restricted to manufacturing use so it can build 447 units of mixed-income housing, community and commercial space and a swath of open space.

The Land Use and Landmark Committee voted 12 to 1 in favor of the controversial project, with two abstentions. Those in favor said that residential development, which has set aside 30 percent of its units as below-market rate, will spur the cleanup of the canal.

Toll is in contract to buy land bounded by Carroll, Second, and Bond streets and the canal, part of a larger area that the Bloomberg Administration has tabbed to become the next housing frontier. The committee vote now goes to the full community board, then the borough president, Department of City Planning and City Council — all steps in the eight-month rezoning process.
Opponents say the project is too large for a piecemeal rezoning and should be delayed until the city reviews the larger neighborhood plan for pockets of housing, commercial and industrial use in the canal zone.

Community Board 6 will vote on Toll Brothers’ proposition at its Nov. 12 meeting at 6:30 pm. The site is to be determined. (718) 643-3027 to learn more.

Read on at The Brooklyn Paper
Who are these Toll Brothers?

Gimme 5!

For those of us who are eager to recycle all we can, but perhaps don't live near the Park Slope Food Coop ... some good news.

Recycline, the company that brings us cool toothbrushes, razors, and a host of products made from recycled content, now will take your number 5 plastics! (because as you know the city only takes bottles and jugs, meaning any of your yogurt containers and take-out stuff CANNOT be taken with your recyclables). Before launching the program the company assessed the benefits and found that the plus of keeping #5s out of the landfill and giving them new life outweighs the negative of you shipping the 5s to them.

Here's how it works:

you mail your plastics to

Preserve Gimme 5

823 NYS Route 13

Cortland, NY 13045 - questions? 888.334.7296

•	Many common food containers – yogurt cups, sour cream containers, hummus tubs, ketchup bottles – are #5 plastics.
•	We accept any CLEAN plastic item with a #5 stamp on the bottom. Please check to make sure that there are no other materials (paper, screws, other number plastics) on the items that you send to us.
•	Make sure that the #5 plastics are clean – the cleaner the plastic, the cleaner the recycling process.
•	To help make this program a win for the environment, it is important that you send your plastics back to us via ground shipping (as opposed to air). Reuse a box if you can!
•	Shipments should weigh at least 5 pounds and no more than 50 pounds. Any package greater than 50 pounds must be pre-approved by Recycline.
•	Make sure to include your return address on the box and add your name and email address inside the box so we can thank you for your good work.

Basement of (Environmentally-friendly) Blood

Habana Outpost, a popular eco-friendly eatery here in BK has another arm you may not know of. Habana Works, an green education nonprofit for NYC youth. As part of it's teen program, Break It Down, students from The Green School in Williamsburg have been working alongside Habana Works to create a subterranean scarefest for us public in the basement of Habana Outpost. High school students created ghoulish scenes from everyday garbage, and will present a recycled haunted house, which is free and open to the public today, tomorrow, and Sunday! 

Break It Down offers project-based internships to HS students that bring discarded resources back into use and on the market. For example, for the upcoming holiday season, interns will produce craft items from the wood, metal and glass in Habana Outpost's waste stream. Products made will be available for sale at Habana's seasonal holiday Market. 

About Habana Works: a nonprofit founded by Sean Meenan, owner of Habana Outpost, New York's only solar-powered eatery. Habana Works offers free programs that educate, unite and engage Fort Green in environmentally conscious thought and action. These programs use art, architecture, videography and design to instill a greater understanding of the community's role in the betterment of our planet. 

Sushi Smarts

We Brooklyn Green Team members are very excited to see this anticipated guide to sustainable sushi come out today! Three versions of the sustainable sushi guide are available from Blue Ocean Institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Environmental Defense Fund. According to the guides, top sustainable sushi eats include U.S.-farmed abalone (awabi), albacore tuna from North America (shiro maguro), and farmed Arctic char (iwana). Besides downloading the guide from whichever source you choose and practicing sustainable habits at your sushi bar, here is what you can do to further the cause:

Engage Your Chef in a Conversation. Let the chef know that you appreciate seasonal, sustainable seafood choices and that you'd like to explore new flavors. Ask if the seafood is farmed or wild, how it was caught and where it's from.

Spread the Word. At Seafood Watch we know from experience that consumers matter—just a few simple actions on your part can make a big difference. Leave behind our Chef Feedback Cards - an easy way to share your point of view and to encourage restaurants to serve sustainable seafood. Download the Chef Feedback Cards

Become an advocate. If you're passionate about healthy oceans, become a Seafood Watch Advocate and share information about sustainable seafood with your favorite sushi chefs, as well as your family, friends and co-workers. Become a Seafood Watch Advocate

Join the Party. Help us celebrate the launch of our new Sushi Pocket Guide by planning your own sustainable dinner at your local sushi bar anytime through October 28. You can get details and "RSVP" for the party on Facebook. Invite a few friends and get sustainable!

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE! (from Monterey Bay)
or from Environmental Defense Fund or from Blue Ocean Institute

For Those of Us Who Drop Our Compost

Here's what Lower East Side Ecology Center has to ask us drop-bys...

As a result of your committed compost schlep, we've seen our organic waste collection nearly DOUBLE in the past year. Each week two truck loads of your food scraps are composted in our in-vessel composting system, beneath the Williamsburg Bridge in East River Park. This adds up to 5,280 pounds a week and 130 tons a year! That's one pile of compost and we need your co-operation.

When you drop off your food scraps that is just the beginning of their journey to become compost. Your coffee grounds and beet greens are wheeled away from market, to be handled another 5 times: unloaded from truck into in-vessel compost system, shoveled out of compost bins into worm beds, screened twice and then packaged into bags before returning to Union Square as finished compost.

To make the journey of kitchen-scraps to finished compost a little less labor intensive, we're asking you to empty your plastic bags or containers of food waste at our stand directly into our big grey barrels.  Alternatively, if that idea is not appealing to you, we would like to introduce you to the fully compostable Biobag (made from corn), which can be tossed directly into our big grey bins. We will have Biobags (5 bags for $1) available at our stand, starting October 27th, or they can be purchased at Whole Foods Market.

Thank you LESEC for taking all of our compost!

Oysters Save Planet!

While at the Red Hook Harvest Festival, green team members spotted NYNJ Baykeeper. Here is what they learned...Oysters are vital to the ecological well-being of our Estuary.  Baykeeper has been working to restore oyster beds in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary since 1997.  When Henry Hudson first explored the region in 1609, oyster reefs covered 350 square miles of Estuary. After 1900 the oyster population fell dramatically thanks to overharvesting, polluation, disease, and siltation.  Baykeeper restores oyster reefs by planting a shell-base before planting the oysters. The base raises the oysters off the moddy or sandy bottom so they don't get buried. 

The benefits: 

oysters purify the Estuary as they filter water to get their food. An adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day!

Hundreds of animals use oyster reefs as their homes including fish, grass, shrimp, anemones, and crabs. 

You can get involved by being a volunteer. You can become an oyster gardener, prepare shell bags, participate in reef building, or do some office stuff. 

Learn more at Baykeeper