Want to Find Green in the City?

Green Sky Designs, a Brooklyn-based landscape architecture firm, came up with their GardenSpace NYC application for the iPhone, iPad and and iPod Touch. Users can green-thumb their way through this comprehensive directory of New York City’s hidden parks and secret gardens.

Using GPS, GardenSpace NYC maps the location of the nearest publicly accessible gardens – a handy tool for urban explorers, romantics looking for a quick green hideaway, or tourists hunting for the Big Apple’s flowery underbelly. The app also allows users to search green spaces by neighborhood. This interactive field guide, replete with stunning photographs of the gardens, along with a description and history of each space, give users key information about access, garden vibe and facilities present at each garden.

Though GardenSpace NYC currently features gardens in Manhattan, this gardening duo have plans to extend their app into New York City’s other boroughs in the near future.

check out the app.

BK District 39 Energy Challenge Launches Aug. 1

Brooklyn Green Team gets lazy in the summer. But on the bright side, we're on our computers less and instead are spending time outside. Which we hope you are too.

That means we've been lagging on our challenges but we'll pick up this fall!

From Brand Lander...

To help lessen the burden, I'd like to remind you to sign up now for our Reduce Your Use - Green Homes Challenge. It's the perfect way to reduce your energy consumption, learn about how to maintain a more sustainable home, and win prizes.

The challenge begins on August 1st, so please sign up today! In partnership with the NYS Energy Authority (NYSERDA) and ConEd, we are signing folks up by the day to compete with one another on energy savings. All it takes is filling out this quick online sign-up form: (www.surveymonkey.com/ReduceTheUseD39).

You will need to enter your ConEd account number, so please have it ready (you can begin the survey without your account number if you don't have it handy). Winners will be announced in two categories at the end of the challenge--the home with the lowest overall per capita electric bill, and the home with the greatest overall reduction in usage over the course of the competition. We'll also be keeping track of how different neighborhoods stack up against one another, so we can see which is the greenest neighborhood in our district.

Also, I hope you will join me at the kick-off event for the competition on Sunday, August 1st at 2pm at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. NYSERDA, ConEd and vendors of energy efficient equipment will be there to offer some good starting tips on greening your home. If you are not yet a part of the challenge, you will be able to sign up at the event. The Old Stone House is in J.J. Byrne Park at 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. Food and refreshments will be served. You don't have to attend to join in the challenge, but it will be a great way to get started.

SIGN UP HERE.

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An Invite from the North Brooklyn Compost Project

It's NBCP Potluck Picnic Social time, so break out those deviled eggs, potato salads, pies, ice cream and lemonades!

On Sunday, July 18th starting at noon, we will be gathering in McCarren Park in the leafy area along Driggs Avenue (right across the street from the dog run and compost site). It is a potluck affair so bring a dish/cold beverage to share.

This will be a casual get-to-know your fellow composters event, and is totally and absolutely open to non-NBCPers, so bring friends, families, and foes. Ball games, Frisbees, bocce, horseshoes, guitars and banjos, and anything else that's playable should come with you, too.

Check out North Brooklyn Compost Project in New York Magazine!
Learn more about NBCP.

Protect New York City's Drinking Water

Call State Senate Majority Leader Sampson TODAY at (518) 455-2788 to protect New York's drinking water from toxic gas drilling. There will be a vote for a moratorium on drilling this month. Lend your support!!!

The oil and gas industry wants to drill in the region that supplies tap water for 9 million people. Drilling can leach toxic chemicals into drinking waters and can create millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater. Flammable methane gas can also wind up in our tap water causing it to catch on fire.


For more info, check out: www.environmentNewYork.org

Lend Your Talents

Do you care about the environment but toil in your apartment focused on peak oil and melting glaciers rather than taking action? Then this communication is for you, potential superhero...

"Most people don’t know that the nation’s largest and best known environmental organization has a local volunteer group. With the advantage of national Sierra Club’s excellent reputation and capacity, the NYC volunteer group has long had the opportunity to be a leading voice for green activism in one of the world’s cultural and media capitals. Unfortunately, that potential has been unrealized, although the need for that activism has never been greater.

The NYC group, one of 11 eleven volunteer groups in Sierra Club’s New York State Chapter, is governed by an Executive Committee, elected by the 10,000 Club members living in NYC. Because the activities of the NYC group have been so limited, hardly any Sierra Club members pay any attention to it. Two years ago, only 100 members voted. Because participation in Executive Committee elections is so low, Executive Committee members have been able to remain in office indefinitely, without any scrutiny of their record.

You can make a more active Executive Committee a reality – today. A group of enthusiastic new Sierra Club NYC volunteers have launched multiple new programs to catalyze a big jump in the City’s sustainability. We’re dedicated to using the power of the Sierra Club to get New Yorkers involved. We’re partnering with the City to paint the roofs of buildings white, which cuts air conditioning bills and carbon emissions at the same time. We’re recruiting volunteers to paint the roofs of nonprofit buildings and find nonprofits who want to get their roofs painted. We’re setting up neighborhood sustainability events to link residents with green programs that can benefit them. We’re organizing oil spill response forums, collaborating with MoveOn and the New School. You can read the full plan at http://www.nyc.sierraclub.org/pdf/SC%20NYC%20Newsletter%205-07-105.pdf."

For more information, or to get involved, please contact Dan Miner at 917.319.2924 or beyondoilnyc@yahoo.com.

From artist Chrisina Kelly who is working on a project called Maize Field you might have stumbled upon in BK...

"This summer I'm growing blue corn in two areas of Brooklyn as part of a public art project called Maize Field. The gardens are located in Boerum Hill and Canarsie. I hope you'll have a chance to visit them over the course of the growing season.

Each garden is located in an area that was documented as Indian maizeland in the 17th century. They are traditional three sisters gardens (corn, beans and squash) using crop varieties that are part of the heritage of the Lenape and Haudenosaunee from this region. The gardens are a meditation of the change and displacements that have been a part of New York's history. The project participates in the continual change that defines the city by highlighting a historical past then integrating that history back into the present landscape.

You can learn more about the project on my website and follow the gardens on my blog.I hope you'll enjoy watching the corn grow."

Visit the site.

Visit the blog.

Shop Seventh blog launches

This week, the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce launched a new blog site called "Shop Seventh" (shopseventh.com or parkslopechamber.com). The site will be regularly updated with the latest news and events taking place in the stores, bars and restaurants along 7th Avenue. We're always happy to see a local economy thriving. It's a win-win to support your local boutique which probably features stuff made by locals vs. say Big Box store XYZ.

What else is there to say?

visit the blog.

Calculator to Test Out

One Green Team member just read a New Yorker about the guy behind this great tool. Give it a whirl...WattzOn is a free online tool to quantify, track, compare and understand the total amount of energy needed to support all of the facets of your lifestyle with the goal of helping you find ways to reduce your personal power consumption.

Learn More.

check out their blog.

from our friends at GCC...

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy join forces with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to beautify the Gowanus!

11am - 2pm on June 26th at the Gowanus Canal, 2nd Ave between 5th St & the Canal.

We'll be constructing a compost bin and holding a composting workshop and education seminar in partnership with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We will also be planting trees, shrubs and flower beds as well as mulching, weeding, removing trash and debris, relocating, preparing and maintaining Conservancy nursery plants and finally, installing bird houses.

To volunteer for the June 26th event please email: volunteer@gowanuscanalconservancy.org or call us at (718) 541-4378. Volunteers under age 18 must have a parent or guardian on site to sign a release and available to supervise them (please call if you need more information).

Learn more.

Planet Connections Theatre Fest

Thank you for those who came out on Saturday for our Extravaganza. Our partner was Planet Connections and they are doing a month-long theatre fest. Tickets are $18 and performances are in three theaters downtown.

We like them because they are NY's premiere eco-friendly theatre fest, striving to help the environment in any way they can. Each production is challenged to make their shows greener in at least one way - from marketing techniques, costume or set design, or the rehearsal process. Each production partners with a nonprofit of their choice so they are shedding light on what's out there that people should get involved in. Some of the plays are about the environment but many aren't. Anyway, a good excuse to go out and see some theatre.

Learn More.

Dispatches from the PS 295 Edible School Garden

Fresh off our Urban Garden Challenge, we thought this project was worth following...

At PS 295 The Studio School of Art and Culture in BK, they are building an edible garden! Garden education is so important for kids, particularly in an urban environment where they are often disconnected from the food they eat.

The school’s librarian, Susan Weseen, is spearheading several initiatives to educate all students at the school about gardening and the importance of knowing where nutritious food comes from. Through Ms. Weseen’s efforts, PS 295 was recently adopted by Slow Food NYC to participate in their Harvest Time Program, which provides schools with financial assistance to support good food education.

Beginning June 5th, PS 295 will be building 10 raised garden beds in the schoolyard and creating a mobile kitchen cart that will enable students to plan, grow, harvest and cook the food and herbs they’ve grown. In addition, she continues to co-facilitate a gardening class in the school’s after school program, which has planted and tended to two local community gardens, and was instrumental in planning an upcoming visit from Truck Farm, a Wicked Delicate Film and Food Project.

Slow Food NYC connected Ms. Weseen with Hans Hesselein, a Park Slope-based landscape architect who designed the garden beds.

Ms. Weseen, Gardening students, and volunteers including parents and members of Slow Food NYC began building out the raised beds on Saturday, June 5th. Compost will be delivered later in the month and starting in the last few weeks of school, students will begin planting the first crops including lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, nasturtiums, cilantro, swiss chard, peppers, and basil.

All students at PS 295 who have been involved with gardening over the past four years will be meeting with the filmmakers and will then share their experience with the rest of the school later this year.