New York, NY —
As we continue our month long series on climate change, New York City released the first ever comprehensive inventory of carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide, a by-product of combustion, is attributed to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Thoughts immediately go to automobiles, power plants and other industry where residue can be seen spewing from tailpipes and smokestacks. But, as WNYC’s Richard Hake reports, one of the biggest carbon polluters is the building where you live and work.
REPORTER: Buildings and homes require heating, cooling, electricity, power, water and waste management…all of which release carbon into the atmosphere. The Bloomberg administrations is worried that the city’s growth is making the emission rate unacceptable.
BLOOMBERG: Now our inventory found that the city as a whole produced about 58 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the year 2005. 79 percent of which came from buildings and the most of the rest from vehicles.
REPORTER: If the city does nothing that number is expected to increase by 27 percent in the next two decades. But the city has already proposed a solid waste management plan, water conservation, new traffic lights and lower fuel guzzling vehicles----and the mayor is promising to do much more.
BLOOMBERG: That’s why we’ve set a bold, but we think achievable goal of cutting the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030.
REPORTER: Specific details on how that will be done citywide will be released soon, but to get an idea on how a building can reduce the amount of carbon it releases into the atmosphere we head to what could be considered an unlikely place for a green building----the middle of the Bronx.
On a lot where burned out and abandoned tenements once stood….an eight story, 63 apartment “green” building is almost complete. John Reilly is the Executive Director of the Fordham-Bedford Housing Corporation which owns and manages some 90 other buildings for low income tenants in the northwest Bronx. He says it costs more to make a green building, but will pay in the long run.
REILLY: I think as an industry and we know that the city is going to be encouraging this more there’s going to be a look to making things more efficient, the boilers, the electrical , the plumbing, the waste water.
REPORTER: This building, called Jacob’s Place after a neighborhood organizer, has all the latest environmental amenities. Pat Logan of the Fordham-Bedford Housing Corporation takes us to the boiler room.
Instead of one giant boiler to heat the entire building, it’s divided up into zones which can operate independently of one another.
LOGAN: And what we are going to look to do here on top of what we have is where going to look to do heat timers in the building and heat sensors in the building and call up heat that way as opposed to pumping out x amount of heat based on what we think the temperature may be in a unit.
REPORTER: And rainwater will also be put to use. It will be collected in huge underground tanks surrounding the building.
LOGAN: we are in the basement, we are looking at the pipe that will bring water into the building that will allow us to run water to the roof to irrigate the green roof and the electric conduit that will open and close a valve that will allow us to use that rain water or let it as it should typically run to the sewer system as it would after a big rainfall.
REPORTER: Each individual apartment will also have green features, like the lights.
LOGAN: These are all compact fluorescent which means is if someone is using a standard fixture and they were using a 60 to 100 watt bulb, we are talking about 16 to 18 watts in these units to give off the same amount of light and cost a lot less to operate.
REPORTER: A special coating on the windows.
LOGAN: In the winter time what that coating does is it bounces the radiating heat from the radiator back into the unit so you have less heat leaving the building. In the summer, it allows the light through, but bounces out some of the sun’s radiant heat.
REPORTER: Even the bamboo flooring is energy efficient.
LOGAN: Its also green because its harvested and it continues to grow so it cuts down on people using trees for flooring and causing deforestation.
REPORTER: Up on the roof, Logan shows how the building will use solar panels to light the common areas and hallways of the building.
LOGAN: We’re replacing what we are taking from the grid, from Con Edison or another power supplier and we are producing it ourselves and using it. As you know we are making a less of a demand on the grid so there’s less of a need. One building couldn’t do it alone, but you have to start somewhere, less of a need to build more power generators in New York…less emissions.
REPORTER: Another green feature is the green roof. Logan and Reilly take us to another one of their buildings right across Webster Avenue where a carpet of succulents--- which look like tiny cactus plants--- have been growing for about a year.
LOGAN: They’re red and green and as you can see it’s very thick, it’s like a mat. They’ll eventually get a little taller and a little greener. No matter if they’re red or green or even brown as long as they are alive they are doing their job. They are holding on to that water.
REPORTER: And in turn the green roof keeps the building cooler as well as the neighborhood itself, prevents rain water from going to the sewers and adds oxygen which improves air quality. Fordham-Bedford’s John Reilly says it’s a lot different from when he grew up in The Bronx.
REILLY: I remember as a kid being here when they were switching to different types of fuel oil there was soot and people would hang their clothes out to dry they would have to rewash it because the soot that would land on their clothes.
REPORTER: Mayor Bloomberg says sustainability and improving the environment is possible. It’s all about a balance.
BLOOMBERG: We can have a responsible policy toward pollution and still have the kind of 21st century life that we want. There are some people who will say let’s cut out all electricity and we will go back to growing our own food.
REPORTER: The Mayor’s vow to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030 is a lofty goal, but so were some of his other ventures as mayor.
BLOOMBERG: In this city life expectancy is lower today than it is in the country as a whole and that’s the first time since before World War 2. So all of those little things to prevent traffic deaths, to reduce fire deaths, reducing smoking and trans fats and all these things they do add up and it certainly the same thing is true with our effort to limit carbon dioxide emissions.
REPORTER: The Mayor is expected to unveil a plan on specific regulations on how city government and the community can reduce emissions later this month on Earth Day. He’s also hosting a climate change summit here in New York City next month for mayors from around the world. For WNYC, I’m Richard Hake.