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Green Apples and Bad Apples: NRDC's Annual 2009 Earth Day Listing

2009-04-22T20:03:24Z

Thirty-nine years ago this week, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers poured into the streets of Manhattan to demand clean air, safe water and environmental protection in every sphere of city life. Similar events took place across the nation, as millions of American helped launch the modern environmental movement.

Things have improved dramatically here in New York City since that first Earth Day. The air is cleaner and so are New York's waterways, thanks mostly to federal, state and local laws passed since 1970. But significant concerns involving core issues remain, and new challenges, such as global warming, have emerged.

To mark this week's anniversary, we here at NRDC put together our third annual "Green Apples, Bad Apples" listing. We looked at some of the city's best environmental places over the past 12 months, and also at some of the most environmentally worrisome locations. We've identified five of each throughout the New York City area.

This year's list illustrates both the resilience of the city's environment, as well as the ecological challenges posed by living in the nation's most densely populated urban area. We're focused on the topical with this list, so for better or worse, we left out historic problem sites, such as power plants, and brights spots, such as Central Park, that would otherwise make the list year after year.

Here they are, listed in alphabetical order:

NRDC's NEW YORK CITY GREEN APPLES

"BIRD BOUTIQUE" (Brooklyn)

If you are reading this listing, you are certainly well aware that the global warming crisis is the most urgent environmental problem facing the city, the nation and the planet. While national and international action is necessary, steps taken right here in New York City can make a difference as well. In New York City, where public transit use makes us more energy efficient per capita than most other Americans, more than 80% of our energy use and carbon emissions will come from existing buildings by 2030, according to city figures. That fact highlights the need for New Yorkers to enhance energy efficiency in buildings that have already been constructed, if we hope to make a significant dent in our city's carbon footprint.

It is with such concerns in mind that the U.S. Green Building Council -- creators of the well-known LEED ("Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design") rating system -- has created a new rating category for Commercial Interiors ("LEED-CI"). LEED CI is focused on the energy and environmental impacts of interior construction.

Bird, a boutique located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, is on track to become the first LEED-CI certified retail store in New York City. Construction of the retail outlet, which sells locally-designed clothing and jewelry, was completed in February 2009. Its interior was designed by Manhattan-based Ole Sondresen Architect and constructed by WM Dorvillier & Company. Installation of energy efficient lighting fixtures, low-flush and low-flow bathroom fixtures and the use of paints made without volatile organic compounds are some of the environmentally sensitive construction practices that were employed. Over 30% of materials used in construction were refurbished or salvaged (including wood paneling found in a SoHo dumpster and wooden beams taken from a nearby demolition site). Nearly half of the new construction materials were manufactured locally, including the store's cork flooring and custom metal work. According to architectural estimates, the overall design will reduce the store's annual CO2 emissions by 6,862 tons and cut water usage by over 40%.

While building the store to these standards added 7.7% in construction expenses, a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority brought the final price tag down to 5% over conventional costs. The estimated payback period is only five years.

In recognition of Bird Boutique's commitment to sustainability and in the hope that this store's construction process will become an example that other retail establishments around the city can follow, we are pleased to designate Brooklyn's Bird Boutique an Earth Day 2009 Green Apple.

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GREAT POLLINATOR PROJECT -- Greenbelt Native Plant Center (Staten Island) and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (Manhattan)

Often overlooked until you feel their sting, bees help protect plant biodiversity, contribute to healthy ecosystems, and are fundamental to agricultural production. Bees are the most important of the animal pollinators that transfer pollen from one plant to another, fertilizing at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90 percent of our wild plants. Each year, bees pollinate more than $15 billion in U.S. crops such as almonds, alfalfa, apples, berries, cantaloupes and cucumbers. In addition, U.S. honey bees produce an estimated $150 million in honey yearly. In short, bees are essential to our ecology and our economy.

But some of the planet's bees are in trouble. Since 2006, European honey bees have been disappearing from their hives en masse. The number of hives in the U.S. is now at its lowest point in the past 50 years. Given honey bees' importance to our food supply and economy, this dramatic change in their numbers -- often called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- is a cause for concern. Researchers attribute the causes of CCD to global warming, habitat loss, pesticide use and parasites. Perhaps one positive outcome of CCD is that it is dramatically increasing public awareness of the importance of all bee pollinators -- the introduced European honey bee as well as our often-overlooked native bees. Right here in New York, new initiatives are enabling residents to protect, study, and learn more about the City's native bees.

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and the Parks Department's Greenbelt Native Plant Center, collaborating with San Francisco's Great Sunflower Project, have recently launched the Great Pollinator Project to raise public awareness of the importance of native bees and their habitats in New York City and to promote home gardening and park management practices that benefit our over 225 species of native bees. Among other things, the project is enlisting the services of New Yorkers, turning them into bee watchers. As of early this year, more than 50 volunteers from across the city had already signed up as participants.

New York City bees offer numerous benefits to our urban environment, including helping to keep our gardens and natural spaces thriving and healthy. Recognizing their important efforts to promote a greater understanding of New York City's native bees, we are happy to award the Great Pollinator Project a Green Apple (from an apple tree pollinated by a mason bee, no doubt) for Earth Day 2009.

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"GREENSTREETS" LANDSCAPING at SAGAMORE AVENUE/CRUGER AVENUE/WHITE PLAINS ROAD INTERSECTION (The Bronx)

Every time there is a significant rainfall in New York City, raw sewage and rainwater are funneled into our rivers and bays from approximately 400 outfall pipes in all five boroughs. As little as one-tenth of an inch of rain can trigger these overflows, which threaten public health, damage the harbor's ecology, and frequently make our waters unsuitable for recreational activities. Throughout most of New York City, the problem is triggered by an antiquated "combined sewer system." The combined sewers carry both rainwater and raw sewage through a single network of pipes to the city's 14 sewage treatment plants. But during rainfalls, the volume of combined sewage and rain waters increase to many times the dry weather flows. Valves close at the sewage plants to prevent flooding at the facilities. And the mixture of raw sewage and stormwater runoff is discharged right into our local waters.

Fortunately, there are new approaches that can mitigate these problems. And the green infrastructure solutions the city is starting to advance make economic, as well as environmental, sense. The idea here is that rather than build huge new facilities to hold the high volume stormflows, we undertake urban landscaping that mimics the way natural systems handle rainwater -- using it to, quite literally, green the city before it ever has a chance to enter the sewer system. These cost effective tools include street tree plantings, roadside swales, the creative use of soil and vegetation in green spaces and green roofs, as well as other techniques that retain storm runoff. In addition to being far more cost effective than heavy construction, these green infrastructure systems can cleanse and cool the air, reduce indoor cooling costs and energy demand and beautify city neighborhoods.

One of the first sites where the city has actively applied these techniques in the urban streetscape is the former traffic island at the intersection of Sagamore Street, Cruger Avenue and White Plains Road in the Bronx. The site -- part of the Department of Parks and Recreation's long-running "Greenstreets" beautification program -- was excavated into a basin shape and lined with geotextile and a layer of bluestone and then filled with topsoil and plantings. Stormwater enters the landscaping via curb inlets. In cooperation with the New York City Soil and Water Conservation District, www.nycswcd.net, this site is being closely monitored to quantify its stormwater capture capacity and further improve the design for what will hopefully become a citywide program, pursuant to the City's new Sustainable Stormwater management Plan.

With thanks to the Bloomberg Administration and participating city agencies, we are pleased to designate the landscaped Greenstreets site at the intersection of Sagamore, Cruger and White Plains Road as an Earth Day 2009 Green Apple.

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MARCAL PAPER FACTORY (Bergen County, New Jersey)

Although not everybody has recognized it yet, the cornerstone for New York City's solid waste policy in the 21st century is likely to be recycling. Recycling, of course, is great for the environment. It conserves natural resources and protects habitat, it produces less water pollution and it helps reduce global warming emissions. But of particular importance to New Yorkers in tough budgetary times are the economic benefits of recycling. According to an independent analysis performed last year by DSM Environmental Management for NRDC, and undertaken with the cooperation of the city's Sanitation Department, the per ton costs associated with recycling are projected to stabilize or decline over the next five years while the costs for exporting waste to landfills and incinerators are expected to continue to mount. This analysis forecasts that by 2013 city taxpayers should be saving money for every ton of material recycled vs. every ton shipped to landfills or incinerators.

For the recycling program to fulfill its economic potential, New York needs to continue to develop new markets for collected recyclables. This approach has the added benefit of creating "green collar" jobs for New Yorkers. One good example is the Pratt Industries plant on Staten Island, which has, for more than a decade, been purchasing much of the recycled paper collected by New York City to use as feedstock for its recycled paper products.

There is good news on this front from just across the Hudson River. This past year, the Marcal Company emerged from a company re-organization designed in part to make it a national leader in the manufacture and sale of recycled paper products. The company processes over 200,000 tons of recycled paper annually at its Elmwood Park, New Jersey facility -- just a stone's throw from Manhattan -- where it provides 800 green collar jobs. Much of the waste paper that is Marcal's raw material comes from recycling programs in the New York/New Jersey region. And all of its products, now being marketed under the name "Simple Steps," are made with 100% recycled content and whitened without the use of chlorine bleach. For more than 75 years, Marcal has been making "paper from paper, not from trees," and the company now seems poised to become an even more important leader on sustainability issues.

For providing green jobs in the region and providing New Yorkers with an opportunity to purchase a wide range of paper products that are locally manufactured from recycled materials, we are happy to designate the Marcal Company's Elmwood Park paper plant as an Earth Day 2009 Green Apple.

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RED HOOK COMMUNITY FARM (Brooklyn)

The roots of farming in New York go back nearly a thousand years. The first New York farmers were Native Americans who planted maize in Manhattan in the year 1100, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. In the 1700s, wheat, corn and oats were grown throughout the region and exported by English colonists. By the time of New York City's consolidation in 1898, more than 2,000 farms (average size, 25 acres) remained throughout the five boroughs. The overwhelming majority of these urban farms disappeared in the first three decades of the 20th century.

The decline of local farming in New York (and in urban areas around the nation) has been unfortunate for many reasons. Locally grown food is fresher, it requires less energy and expense to ship to market; and it can often be sold without chemicals that prolong shelf life. Additionally, local farms provide jobs, remind us of our historic connection to the land and help to prevent the homogenization of our regional landscape. The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) understood all this more than 30 years ago, when it created its popular Greenmarkets program, which brings regional farm products to the streets of New York City.

Today, the Red Hook Community Farm in Brooklyn, established by the non-profit organization Added Value with Parks Department cooperation, is one of just a handful of urban farms throughout the city. And 2008 was perhaps its best year ever. The farm is located in Coffey Park, on a 2.75 acre plot that was once a concrete ball field. One hundred and thirty-five students from across the borough and a band of neighborhood residents are the farm's dedicated workforce. They are growing basil, beans, beets, carrots, chard, Chinese cabbage, collard greens,, cucumber, kale, lettuce, mint, oregano, radicchio, sage, spinach, squash, thyme, and zucchini. And they close the food loop by accepting food waste from local families and restaurants, which they turn into compost. The farm's food is sold at Added Value's weekly farmers' markets and to local restaurants. You won't find anything fresher.

For keeping the city's urban farming tradition alive and setting an example that other neighborhoods could emulate, we are pleased to designate the Red Hook Community Farm as an Earth Day 2009 Green Apple

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NRDC's NEW YORK CITY BAD APPLES

CONEY ISLAND/ASTROLAND (Brooklyn)

For generations of New Yorkers, Coney Island has been their summertime escape. It has been the place where many residents first enjoyed the sand and surf, the place they first rode "kiddie" rides and won prizes for games of chance, and the place where they wandered around the honky-tonk amusement parks and took in the beauty and the frenzy of the city. The first amusement parks opened there more than a hundred years ago. And, despite the ups and downs of the neighborhood, one thing has long characterized Coney Island -- its authenticity. To see real New Yorkers of all ages, races and incomes having fun on a summer afternoon, all you have had to do is take a subway ride out to Coney Island.

Now, however, the Coney Island that millions of New Yorkers knew is in jeopardy. Thor Equities, a local development company, acquired key parcels in the area and is seeking to advance large scale development. Groups like the Municipal Art Society, the Regional Plan Association and the Pratt Center for Community Development, along with many community representatives, want to preserve the democracy of the place and prevent real estate interests from turning Coney Island into an enclave of the rich. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Administration is advancing a rezoning plan that would establish a new entertainment district, while allowing for new hotels and apartments. The developer, Joseph Sitt, of Thor Equities maintains the city's plan is economically infeasible.

Caught in the crossfire have been the interests of New Yorkers who want to see a revival of the area without the kind of overdevelopment that removes Coney Island's heart and soul. One early victim has been the Astroland amusement park, which closed last fall, after Thor Equities refused to give its operators a long-term lease renewal. Aware of the adverse publicity, Thor Equities is now scrambling to bring some temporary amusements to the area. And Mayor Bloomberg has announced that a unit of the Ringling Brothers circus will arrive for a run this summer, with its tent to be set up west of the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium.

The last chapter of the fight over re-development of Coney Island has not yet been written. There is still hope that community interests will be protected and that the concept of affordable amusement areas near the beach and boardwalk will be will be retained in the final development plans. But for advancing a development plan that is larded with big buildings and for forcing the much-loved Astroland amusement park to close its gates for good, Thor Equities and its principal, Joseph Sitt, have earned an Earth Day 2009 Bad Apple.

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42ND STREET, BETWEEN 8TH and 9TH AVENUES (Manhattan)

Overall, the air we breathe in New York City is considerably cleaner today than it was on the first Earth Day in 1970. Levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead are among the widespread airborne pollutants that have significantly declined. Among our most persistent air quality problems are ozone smog and fine particulate matter, both of which are still present in levels that exceed national health standards. And -- funny thing about air pollution -- exposures can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood and block to block. In other words, while the city as a whole has experienced substantial air quality improvements over the past four decades, there may still be locally troubling sources of pollution on the block where you live or work.

While it would require intensive monitoring to identify the single worst street in the city in terms of air pollution, it is possible to draw up a list of likely candidates. Since motor vehicles remain the city's primary source of localized pollution, air quality specialists have long viewed heavily trafficked streets and locations adjacent to our busiest highways as pollution hot spots.

One of the biggest problem locations in all of Manhattan is 42nd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues. It is adjacent to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which has hundreds of diesel-powered buses entering and exiting at all hours of the day and night. Strike one. The street itself is a pick-up and discharging point for many commuter and airport buses. Strike two. And, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, buses are regularly observed parked on that block, with their engines idling. Strike Three. The problem is bad enough for passers-by. It is even more troubling for neighbors who live in the immediate area. The Bloomberg Administration, as part of its plaNYC environmental activities, is currently advancing an anti-idling, clean air campaign. But the bus operators on 42nd Street apparently haven't gotten the message.

For being a spot where numerous idling buses are polluting the air we breathe with tiny, toxic diesel particles, we designate 42nd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues as an Earth Day 2009 Bad Apple.

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GOODHUE WOODS AND SPORTS FIELDS (Staten Island)

These days, some of the city's biggest development contests take place within the jurisdiction of its smallest borough - Staten Island. Not too long ago, plans to construct a NASCAR race track on the borough's West Shore waterfront, near the Goethals Bridge, stirred considerable concern and were eventually dropped. Today, a controversy is brewing over whether Goodhue Woods and Sports Fields -- a verdant nature and recreational asset -- will be sold off to a housing developer or rescued by city and state officials to help create a new city park for the permanent enjoyment of Staten Islanders.

The 42 acre Goodhue parcel is currently owned by the Children's Aid Society, which received the property as a gift from philanthropist Sara Goodhue more than 90 years ago. Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, the borough's respected open-space watch-dogs, call this parcel "the only sizeable natural area on the entire North Shore." The property, long used for after-school recreation, teen programs and as a summer camp by the Society, includes a 32-acre mature woodland, complete with streams and a boat pond, as well as ball fields, an outdoor pool and gymnasium. Economic pressures have now led the Society to put this irreplaceable Staten Island open space on the market.

Fortunately, Staten Island Congressman Michael McMahon has been working to secure as much as six million federal dollars to help acquire and preserve Goodhue Woods. That leaves $26 million still to be found, in order to save the softball and soccer fields, along with 20 acres of woodlands and four acres of wetlands. The solution is at hand -- the Bloomberg Administration, with help from Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, the City Council and Staten Island's other elected officials can pool their resources for a Parks Department rescue of the Goodhue property. That would spare this natural resource from housing development and enable the Children's Aid Society to provide a modern recreation facility on a small, remaining piece of the property.

But because the Good Woods and Sports Fields property is threatened today by ill-advised housing development, we are designating it an Earth Day 2009 Bad Apple.

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MACOMBS DAM PARK/YANKEE STADIUM (The Bronx)

There are many reasons to appreciate the new Yankee Stadium. First, it is home to the New York Yankees, 26-time World Series Champions. Second, with its limestone exterior, white frieze and monuments to legendary Yankee players, it is both beautiful and reminiscent of the original Yankee Stadium. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the new Yankee Stadium is still in the Bronx - the borough where it and the Yankees have resided for 86 years and where the vast majority of New Yorkers believe it and they belong forever.

But for residents of the Bronx who live in the neighborhoods surrounding the new stadium, the new construction has come at a high price. The new stadium was not built on the site of the original ball park, but across the street, on what had since 1899 been Macombs Dam Park. Thus, twenty-two acres of parkland have been one of the casualties of the new stadium's construction. The destruction of Macombs Dam Park, along with a nearly 4 acre portion of John Mullaly Park, has deprived local residents of critical green oases in their community. Baseball fields, basketball, handball and tennis courts, a soccer field and a running track, and hundreds of mature trees have all fallen to construction bulldozers. To make matters worse, replacement park improvements, which the City said would be nearly finished by now, have been slow in coming, despite the vigilance of advocates like New Yorkers for Parks.

To be sure, the City's Department of Parks and Recreation continues to promise that wonderful, new park facilities are coming soon to the Yankee Stadium neighborhood. They include a new rooftop park above stadium parking (complete with a new running track, a multipurpose field for soccer and basketball and handball and basketball courts); three baseball/softball fields at a new Heritage Park (on the site of the old Yankee Stadium); two "pocket" parks on River Avenue, with facilities for young children and for skaters of all ages; and a Harlem River Waterfront Park, with tennis courts, viewing platforms and other amenities.

But even when these new facilities are complete and open to the public, presumably over the next year or two, their scattered locations may never replicate what has been lost. As long-time parks-watcher Anne Schwartz recently put it in the Gotham Gazette: "Residents say that all these bits and pieces can never replace the breathing space an expanse of trees and grass provides, or the way such a centrally located park [Macombs Dam] binds together a community and creates a sense of place...."

The rejection by the Yankees and the City of calls to rebuild Yankee Stadium in place (which would have saved Macombs Dam Park) and their inability to complete the replacement parks in timely fashion has left us little choice but to name the Yankee Stadium/Macombs Dam Park site as an Earth Day 2009 Bad Apple

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NEW YORK STATE SENATE CHAMBER (Albany)

New York's subway, bus and commuter rail system is the region's economic lifeline. Every day, more than 84% of those who come into Manhattan's Central Business Districts travel via public transportation (if they aren't walking or biking). Our system is the largest and most heavily used transit network in the nation, with 8 million daily riders. Even those New Yorkers who drive to work depend on our strong transit network -- subways, buses and rail make it possible for drivers to enjoy sufficient highway capacity as they travel in their preferred mode, and transit provides the majority of their customers and fellow employees the only practical means to reach their places of business. It is hard to imagine how New York City would function if we allow our transit system to spiral into decline.

The mounting financial problems facing our transit network are by now well known. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is required by law to operate with a balanced budget. But the national economic downturn has led to declining tax revenues, increasing costs and operating budget shortfalls. Additionally, the MTA's extensive and essential capital rebuilding program, begun by then MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch in the early 1980s, is set to run out of funds by the end of 2009. Last year, Governor David Paterson named Mr. Ravitch to head a new Commission on Metropolitan Transportation Authority Financing. The Commission's recommendations, released in December 2008, included a regional "mobility" payroll tax, tolls on East and Harlem River bridges, as well as moderate fare increases and other measures.

Unfortunately, while the Governor and New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have been ready to advance one form of the Ravitch recommendations or another, the funding proposals have stalled in the State Senate. Although there are certainly friends of transit among its members who want to take action, the Senate as a whole has failed to muster a majority to support the creative and important proposals being advanced by Ravitch, the Governor and the Speaker. Nor has a majority of the Senate been able to come up with a credible proposal that avoids near-term fare hikes and service cuts or that provides a long-term source of revenues for the transit system's capital needs.

For shirking its responsibility to the public in an hour of need, we are designating the New York State Senate Chamber as an Earth Day 2009 Bad Apple.

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This assessment was prepared by Eric A. Goldstein and Renata Silberblatt. We appreciate the assistance of our NRDC colleagues (including Larry Levine, Rich Kassel, Jenny Powers and Kate Slusark) and our friends at other organizations, all of whom aided in the preparation of this listing.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of NRDC's members and contributors as well as the following foundations that support NRDC's N.Y. Urban Program: The Brenner Family Foundation; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.; New York Community Trust; The Overbrook Foundation; and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, Inc.

Green Apples and Bad Apples: 10 environmental sites in New York City

2008-04-21T23:20:44Z

For those of use who can remember it, Earth Day 1970 in New York was every much as watershed an event here as it was elsewhere in the country. Thirty-eight years ago this week, tens of thousands of New Yorkers poured onto the streets of Manhattan to demand clean air, safe water and environmental protection in every sphere of city life.

To mark the anniversary we are releasing NRDC’s second New York City Green Apples, Bad Apples report. In it my colleague and co-author Ari Kahn and I list some of the city’s best environmental places and also some of its most environmentally worrisome locations, specifically those that have “ripened” over the past 12 months.

These five “Green Apples” – our environmental bright spots – and five “Bad Apples” – the environmental trouble spots are located throughout the city’s five boroughs. Thanks to the magic of our web department there is also an accompanying interactive map with the spots highlighted.

Now without further ado, here is NRDC’s New York Urban Program 2008 Earth Day picks for New York City:

NRDC’S NEW YORK CITY GREEN APPLES, Earth Day 2008

NORTH MOUNT LORETTO WOODS (Staten Island)

In the nation’s most densely populated city, open space is always at a premium. And even Staten Island, the least populated of the city’s five boroughs, has experienced a surge of development pressure in recent years. So when a significant open space acquisition is made, it is just cause for celebration.

Such is the case with respect to North Mount Loretto – a 75 acre parcel of woods, wetlands and wildlife on Staten Island’s south shore. Last November, the New York archdiocese sold this 75 acre parcel to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, by way of the Trust for Public Land. The new acquisition, north of Hyland Blvd, becomes a valued companion to the 194 acre parcel south of Hyland Blvd., which had previously been set aside for protection. The original parcel contains mature woodlands, natural springs and a mile of uninterrupted coastline overlooking Raritan Bay.

In addition to public recreation and other uses, the new acquisition will serve as a preserve for osprey, migrant birds, raccoons and possums. And it apparently represents the single largest land protection measure in New York City over the past year.

Funds for the purchase were provided by the Port Authority of New York, through its Hudson-Raritan Estuary Resources Program. And, recognizing the role of the Roman Catholic diocese in both the protection of the original property and in facilitating this new acquisition, the lighthouse on the original shorefront property has been renamed in honor of John Cardinal O’Connor.

Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, the tenacious guardians of Staten Island’s natural resources, have long sought to safeguard these parcels from development and have rejoiced at the new acquisition. We agree, and are pleased to designate North Mount Loretto Woods one of our Green Apples for Earth Day 2008.

PUBLIC SCHOOL 154 (Brooklyn)

It’s not easy to identify the most environmentally friendly public school in New York City. But based upon the activities that have taken place there over the past year, P.S. 154 in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn would likely appear on the official list of finalists.

This spring, P.S. 154 became New York’s first public school to abandon environmentally burdensome, single-use polystyrene lunch trays. Polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, is a petroleum-based product (used among other things to manufacture the ubiquitous white coffee cup) whose familiar bulk can remain intact for thousands of years before decomposing. Polystyrene also takes up a disproportionate amount of space in the nation’s landfills, is not commercially recyclable and when disposed of on land or water can become a hazard if swallowed by birds and marine mammals. According to New York City Councilmember Bill de Blasio, the City’s Department of Education utilizes more than 850,000 polystyrene trays in school lunchrooms everyday. De Blasio has introduced legislation that would ban restaurants, delis and other food establishments from using polystyrene take-out containers and prohibit city agencies from using polystyrene products completely.

Parents at Brooklyn’s P.S. 154 have grown tired of waiting for the Department of Education to come up with a more environmentally friendly product to use for serving their children’s lunches. So, earlier this year, they announced that, with support from local businesses, they had found an environmentally preferable substitute for polystyrene trays at the school. Beginning in the fall, lunch at P.S. 154 will be served on trays made from bagasse, a natural, nontoxic and biodegradable material made out of discarded sugar cane stalks, which quickly decomposes in landfills.

The switch from polystyrene trays is not the only green thing happening at P.S. 154, whose formal name is the Museum Alliance for Science and Technology Magnet School. In the fall, the school’s new playground and outdoor science lab will be completed. The playground is being built from recycled material and the science lab will have a windmill and solar powered water fountain, according to Gina de la Chesnaye, one of the parents responsible for getting the new food trays into the school. Parent volunteers will also be working with students to run a composting program for the new food trays and they expect to divert 3500 pounds of waste away from landfills every year. These and other environmental programs are moving ahead with the support and encouragement of P.S. 154’s Principal, Sam Ortiz.

In recognition of its leadership on the polystyrene campaign and for its other ecological advances (and with the hope that other schools will join the friendly competition to become New York City’s greenest public school), we are pleased to recognize P.S. 154 with an Earth Day 2008 Green Apple.

QUEENS BOTANICAL GARDEN’S VISITOR CENTER

Global climate change is the number one environmental issue facing the nation and indeed the planet. In New York, energy used in buildings is the single largest generator of global warming gases, accounting for more than three-quarters of total emissions. As a result, one of the most effective steps we can take to combat climate change in New York is to reduce the carbon footprint of new construction.

In 2005, the New York City Council passed and Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed Local Law 86. It requires that new construction and renovation of city-owned and city-funded buildings meet ambitious standards for energy-conservation and green design. And it directs that all new city construction meet green building standards, as certified by the U.S. Green Buildings Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

The new visitor center at the Queens Botanical Garden, which officially opened this past September, is perhaps New York City’s greenest public building and a showcase for the environmental, energy-saving and architectural benefits of green construction. The building contains an auditorium, reception and gallery spaces, meeting rooms and offices. And it is a model of efficiency: it gets 17% of its energy from rooftop solar panels, it heats its water using geothermal power and has an 8,000 square foot green roof that is performing beyond expectations. According to Jennifer Souder, the Garden’s Director of Capital Projects, preliminary tests from last summer measured the building’s green roof temperature at 82 degrees, while nearby white and black tar roofs were cooking at 115 and 170 degrees respectively. Expect significant energy savings and a reduction in the “urban heat island” effect to result from this facility.

The new Visitor Center’s other green features are also impressive. Stormwater is captured, filtered through grasslands and then used to supply the garden’s decorative fountains and to water its numerous plants and greenery. To date, the system has completely contained stormwater runoff on site, even during the heaviest downpours – lessening the load on the city’s already over-taxed combined sewer system. Meanwhile, grey water from showers used by staff is captured, filtered and then used in the building’s toilets. For these and other reasons, the building is in line to receive a LEED platinum certification When it does, it will be one of the first entire buildings in New York City, and potentially the first outside of Manhattan, to achieve this coveted classification.

The state-of-the-art visitor center could become a new source of pride to Queens’ diverse population. Of equal importance, it can serve as a stellar example of how green building techniques can today be employed to reduce environmental burdens and long-term operating costs of new and renovated construction in New York. It is with pleasure that we designate the Queens Botanical Garden’s new Visitor Center as an Earth Day 2008 Green Apple.

STREET TREES (Bronx and citywide)

The commitment to plant 1 million new trees in New York City by 2017 may be the most visible and one of the most important environmental legacies of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The program, originally announced by the Mayor on Earth Day 2007, is one of more than 100 environmental strategies described in the Mayor’s forward-looking sustainability plan, called PlaNYC.

Trees are true friends of the city’s environment. They absorb storm water and help limit the overflow of sewers into our rivers. They cool our neighborhoods in the summer, reducing energy demand and air pollution from dirty auxiliary power plants that operate on the hottest days of the year. And they absorb CO2. Perhaps best of all, they beautify neighborhoods and make our city more livable. Imagine what New York City would be like without the 5 million trees we have in our parks and on our streets today.

But New York City is a tough town for trees. One out of ten street trees die within the first two years of being planted. And even stately, mature and healthy trees face threats such as lack of water, damage from motor vehicles and even intentional destruction.

The City Parks Department, in cooperation with Bette Midler’s New York Tree Restoration Project is attempted to fulfill the Mayor’s ambitious goals, with help from the public. The Department reports that almost 55,000 trees have been planted over the past twelve months -- many in neighborhoods like Morrisania and the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, where the need for street trees are great. Sustainable South Bronx has been one of the dedicated local groups assisting in this tree planting effort. In Hunts Point for example, the group has worked with community volunteers to identify new planting sites and to recruit volunteers to tend to the trees once they have taken root.

To Morrisania and Hunts Point neighborhoods which have advanced an initial round of street tree planting, and which deserve continued attention on this front, we designate an Earth Day 2008 Green Apple.

WEST HARLEM WATERFRONT PARK (Manhattan)

New York City’s Hudson River waterfront is experiencing a renaissance. The creation of the Hudson River Park in 1998 began the transformation from the Battery to 59th Street. Access to the river has expanded, creating new places for New Yorkers to jog, bike, sunbathe and even launch kayaks into the river. And this waterfront revitalization has coincided with a cleaner Hudson River, with levels of traditional water pollutants having declined considerably over the last two decades.

Now, at long last, eagerly-awaited change is coming to northern Manhattan’s waterfront as well. This summer, the West Harlem Waterfront Park will officially open. A four block long esplanade will stretch between St. Clair Place and West 133rd Street, replacing an asphalt parking lot with lawns, play areas and woodsy gathering spots overlooking the Hudson. Two new piers will allow for kayaking, fishing and water taxi service. The Science Barge – an exploratory museum for children of all ages – will be docked at the new park this summer. And the park’s completion will allow for bicycle and pedestrian paths to connect with riverfront greenways to the south and north.

The new park fulfills the joint vision of West Harlem Environmental Action’s executive director Peggy Shepard and Community Board 9 leaders who worked with public officials for more than a decade. They helped convince the New York City Economic Development Corporation to jettison earlier development plans and to advance instead an innovative “community vision” for the site. New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the New York Times that the new park will complete “the big missing link in the Hudson River greenway.”

And northern Manhattan community activists aren’t finished yet. In late 2007, Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked WE ACT to organize a broad-based community planning process to identify possible uses for the now closed Sanitation Department Marine Transfer Station, which is adjacent to the new park.

Responsible elected officials, community organizations and agency planners deserve a pat on the back for their commitment and determination to return this section of the waterfront to the West Harlem community. We designate, with pleasure, the new Hudson River Waterfront Park as an Earth Day 2008 Green Apple.

NRDC`S NEW YORK CITY BAD APPLES, Earth Day 2008

ENERGY-WASTING RETAIL ESTABLISHMENTS WITH OPEN DOORS IN SUMMER (Manhattan and citywide)

America will never slow the rate of global warming if we don’t find ways to burn less fossil fuel. And we’ll never be able to reduce fossil fuel usage if we continue to pursue profligate energy-wasting activities. Unfortunately, some New Yorkers still don’t understand these basic facts or are choosing to ignore the long-range impacts of their actions.

While there are many energy-wasting examples to choose from, one particularly wasteful activity is the practice of certain retail establishments that set their air conditioning systems on “cold” and leave their front doors open wide during hot summer months. (The purpose of this practice is presumably to entice additional customers into the store by sending a frigid blast of air onto the sidewalk.)

Whatever benefits it may have as a customer lure, this practice has significant adverse energy and air pollution impacts. According to the Long Island Power Authority, retailers increase their electricity consumption by 20% to 25% when they leave their doors open. And increasing power demand on the hottest summer days also leads to increased air pollution, as the auxiliary back-up power supplies are called upon to meet peak demands. Unnecessarily boosting summer peak power demands can even make occasional brown-outs more likely. In short, this is a practice that places personal business considerations over societal needs.

City Councilwoman Gale Brewer has introduced legislation that would prohibit commercial establishments from leaving doors open while air conditioners are blasting. We hope the Council holds hearings on this concept in coming months.

We have not singled out a particular retailer for engaging in this conduct. In this regard, we have most frequently noticed this energy-wasting practice as we pass in front of high-end fashion clothing stores on popular shopping streets in Manhattan and across the city. So we designate the high-end retail establishments whose managers keep their doors open in summer, while their air conditioners pour cold air into the streets, as Earth Day 2008 Bad Apples.

METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY’S RECYCLING OFFICE (Manhattan)

New York City’s world-renowned subway system has 468 stations and not a single one is equipped with separate bins to collect newspapers, bottles and cans for recycling. Nineteen years after the New York City Council passed its landmark mandatory recycling law -- mandating that New Yorkers separate trash for recycling as a means of conserving natural resources and reducing pollution -- the New York City transit system still refuses to get on board with a recycling program that allows for riders to participate. The failure of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“MTA”), the subway system’s corporate parent to provide bins for riders to recycle is especially disappointing because newspapers and magazines are by far the largest single component of the transit waste stream, are relatively easy to riders to sort and have economic value as recycled materials.

To be sure, as MTA officials note, workers do perform “post-collection separation” -- picking through the station trash, after collection, to cull out recyclables. But such a process, where recyclables are first mixed in with food waste and other trash by the public before being separated, inevitably leads to higher levels of contaminated recyclables. And this post-collection recycling effort, by failing to provide station receptacles for papers and for bottles and cans, sends a confusing message to New Yorkers about what their role should be in participating in the city’s recycling program.

In contrast, other leading transit systems throughout North America provide their riders with accessible and convenient opportunities to recycle. Transit systems in seven other cities surveyed by NRDC earlier this year, including Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Montreal and San Francisco, all have recycling containers available in stations for their riding public. And Toronto, which may have the most ambitious recycling program, first tried post-collection separation, but later switched to separate bins that accept containers and paper in all of its 69 stations. And they reportedly did so with no increase in overall disposal costs. Ironically, the MTA has long provided large paper recycling bins at Grand Central Terminal for Metro-North riders. That program continues to be both an environmental and economic success.

It pains us to give a Bad Apple designation to the MTA, whose transit system is so critical to the region’s mobility and so responsible for its low per capita energy consumption. (Indeed, just last week, Governor David Patterson and the MTA announced new sustainability initiatives intended to, among other things, further reduce the transit system’s carbon footprint.)

But for nearly two decades, the MTA has stymied efforts to cooperate in building public participation in New York City’s cornerstone recycling program. For this shortcoming, the MTA office responsible for its solid waste program has earned our Earth Day 2008 Bad Apple designation.

NEW YORK ORGANIC FERTILIZER COMPANY AND NYC’S HUNTS POINT WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT (Bronx)

The South Bronx has for decades received more than its fair share on environmental burdens. Highways have torn through neighborhoods. Motor vehicle pollution has violated air quality standards and exacerbated childhood asthma. Waterfront access and open space have been hard to come by. While progress has certainly been made thanks to sustained community advocacy and work by local elected officials, problems of environmental justice persist.

A major ongoing challenge to many South Bronx residents are the noxious odors that waft into portions of the Hunts Point community from two sewage-related facilities -- the city-owned and operated Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant and the privately owned, city-contracted New York Organic Fertilizer Company. Despite their innocent-sounding names, these two facilities are responsible for years of air pollution, according to Mothers on the Move, a local social justice organization that has been among the neighborhood groups shining a spotlight on the problems.

The New York Organic Fertilizer Company has a contract with the city to treat several hundred tons a day of sludge from city sewage plants and, at its South Bronx facility, to dry the sludge and turn it into “pellets” for eventual use as fertilizer. The plant has been in operation since 1992. Yet despite efforts by the company and government officials to remediate the problem, the stench is continuing, local residents say.

To make matters worse, the City’s giant Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Plant is located only blocks away. This plant treats raw sewage from portions of the Bronx (and from Rikers and City Island), before discharging it into surrounding waters. Although it is not operating at capacity (200 million gallons a day), the Hunts Point plant is contributing to air quality problems that continue to make life unpleasant and at times unbearable for many of its neighbors. Moreover, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the plant, has an expansion in the works. It hopes to site four, 13-story egg-shaped digesters (that break down sewage sludge) near the plant where they would impinge on the tiny oasis of Barretto Point Park.

Despite mock funerals, stockholder protests, and periodic objections from such local officials as Congressman Jose Serrano and City Councilwoman Maria de Carmen Arroyo, the foul smells from these sewage facilities continue, neighbors say, and seem likely to make for another unpleasant summer in Hunts Point. The New York Organic Fertilizer Company and the Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Plant accordingly are due an Earth Day 2008 Bad Apple designation.

RIDGEWOOD RESERVOIR’S URBAN FOREST (Queens)

Environment scientist and author John Waldman calls the pond at Ridgewood “one of the wildest places in all of New York City.” More than 120 species of birds, including seven that are endangered, have been spotted flitting about its unusual urban forest. And according to a study completed for the City’s Parks Department, the area is “highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.”

Nevertheless, the 50 acre site that was once home to the Ridgewood Reservoir, on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, is itself endangered as a result of proposed action by the city to have at least a portion of the location “developed as a public park.”

The focus of this dispute is the old Ridgewood Reservoir, which served as a primary source of drinking water for Brooklyn residents in the mid and late 1800s, and into the 20th century. As reliance on the city’s Catskill and Delaware system grew in the 1900s, reliance on the Ridgewood Reservoir (and the other Brooklyn Water Works reservoirs that stretched into southern Nassau County) declined. The Ridgewood Reservoir was last used in regular service in 1959, and the entire complex was transferred to the City Department of Parks & Recreation in 2004.

The controversy began shortly thereafter, as the Parks Department envisioned turning much of the acreage over to active recreational uses such as bike paths and artificial-turf ball fields. But the Reservoir’s water storage basins, empty for decades, now provide a unique area for observing the process of urban reforestation. And the dense forest that now covers much of the terrain is viewed by nature guardians like Rob Jett and the Ridgewood Reservoir Education and Preservation Project as an irreplaceable nature preserve than is inappropriate for other uses -- even for sports fields, bike paths and other active recreational activities.

Last fall, threats to the reservoir’s forests became more urgent, with a proposal by the Parks Department to clear at least 20 acres of land and advance a $46 million active recreation plan at the site. Advocates for preserving the reservoir land for nature and urban environmental education have suggested instead that the Parks Department fix up the adjacent Highland Park, which they note is already set up for active recreation and is in need of an infusion of Parks Department capital funding.

For not yet heeding the call to preserve this unique natural setting in the heart of New York City (but with the understanding that it is not too late for a change of course), we award the Parks Department plans to develop the Ridgewood Reservoir landscape with an Earth Day 2008 Bad Apple designation.

UNDEVELOPED FORMER-NASCAR SITE (Staten Island)

It is the largest undeveloped site in the City of New York. At 676 acres, it is four-fifths the size of Central Park. And the use to which it is ultimately put could have important consequences for the urban environment.

The parcel in question is on Staten Island’s west shore, in the community of Bloomfield, overlooking the Goethals Bridge. And it already has a controversial past. The site was assembled by officials of the International Speedway Corp, which had hoped to build an 82,500 seat NASCAR racetrack there. But fears of traffic congestion and widespread political opposition led the owners to withdraw that proposal. Then, a plan to sell the site to one of the nation’s largest developers of distribution warehouses fell through last year. Today, the property is again up for sale. And many elected officials from the borough are now hoping that the Port Authority will consider acquiring the site for some maritime-related use.

How this property is developed is likely to have significant environmental impacts for Staten Island. First, there is the question of traffic -- will this industrial site and the surrounding highway network be able to hand hundreds or even thousands of additional truck trips a day that could result from some possible uses? And what air quality impacts would likely result from such traffic patterns?

There are also concerns regarding contaminated fill, which was apparently placed on the property several years ago, in anticipation of race track construction, and which has been the subject of a State Department of Environmental Conservation enforcement proceeding. (The site itself was a former oil tank farm, so whatever its final use, the environmental clean-up will have to be conducted with utmost care.) Finally, at water’s edge, the property has ecologically important tidal wetlands – they too deserve protection and must be taken into consideration as final plans are developed.

Of course, future land use decisions for this site will not be made solely on the basis of conservation and pollution concerns. Yet the earlier proposal by Councilmember Michael McMahon, which would have set aside land for a “clean technology” operation, safeguarded critical wetlands and even included some recreational facilities, retains some appeal. Regardless of whatever development decisions are ultimately made in 2008 and beyond, it is essential that our elected officials pay serious attention to the environmental sensitivities of this site and the surrounding communities. Until such assurances are provided, we are designating the former NASCAR site as an Earth Day 2008 Bad Apple.

(Many thanks to: Miquela Craytor, Gina de la Chesnaye, Susan Donogue and Morgan Monaco, Justin Green, Jennifer Greenfeld, Hilel Lofaso, Eva Lowendowsky, Kunal Malhotra, Principal Sam Ortiz, Ellen Pratt, Philip Silva, Jennifer Ward Souder, James Subudhi, Jendi Tarde, Laura Tickler, Russell Unger, and Jean Weinberg for their help in preparing this report.)