GREEN IDEAS

Lawsuits over adulterated heating oil get a new life.

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In 2014, more than 10,000 plug-in cars were on the road in New York State. That number is projected to triple by 2018 and reach 1 million by 2025. It would be natural for an enterprising co-op or condo board to sense an opportunity. After all, someone has to charge all those cars.

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In a move that could help avert heat wave-induced power outages and blackouts, Consolidated Edison Inc. has chosen IBM to build a platform that will allow New York City customers to monitor and control their power demand in real time.

The platform is part of ConEd’s $1.3 billion plan to install millions of smart meters for customers in its service territory that will track their power and gas use, Bloomberg Business reports. When up and running, the program will offer consumers access to demand data every 15 minutes, faster than other services of its kind, which now take several hours or even a day, according to ConEd.

Customers receiving their power demand in real time can more easily participate in programs that pay them for cutting use in critical situations when the grid needs it most, such as a heat wave.

“We see it as a game changer for the residents of New York City,” says Tom Magee, general manager of ConEd’s advanced metering team. “We are in a new phase.”

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During January, Habitat Weekly will advise boards on how to deal with a quartet of natural-born killers. This week: lead.

Lead-based paint was outlawed by the federal government in 1978 for some very good reasons. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities in children, violent behavior in teenagers, and mental dysfunction in the elderly. It can cause miscarriages, stillbirth and brain damage. In extreme cases it can cause death.

Lead-based paint remained in use for several years after the ban, and so it remains a legitimate source of concern for co-op and condo boards, even in buildings built after 1978.

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Even if your co-op or condo is religiously recycling the usual suspects – glass and plastic, metal and paper – you shouldn't be resting on your green laurels. Instead, you should be thinking about taking your recycling efforts to the next level.
 
"If you're interested in reducing the waste stream even further, we have three programs," says Jessica Schreiber, the senior manager of apartment programs with the city's Department of Sanitation. These programs, according to Schreiber, are significantly reducing the amounts of three things that used to get transported to far-flung landfills, at great cost to the city's budget and the health of the planet: electronics, textiles, and organic waste.

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Since October 2012, all heating oil sold within New York City has had to contain at least two percent biodiesel (called B2). Biodiesel is a type of biofuel, a fuel oil that includes a plant product or any other organic compound such as processed vegetable oil. This lets it burn cleaner and thus more efficiently than petroleum oil. Some groups cite political and other concerns against the use of biofuel, but it's city law. On October 26, the New York City Council's Environmental Protection Committee debated a bill to raise the biodiesel percentage to five percent (B5) by October 2016 and, in steps, to 20 percent (B20) by 2030.

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A board was contemplating changing to an oil-to-gas dual-fuel conversion system and was apparently solely relying upon the suggestions of a contractor. We had certain concerns about proceeding without having an engineer review the proposed scope of work or provide specifications. We had a formal project agreement in lieu of a signed proposal, and we did not have a designated warranty. The project also lacked requirements for the oversight of the project and monitoring of critical stages, as well as payment approvals. The property manager did not have the requisite experience to supervise.
 
We were finally able to convince the board to utilize an experienced engineer to review the scope of work, and recommend changes regarding the monitoring of the project. We also negotiated major changes together with an extended guarantee from both the contractor and the manufacturer.
 
Takeaway
 
Use your professionals! This board was headed toward potential trouble in this project by not wanting to employ professionals (until we convinced them otherwise) and neglecting to have the right documents drawn up.
 
Contractors and managing agents are generally experienced and can coordinate the execution of a project. Nonetheless, it is recommended that the board engage an engineer and attorney to either prepare and/or review the specifications to be utilized by a contractor, especially with respect to the replacement and/or retrofitting of the existing heating plant; or to assist with coordination and scheduling with the contractor/plumbers and Con Edison; and, most importantly, to monitor and supervise the project to ensure the contractor has actually performed in compliance with the specifications and the building code. When approving requests for payment to the contractor, the managing agent may be very qualified and competent to perform the oversight services, but in retrospect is neither a technical expert nor an engineer, and it is preferable to rely on another experienced expert.

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Another day, another reason to look sideways at the booming luxury buildings in Manhattan. Advocacy group Climate Works for All released a report showing that New York's most expensive buildings are its least energy-efficient.

Curbed reports that the group "looked at the Forbes Billionaire List, then Business Insider's 20 Most Expensive Buildings in New York City list, and cross-referenced this information with the city's Energy Benchmarking data. They came up with a list of ten buildings, all of which scored an F in terms of energy efficiency." According to the group, buildings produce seventy percent of the city's emissions. But have no fear! The group also "provides suggestions for reducing these emissions, such as implementing zero net energy standards and passive house technologies."

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Go gang green! Except we're not talking about the New York Jets, but rather the New York City Parks Department and a very determined group of Chelsea residents.

Chelsea Now reports that a group of determined residents have finally succeeded in gaining funding to construct a new park at 140 W. 20th St., between Sixth and Seventh Aves. "Since 2010, a group of local residents has been advocating for a green space on what was once a parking lot and building used by the Department of Sanitation. They lobbied the city to designate the .23-acre space as parkland, raised $500,000 in private funding, and received $1 million through last year’s Participatory Budgeting process," writes Scott Stiffler. "The area roughly between Fifth and Seventh Aves. has the lowest proportion of green space relative to developed land in Manhattan, according to the Parks Department. A new park would help ameliorate that situation locally, while also furthering a city initiative to have 85 percent of city residents live within walking distance of a park by 2030." The next step is "a three-year process of environmental review, design, procurement and construction," with meetings for design scheduled for the spring.

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Like death and taxes, capital improvements are an inevitable part of a co-op or condo board's life. They may not happen during your term, but at some point, some part of your building is going to need to be replaced or upgraded. Bidding systems for contractors or other professionals are fine, but who vets the products and systems they use?

In Skyline Restoration's fall 2015 issue of their quarterly newsletter, Adam McManus of Sullivan Engineering explains why a board should be open to installing mock-ups before going through with a large project: "Static product comparison mock-ups are often installed to compare and choose the most aesthetically pleasing match to a building facade feature. Other product comparison mock-ups are installed to test their functionality ... A project plan should always factor in periods of time to test products in place and monitor their performance through weathering and traffic use." No one likes adding steps to capital improvements, but when you can see for yourself how a product will last, it's worth looking into.

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