GREEN IDEAS

For nearly a decade, NYSERDA has led the charge in the green energy business for multifamily buildings, offering buildings hefty incentives for making improvements that reduce a building's energy usage. To participate in the programs, buildings must first select a partner that has been approved by NYSERDA. The partner, frequently an engineering firm, conducts an initial energy audit of the building's systems; helps the building decide which projects to tackle and in what order; vets the work done by various vendors to make sure they meet NYSERDA's standards; and files necessary paperwork so a building can get the coveted rebates.

Besides dwindling rebates, there are other changes on the horizon. The application process, for example, could change or be phased out. And local utilities will probably fill the incentive void. The state's Public Service Commission clean energy fund is currently reviewing NYSERDA's proposal, which includes changes to how the agency operates.

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I am a board member of a co-op in the city of New York that contains multiple blocks and lots. We just submitted our first energy audit under Local Law 87 and the professional fees have become extremely expensive, since the city's Department of Buildings (DOB) keeps sending us more and more objections. If we have to go through this for numerous years we will be spending tens of thousands of dollars. Is there anything that can be done?

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Spring has sprung! Finally. Well, sort of. Now that the nicer, sunnier weather looks like it's going to stick around, co-op and condo boards should get ready for the green thumbs who live in their buildings. While simple flower plantings in common areas can certainly increase a building's curb appeal and foster some community spirit among residents, they must be vetted by the board first. A poorly planned gardening project can cost your co-op or condo a lot of money to remedy.

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Earth Day is just a few weeks away. In fact, it's exactly one week after tax day, April 15. And that's a great opportunity for co-op and condo boards to do bit of good for the planet while earning some tax deductions by giving to charity. How?

One way is for co-op and condo boards to coordinate with The United War Veterans Council (UWVC) Recycling Program, the largest recycling program of its kind in New York City. In 2014 alone, program organizers collected a scale-tipping 1,488 tons — that's more than 2.9 million pounds — of clothing and household goods. And they are still hard at work collecting. 

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The new water rates are kicking in this year, and much like rents in the city that never sleeps, they are skyrocketing. We've already told you how boards can save money by taking a cold, hard look at the, erm, toilet. Another obvious place where boards might translate water savings into dollar savings, however, is in the shower. Right now, a 20-minute shower costs $95 per year in water alone, not including the cost of heating it. And if you're thinking low-flow means low pressure, we have some good news for you.

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A green roof isn't a roof garden — access is usually limited to weed-pulling and other maintenance. Many buildings with green roofs keep their roof doors locked and let staff or volunteers go up once or twice a week to pick weeds (and maybe, as a little perk, bring a book and relax for a while).

A green roof — that is, a layer of vegetation that covers your entire roof — can help keep your building cool, reduce rainwater flooding and pollution, and clean the air. It's a costly but effective way to make your building more environmentally friendly. It's not for everyone, but if your board is considering a green roof, here's what you need to know. 

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New York may have well dodged the almost bullet that was supposed to be Snowpocalypse 2015, but it still got enough snow and sleet to form slush puddles so formidable they may as well be lakes. Think we're exaggerating? Just ask any commuter who's had to wade through the icy muck for more than just a few blocks to avoid faceplanting on the slippery compacted ice. It feels like every year, the slush puddles get larger and larger — and if your waterproof boots are a lie, it really, really sucks. But does this have anything to do with co-ops and condos? As a matter of fact, it does! The severity of these infernal puddles can be prevented with the cooperation of citizens and businesses, says DNAinfo, including co-ops and condos. "The city's Department of Environmental Protection offers grants of $35,000 and up for green infrastructure updates to non-city-owned properties that reduce the impact on the city's sewer system. Co-op, condo and property owners can apply for the grants online for various projects. The DEP is promoting blue roofs — a sloped roof system that collects and stores precipitation — as well as rain gardens, which store excess water in perforated pipes under the plantings." Another thing co-ops and condos can do is what every New Yorker arguably excels at: complain. Call 311 and report those treacherous lagoons "so that the right city agency can get dispatched and the city can track patterns." And don't underestimate the power of joining forces with neighborhood businesses. If cooperation between co-ops and condos and businesses can lead to a rat-free neighborhood, it may be successful at pulling the plug on slush puddles.

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Mayor Bill De Blasio is serious about affordable housing — which is good news for middle- and working-class folks who feel like they are getting pushed out of the increasingly expensive city. But it looks like the mayor's affordable housing plan has ruffled a few feathers. DNAinfo reports that, according to community advocates, "at least 15 community gardens on city-owned property could be bulldozed to make way for new buildings under the de Blasio administration's affordable housing plan." The affected gardens include nine in Brooklyn and six in Manhattan — they were on the list of city-owned sites published by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development this week "that housing developers can apply to build on." At the end of the day these community gardens sit on HPD-owned land, so it shouldn't — and doesn't — come as a surprise that the city needs its property back. But some residents told DNAinfo that what irks them is that HPD has other vacant lots that don't have gardens planted in them that could be used. In fact, one community garden on Saratoga Avenue found itself on the list, "while a vacant site a block away wasn't."

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Paul Vercesi has been living in his apartment on Gramercy Park for more than half a century and is now president of the co-op’s board of directors. After all those years, he thought that he knew everything there was to know about the 81-unit post-war building and its systems. Then one day he got a watery surprise.

A doctor who used a ground-floor apartment as his office decided to move out. When the new shareholder started renovating the space, she discovered an outmoded water-cooled air conditioner inside a closet. 

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A co-op board's green initiative has brought the closing of a co-op apartment to a crashing halt just a few days before they were scheduled to seal the deal. In the latest "Ask Real Estate" column in The New York Times, the co-op apartment's seller tells Ronda Kaysen that their lawyer got a memo from the building's managing agent "saying shares could not transfer to the buyer unless [they] installed a low-flow toilet, added aerators on the faucets and installed Energy Star appliances." The seller says that while the toilet requirement was referenced in board minutes from February 2013, the Energy Star appliances were not, adding that the board did not notify any of them of these requirements in advance. Now the closing is delayed indefinitely, and they are facing thousands of dollars' worth of unexpected expenses. Kaysen explains that although the timing is pretty horrible, it's not illegal for the board to make these requests as long as it followed protocol. Some negotiating might be in order to see if the board is willing to make some concessions. 

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