HABITAT
Energy is one budget item that NYC co-ops and condos can lower, and the articles here will give you ideas on how to do that. Plus, New York City has passed an ambitious set of laws that requires buildings to reduce their carbon emissions over the next decade, and all buildings will have to comply. For co-ops and condos, this means taking action now.
Green Cleaning Products Can Actually Save You Money
Written by Ruth Ford on December 31, 1969
When the board at Vanguard Chelsea, at 77 West 24th Street, did a green retrofit in 2005, it implemented all kinds of cost-saving and energy-efficient measures, such as switching from incandescent to fluorescent lighting, installing new microfiber filters in the air vents and using green cleaning products — a move most of us associate with added costs, but which in this case reduced the cleaning-supply bill. How so? Follow the green brick road….
Greening Your Roof: You Can Do It, and It'll Be Great. Here's How, and Why…
Written by Ruth Ford on December 31, 1969
When Susan Boyle and her husband bought a six-unit apartment building in Crown Heights in 2001, they had two goals — to earn rental income and to create an environmentally friendly building. Today when they stand on the roof, they can wriggle their toes in the grass and the alpine plants they've carefully cultivated. You can do the same — and cut $100,000 off your tax bill doing so.
Green Roofs Tax Abatement and Alt-Energy Initiatives Signed Into Law
December 31, 1969
Web-Exclusive News Update — August 18, 2008 — New York Governor David A. Paterson on August 5 signed into law new energy and greening legislation designed to promote green-roof initiatives and encourage private solar- and wind-power systems.
The one-year abatement for green roofs — a roof covered with grass and plants, providing an insulating layer to help reduce energy consumption and improve air quality, among other benefits — will cut up to $100,000 from a building's tax bill.
Submetering 930 Apartments: If They Can Do Theirs, You Can Yours!
Written by Carol J. Ott, Habitat Publisher on December 31, 1969
What's a surefire way of changing energy-use behavior among your building's residents? Make them pay for it.
From the day it went co-op, Georgetown Mews, a 37-building, 930-unit garden complex spread across 65 acres in Queens, has included the cost of electricity in monthly maintenance. Residents paid a per-share price, regardless of how much electricity they consumed, plus per-unit fees for air conditioners. Because shareholders didn't get a real electric bill, the incentive to conserve was minimal — for them, not the board of directors. "Con Ed was raising the rates through the roof," recalls longtime board president Mary Fisher. "[W]e started to sit down and look at alternatives to save the co-op money."
Green New Products
December 31, 1969
Check out environmentally friendly lighting, energy-efficient construction materials and many things you wouldn't even have expected could go green!
Assembly Passes Green-Roof Bill
December 31, 1969
Post-Issue Update: June 27, 2008 — The New York State Assembly on Monday passed a bill designed to provide tax abatements to encourage the construction and maintenance of green roofs in New York City and other million-plus municipalities. Bill A11226, already passed by the State Senate, now awaits the governor's signature.
The abatement would total $4.52 per square foot of approved green roof, up to either $100,000 or a building's tax bill for the applicable year, whichever is less. According to the bill's Assembly Memo, this abatement would offset about 35% of the cost of installing a green roof — "a growth medium and a vegetation layer of drought-resistant, hardy plant species" that provides an insulating layer to helps reduce energy consumption, among other benefits.
New State Green Incentive Includes Co-ops, Condos
December 31, 1969
Post-Issue Update: June 23, 2008 — The Associated Press reported late yesterday afternoon that New York State Governor David A. Patterson, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hammered out a "green housing" agreement during closed-doors negotiations over the weekend . A new grant program aimed at providing incentives for energy-efficient homes will provide state homeowners up to $7,500 for single and two-family houses, $11,250 for buildings with three to six units and $15,000 for buildings with more than six units.
How Older Buildings Can Go Green by Taking the LEED
Written by Jennifer V. Hughes on June 09, 2008
Brand-new green buildings with fancy, environmentally friendly features make headlines all the time. But the vast majority of the city's housing stock is not new. How can they catch up, to make their buildings more appealing and help the the environment at the same time? That's where the program "LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance" can come in.
Free Trees: How to Get Them for Your Sidewalk
Written by Frank Lovece on December 31, 1969
Urban trees aren't just great ... they're tree-mendous! Who doesn't love living on a leafy lane? And while maintaining a sidewalk tree takes a little effort in its sapling days, the New York City Parks Department makes the actual getting of a tree or two pretty easy for your board or a resident-volunteer (with board permission) to do.
Green Retrofitting: Start with an Energy Audit
Written by Richard M. Cherry on December 31, 1969
For the owners and management of older co-ops and condos, "going green" may be quite appealing. But is it practical in dollars-and-cents terms? How expensive is it to retrofit an existing building to make it more energy efficient?
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