Host Workshop, Get Free Light Bulbs: Going "Green from the Ground Up"

The traveling workshop series "Green from the Ground Up" is "a comprehensive, one-stop-shop solution for building to learn about recycling, energy efficiency and rooftop possibilities," says Diana Pangestu, the NYSERDA Energy $mart Communities Coordinator with the environmental group Solar 1. It consists of three presentations plus vendor tables manned by energy companies, green-roof and solar-panel installers and even composting organizations.

While an edition of the free workshop is scheduled to run Monday, May 11, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Houston Street Center, at 273 Bowery, you can save yourself the travel time and effort and have the workshop come to you.

"We're looking for groups to host this traveling show," says Pangestu, who promises a free CFL (compact fluorescent light) to each attendee. Co-ops/condos with a community room, for instance, can bring the workshop in, and smaller co-ops/condos can partner with neighbor buildings to rent a school or church space for the night.

"I don't think there's ever been a comment about [green projects] being pie-in-the-sky since these projects are very doable, very practical," says Pangestu. "The objection usually is, 'We don't have the money for this,' or 'How do we get enough votes on the board to do this?'"

Accordingly, the workshop addresses both points. "NYSERDA and others are working on the financing issues, whether that means providing more loans or subsidies or what," Pangestu says. "In terms of getting that support across your building, that just comes with education. As [shareholders and unit-owners] grow more aware of the importance of this, they'll be more willing to undertake these types of projects."

The one thing she offers personally, aside from the practical educational the workshop offers, is accessibility. "We're a government contractor but we're not bureaucratic and slow," Pangestu says of Solar 1, which runs the same-name solar-powered building at Stuyvesant Cove Park on the East River, "We're trying to change the way governments collaborates with and provides services for the community."

Has it worked? "I think the thing I'm most proud of is a compliment I got from a co-op board person, saying we're very accessible." That's enough to make other government contractors go green with envy.

Photos courtesy Diana Pangestu