Westchester Environment |
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| Summer 2008 | Download PDF Version | Volume 2008 No. 3 |
| The News Magazine of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County | ||
Reminder...
FCWC welcomes articles for Westchester Environment from our member
organizations. Please submit them to fcwc@fcwc.org, or call our editor, Carolyn
Cunninghman
at the FCWC offices, (914) 422-4053 during regular business
hours.
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By Cesare Manfredi The following are several of the environmental issues for Westchester that FCWC would like to keep public attention - and action – focused on during the summer. Tappan Zee Bridge/I 287 Corridor Why haven’t the decision makers, after years of study and public meetings, issued the decisions on the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement (or not) and choice of mass transportation mode that were promised for May 2008? FCWC has said for years that the bridge needs to be replaced to accommodate commuter rail to relieve congestion in the I-287 corridor. There are organizations that believe that the bridge should only be repaired, as well as those who apparently do not believe there is a need for mass transit. But we need to have the vision to look ahead 100 years. The current bridge was designed for a fifty year lifespan that has already passed. It is difficult to imagine the current floating caissons in the river mud will provide structural integrity for the next 100 Years. FCWC believes that planning for the Hudson Valley region requires an east-west commuter rail line along I-287 be part of the plan for the future. Some say that there is currently not enough demand to make rail cost effective. We must keep in mind that in the next 100 years expanded rail travel will be needed. We must not preclude commuter rail travel due to inadequate design and planning today. With the huge increases in the price of energy from fossil fuels there will be an increased demand not only for public rail transportation, but for the ability to move more freight by train rather than by truck. Currently a freight train from the west needs to go all the way to Albany to cross the Hudson River and then come back south again to service points east. Good, energy efficient, long range decisions are needed now. Our readers are encouraged to write to Governor Patterson with your reasons supporting a new bridge and an east-west commuter rail line. Global Warming Task Force Report, Westchester County Westchester County completed in February an ambitious and comprehensive Task Force Report to address global warming (or climate change) in Westchester. Now, one may ask, how does the County best affect such a global issue? FCWC is convinced that tackling global warming needs to be a grass roots effort that starts with a public ground swell to create the political will for law makers to get things done. We look with dismay at the stagnation at the federal level regarding global warming legislation. The Westchester Board of Legislators has reviewed the Global Warming Task Force Report and is awaiting further review before passing the necessary resolutions to adopt the TF recommendations for County implementation. We believe the recommendations are achievable and encourage the Legislators to implement them soon.. Our readers are encouraged to write or call their County Legislator
and voice their concerns about these issues. |
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Save The Date
FCWC’s Annual Fall Benefit Honoring “ Green Leadership” County Executive Andrew J. Spano Saturday, September 20, 2008 (Sponsorship opportunities available) |
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| LI Sound Stewardship Area Named in Rye
By Jason Klein The Long Island Sound Stewardship Act (2006) authorized
funding to “preserve and improve
open spaces and important ecological sites around the Sound,
as well as to provide additional access to this nationally significant
estuary.” Of the thirty-three priority sites identified in
New York and Connecticut, the Edith Read Sanctuary-to-Marshlands
Site is the only one in Westchester
County. This includes much of the City of Rye shoreline, an area
adjacent to the Sound anchored by two Westchester County Wildlife Preserves. The group first prepared a habitat map from which conservation targets could be identified based on their importance to the integrity of Long Island Sound. Once threats to these areas were determined, conservation strategies were created and employed. Examples included presenting the map and plan to the Rye City Council, and requesting funding to aid the acquisition of the Bird Homestead property along Milton Harbor. More action items will be implemented in the coming months, all designed to protect the flora and fauna within and surrounding Long Island Sound. For more information on the plans for this area, call Jason Klein at the Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary, 914-967-8720. Jason Klein is an FCWC Board member. Send Us News Of Your Green Actions FCWC wants to encourage the greening of the County (and the world) by publicizing new local initiatives. Tell us what your organization (or school, town, church, business, neighborhood group) and you as an individual are doing to advance this critical effort. Please send us your email and we will share your news through our email Newsletter, WE, and various meetings. Please call (914) 422-4053 (FCWC office) or email us at fcwc@fcwc.org or write to us at: E House, 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603. |
Become a Locovore
By the Conservation Committee of the Rye Garden Club The Oxford Dictionary’s 2007 word of the year was “locovore”. A locovore tries to eat foods produced locally (within 100 miles), even if it means going non-organic. Become a locovore and help the environment, your community, your palette and your pocket. Locally grown food supports business in your community. It is estimated that every dollar spent locally generates twice the income for the local economy. Better Freshness and Flavor Most produce purchased in supermarkets and big box stores is in transit and cold-storage for days or weeks. Farms supplying to stores across the country have to pick their produce early to keep it “rugged” for the wear and tear of transport. In contrast, farmers who supply local farmers’ markets usually pick within 24 hours of your purchase. They can wait for fruits and vegetables to ripen before they take them to market. With less transport, locally grown food goes from the field to your plate quickly and with less damage. Also, buying local means that you are buying foods in season when they will be at their peak taste, are most abundant and the least expensive. Better for Air Quality and the Environment The average American meal travels 1,500 miles to get to your table! Enormous amounts of fossil fuels are burned and CO 2 emitted by trucking, flying and shipping food across the globe. Buy locally and eliminate the greenhouse gasses produced by long transport. Also, when you buy locally grown produce and meats, you give those with local open space, whether it is pastures or farmland, an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. It’s Easy! When shopping, look for locally produced foods and tell the produce manager and butcher at your supermarket that you are going local. Whole Foods labels its local fruits and vegetables. The Rye Farmers’ Market is now open, rain or shine, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday until November 23 in Parking Lot 2 off Theodore Fremd Avenue. Visit www.communitymarkets.biz to learn about farmers’ markets all over Westchester. The Rye Garden Club is an FCWC member organization. Reprinted courtesy of The Rye Record. |
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FCWC Elects Judith Martin and Jason Klein to the Board By Staff
FCWC elected two new members to its Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting on June 19, which was again held at Croton Point Park accompanied by a light picnic dinner. The new board members are Judy Martin of Rye, who runs her own consulting firm on ways to “green” your home (see article pg 3) and Jason Klein, who has been the curator of the county’s Edith G. Read Wildlife Sanctuary for ten years and is active in habitat preservation issues. Jason lives in West Harrison. Other reelected Board members are Lisa Copeland, Carolyn Cunningham, and Nortrud Spero. Cesare Manfredi was reelected by the Board for a second one year term as President while Sharon Pickett of Briarcliff was elected as a new Vice President to serve with Vice President Steven Levy and fill the vacancy left by Jim Nordgren. Mr. Nordgren left the Board this year because his work outside of the County keeps him away much of the time. The Board also elected Rob Carroll as its new Secretary and thanked Rick Turner for his expert efforts in this role for three years, as well as Nominating Committee chair. Mr. Manfredi remembered with praise the service and many contributions to the Board of both Nordgren and Roberta Wiernik, who also retired from the Board this year. Both Jim and Roberta are much missed. Two new members to FCWC’s coalition of local member groups were also recognized and welcomed. Environmental Advocates of Rye was represented by its chair, Ashley Craig, and the new Yonkers Committee on Smart Development was represented by several members including Gail Averill and Loretta Miraglia. FCWC Green Seal Awards. This year FCWC’s Green Seal Award for an individual went to Bill Lawyer, recently retired Executive Director of the Greenburgh Nature Center for 30 years. Bill was also a ten year member of FCWC’s Board and served for two years as its President from 2001 to 2003. Excerpts from Mr. Lawyer’s remarks are included on page 4. The Green Seal for outstanding corporate sustainability efforts was awarded to Swiss Re, the international reinsurance company. Its corporate efforts in becoming carbon neutral include, among many initiatives, paying subsidies to its employers to buy hybrid cars, solar panels, or other energy saving devices, as well as having a pesticide and herbicide free corporate campus in Armonk. The award was accepted by Adrienne Atwell, Swiss Re’s Senior Client Manager with the Public Sector Business Development Unit. In her acceptance remarks Ms. Atwell noted that Swiss Re has been pursuing its efforts to reduce climate change for some time, as its own researchers had become aware by 1990 that changes were occurring and would increase risks for many people in many locations throughout the world. FCWC again thanks all who came, Commissioner Stout, and everyone from the Westchester County Department of Parks who made the 2008 Annual Meeting another memorable event. |
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Biomimicry: Unlocking the Secrets to Nature’s Success By Adiel Gavish Imagine a system that has been conducting research and design not for tens, hundreds, or even thousands, but billions of years. What if you took these time-tested principles, and applied them to other systems? From a systems perspective, Mother Nature is a design expert, and has been the greatest model for sustainable innovation. Nature creates systems, “products” and services that protect and preserve all life. You will find the same design principles replicated in all of the natural world’s systems and creations- from a single blade of grass to an entire ecosystem. Nature does not waste any resources, it uses benign materials and manufacturing, waste from one organism is food for another (cradle to cradle design).Nature runs on free energy such as sunlight, uses elegant chemistry to build and grow, utilizes cyclical rather than linear cycles, and relies on feedback loops to ensure continuous efficiency and improvement. As architect
Bill McDonough says, “design is the first signal
of intent”. We must intentionally design our communities,
systems and products in a sustainable way, just like nature. Perhaps
the most important principle is that nature creates systems conducive
to life. This underlying framework keeps everything working together,
in balance, and in harmony, at an optimal level. Man tends to create
systems that are not conducive to life, and we are feeling the
effects of this careless thinking today with global climate change. Nature has learned that a key element to survival is innovation for competitive advantage, or even better, filling a niche so you eliminate any competition whatsoever. Business leaders can strengthen and improve their businesses by incorporating these sustainable, innovative, competitive systems principles into their corporate DNA, while at the same time safeguarding the environment. We can learn from and apply nature’s infinite reservoir of design knowledge to improve their business systems. Challenges we face today have already been solved after billions of years of research and design. The answers can be seen in the intricate and complex relationships, niches, survival mechanisms and systems designs nature has created. The answers to our most pressing questions and sustainability challenges are just outside your door. |
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Pelham Home Minimizes Carbon Footprint By Richard Ellenbogen Eight thousand square foot homes normally have a huge carbon footprint and are environmentally unfriendly. However, three goals established during the design phase of our home in Pelham Manor were to work with the natural landscape, to minimize energy consumption, and to minimize water consumption. To meet those goals, several technologies were combined in a unified “whole house” mechanical system. All of the systems in the house are integrated under the continuous monitoring and control of a central computer network. The computers help to regulate temperature, lighting and power consumption. The interface can be viewed and controlled from anywhere in the world. The house, built into a 30 foot high cliff, makes considerable use of the natural terrain. Gravity fed waterfalls and a pond on the front hillside of the home carry rain water from all the roof drains into cisterns located in an underground vault. The water in these cisterns is used for landscape irrigation. The stone walls on the hillside were built from stone salvaged during excavation. One of those walls, located on the southern side of the property was sized for the 10 kilowatt solar array that was installed in 2007. The array will generate over 10,000 kilowatt hours of electricity during its first year of operation with excess electricity sold to the utility. Three 800 foot deep wells located on the property provide 53 degree water (the year round temperature of the earth) used by the geo-thermal system for heating and cooling of the home. During the summer months, this system uses half the amount of electricity for air conditioning than a normal central air conditioning system. During the winter, the geo-thermal system generates warm water used in the radiant floors of the home. The lower temperature water in a radiant heating system greatly reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the home. Large southeast and southwest facing windows in the home’s Great Room are equipped with automatic shades that reduce solar heating during the summer and allow for some solar heating during the winter. On warmer spring and autumn days, the three story, centrally located rotunda creates a thermal convection column that provides natural air conditioning, reducing the number of days that the mechanical cooling system needs to be used. High R value, blown-in insulation and argon filled windows greatly reduce thermal loss and gain in the home. The structure is fabricated almost entirely of steel, concrete, and gypsum. The only wood in the home is in the windows, doors, stair treads, and wood moldings. These are only some of the “green” elements in our home, but they illustrate that large homes, if well planned, do not have to be bad for the environment. Mr. and Mrs. Ellenbogen’s green home will be the location for FCWC’s Benefit in September honoring Westchester Green Leaders. |
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| It Costs a Fortune to Heat and Cool My
House!
By Judith Martin We hear these words from every direction these days. What can homeowners do beyond resetting the thermostat? Many focus initially on alternative energy sources such as solar. While solar, geothermal and even pellet boilers are possible effective pathways to reducing energy use, these choices are quite expensive compared to the cost of meeting a higher energy conservation standard during the building process. Homeowners, builders and government officials seem to have forgotten the maxim: the cheapest energy is energy never used. The first step to addressing high fuel bills should be energy conservation. An airtight home with controlled ventilation can be achieved easily, and fairly cheaply, by using ultra high R-value insulation and air sealing. If done before enclosing the walls, energy use for heating and air conditioning can potentially be reduced by a whopping 40-50%. When added to the attics and basements of existing homes, significant annual savings can be realized. Building codes need to be changed quickly to mandate that all new homes and renovations meet the Energy Star building standard or higher. But let’s not wait for our federal, state and local governments to take action. We are all part of the problem and we can begin conserving energy now. Even in the absence of code changes, homeowners and builders must choose to caulk and seal homes and install very high R insulation such as blown-in cellulose or spray foam, particularly during any kind of construction project. Interested homeowners can learn more about green homes at greenhomeswestchester.com. Judy Martin is a new FCWC Board member who runs her own green homes consulting business. |
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| “Looking
Back, Looking Forward”
Excerpts from Bill Lawyer’s remarks at the June 2008 FCWC Annual Meeting. I chose this title because we always are living in three time zones – the past, the present and the future. Most of us spend most of our time in the latter two zones, but since I’ve recently retired, after thirty years as director of the Greenburgh Nature Center, all three zones have been on my mind. Recently I’ve spoken often about Richard Louv’s “Last Child In The Woods” thesis, that without giving our young people direct and on-going experiences in nature, we have no hope of improving our natural environment. Back in the 1960’s, my experiences with environmental issues were filled with concern and hope. While I wasn’t really thinking about becoming an environmental educator at that time, I had a strong sense of concern about what was happening to the small towns, family farms, and wildernesses of the United States. Both my grandfathers were farmers and I had spent much of my childhood on farms, and on explorations of the woodlands, parks and waterways of south-central Pennsylvania. But during my high school and college years, most of the many apple orchards around my home town of York were turned into shopping malls and suburban sprawl. I moved in 1978 from teaching to becoming Director of the recently-formed Greenburgh Nature Center – a 33 acre preserve right off Central Avenue between Yonkers and White Plains. Established on a shoestring budget, and competing with a wide range of zoos, botanical gardens and other nature centers in the area, we gradually developed our own niche as a hands-on learning center and outreach program, geared to the needs and interests of young children, parents and teachers. But we realized that there was often a disconnect between what people did at the Center and what they did the rest of the week, month or year. They increasingly arrived in their SUV’s and spent most of their time looking at the captive bred animals in our dioramas. So now here we are, with gasoline running up to $5 per gallon. People are again switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles, looking to develop alternative energy sources, taking a more positive approach to recycling resources, and trying to scale back on un-necessary use of fossil-fuel-based yard machinery for cleaner air and conservation of energy resources. The generation of people (mostly parents) in their 30’s and 40’s are forming new coalitions, “green teams,” and sustainability alliances. The FCWC now has a renewed sense of purpose, helping all the county’s grass roots groups work more effectively on problems that go beyond municipal boundaries. But as I look to the future, I still wonder if we’re really getting the message of the three “R’s” – reduce, reuse and recycle. I don’t know who came up with that phrase, but wisely they put “reduce” first, because in my mind that’s the key to sustainability. |
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