• Sustainability

One NYC Trashy Thing: The Best Bin Won!

• New York City
• trash

There are more than 23,000 trash cans scattered around New York City and they have been virtually unchanged in design since the 1930s — way before we even thought about plastic, much less recycling it.  NYC decided to have a competition to select the best new bin design to replace the old bins — the […]

• Food

New York To Bid Foie Gras Adieu

• animal cruelty
• animal rights
• foie gras
• New York City

The New York City Council voted overwhelmingly to ban the French delicacy foie gras from being sold in restaurants, stores, and farmer’s markets because it is made by force-feeding ducks and geese to fatten up their livers in a way that some consider the “most inhumane process in the commercial food industry,” according to The […]

• Oceans

NY Weighs Options For Defending Against the Next Superstorm

• Hudson River
• New York City
• New York Harbor
• sea level rise
• storm surge

After the environmental group American Rivers named the Hudson River the second-most endangered in the U.S., Yale Environment 360 took a look at why and found that the plans to protect the New York metro area from storms like Superstorm Sandy may be expensive and counterproductive, providing little protection from storm surge and at the […]

• Animals

NYC Considers Banning the Sale of Fur

• animal cruelty
• animal rights
• fur
• fur ban
• New York
• New York City

After bans on the sale of animal fur were passed throughout California, some New York City councilmembers pushed their colleagues this week to back a ban on the sale of fur in the nation’s largest fur retail market. The bill’s opposition comes from religious groups including black pastors and Hasidic leaders. As the New York Times […]

• Politics

De Blasio Getting Tough on Pollution – Is He Running Too?

• fracking
• GND
• Mayor De Blasio
• New York City
• pipeline
• pollution
• Trump Tower

Mayor Bill De Blasio of New York City, who is allegedly mulling whether to throw his hat into the Presidential race, used Trump Tower as a backdrop for an event on Monday highlighting a tough new law that reduces emissions from buildings, which has been dubbed the NYC’s GND. 

New York Subway System Seeks Solar Up On Its Roofs

• climate change
• greenhouse gas emissions
• Metropolitan Transit Authority
• MTA
• New York City
• solar power

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) announced yesterday that it is launching a new initiative that, if successful, will generate both revenue and renewable, emission-free electricity by leasing millions of square feet of industrial roof space to companies interested in generating solar power.  The MTA’s first request for proposals to develop this power covers […]

• Sustainability

One Fun Thing: Closing City Streets To Cars On Sunday

• bicycles
• National Geographic
• New York City
• street closing
• summer

Every week on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. the city of Bogata does the unthinkable — closes many of its main streets to cars.  They call it Ciclovía, or Bicycle Way, the National Geographic reports, and the people of Bogata just love it. 

• Animals

One Cool Thing: Move over Hot Duck, There’s a New Heron in Town

• Central Park
• Great Blue Heron
• New York City

Remember the enigmatic and striking Mandarin duck (aka the Hot Duck) that appeared (and then disappeared and then reappeared) in Central Park last year? Well, now it seems that it may have some competition: an electric Great Blue Heron that’s been living in the park for a while but keeping a low profile. David Barrett, […]

• Sustainability

Cities Saying Bye-Bye to Styrofoam

• ban
• carbon emissions
• D.C.
• Forbes
• New York City
• News10
• recycle
• restaurant
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• styrofoam
• trash
• Washington

On Tuesday, the City of San Diego became the latest U.S. city to ban the use of styrofoam within city limits.  The ban covers the use and distribution some very common products like egg cartons, food containers, coolers, ice chests, pool or beach toys, mooring buoys and navigation markers made fully or partially of polystyrene foam, commonly known as styrofoam.  Other major cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. also now have styrofoam bans in effect. 

Why This Matters:  Styrofoam needs to go.  The new replacements are better for the planet and completely recyclable.  For example, TemperPack’s  “ClimaCell” packaging produces 97% less carbon emissions in the manufacturing process than styrofoam and will replace tens of millions of pounds of plastic foam that would otherwise be dumped in landfills and never biodegrade.  Good for the economy and good for mother earth.  Good for these cities for taking this bold action.