NYC Shrinking its Carbon Footprint

By Dan Estabrook - July 13, 2008 (TNN) My fave city, New York, is taking bold efforts to curb its carbon footprint, according to the Environment News Service.  The city has embarked upon a $2.3 billion nine-year plan to reduce the carbon footprint of New York City through greening municipal buildings including energy-saving retrofits to fix outdated heating and cooling systems, insufficient ventilation, and windows and doors that leak heat in the winter and cooled air in the summer. The city will also add solar panels to a number of buildings and install more energy efficient lighting to many offices in the city government.  Mayor Bloomberg hopes the plan will reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from municipal buildings and operations by 30 percent by 2017, as promised in PlaNYC, Bloomberg's plan "for a greener, greater New York." The city is also making an effort to upgrade waste water treatment plants to minimize the release of methane gas, which scientists have said is a bigger contributor to greenhouse gases than CO2.  Projects in this group include fixing methane gas leaks, using recaptured methane to power electric generation equipment, and making general efficiency improvements to other specialized equipment. You can read more about New York's attempt to reduce its carbon footprint here. This news is great as New York sets the example for other urban areas to reduce their own carbon footprint!