Mayor Bloomberg has made PlaNYC a centerpiece of his administration

But the news is not all bad.

Under the Bloomberg administration and its PlaNYC, New York City has made great strides in its push to become a greener, more energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive place to live, work and play. The Million Trees NYC initiative, CoolRoofs, GreeNYC, and the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, set in motion over the last four years, have already changed the way the our city functions. There are hundreds of miles of new bike lanes, thousands of trees have been planted, millions of square feet of rooftop have been painted with a reflective coating, the dirtiest forms of heating fuel are being phased out, and the first phase of benchmarking energy use by large buildings has already been completed.

These are considerable accomplishments in a short period of time, especially in a place as historically bureaucratic as New York City.

Until very recently, however, antiquated and irrelevant city zoning laws and codes prevented projects utilizing energy-efficient construction methods and renewable energy such as solar and wind power from becoming a reality. These zoning laws in effect prevented additional insulation from being installed, and made the permitting process for renewable energy projects a significant headache and roadblock, thus preventing the widespread acceptance and implementation of this technology throughout the five boroughs.

Thanks to efforts by organizations such as the Urban Green Council and its Green Codes Task Force, these 20th-century zoning laws have been overhauled in order to address these issues and bring much needed modernization to building codes designed for another era.

Some of the most exciting changes that have been approved:

• External wall insulation on existing and new buildings will be allowed while exempting it from floor area calculations and yard regulations. This will ensure that developers or building owners adding wall insulation or thicker walls will no longer be penalized or face a trade-off between useable interior space and energy-efficient walls. The intended effect is to encourage energy-efficient wall construction or retrofitting.

• Solar control devices are architecturally designed projections similar to awnings that can reduce cooling needs and lighting requirements by adding natural light without direct sunlight. Before the zoning changes, solar control devices were not permitted. The changes to zoning laws permit these devices in many instances.

• Solar PV and solar thermal installations had been infinitely more difficult to get permitted than rooftop air conditioning units, since the existing zoning laws were written before these systems were commercially available. The new zoning laws allow for solar installations on flat roofs anywhere below the parapet, with limits on taller installations.

The momentum is building in this city, and the changes are palpable and are already improving the quality of life for all of us.

It’s a critical juncture for this city and for the entire country. I have grown up among a generation that has developed a deep cynicism toward the Washington status quo, party politics and angry partisan rhetoric. As someone who has been dismayed by the federal government’s inability to effect an environmentally sound national energy policy, it has been nothing short of transformative to witness New York City look ahead to its future generations and make real strides to act in their best interest. The city’s actions reflect the activism and excitement of the burgeoning energy-efficiency and green services industry here.

PlaNYC is just the beginning of a real change in our society and its policies, IF we grab the momentum that has been created and work hard to ensure that the city continues to plan smartly for the future. Other cities have already taken notice. Washington DC, Austin, Seattle, and San Francisco currently require energy benchmarking of commercial buildings, and more cities are sure to follow.

The collaboration between government and the private sector can be our most effective tool. Let’s continue to use it to make our city a better place to live.

Volunteers coat the roof at Community Environmental Center

The stand-out logo for the Mayor's CoolRoofs Program

AG: Loretta, what is the CoolRoofs Program?
LT: NYC CoolRoofs is an initiative of Mayor Bloomberg’s, stemming from his PlaNYC Program, to cut gas emissions 30% by the year 2030. We partner with NYC Services and the Department of Buildings (DOB), and with a workforce group to clean and double-coat rooftops throughout the city.

AG: And what do you do?
LT: Right now my position is Site Inspector. In the previous 2 seasons I have been a site supervisor as well as a supervisor of the site superisors. I also managed the inventory last season. This season I am working closely with our outreach coordinator; we find roofs and nonprofit organizations to contact, to see if perhaps through this initiative we can coat their roofs basically for free. NYC Services will find corporate sponsors that would sponsor a particular roof for a nonprofit org., and they will pay for the coating material and also come out and do a day of service with us on the roof and actually do the coating. We also have situations where we deal with private business or building owners: we provide the labor for free, they will pay for the coating material and we will coat their roofs and we ask that they share their kilowatt hours data from one year prior to the coating and one year after. They participate in the program, perhaps not with a corporate sponsor, but engaging us and educating the building and they provide their data, so that we can study the effects of the cool roofs system on the upper floors of the building.

AG: Let me back-track. So if I’m a nonprofit organization and I want my roof painted white, to reflect the heat and make the lower floors cooler, it could cost me nothing?
LT: Correct. But the roof has to be viable for the program, and that’s one of the things that I do. Outreach will let us know if there’ a nonprofit that’s interested. I will speak to a facilities manager or executive director, and we will talk about the roof surface. We need to comply with all the DOB safety criteria, so we need to make sure that the parapets of the building are up to code – 3 feet, 8 inches. We need to make sure that the roof membrane is material we can coat – for instance, we don’t coat gravel roofs, we don’t coat pavers. Or if a membrane is very thin and we don’t want to damage it. So I will speak with these people over the phone, to qualify the roof, and then I will go out to do a site inspection. We make sure the roof is safe, that there’s easy access and then we work with out with them the signing of a contract, understanding liabilities. They choose the coating material, and we schedule 3 magnificent days on the roof.

AG: They choose the coating material?
LT: We have partners involved with the program, particular manufacturers that partner with us to work in training our staff to properly do the coating. They’ve made their product available, and they do the pricing. All of that coating material is available to each building, and it’s up to the building to select one of the types. They are all white paint, but they are different. The lower grades and less expensive ones perhaps will not have a UL rating and a fire-guard in the material. All the city buildings have to use the UL-rated materials. There are some that have ceramics in them, that are more difficult to use, a great deal of mixing involved. There are different grades with different thicknesses.

AG: Some last longer?
LT: The thicker materials have a longer warranty and have a tendency to last longer.

AG: Why should a building owner do this?
LT: There are many benefits to this. Applying the coatings – we apply 2 coats always – will extend the life of the roof up to 5 to 7 years. Applying will keep the roof surface cool, which helps the machinery that’s on the roof. So if you have certain ventilating systems up there, as well as AC systems – if you have any belts, those belts will actually last longer, because the roof surface will be cooler and the belts will not dry out as quickly. The fact that the roof surface is now cooler, and the heat is reflected back into the air and does not penetrate the roof membrane, the upper floors will benefit because there will be less transfer of heat and those upper floors will use less AC, so there will be less drainage on the building’s electricity. So there really are a tremendous amount of benefits. Cutting gas emissions. If we get many buildings together in one neighborhood, we can actually cool the neighborhood.

AG: How did you get into this line of work?
LT: I was a graduate of Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), and this job was posted back in 2010, and CEC, New York City CoolRoofs and NEW thought I would be an excellent site supervisor. I applied for the job and got the job and have been passionate about it ever since. To talk about sustainability and how we can make the city that I love greener is what I’m all about.

AG: What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
LT: The logistical part of it and the scheduling. Running multiple sites. We work with a workforce group that helps us clean and coat the roofs, so it’s about scheduling them as well as our own site staff. Weather is probably the biggest challenge in that regard: we’re weather-driven – we cannot coat roofs in the rain. Last season was the rainiest season ever, and we canceled well over 42 days. We reschedule, but the weather definitely poses problems.

AG: Is there a roof-coating experience that was particularly rewarding?
LT: Almost all of them are rewarding. We did the Veterans’ shelter right here in Long Island City, Queens, on Borden Avenue. We were working on a Department of Homeless Services building, a building temporarily housing veterans who are in transition and trying to find permanent homes. The facility also takes care of their health needs, which I find wonderful.
It was a 60,000 square-foot roof and one of the dirtiest roofs I’ve ever been on. It took us almost two weeks to clean it. So we spent a great deal of time there, and I actually got to know the staff and a lot of the veterans. It was wonderful to talk with them and understand their plight and hear how much they appreciated that we were attempting to do something good for the roof and for the building, which in turn would affect them.
I was out to dinner with friends one night, and we ended up to a grocery store, and outside was a veteran who was collecting money for the Veterans Association, and when I walked by, he said, “Ma’am, Ma’am.” And when I turned around and looked at him, he said, “You coated my roof white.” And I walked over to him and had a conversation, and he was very grateful. He was actually in line to move out; they had found permanent housing for him, and he was feeling very good. But to be recognized as somebody who had done something for his temporary home was really wonderful for me. Those types of reactions are worth it for me. What we were doing touched his life and mine.

AG: You’re not just helping buildings, you’re helping people.
LT: I hope to help people. One of the real big impacts that I hope this initiative has is that, when we’re engaging volunteers on a roof, whether they’re corporate or citizen volunteers or other workforce groups – we are educating them about sustainability. We’re teaching them what sustainability means. We talk about what we’re doing and why, and we want everyone to walk away from the group and talk to others about their experience. We want them to go out and spread the word. We want people to be mindful of how they live their lives, that what they do affects this earth and affects generations to come.

That’s what sustainability is all about. That’s where we feel we do our best work: communicating that kind of education and that mindfulness throughout communities.

AG: If I want to volunteer to paint a roof, whom would I contact?
LT: You’d go to the Website, www.nyc.gov/coolroofs and on this site there is a tab that says “Get Involved.” And you can get involved in several ways. You can participate in volunteerism and spend a day on a roof. You can suggest a roof. If you know of someone who owns a building, or a nonprofit organization that is housed in a building with a flat roof that they might want to consider cooling, you or they can put that information into “Suggest a Roof.”

If you’re apt to do it yourself, or know people who have, we ask that you register the roof and it will be on the list of coated roofs, and it will come up in the Department of Buildings data base as a Cool Roof.

AG: And if I own a building?
LT: Go on the Website, put in your business information, your contact information, give us the address, let us know how you found out about CoolRoofs. Our outreach team receives all those emails from the Department of Buildings, and all the info comes to us at CEC and we start the ball rolling.

AG: This is the 3rd year of CoolRoofs. Tell me again, how many millions of square feet has the Program painted so far?
LT: We hit a million square feet or more the first year and did the same last year, despite all the rain. Over 2 ½ million square feet already coated.

AG: And this year?
LT: Probably a little over a million. The Mayor has asked us to do as much as we can, and we’re going to work very hard to make that happen.
AG: Thank you very much Loretta.

That’s Gianna Cerbone talking, owner and chef at Manducatis Rustica, which she founded three years ago in Long Island City, Queens.

Cerbone grew up in LIC, and her restaurant is her pride and joy, up there with her husband, children and her parents, who for thirty years have operated the original Manducatis, in LIC’s Hunters Point section.

According to Cerbone (it’s pronounced CherBONEay), her parents taught her everything she knows about the restaurant business.  “I wanted to be a museum curator,” says Cerbone, sitting on a couch in cosy Manducatis Rustica one afternoon and gesturing to the walls, which are covered with vintage photographs and artifacts.

“But my father said, ‘It’s important to do what you’re good at and you’re a natural.’ I understand restaurants, I know good food and I love people.”

She is the first to acknowledge that her profession is not easy. “One of the hardest jobs there is. You know what it’s like to organize a home?” she asks. “Well, imagine that ten-fold.”

Keeping expenses down is a primary concern, and the energy-efficiency measures “make a major difference” in her budget.

But even more than balancing the books, the most challenging task, Cerbone says, “is trying to understand the simplicity of cooking.” She describes the cuisine at Manducatis Rustica as “Campagna Southern” – of the Italian countryside. No complicated roux, no intricate stocks.  Just excellent, pure ingredients. “Old-time cooking,” says Cerbone, “but not old-style.”

Although she is no longer alone in the restaurant’s kitchen –  Manducatis Rustica has too many customers for one chef to handle all the cooking — Cerbone still creates a number of the dishes, especially salads and fish. And those mounds of glistening, colorful gelati, created in the Energy Star gelato maker and sitting so invitingly in a case at the front of the restaurant? She makes the gelati, too.

Cerbone has seen many changes come to Long Island City.  All she has to do is step out the front door of Manducatis Rustica, look up Vernon Avenue and count the high-rise apartment buildings.

She welcomes LIC’s new residents to her restaurant, but hopes that they will preserve the spirit of LIC. “It’s a wonderful community.” She says. “One of the last communities in New York City.”

Melissa Moschitto, Artistic Director, The Anthropologists

Aldous Huxley lamented human beings' mistreatment of our planet

But despite the known risks and the diminished quality of health — not to mention the considerable cost of cigarettes — people continue to smoke. The addiction is powerful.

The addicted smoker provides a useful analogy for American behavior when it comes to climate change issues. Much like quitting smoking, we in the U.S. are loath to give up that which is pleasurable, even if it’s harmful. Behavior, routine and lifestyle are all deeply engrained. Making an environmentally beneficial choice often feels like a burden.

How is it that we have developed this potentially false sense that being “eco-friendly” takes too much time, effort and money? Why do we continue to be averse to change, even though the outcome could be extremely beneficial?

With my theatre company The Anthropologists, we are investigating this conundrum through our newest play, “The Lecture.”

The play resurrects lectures given in 1959 by the English writer and pacifist Aldous Huxley and at the same time takes an absurdist look at addiction – in this case, smoking — and ponders if change is possible.

Though written more than 50 years ago, Huxley’s words cut right to the core of the problem:

“We now know enough to repair a good deal of the damage which has already been done to our planet and to prevent further damage from occurring. The necessary information and knowledge exist. But as usual there is a great gap between the ability to do a thing and the likelihood of its being done. It is very easy to describe the conservation methods which should be put into effect at once, but it is extraordinarily difficult to carry out what we know we can do.”

Simple, unadorned words. It’s hard to disagree with them, right?

Climate change issues are large-scale and complex, no doubt about it. Where does the solution lie? In individuals or industry? Many believe that technological advancements are the key to solving issues related to environmental damage, past, current and future. And yes, smart green technology is certainly part of the solution.

However, I propose that we also desperately need a collective and radical shift in philosophy and behavior.

We must stop thinking about being “green” as a hardship for the everyday person, something that only serves to make environmentalists feel better. It is also a danger to treat better environmental choices as feasible only if they are economically viable.

The ramifications run much deeper than that. At the risk of simplification, making strong environmental improvements – reducing oil consumption, promoting alternative energy sources, preserving natural habitats, choosing sustainably farmed foods – could all contribute, as Huxley suggests, to repairing the damage that has already been done to the planet. But making environmental improvements could also revolutionize society and culture, raising our quality of life and improving health standards — perhaps even lifting our spiritual and mental health.

Again, Huxley zeroes in with essential questions:

“What is our relationship with the planet? What are we doing with the world on which we are living and how are we treating it? How is it likely to treat us if we go on treating it as we are now?”

Was Huxley really so profound and ahead of his time? Back in 1959, was he proposing radical ideas that were too progressive to accept? Or is the answer much simpler — that now, as then, we are really just not listening.

LED bulbs: attractive as well as energy efficient

Beginning in January 2012, new standards were implemented to increase the efficiency of the basic light bulbs that many of us use and rely on in our homes and apartments.

As part of the bi-partisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was signed into law by the second President Bush, these new standards will require light bulbs to be approximately 25-30% more efficient than their predecessor, the incandescent Edison bulb. The new standards require that less energy be consumed (watts) for the amount of light produced (lumens).

There has been considerable debate in the U.S. as well as in many European countries about the right of the government to mandate these changes, and this issue has become somewhat of a political rallying cry of the Tea Party Republicans and Rush Limbaugh, in the same vein as “Drill baby drill” was during the 2008 election cycle.

From an economic, societal or environmental point of view, however, there simply is no debate.

It is important to grasp the historical context of the technology of the incandescent light bulb. The first incandescent light was created sometime in the early 19th century, and over the next 80 or so years was improved until the patent was purchased by Thomas Edison in 1879. This same bulb was slightly modified and improved over the next 130 or more years, but it has mostly remained as it was when it was invented.

The standard incandescent bulb emits less than 10% of its energy as light; the rest of the energy is converted into heat. Incandescent light bulbs have served us well for the last 130 years, but the economics and practicality of the bulb have been far surpassed by the compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) and the Light Emitting Diode (LED). In the past we may have afforded to waste electricity and increase our consumption of fossil fuels in order to meet our energy needs; we cannot afford to do so any longer.

Which bulb would you choose?**

Traditional Incandescent $4.80

Halogen Incandescent $3.50

ENERGY STAR CFL $1.20

ENERGY STAR LED $1.00

* For 60 watt replacement bulbs, based on 2 hrs/day of usage, shown in U.S. dollars. Approximate Operating Cost Per Year-From www.energysavers.gov

The new light bulb standards do not, as many politicians have argued, mandate any particular kind of light for Americans to use in their homes. They do, however, set performance standards for manufacturers to achieve a certain level of energy efficiency, and those standards will in effect remove most traditional incandescent bulbs from store shelves.

More efficient halogen gas incandescent bulbs will take their place, in addition to the already widely available and more efficient CFL bulbs and the burgeoning LED market. The U.S. government has a well-established history of raising appliance standards, beginning in 1974 when then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed a bill to bring greater efficiency to major appliances in California. (Reagan was also the first U.S. President to sign an appliance efficiency bill, when he signed the National Appliance Energy Act of 1987.)

Although this has recently been framed as a political issue due to the toxic nature of political discourse in recent years, it is clear that energy efficiency is a bi-partisan issue with real economic and societal benefits. According to a report recently issued by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, we will save $1.1 trillion through 2035 because of existing energy-efficiency mandates for light bulbs and appliances.

Many people argue that CFL bulbs give off cool light and do not look as warm and comforting as the old incandescent lights. This is simply untrue. The new generation of CFL lights contain color temperatures ranging from warm to cool and give off light that is indistinguishable from incandescent bulbs. CFL bulbs now have most of the same optional features that incandescent lights do, including dimming capability. Some people object to the mercury contained in the bulbs. There is a very small amount of mercury sealed in each bulb, which is necessary for its functionaltiy as a light source. CFLs actually reduce the total amount of mercury entering the environment, because they use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, so utilities can burn less coal and thus emit less mercury into the atmosphere. If you are not a fan of CFLs, there are certainly other options.

LED technology has also improved substantially over the past few years, and there are many LED lighting fixtures and technologies that can be purchased in stores now. LED fixtures give off excellent lighting qualities for many different uses and are extremely efficient, and the price for LED fixtures has been steadily dropping.

It is time that we give up a significant but extremely inefficient part of our history and embrace efficient lighting technologies, just as we have embraced technologial improvements in the rest of our lives. Small, seemingly insignificant acts such as changing a light bulb can make a better future for us and our children. At the very least, it will save you some money.

Want more info? We think this Natural Resources Defense Council light bulb guide is just terrific.

And remember to contact Community Environmental Center if you want to consult about lighting retrofits for your home or building.

Would Galileo have talked truth to power about climate change?

He was the 16th century Italian guy who discovered that the earth moved about the sun, instead of the other way ‘round. Earth, in other words, was not the center of the universe.

Well, at the time, the Church of Rome was a little distressed by this news, but for a while Galileo spoke truth to power and stuck by his findings. Then the Church threatened to torture Galileo if he did not recant, and since Galileo was sort of fond of his body, he retracted his findings – publicly at least. Fortunately he continued to write about his theory secretly and eventually gave his papers to a colleague, who smuggled them out of Italy and into the consciousness of the world.

What does Galileo have to do with climate change?

I thought about the Italian physicist and astronomer recently after seeing a production of Bertolt Brecht’s 1938 play Galileo here in New York. The production was dry and unimaginative, but I could understand why Brecht, who passionately loathed institutional authority but was also smart enough to fear it, had dramatized Galileo’s story.

To me there are parallels with how we are confronting climate change today in the United States. Or not confronting it. Put plainly, there is agreement among the majority of scientists that global warming is definitely here. But there is lack of acceptance among those in power – elected officials, corporate CEOs – that climate change, even if it exists, is worth revolutionizing the way the U.S. does business.

Take two reports that recently appeared: one from the ClimateWorks Foundation, the other in the New York Times.

The first, called “The Costs of Delay” (by Hal Harvey and Sonia Aggarwal), predicts dire consequences for many of the earth’s species if we don’t reduce CO2 emissions. The authors write that “the burning of fossil fuels has introduced as much carbon in the past 50 years as had been sequestered over millions of years.” Plants and oceans can only absorb so much. We have to reduce those CO2 levels, probably within the next two decades.

I suspect that only scientists and a coterie of tree-huggers have even seen this paper.

Many more people, no doubt, read the New York Times article about how “U.S. Inches Toward Goal Of Energy Independence” (March 23, 2012). Thanks to new, high-tech ways of extracting millions of gallons of oil, and millions of cubic feet of natural gas, at off-shore drilling sites and from within the earth, the U.S. can once again rely on itself for fossil fuels.

How fab. But who’s going to talk truth to fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists and a voting public that wants the U.S. “on top” again?

“If there is a loser in this boom,” wrote the Times’ article’s co-authors, Clifford Krauss and Eric Lipton, “it’s the environment.” An ecologist named Jay Lininger, whom the Times describes as “a lonely voice calling for a drilling slow-down,” said, “Every day we burn fossil fuel makes it harder for our planet to recover from our energy addiction.”

LOL, Jay.

Galileo would have understood the frustration of being a single voice crying truth in a corporate wilderness. But recanting is not an option.

CEC's Roger Fraser and Emilio Roman engrossed in an energy audit

To address the problem, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is testing innovative methods of lowering energy costs in multifamily residential properties across the country. HUD has announced the award of nearly $23 million to 12 U.S. organizations, including $3 million to the Community Environmental Center, a nonprofit dedicated to energy conservation services for New York City’s buildings.

“American buildings, particularly residential buildings, are the biggest users of energy in the United States,” said Richard Cherry, president of Community Environmental Center (CEC). “Residential buildings account for more than 50 percent of U.S. buildings’ total energy consumption. If this HUD pilot program can discover ways to cut energy costs and finance energy efficiency improvements for multifamily buildings, then building owners throughout the nation can do the same, and we will have made a giant leap forward in lowering the energy usage in this country – and reducing carbon emissions.”

CEC’s mandate is to demonstrate, and then document, the effectiveness of energy efficiency retrofits and tenant education in more than 900 apartments owned and operated by affordable housing providers. These providers include The Bridge, a New York City nonprofit that offers housing and other rehabilitative services to the homeless, people recovering from serious mental illness and substance abuse; Settlement Housing Fund, which creates and maintains economically and ethnically diverse affordable housing throughout New York City; and Grenadier Realty Corp., which manages more than 20,000 apartments, many of them in affordable housing complexes.

CEC will retrofit the majority of these apartments, which are located throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Yonkers. The rest of the apartments will serve as a control group, so CEC can compare data and identify the impact of capital improvements and tenant education on fuel and electricity consumption.

Working with a group of partners that includes Cornell University, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the nonprofit environmental education organization Solar One, CEC will document the impact of the retrofits. CEC and its partners will also train both The Bridge’s tenants and its building personnel about how to maintain energy efficiency long after the HUD project is completed.

“The Bridge is excited to participate in this innovative project that can help our staff and tenants maintain important energy improvements and save money,” said Carole Gordon, Bridge Director of Housing Development. “Tenant education is key to sustainability.”

Cornell University, which has recently been selected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to partner with Technion and set up a cutting-edge NYC technology campus, will design and coordinate the research component. Led by Joseph Laquatra, professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology, a Cornell team will compare energy-use data from buildings that receive retrofits with those that do not, and will examine fluctuations in tenants’ and superintendents’ knowledge and motivation.

“CEC and Cornell will analyze and consolidate the results of this retrofit initiative,” said Laquatra, “to provide a template for other consortia of affordable housing stakeholders, environmental education providers and federal Weatherization Assistance Program sub-grantees across the country, so they can use the results to replicate the success of this project.”

In addition to CEC, recipients of the HUD grants are the University of Illinois-Champaign (Illinois), Enterprise Community Partners (New York City), Heat Watch (Glen Head, New York), Columbus Property Management & Development (Philadelphia), iCast (Lakewood, Colorado), Jonathan Rose Companies (Newark, New Jersey), New Ecology (Boston, Massachusetts), Network for Oregon Affordably Housing (Portland, Oregon), Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (Washington, D.C.), Maryland Dept. of Housing and Community Development (Maryland), and NRG Solutions

New from the Women's Bureau of the Dept. of Labor

The Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor (DOL)) has released “Why Green Is Your Color: A Woman’s Guide to a Sustainable Career” — appropriately, during Women’s History Month.

This rich compendium of information, which took two years of research, national roundtables and interviews, feels especially timely. After all, certain not-to-be-mentioned Presidential candidates have implied lately that women belong only in the home, tending a family, working in the kitchen.

The DOL Guide doesn’t want any woman returning to that nearly prehistoric time. The Guide is looking forward. It promotes the future strength of a green economy and jobs that “restore, protect, or conserve the natural environment.”

Here, within its 122 pages, the Guide describes green jobs such as renewable energy engineers and technicians,contractors, landscapers, recycling and waste-management workers, conservation policy analysts – and more. The Guide provides information about education, training, career paths (including green entrepreneurship), and how to succeed once you get a green job.

Not surprisingly, recent bad economic times – aka the Great Recession – have hit women hard. Still, women make up nearly 50 percent of the U.S. work force. Women want to work. Women need to work.

On average, though, women earn less than men. A woman makes about 77.4 cents for every dollar a man makes. Reason? Well, one problem, states the Guide, is that the majority of women still toil in industries at the lower end of the pay scale. Preschool teachers earn approximately $11.80 an hour, compared with carpenters, 98 percent of whom are men earning a median wage of $18.98 an hour.

Green jobs, some of which involve skilled hands-on labor, could presumably help women make the kind of money we should be making. So could jobs that require college or advanced degrees, such as biomass plant engineers, climate change analysts or geothermal technicians.

Would you believe? Only about 4 percent of all U.S. revenue is generated by woman-owned businesses? Definitely an opportunity there.

And then there’s the Life-is-good factor. “When you take a green job,” states the Guide, “you become part of an important effort to protect and restore our environment.” Job satisfaction. Not to be sneezed at.

Aside from encouraging women to step into a growing industry and telling them how to do it, one of the Guide’s most valuable assets are the lists of online resources within each chapter. The Internet can overwhelm a job-seeker with supposedly helpful sites; the DOL Guide has winnowed the possibilities.

To be sure, when the DOL started work on this Guide in 2009, the clean energy economy was surging. The Obama administration was inaugurating the American Recovery and Redevelopment Act (ARRA), which included support for Renewable Energy projects and the Weatherization Assistance Program.
Since then, government funding for green programs has taken a hit. But private businesses have entered the green marketplace big time. The country’s future economic health demands energy efficiency, so it’s a pretty good bet that women can make significant careers in this industry.

We just have to hang in there.

• ASHRAE Level I Audit: Walk-Through analysis. This is a basic walk-through of your facility which aims to assess the energy efficiency of the facility by analyzing energy bills and briefly surveying the building. This audit may include identification of low-cost or no-cost energy retrofit measures, with an initial estimate of costs and savings. The level of detail in a level I audit is quite limited and is usually performed in preparation for a higher-level audit.

• ASHRAE Level II Audit: Includes a more detailed building survey and energy analysis than a level I audit, including a savings and cost analysis of all practical retrofit measures. The Level II Audit also lists potential capital improvements along with an initial judgment of potential costs and savings.  The ASHRAE Level III audit is required by NYC Local Law 87 of 2010.

• ASHRAE Level III Audit: Includes a detailed analysis of capital intensive modifications, involving more detailed field-data gathering and engineering analysis. The Level III Audit generally includes the use of sophisticated computer energy modeling tools, which aid in more precise predictions of energy savings.

Choosing a reputable firm to perform your audit can be a difficult and confusing process. There are many companies out there that will promise any number of results if you sign a contract with them. It is critical to do your homework when searching for the right company to assist you in reducing your energy costs and preparing your building or facility to succeed in the current and future business and energy climate.

• Ask for references for similar projects.
• Choose a firm that has extensive experience working with buildings or facilities similar to yours.
• Choose an independent firm whose interest is first and foremost energy efficiency and energy reduction.
•  Choose a firm that can handle your entire project from utility bill analysis to post-construction inspections and monitoring.
• Most importantly, choose a firm that does not value profit over quality.