Energy Efficiency for Buildings - NYC - Community Environmental Center

Epoch Times Profiles Richard Cherry

Alexis Greene — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:43:29 +0000

This is New York: Richard Cherry, Engrossed in Solving Problems
By Amelia Pang, Epoch Times | May 3, 2013

NEW YORK—When they were kids, Richard Cherry and his best friend used to dream of becoming lawyers. They would sit on the steps of his friend’s house in east Brooklyn and try to find simple solutions to complicated problems.

Little did Cherry know at the time that one day he would work for the Pentagon, and then stumble upon urban environmental sustainability before it became a mainstream concern.

Although Cherry, 70, graduated with a philosophy degree from Cornell and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his first job was as a foreign policy analyst at the Pentagon.

In the 1960s, during the Cold War, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was looking for fresh ideas. “I was hired as a new mind that had never done anything with foreign policy, to come and think bright thoughts about foreign policy,” Cherry said.

During two years at the Pentagon, Cherry’s work varied from helping to curb nuclear proliferation to planning who the ambassador should have dinner with in Britain.

“Before I left, they drained everything out of my brain,” he said, adding that overall Washington had been a frustrating experience.

“Sometimes just being bright isn’t good enough. People were very resistant to me,” he said.

After leaving foreign policy, Cherry worked for the U.S. Court of Appeals, before getting hired as a lawyer for a major Wall Street firm.

“I loved solving problems. Somewhere as a kid I must have got the idea that law was the way to [solve problems]. But as I found out, law mainly consists of drafting papers,” he said.

“You don’t work that much with people. You work with corporations,” he said. “That is one of the things that was missing in law practice.”

“Other lawyers there got very excited about working in a multimillion-dollar building, even though we were just drafting papers,” he said. “That was not exciting for me.”

One day at the office, the Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) came in asking for discounted assistance with some legal issues, and Cherry’s firm assigned him to take on the work. Initially, he thought that it would be temporary, and that he would return to his previous work in two years’ time.

“As you can see, I still haven’t found my way back yet,” Cherry said.

Now Cherry says he enjoys solving intellectual challenges that directly deal with interpersonal relationships in the real world.

Cherry spent over 20 years at the UAC, “doing things the city had never done before.” He works with community groups, creating affordable housing for the needy.

“Government used to not fund rehabilitation housing, only new developments,” he said. “I led the way in getting [the need for] the rehabilitation of housing understood.”

“Where there is a will, there is a way. You can make it happen even if it’s never been done before,” he said. “But you need to understand that fate can change plans, and you need to be responsive.”

Due to a chain of events, the UAC board of directors decided to dissolve the coalition at a time when Cherry was the acting president.

“I was 50 years old then and trying to figure out what to do next with my life,” he said.

Starting Over at Age 50

Cherry got involved in environmental work at first more to have a job than out of interest.

“I just needed a job,” he joked. As it turned out, the job was exactly the way to solve more problems.

In 1994, Cherry founded the Community Environmental Center (CEC), a nonprofit that focuses on urban environmental issues. Cherry was in his early 50s at the time.

“It was scary. It was really starting over with things I had never done before,” he said. “I wasn’t sure whether it would last or whether we could be successful, but a brave group of 18 people came with me from the coalition.”

For the first five years, prior to receiving government funding, it was very difficult to accomplish any initiatives at the CEC, he said.

Twenty years ago, caring about the environment used to mean dealing with a forest or a jungle, Cherry said. “I became environmental about New York at a time when no one thought of urban nature.”

“We were one of the first organizations to focus on environmental issues in the city,” he said.

After about five years, the government began to recognize CEC’s work and provide funding. In 2009, CEC installed the first energy-efficient solar hot water systems in multifamily buildings in Brooklyn.

From 1994 to 2011, CEC retrofitted 17,752 housing units through New York state’s Weatherization Assistance Program, which provides financial assistance to needy households to improve energy efficiency using advanced technologies. The CEC weatherized a total of 9,611 low-income family homes.

A Warm Work Environment

Using the stimulus money the organization received, Cherry hired and trained unemployed New Yorkers.

“I heard them say it gave them hope. … That’s the most exciting thing to see,” he said.

The CEC has not only received the 2013 Environmental Quality Award, but has also made it onto Crain’s 50 Best Places to Work in NYC in 2010.

“I think I’ve proven here that one can be caring about people and still be successful,” he said.

“I grew up in a time when there was peace—people weren’t fighting everywhere in the world, and there was lots of hope,” Cherry added.

“As young people, we grew up feeling that if we did our homework and we were good people, we would succeed,” Cherry said. “We didn’t have to worry about anything else.”

“I really wish things could turn around so that people who are starting out now can feel that help that I grew up with.”

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Bronx Girl Cheers On the EcoHouse

Alexis Greene — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:37:18 +0000

Bronx students visit the EcoHouse

This week the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse is in the Bronx. In the Soundview neighborhood of the South Central Bronx, to be exact, opposite Holy Cross School at 620 Thieriot Avenue. It’s Bronx Week, after all – a celebration of “The Best of the Bronx” – and the EcoHouse will be there through May 22 to help local residents learn about saving energy in their homes and apartments, and protecting the environment.

Noëlle Santos, Human Resources Manager for Community Environmental Center (CEC), grew up in Soundview.

“I had a great childhood,” Noëlle recalls, talking one spring morning in the conference room at CEC’s offices in Queens.

She grew up on Thieriot Avenue, in fact, across the street from the Monroe Houses. Her family was one of the few that lived in a privately owned building, surrounded by public housing developments. She relished the greenery in nearby Soundview Park and liked going to school (including Holy Cross School, for one year). She appreciated the discipline.

“It was a great upbringing, despite the challenges of the environment,” she says. “I had dedicated teachers, like-minded friends and involved parents. Not everyone was so fortunate. You could easily become a negative statistic. But I was exposed to greater possibilities and taught to balance things.” Then this attractive, personable woman laughs. “I knew I needed to get good grades or my butt was going to get whipped.”

Through a combination of what Noëlle calls “my support system” and “personal will,” she got a day job after high school and attended Lehman College at night, graduating with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. There followed an accounting position in the Human Resources department of the East Side House Settlement, on Alexander Avenue, where Noëlle developed her passion for Human Resources work. She returned to Lehman to earn a Master’s in Human Resources Management.

Noëlle’s family still has a presence in Soundview, where they own and run daycare centers and after-school programs for youngsters. A few years ago, Noëlle herself returned there to live, after a fire destroyed her apartment in Parkchester.

“The neighborhood has changed,” Noelle notes sadly. Although the neighborhood around Holy Cross School and the EcoHouse is dotted with well-kept houses and pleasant streets, Noëlle reports that things are not as great as when she was growing up. A number of schools have vanished, and unemployment and crime are up. “There’s nothing for kids to do there now,” she observes.

So she was especially pleased to learn that Community Environmental Center was bringing its free, mobile EcoHouse to her neighborhood.

Designed and built by CEC in 2012, the EcoHouse looks, on the outside, like a red-brick house on wheels. Inside are hands-on exhibits about how to keep your home or apartment energy efficient. There’s a lighting display that shows how much money you save by using energy-efficient bulbs, and a shower that you can actually walk into (and not get wet). CEC’s expert guides talk about the energy-efficient boiler, wall insulation and energy-efficient appliances.

“You have to make people proud of where they live,” says Noelle. “And helping people learn about their homes, and how to take care of them and save energy and save money, is a wonderful way to start.”

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The EcoHouse on News 12 The Bronx

webmaster — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:43:28 +0000

News 12 The Bronx visits the EcoHouse in Soundview – Click through to view the feature on News 12′s website, for a firsthand look through the EcoHouse’s interactive exhibits.

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EcoHouse Earth Day

Katherine Gloede — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:10:42 +0000

Students enjoying the EcoHouse

Over the next week, millions worldwide will celebrate Mother Nature and protecting our planet for Earth Week. The Earth Day Network has named this year’s theme climate change, and with that in mind the Community Environmental Center will celebrate EcoHouse Earth Day with a day-long event for all ages at Foley Square in downtown Manhattan on Monday, April 22nd.

EcoHouse Earth Day will feature tours of the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse, eco-friendly painting of Earth Day banners, an interactive electricity demonstration, and more. Educators are invited to bring their classes for a morning or afternoon visit filled with educational crafts and games appropriate for any grade level. Students will learn the basics of energy efficiency and conservation through an EcoHouse tour, which allows visitors to see behind the walls and beneath the floors of a model home, and teaches how to think sustainably and why it’s so important to conserve our natural resources.

From 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM EcoHouse Earth Day will be open to the public, and visitors will be able to tour the EcoHouse, participate in family-friendly activities, and learn the many ways to go green this spring from organizations such as Build it Green!NYC and Green Mountain Energy.

Community Environmental Center invites everyone to join us for this unique celebration about preserving our resources and limiting the effects of climate change through the simple choices we make each day. EcoHouse Earth Day is free for all visitors.

For more information and to sign your class up for an EcoHouse Earth Day visit, contact Katherine Gloede at kgloede@cecenter.org or by calling (718) 784-1444 ext. 181. To learn more about the EcoHouse and see our current location and hours, visit us online at www.cecenter.org/ecohouse or like us on Facebook: EcoHouse NYC.

We hope to see you for EcoHouse Earth Day!

Katherine Gloede is the Project Manager for the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse

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Teaching Young People to Save Energy

Alexis Greene — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:06:44 +0000

Students crowd around the EcoHouse in Brooklyn
Brooklyn students study the light display at the EcoHouse
The 8th-graders from Brooklyn’s I.S. 364 sat at Community Environmental Center’s EcoHouse light display, mesmerized. They gazed at compact fluorescent lights side-by-side with LEDs, side-by-side with an incandescent bulb. Flip a switch, and a meter revealed how much electricity each bulb used. “My favorite part about the EcoHouse,” one boy later wrote, “is when they showed us the energy-saving light bulbs and the ones that use more energy, even though they aren’t any brighter.”

The nonprofit Community Environmental Center (CEC), a Queens nonprofit that has brought energy efficiency to the city’s residential buildings and homes for 20 years, believes that teaching people to save energy on their own is essential.

And so in 2012, CEC designed and built the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse. Resembling a red-brick house-on-wheels outside, inside it’s a 21st-century environmental classroom: there’s a shower you can walk into, to compare the rates at which a low-flow shower head and the old-fashioned kind provide water; there’s an energy-efficient heating system, a display comparing three kinds of insulation (including shredded denim) – and much more.

“’Energy-saving’ is pretty important in these days of climate change,” says Richard Cherry, CEC’s president. “Especially in a city like New York, with nearly 1 million buildings. After all, buildings and homes use at least 1/3 of the energy consumed in the United States.”

“What’s really terrific,” says Cherry, “is the eagerness that young people bring to the EcoHouse. They are fascinated by the light exhibit, by the insulation display, the water-conservation display. And they are the ones who, when they grow up, will really have to deal with the effects of climate change.”

Of the more than 4,000 visitors that have come to the EcoHouse since it began traveling around New York City in October 2012, the majority have been students from the city’s public schools, especially schools with dedicated environmental education programs.

In January and February 2013, the EcoHouse was co-hosted by I.S. 204 Oliver W. Holmes in Queens, which includes The Magnet School for Living Green in a Global Society. The I.S. 204 Magnet theme involves energy conservation, reducing consumption and practicing sustainability.

Says Yvonne Leimsider, I.S. 204’s Principal, “The ideas behind ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ should be used everywhere in our homes. They should guide our choice of light bulbs; heating and cooling systems; the materials we use to insulate the walls; the cleaning products we buy. So the EcoHouse is a terrific tool for bringing these ideas to life for our students.”

Indeed, the principles that guide I.S. 204’s Magnet curriculum also guide the EcoHouse. Basically, as students learn more about conserving energy, they will practice saving energy in their daily lives and know the value of developing alternative resources such as sun and wind and biofuels.

Habits are set early, and it’s never too soon for students to learn how their actions, for good or ill, can affect the health of our planet.

From April 10 through April 23, the EcoHouse will be at Foley Square in lower Manhattan. To become a corporate sponsor for the EcoHouse, please contact Alexis Greene: agreene@cecenter.org.

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Gillibrand Hails Queens Non-Profits As Environmental Champions

Alexis Greene — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:07:50 +0000

After Gillibrand Nomination, Community Environmental Center and the American Littoral Society Win Prestigious Environmental Award

Long Island City, NY – March 21 – The Community Environmental Center (CEC) is pleased to announce that it will receive the 2013 Environmental Quality Award, along with the American Littoral Society. Nominated by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, both non-profits will receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s prestigious honor for their commitment and significant contributions to greening the city.

“I congratulate these outstanding Queens groups for their dedication to creating a cleaner New York,” said Senator Gillibrand. “From improving the city’s quality of life, to creating new local green jobs, these environmental champions will help lead the way towards a green energy future for our city and our country.”

“Community Environmental Center is honored to receive this award from the EPA and we want to thank our great Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, for nominating us,” said Richard Cherry, President of the Community Environmental Center. “Community Environmental Center has been bringing energy efficiency to New York City residents for nearly 20 years. We deeply believe that there is a need to keep fighting the effects of climate change by making our buildings and homes sustainable. We all have an enormous challenge ahead of us, but with help from organizations such as the EPA and from our elected officials, if we work together, we can protect this earth for our children to live on. Our motto is: ‘Helping to save our fragile earth, one building at a time.’”

“As stewards and advocates for Jamaica Bay and New York’s coastal environment we greatly appreciated the nomination from Senator Gillibrand and are thrilled that we are being recognized for our restoration and educational work,” said Don Riepe, Director of the American Littoral Society’s Northeast Chapter. “I and my staff look forward to receiving the award on April 19th.”

Established in 1994, the Community Environmental Center is a non-profit leader in the growing field of energy efficiency. Located in Long Island City, Queens and serving the entire New York Metropolitan Area, CEC has been a major provider of construction and technical services for green buildings, and a proponent of green living and working conditions, especially for underserved populations. CEC recently unveiled EcoHouse, a mobile environmental learning center showcasing energy efficiency building technologies that travels to schools and community events. From 1994 to 2011, CEC retrofitted 17,752 housing units through New York State’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). In 2003, CEC founded Solar One, NYC’s first solar-powered Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center; and, in 2005, Build It Green!NYC, NYC’s first not-for-profit program committed to salvaging building materials and furnishings.

Headquartered in New Jersey with a northeast chapter located in Broad Channel, Queens, the American Littoral Society has promoted the study and conservation of marine life and habitat and empowered citizens to care for the coast through advocacy, conservation, and education since 1961. Following Hurricane Sandy, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation commissioned the Society to coordinate a regional assessment to evaluate environmental impacts the storm had on coastal habitats and its species. The resulting study identified both region wide impacts, changes to specific habitats, and a focus on protecting conservation areas such as national wildlife refuges.

Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations that have improved the environment and public health in EPA Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and seven federally-recognized Indian Nations), will be formally presented to New York organizations in a ceremony on Friday, April 19th at the EPA Regional Headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
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The EcoHouse at Inwood Hill Park

Alexis Greene — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:14:39 +0000

Youngsters explore the lighting exhibit at the EcoHouse
When Hurricane Sandy struck last October, the water rose 4 ½ feet inside the Inwood Hill Nature Center, at Inwood Hill Park in Northern Manhattan. Exhibits were destroyed, and the heating system was ruined. The building is still closed.

That’s where the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse comes in. At the suggestion of the City of New York Parks and Recreation, the EcoHouse – a free, mobile, environmental exhibit — will be at Inwood Hill Park from March 16 through April 5, right across from the Nature Center near the entrance at 218th Street and Indian Road. Co-hosted by the Nature Center, the EcoHouse will be open to school groups M-F, 10am – 3pm, and open to the general public M-F, 3pm – 5pm and Saturday, 11:00am – 4pm.

“The Community Environmental Center EcoHouse is a terrific tool for teaching all of us about saving energy in our homes and protecting the environment,” says CEC’s founder and president, Richard Cherry. “It’s really a 21st-century classroom. We hope the EcoHouse will draw visitors and help revitalize this very special park in early spring.”

The 196-acre Inwood Hill Park is one of the oldest areas of New York City, according to the City of New York Parks and Recreation web site. Caves, valleys and ridges were formed by shifting glaciers, and archeologists date human settlement in the area to prehistoric times.

Community Environmental Center (CEC), the Queens nonprofit that brings energy efficiency to residential buildings and homes throughout New York City, designed and built the EcoHouse in 2012 and takes it to sites all over Gotham. Outside it resembles a red-brick house; inside are exhibits about conserving water, saving electricity, heating and cooling a home — and much more.

“Energy efficiency really depends on people,” says CEC’s Cherry. “We can insulate buildings, but unless the people who live in them understand why it’s vital to use energy-efficient light bulbs or conserve water – then we haven’t really done our job. That’s the mission of the EcoHouse.”

Fun as well as educational, the EcoHouse is an ideal experience for both youngsters and their parents. Wall signs explain all the displays, but to really get the full EcoHouse effect, listen to CEC’s expert guides, or bring your cell or smart phone and listen to the audio guide.

For more information about how to visit the EcoHouse at Inwood Hill Park, or to arrange a group tour, contact Katherine Gloede, kgloede@cecenter.org. Press inquiries, please contact Alexis Greene, agreene@cecenter.org and/or 718-784-1444, ext. 156.

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Environmental ed at the EcoHouse

Alexis Greene — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:24:08 +0000

Richard Cherry, President of Community Environmental Center, and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer (top row, center) at the EcoHouse March 7
Educating young people about saving energy and protecting the environment was the focus of Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer’s March 7 press conference at the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse in Queens.

Joining the Council Member at the EcoHouse in Dutch Kills Playground were Richard Cherry, the founder and president of Community Environmental Center (CEC); Principal Yvonne Leimsider of I.S.204 Oliver W. Holmes; I.S. 204 parents; and students from the I.S. 204 Green Team, such as Sangida Bagum (above), who talked about what protecting the environment means to her.

The Council Member, a long-time advocate for the public schools, libraries and other cultural institutions in his District 26, praised the educators of I.S. 204 for their innovative curriculum, which is dedicated to teaching about sustainability. “It’s an extraordinary school,” he said, “doing wonderful things.” He congratulated the collaboration that brought I.S. 204 and the EcoHouse together.

“This is what the EcoHouse is all about,” said CEC’s Cherry, smiling at the assembled young people. “It’s about young people learning how their home works – how they can save energy simply by turning off a light – and how turning off that light helps lessen the effects of the climate change that is causing all this havoc with our weather.”

Designed and built in 2012 by Community Environmental Center, the EcoHouse resembles a house on wheels. But inside it’s a 21st-century environmental classroom, with displays about almost everything that helps a home save energy: cellulose insulation, cfl and LED bulbs, a low-flow shower head, a solar panel – and much more.

The Community Environmental Center EcoHouse is supported in part by funds from NYSERDA. On March 17, the EcoHouse will open at Inwood Hill Park, in upper Manhattan, and will remain there until April 6, when it will move to Foley Square in lower Manhattan for Earth Day.

For more information about the EcoHouse please contact Alexis Greene, 718-784-1444, ext. 156.

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Still Flooded Out

Alexis Greene — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:08:30 +0000

Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of Staten Island
Allison hasn’t been able to live in her home for four months.

Four months ago, Hurricane Sandy swept the ocean into the first floor of Allison’s house in Staten Island. She stood in her living room and the water came up to her hips.

“I was flooded out,” she said simply during a recent phone conversation. The water tank was ruined. The boiler had to be replaced. Her bathroom was a wreck.

“This was the ocean,” she said. “It was terrifying, really, when you think about it. Nobody can stand up to it.”

Some of the damage to Allison’s home has been repaired, at great cost. But the biggest barrier to moving back into her house is mold. When her water-logged interior walls were removed, lo and behold there was mold on the inside of the exterior walls, and nobody has been able to get rid of it.

“I did get someone to scrub the mold and treat it,” Allison says. But the work did not cure the problem.

Still, displaced though Allison is, she is thankful that she, at least, survived. “Some of my neighbors died down there,” she said. “Others – they don’t even have the foundation to their home.”

She lives in a hotel now and keeps trying to find an organization, or some people, who can fix her house and make it habitable once again. “I think there’s just too many people in need,” she said.

Community Environmental Center is working with NYSERDA’s EmPpower NY program to assist with post-Sandy relief efforts for home owners in Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaways. CEC is also working with the Mayor’s Mold Remediation Program. If you need help, email Carol Wiggins, cwiggins@cecenter.org to find out if you qualify for assistance, or call her at 718-784-1444, M-F.

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City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer to Visit the EcoHouse March 7

Alexis Greene — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:07:29 +0000

The Community Environmental Center EcoHouse: a 21st-century environmental classroom

Queens, NY – February 26 – Community Environmental Center (CEC) and I.S. 204 Oliver W. Holmes announce that City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer will speak at a press conference for the Community Environmental Center EcoHouse at Dutch Kills Playground in Long Island City, to highlight the value of teaching young people about protecting the environment.

DATE: March 7, 2013
TIME: 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
WHERE: Dutch Kills Playground. Entrance at 37th Ave. between Crescent and 28th Streets, Long Island City, Queens.
SPEAKERS: City Council Member Van Bramer; Richard Cherry, President, CEC; Yvonne Leimsider, Principal, I.S. 204.
EVENT: EcoHouse tour with I.S. 204 students and parents’ group. Opportunity to speak with the Council Member, Principal Leimsider, Richard Cherry, students and parents.

Designed and built in 2012 by Community Environmental Center, the EcoHouse resembles a house on wheels. But inside it’s a 21st-century environmental classroom. There are displays about almost everything that makes a home work: a heating system, lighting, insulation. There’s an interactive shower that shows how much water a traditional shower head uses, and how much a low-flow shower head saves. A lighting display shows how much electricity you use when you switch on a light.

Teaching young people to understand how they can save energy in their home is the first step toward educating them to respect and protect the environment. That is the mission of the EcoHouse.

For more information about the March 7 press conference or the EcoHouse, please contact Alexis Greene, agreene@cecenter.org; 718-784-1444, ext. 156, or 646-382-7047.
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