Building Green in New York

By Cathleen Rineer-Garber

It wasn’t long ago that building “green” meant using recycled materials and installing energy efficient windows or a solar power system. While these traditional methods remain basic, green building today has a much broader definition and there are more products available.

Green materials in today’s market are more than recycled porcelain and materials manufactured from renewable resources. They range from safer paints and formaldehyde-free insulation to wood from environmentally sound sources, such as fast-growing bamboo.

Carmen Arguelles, President of Green Depot, in Brooklyn, N.Y., says green building materials are in great demand. “We have a small group of products—about 100—but that list is growing everyday.” The company is one of the largest suppliers of environmentally friendly products in New York (and the country for that matter).

One of the Green Depot’s most popular products is non-toxic paint. Most conventional paints contain high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that produce a breathable gas when applied. VOCs diminish air quality, and may be
detrimental to health. Alternative manufacturing techniques have allowed the development of low- and no-VOC paints
that release minimal (or no) VOC pollutants, and are virtually odor free.

These safe paints are popular with homeowners and residential and commercial builders, says Arguelles. Green Depot was founded last year with a focus on the commercial contractor. About six months ago they purchased Environmental Outfitters of NY (ECO NY), which is focused more on the residential side. Now, says Arguelles, Green Depot’s customer base is about half residential and half commercial. These numbers don’t surprise Sally Siddiqi, former executive director of the New York Chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). “The green movement is not new to New York,” says Siddiqi. In fact, she says, “New York (particularly New York City—with its enviable public transportation system and small living spaces) has always been green.”

For many years, says Siddiqi, there has been a small, but strong green movement in New York. But, she adds, it has always been kind of an underground movement. “In the past few years, green building has really taken off.” She attributes this to the energy crisis, a change in attitudes and the fact that green living has become popular.

Another reason for the change is modern technology. Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the molecular scale, is a hot topic in the scientific world, but it is also creating new possibilities for green building. Products ranging from paints that collect solar energy to heat-absorbing windows are already making their way into the construction industry. Predictions about windows that shift from transparent to opaque and environmentally friendly biocides for preserving wood, bode well for the future of the green building movement.

In New York City, engineers, architects, developers and builders of the city’s trademark skyscrapers are not waiting to see what technology brings. “We are now seeing big developments and skyscrapers that are using green materials and techniques,” she says. These include Seven World Trade Center, the Bank of America building, Goldman Sachs headquarters in Battery Park City and the Hearst Tower.

Seven World Trade Center and the Hearst Tower showcase environmental design; both were certified with the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™. The LEED system, established in 2000 by the USGBC, is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. The system grades buildings in energy and water consumption, indoor-air quality and use of renewable materials. As of February, 2006, 10 projects in New York State had been certified and nearly 200 other projects were in the process of applying for LEED certification, 98 of which were in the New York metropolitan area.

For workers in the Hearst Tower, this means breathing air that has been ventilated and filtered; coated windows that reduce heat by blocking solar radiation, while allowing in light; limited internal walls; radiant stone floors that generate heat in the winter and absorb heat in the summer; and a natural humidifying and chilling system courtesy of a three-story waterfall. This approach to green building goes far beyond the use of non-toxic, environmental friendly materials and has broadened the scope of green construction. “The green revolution is often a collaboration between the designers, mechanical engineers and engineers,” according to Siddiqi. Design professionals are working together to incorporate environmentally sound systems (such as greywater systems and electricity- generating wind turbines) and are redefining the concept of green materials. While these new approaches are welcomed, old- fashioned concepts—such as recycling—remain popular. In New York City, Wa$teMatch has taken recycling to a new level. Operated by the NYC Materials Exchange Development Program at the City College of New York, the program encourages the dismantling
of old buildings to recover materials for reuse. Since its inception in 1997, NY Wa$teMatch has diverted 25,000 tons of materials from landfills and helped participants realize $4 million in savings and revenues. Seeing commercial builders finally buy into the green materials concept is a welcome change for Arguelles, who has been in the business for two decades. “In the past, commercial builders haven’t gone as green as they could,” she explains. For example, commercial builders often opt for a formaldehyde-free insulation, but if they were truly interested in a green product, they would use a product such as Ultra Touch, a natural cotton insulation manufactured by Bonded Logic.

“Commercial contractors have resisted using green materials,” says Arguelles, because of a lack of understanding and the added cost and limited availability of products, but, as awareness increases and technology improves, these barriers are becoming less of a problem.

For residential builders, incorporating green building materials has become easier—mostly because homeowners want it, says Arguelles. This attitude has moved into the commercial world as well. “Fortune 500 companies have realized they must join the movement. Because of increasing demand and the willingness to spend money, live healthy and do the right thing, green has become mainstream.”