NEW YORK BUILDINGS “GO GREEN”

New York City has lots and lots of buildings, and many people live there—almost 8 million people! Human beings take a lot of things from the earth, and they also put a lot of things back into it, including things that pollute the air or use up natural resources.

“Eco-friendly,” or “green” buildings in New York City are good for the environment. “Green” living helps save natural resources, makes the air cleaner, and helps us breathe better. We spend about 90 percent of our day indoors, where the air quality can actually be much worse than it is outside. Certain buildings have more access to natural daylight, appliances that use less energy, and encourage people to use environmentally friendly practices. Green buildings give the people who live in them cleaner air to breathe, and some even have sensors that turn lights on and off when you walk into or leave a room. The buildings also capture and reuse rainwater.

The Albanese Organization built the first green residential building in North America in 2003. It is called the Solaire, and is located in Battery Park City. Now, they are building another new green building in Battery Park City called the Visionaire, which is so environmentally friendly that it is being called America’s “greenest” high-rise building.

The building cleans and reuses water, using 50% less water than a typical building. Some of the building’s electricity is powered by the sun, and the fresh air is filtered. The buildings themselves were all built using recycled materials from other construction projects, so that those materials do not just end up in the garbage. Skanska USA, a construction company that is the largest builder of parks and buildings in New York, takes all the ground-up rock from their city construction projects and brings it in to recycling yards so they can use it in other places – as of today they are using it to build Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is an environmentally friendly park, which collects and reuses rainwater and uses it to water the trees and plants in the park’s many gardens. The cars that the park’s police officers use were built with recycled wood and are powered by the sun.

It costs more for companies to make these buildings, so the people who live in them have to pay more, too. But reduced energy bills help you save money. And if you have allergies, you may end up saving on doctors’ bills, too, since these buildings are healthier to live in.

“I have a history of asthma and I am very sensitive to the smells and bacteria in the air,” said a Visionaire resident, Rod McCowan, 52. “The air is fresh and pure. I can tell I’m breathing better.”