How Are Your Green Pledges Going?

Chet Heald, District 1 Park Supervisor, Manhattan

In March 2011, Parks launched the Green Pledge Campaign to provide a forum for sharing and inspiring sustainable practice among staff. As part of Parks’ first ever “Tune-up Week” this week, in which agency divisions are gearing up for the summer season by weatherizing buildings, cleaning and changing air conditioning filters, attending sustainability trainings, and installing energy efficient equipment, we follow-up with a few of the 1,100 Parkies who have pledged.

Pledge Profile: Chet Heald, District 1 Park Supervisor, Manhattan
Chet’s Pledge: I pledge to walk and use my bike when making rounds in my district and to limit the use of my truck.
Q: How is your pledge going?
A: I walk or bike 90% of the time when making rounds in Lower Manhattan. Doing so is good for the environment, my health, and gives me a better look at my 34 properties. My staff is amazed that it’s sometimes faster to walk or bike than it is to drive when visiting certain parks. In addition, it’s often much easier to inspect Greenstreets on a bike since they can be hard to get to by car.
Q: What challenges have you faced in your pledge implementation?
A: Bad weather makes biking and walking challenging. When I was in Queens, it was hard to bike because my properties were so spread out.

Pledge Profile: Gene Fowler, Von King Cultural Arts Center Manager, Brooklyn
Gene’s Pledge: I pledge to reduce energy use at the Von King Center and Park.
Q: How is your pledge going?
A: Really well so far. One of the first things I did when I got here was to replace the light bulbs. This building is energy hungry - we do a lot of performances, and there are a ton of lights, especially in the auditorium. We had those huge 300-watt bulbs, and that’s the first thing I saw and thought, “We can do better than this.” So, I went out and bought 50 socket extenders and swapped out the 300-watt bulbs with 15-watt bulbs. The lumens are the same, but our estimate is about $7,000 in savings per year from the switch. And in our kitchen, we cleaned the coils under the two freezers and two refrigerators to improve their efficiency.
Q: What challenges have you faced in your pledge implementation?
A: There have been some challenges with some of the light fixtures and with the heating and cooling systems, but Capital Projects will be conducting a major overhaul of the facility, and I’m sure that will lead to more energy efficiency.

Pledge Profile: Michael Shipman, Consultant Project Manager, Queens
Michael’s Pledge: I pledge to revise consultant standards for proposals to exclude plastic covers and binding, in an effort to reduce the amount of non-recyclable materials submitted.
Q: How is your pledge going?
A: I have inserted the following text in all Requests for Proposals (RFPs) sent to our construction supervision consultants: “In line with NYC Parks’ Sustainable Parks initiative, Parks requests that proposals no longer contain plastic, since any plastic other than bottles or jugs is not recyclable in the City of New York. Acceptable binding alternatives include stapling or using a binding clip.”
Q: What challenges have you faced in your pledge implementation?
A: After I instituted this change, some firms still submitted plastic covers and binding. At that point I contacted each firm that did not abide by the changes to explain the new standard. The firms seem to have listened and are submitting proposals on double-sided paper with binding clips or staples.

Pledge Profile: Jessica Kratz, Greenbelt Nature Center Coordinator, Staten Island
Jessica’s Pledge: I pledge to avoid driving on rainy spring evenings, when amphibians travel to vernal pools to breed.
Q: How is your pledge going?
A: I have shared my pledge with others. By telling other people, I feel like there is more pressure and desire to be accountable. It’s very important; on rainy nights with temperatures above 42 degrees and little wind in March and April, frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians travel from their wintering sites in the uplands of Staten Island to the vernal pools for breeding. The rain helps keep their slimy skin moist. Some have been traveling these ancestral migration routes for hundreds of years, before there were any roads.
Q: What challenges have you faced in your pledge implementation?
A: Sometimes I can’t avoid traveling on rainy spring evenings. In those cases, I try to use different routes of travel that go along more major, densely populated roads and away from the vernal pools and ponds.

To learn more about the Green Pledge campaign and read the recently released 2012 Sustainable Parks Plan Progress Update, visit nyc.gov/parks and enter keyword: “Greening”

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“Better a broken promise than none at all.”

Mark Twain
(1835 – 1910)

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