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At an Earth Day tabling event outside the Park Slope Food Coop, the PSFC Environmental Committee asks fellow coop members to share their shopping practices in the effort to minimize the use of plastic roll bags.

The Environmental Committee is co-sponsoring an great event on Monday June 24 at 7 PM at the Greenwood Baptist Church! Please join City Council Member Brad Lander, the Green Party of Brooklyn, Sierra Club, NRDC, No Impact Project, Citizens Committee for New York City, Sane Energy, NYC Friends of Clearwater, PlasticBagLaws.org and BagItNYC for an informative evening to learn about the massive environmental impact that single-use plastic bags have in NYC, and the NYC campaign to do something about it. This free event will take place at: Greenwood Baptist Church in Park Slope461 6th Street at the corner of 7th Avenue Speakers will include: Council Member Brad Lander, who will be introducing legislation on plastic bags Jennie Romer, who spear headed successful efforts in California to ban / restrict single use plastic bags and will discuss the various possible approaches (ban, fee, tax, etc) Colin Beavan (No Impact Man) Carl Arnold from the NY Green Party and the Sierra Club Peter Kostmaye...

With so many areas of the country suffering from drought this summer, we might want to think about ways to conserve water. The average lawn and many gardens use quite a bit of water, but there is no need to do without greenery in our backyards and community gardens. Think about growing plants that require less moisture. Treehugger has a nice slide show on would-be lawns that have been converted into gardens requiring minimum water . The Chicago parkway garden (above) is planted with native and drought tolerant plants that divert rainwater from sewers, provide food and forage for pollinators, and brighten up the neighborhood.

Why not save some of the rainwater for your garden? If you had a rainwater harvesting system you could do just that. On April 22, Grow NYC's Lenny Librizzi will be joining members of the Environmental Committee outside the Food Coop to celebrate Earth Day. He will have a rainwater harvesting system on display and will be glad to answer any questions you may have about it. Please join us on Sunday, April 22 between 9am and 3pm in front of the Park Slope Food Coop . In the meantime, learn more about Grow NYC's rainwater harvesting system , already in place in many community gardens all over the five boroughs as well as individual backyard gardens.

Well before electric air conditioning existed, some ancient builders had clever building designs that kept the interior of a building some 20 degrees cooler than the exterior—in a hot climate like India. Architect Manit Rastogi examined the stepwell structures developed in India over 1,500 years ago to provide protection from the desert heat. He used several ideas from the ancient buildings to design the the Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur, Rajasthan. In the hot weather, the building remains 20 degrees cooler inside than out—by drawing on Rajasthan's ancient architecture. Read more about this and see more beautiful images of Rastogi's fascinating design.

Wildpoldsried,  a village of 2,600 in Germany, produces 321% more energy than they use.  Employing a variety of methods including wind turbines and solar panels, the village is now in a position, both earth-friendly and enviable, of making money by doing the right thing. Currently they earn $5.7 million in revenue a year by selling their extra energy back to the national grid. They made their changes over a period of 14 years, and they did it without going into debt.  See their story and slide show here . For more information on this village's energy transformation, see this article , or do some googling. Wildpoldsried's experience and inspiration is now available not just online but in person.  The mayor visits other towns, giving advice on how to make changes.  Also, the village council offers energy tours and talks for people who want to visit the village to see for themselves. Don't know about you, but I've been waiting 40 years for a story like this.  On one ha...

They did it—can we? From the 11/29/11 NY Times: Seattle Bans Plastic Bags, and Sets a Charge for Paper By William Yardley SEATTLE — The City Council here voted unanimously on Monday to ban plastic grocery bags and charge a 5-cent fee on paper bags — and this time city leaders hope the ban actually takes effect. Three years ago, Seattle city officials became the first in the nation to approve a fee on paper and plastic bags, instituting a charge of 20 cents for each bag provided by many retail stores. The idea was to create a financial incentive to reduce pollution: the fee was supposed to prompt people to bring reusable bags with them to shop. But before the 2008 fee took effect, the plastic-bag industry led a petition drive that forced the issue onto a citywide ballot. In August 2009, in the midst of the recession and after the industry spent $1.4 million on the campaign, Seattle voters rejected the fee. “Twenty cents felt kind of punitive, especially for low-income folks,” said M...

Boulder, Colorado visionary Eric Lombardi has a plan to help that city and others move towards zero waste. His plan includes changing America's waste management system by shifting subsidies to green approaches, reducing the amount of waste generated by producers, funding appropriate recycling facilities and, ultimately, mandating recycling by law. Lombardi said the economics of recycling have never been better. "The value of recyclables is out of sight. It's now $150 a ton for the basket of goods I've been recycling for the past 20 years, and everyone I know in the business is looking at their landfills and incinerators and saying ‘why am I burying and burning $150 a ton?' It doesn't make sense." Learn more .

The recent heatwave may have convinced more naysayers that global warming is real. Those of us already convinced will be glad to hear of more energy efficient options, especially on a large scale. A recent CNN article reported that two-thirds of the one million rooftops in New York City are suitable for solar power. Right now, the city only gets a small amount of it's energy from solar. Increasing our solar energy use would not only decrease the amount of pollution our energy use generates, but reduce the stress on our energy grid, which is always a worry, especially in times of extreme heat. Consider also that once the initial installation of solar panels is made, the energy itself is free. Solar panels can be used on individual homes as well as larger buildings. Learn more about solar energy options for New York City.