Solar Power

It’s not the type of green building legal news we’ve been reporting over at GRELJ recently, but New York City, DASNY, and the borough of Staten Island broke ground last week on a new five-story state Supreme Court building for Richmond County. The $220 million project will rise in the St. George section on the site of a former municipal parking lot and should be completed sometime in 2012. As an attorney who has appeared out on Staten Island, I can attest that the project is sorely needed to consolidate the borough’s outdated court facilities that are currently spread out across separate buildings; the new courthouse will include Supreme Court, criminal court, and jury assembly space.

The Southampton Town Board heard proposals earlier this week to amend a new law that will require all new pool heaters to be solar-powered. The law is facing opposition from the Northeastern Pool & Spa Association and the Long Island Pool & Spa Association (”LIPSA”), industry groups that represent pool equipment manufacturers and dealers. Although it would be the first such law on Long Island, a handful of municipalities nationwide have already adopted similar laws.

John Tortorella, one of the largest swimming pool contractors in Southampton, praised the concept as “a good idea,” but also cautioned that “all hell will break loose” if the law is enacted as currently drafted, requiring customers to incur thousands of dollars in additional plumbing and infrastructure costs.

As Racked reports that American Apparel is close to opening its twentieth store in New York City, we'll note that the retailer's Hell's Kitchen outlet is currently in pursuit of an unspecified level of LEED for Commercial Interiors certification. The store at 610 9th Avenue will soon by joined by other iterations at 429 Broadway (Broadway and Howard) and 2103 Broadway (at 73rd Street). No word on whether the retailer's 19 other New York City area outlets will also implement sustainable features or pursue a LEED rating.

As part of Major League Baseball’s efforts to green this year’s All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium (which the American League won last night in 15 innings), the red carpet that covered 95,000 square feet of Sixth Avenue yesterday from 40th through 58th Streets during the All-Star Red Carpet Parade was manufactured by Bentley Prince Street from 100 percent recycled fiber content. Bentley, whose California manufacturing facility holds a LEED-EB rating from USGBC, used 100 percent renewable electricity to manufacture the carpet through its on-site solar array, coupled with the purchase of Green-e-certified RECs. According to Bentley, its carpet manufacturing process avoids the use of 300 pounds of petroleum-based fiber and 162,000 gallons of water. The company also bought 480,000 pounds of verified carbon emissions reduction credits from aggregators that include Native Energy, Blue Source, and 3 Degrees. Bentley will now recycle all 45,000 pounds of the carpet in connection with its ReEntry 2.0 reclamation program.