Entries by Steven Schleider

Green Roofs are Soaring: Part II

Having explored the many benefits of installing a green roof, now we’ll explore some of the complications, expenses and long-term commitments when you choose to turn an ugly, underused part of a building’s real estate into a major asset. Green roofs are a costly undertaking as you can’t simply buy some plants, put them in […]

Green Roofs are Soaring: Part I

You’ve maximized your building’s energy efficiency. Retrofitted the lighting. Upgraded HVAC. Switched to green cleaning products. Have a top-notch recycling program. You’re good. You’re green. Nope. As New Yorkers, we are disinclined to look up, but if you want to be part of the next, great green building revolution, look to your roof. Green roofs […]

NYC Great White Sharks: Sharp Teeth and a Lot of Attitude

Recently, the Discovery Channel went fearlessly into its annual Shark Week. This year’s line-up included a one hour show: “Sharks and The City: New York”, narrated by none other than Chris Noth, Mr. Big from Sex and the City. There was also a special appearance by singer Seal who becomes a shark snack. (You can’t […]

Los Angeles Premieres New Street Sealant. Cool!

In the never ending quest for sustainability, Los Angeles is experimenting with sealing their hottest streets with a new asphalt coating created to increase solar reflectivity and, thereby, lower street temperatures. Los Angeles, like New York City, suffers from the Urban Heat Island Effect, wherein densely populated and built environments are as much as 20 […]

Cats are the New Green

There are house cats, stray cats, cartoon cats, historic cats, film cats and famous cats, but we don’t hear much about working cats, at least since ancient days when they were employed to prevent grain from being eaten by rodents. According to the research journal Science, those days were, give or take, 12,000 years ago. […]

159 Years Later, Olmsted & Vaux Were Right about Central Park

In 2000, Edward Rutherfurd wrote an epic book entitled “New York: The Novel.” Beginning with the early settlement of the city, it covered centuries of expansion and development through the eyes of fictional families interwoven with historical figures. I found the beginning of the book to be particularly interesting as it described the wilderness that […]

A Little Solution to 88 Tons of Plastic Bags

Oh those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags! While inroads have been made, such as recycling and reuse programs (New York, Maine) and banning their use (California, Hawaii), plastic grocery/take-out bags have a large presence in our lives. Every year, 88 million tons of them are manufactured. And, every year, they continue to strain landfills and harm […]

And We’re Solarizing!

More than a year ago, I wrote: “To lay the foundation for a city whose future will be considerably more sustainable, green cannot be limited to luxury residential developments, nor Class A office buildings. The future must also embrace, encourage and fund sustainable initiatives in lower income areas of New York.” I went on to […]

Well, WELL. A new certification.

I’ve been the only commercial real estate appraiser in NYC with a LEED-AP BD+C designation for a long time. Taking that course was one of my biggest professional challenges. The language easily understood by architects, engineers and even interior designers, was foreign and difficult for me. LEED is challenging, as it should be to be […]

Green Certification on the Wane?

Green projects are, pardon the pun, as healthy as ever in the marketplace. No longer a trend, they’ve reached their final destination as a key component of new commercial construction, retrofits and institutional projects. What may be on the wane – unless it isn’t – is not green, but certifications, at least in the U.S. […]