White Plains is Getting Greener (Part 2)

White Plains is getting greener with several new sustainable projects that are in the works.

Healthy Lawns

Rescue Nature’s Nutrients, a White Plains non-profit organization, will work with the City to educate local landscapers on grass-cycling. The training session will be held on March 9 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the White Plains Recreation Building, at 85 Gedney Way. Landscapers who do business or want to do business in White Plains are invited to attend. Click for more information.

Instead of having landscapers leave grass clippings in a curbside bag for the City to take to the recycling center, they would finely chop the grass using a blade attachment and leave the clippings on the lawns. According to Pasquale, an attachment can cost around $30. 

Nancy Giges, a master gardener at the Cornell Cooperative Extension who started the grassroots organization, hopes that White Plains will move onto mulching their leaves as well, like Irvington and Bedford.

“I just thought this would be a great thing to do in White Plains,” said Giges. “It has an environmental and economic benefit. It’s a benefit to the environment because it puts nitrogen and nutrients back into the soil. I’ve been doing this for three years and I haven’t had to use fertilizer. If the City doesn’t have to come and pick up a lot of stuff, it will save the taxpayer’s money.”

Giges says she hopes that landscapers will talk with their customers about grass-cycling, and that the non-profit will eventually hold workshops for homeowners. Homeowner can also buy attachments for their lawnmowers.

Those who would like to join the grassroots organization can contact NancyGiges@aol.com.

“We want to encourage everyone to get on board,” said Giges. “Once someone learns about it and they see how easy it is, that they don’t have to bag it and haul it to the street, they can’t believe they haven’t been doing it all along.”

Freecycling

The Take-It-Or-Leave-It (TILI) Shed will open for its second season, from April through October, and is looking for volunteers.

The TILI Shed is a place where you can leave working unwanted items instead of throwing them away, and pick up something you can use that you neighbor no longer needs. The shed, a collaboration between Econeighbors and the City, is located at the Gedney Recycling Facility at 87 Gedney Way.

Click here for more information and to sign up to volunteer for the TILI Shed.

Green Building

Real Estate owners are also greening their buildings. , a division of SL Green Realty Corp. received Gold LEED Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council earlier this year for their building at 360 Hamilton Ave., a 12-story 384,000 sq. ft. office building.

“Receiving the LEED Certification at 360 Hamilton Avenue is an testament to our overall sustainability program, and is reflective of our ongoing commitment to environmental initiatives throughout our entire portfolio,” said Jay Black, SL Green Director of Sustainability.

“Sustainability has become a strong tool for Reckson, driving sound business practices from reducing costs to providing healthier work environments for our Tenant's.  Additionally, it is important for Reckson to continue to play a leading role within the community, sharing our success and experiences as an example for others to use toward the development of their sustainable programs."

The building at 360 Hamilton increased its recycling by 50 percent, reduced energy by 25 percent and water by 20 percent. It has also purchased energy credits for 100 percent of the buildings annual energy use to support the development of hydro, wind and solar energy.

The building also received a LEED-Commercial Interiors Gold Certification, since it reduced 25 percent of its energy consumption, and diverted 75 percent of its construction waste from landfills. 

Are you helping to green White Plains? Tell us in the comments!

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