Green Global Coalition Ties Two Schools For 2013 “Greenest School On Earth” Award

The Global Coalition For Green Schools has announced a tie of two winning schools – the Sing Yin Secondary School in Hong Kong, China, and the Waterbank School at Uaso Nyiro Primary in Laikipia, Kenya – for the 2013 Greenest School on Earth Award.

The coalition is an initiative of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, and the award was announced at the World Green Building Council Annual Congress.

The Sing Yin Secondary School in Hong Kong, China.

The Center for Green Schools said that the award’s goal is to “highlight a K-12 school that exemplifies how sustainability can be integrally woven into the infrastructure, culture, and curriculum of a school.”

The schools submitted for the award were evaluated for criteria, including: the efficient use of resources and reduced environmental impact; the enhanced quality of health and learning for students, teachers, and staff; and the emphasis on sustainability and resource-conservation education.

Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO, and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council, said during the announcement that the aim of the award is “to showcase a school’s commitment to sustainability.

“But when we sat down to review this year’s submissions, we felt that we had two schools whose environmental efforts, though very different, were extraordinary in both execution and achievement.”

The two winning schools were each awarded $5,000 to put toward a new or ongoing sustainability project.

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NYC Progressing In Retrofit Project To Replace 250,000 Conventional Street Lights With LEDs

Picking up the torch from the Bloomberg administration, New York City is proceeding with plans to retrofit the city’s 250,000 standard street lights with energy efficient LEDs (light-emitting diodes) by 2017.

Upcoming work will involve replacing about 24,400 lights along all major corridors including as the Belt Parkway, Grand Central Parkway, Cross Bronx Expressway, and other highways.

New York City replacing conventional necklace lighting on bridges with LEDs. Photo courtesy of the G4 Report: Your Guide to LED Lighting.

This will be included in the first phase of a three phase plan to replace the city’s standard “cobra head” high pressure sodium street lights across the five boroughs.

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New York City Expanding Municipal Recycling Service To Now Accept All Plastics, Even Toys

New York City selected the 30th Street Pier in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, as the location for a new state-of-the-art recycling facility to be built and operated by Sims Municipal Recycling. The facility is slated to open in Summer 2013 and will process the majority of New York City’s commingled curbside material. Rendering courtesy of Sims Municipal Recycling.

We all know how confusing it can be trying to figure out what plastics you can and can’t recycle, but at least in New York City, it’s about to get a little easier for residents.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week, that effective immediately, the city for the first time will allow residents to recycle all rigid plastics, including toys, hangers, shampoo bottles, coffee cups, and food containers. Until now, only plastics bottles and jugs were allowable.

The new service is part of the city’s partnership with Sims Municipal Recycling. The Bloomberg Administration says the recycling expansion will result in the removal of about 50,000 tons of waste from landfills every year and save “city taxpayers almost $600,000 each year in export costs.”

The administration says this is part of the city’s commitment to double its “recycling rate to 30 percent by 2017.” For the next few months, much of the recycling will go to the Sims-operated Claremont Recycling Center in Jersey City, N.J.

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LA Metro Authority Signs Deal To Install Kinetic Energy Harvesting Technology From Rail Lines

Looking for a solution to yearly increasing energy costs, the LA Metro Authority has signed a $3.6 million deal with the technology company VYCON to design a system for the city’s railways that will capture and store kinetic energy for reuse from train braking systems.

The Metro said in a committee report that it “annually spends approximately $26 million to $29 million for electricity with about $20 million for propulsion power” and for which it faults “the volatile and costly energy market.”

The Metro added that as the years have progressed, it has “seen electricity costs rise due to periodic utility rate increases,” and is now “embracing sustainability, energy efficiency, conservation, and installation of renewable energy sources” as a primary way of gaining control of, and reducing the transit energy usage, costs, and energy dependence.

VYCON designs and manufacturers high-speed energy storage flywheel systems, and plans to install into the transit system a “Wayside Energy Storage Substation (WESS) at the LA Metro Red Line Westlake/MacArthur Park Station” incorporating the company’s REGEN clean energy flywheel system.

To understand it a little better, VYCON explains that the “flywheel-based energy storage systems holds kinetic energy in a spinning mass, and converts this energy to electric power through the use of a high-speed electric motor generator.”

VYCON says that the technology used in the LA transit authority will recycle part of the energy in the system by absorbing and storing kinetic energy generated by braking trains, and returning the stored energy to the trains during acceleration.

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London’s Blackfriars Station Full Open This Month As Part of World’s Largest Solar Railway Bridge

London’s Blackfriars solar railway bridge. Photo courtesy of designer and installer Solarcentury.

London’s Blackfriars central railway station, which spans the iconic River Thames, will be fully operational for passengers this month with two new entrances, four new platforms, and a new London Underground station.

Network Rail – which is doing the rebuilding – said the new station’s roof will be home to about 4,400 solar panels that are expected to generate up to 50 percent of the station’s energy needs. The solar panels for the Blackfriars station were funded by the UK Department of Transport’s safety and environment fund.

The solar panels – manufactured by Panasonic, but designed and installed by Solarcentury – will cover an area of about 6,000 square meters, making the Blackfriars the largest solar bridge in the world.

The bridge is expected to generate about 900,000 kilowatts of electricity every year, and save over 500 tons of CO2 annually. Work on the bridge is expected to be completed later this year.

“Blackfriars is the first bridge over the Thames since the 13th century London Bridge to generate its own power. The old London Bridge used waterwheels to drive water pumps and grain mills,” said Solarcentury.

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