submitted by Samuel Bendett  

      

inhabitat.com - by Kevin Lee - June 24, 2014

NYC's Office of Emergency Management recently erected its first Urban Post-Disaster Housing Prototype in Brooklyn Heights. At first, we only got to see a glimpse of the emergency homes from the outside, but we recently took a grand tour of the space and have plenty of photos to share with you!

(CLICK HERE - PHOTOS - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

      

“The Big U,” one of the winners of the Rebuild by Design contest. Photo credit: THE BIG TEAM / Rebuild by Design

nextcity.org - by Graham T. Beck - June 2, 2014

The New York Metropolitan area will soon see a massive, $335 million berm along Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a $60 million living breakwater along Staten Island’s South Shore, a $20 million study of protecting the food distribution center in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point and a $125 million effort to protect north south waterways and the Mill River in Southern Nassau County.

usresilienceproject.org - October 31, 2011

U.S. Resilience Project (USRP) reports are designed to showcase how public policy can benefit from private-sector best practices in security, business continuity, risk management, and disaster preparedness.

Harness the Power of Intelligent Networks and Social Media

The focus for national preparedness should be on creating situational awareness, enhanced decision-making and rapid response; Platforms like the U.S. Resilience System, that are based upon distributed intelligent social networks and crowd-sourcing, can enable far more agility and adaptability than a highly structured, hierarchical capability with significantly better outcomes at far less cost. Exploiting U.S. leadership in this area has the potential to create significant engagement in preparedness, disaster response, and regional resilience building.

Prepared by the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) for the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, September 30, 2013
homelandsecurity.org

CLICK HERE - The Resilient Social Network: @OccupySandy #SuperstormSandy (103 page .PDF report)

Acknowledgements

The Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute (HSSAI) would like to acknowledge the numerous individuals from government, the private sector, the not-for-profit sector, and the Occupy Sandy volunteers who generously granted time for interviews.

Particularly, HSSAI would like to thank Dr. Michael McDonald, Megan Fliegelman, Meghan Dunn, and Jill Cornell for providing points of contact and documentation. They greatly assisted the task team in the development of its research and analysis.

HSSAI would further like to acknowledge COL Terry Ebbert, USMC (Ret.), the former director of homeland security for the City of New Orleans and currently a distinguished visiting fellow at HSSAI, for providing a critical review of this case study.

      

Credit: Shutterstock

thinkprogress.org - by Jeff Spross - March 12, 2014

SolarCity and Best Buy have just announced a deal allowing customers to get low-cost and low-hassle solar power for their homes.

It’s what’s called a third party leasing agreement. Rather than purchasing a solar array outright, they lease the system from the provider — SolarCity, in this case.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - Best Buy - SolarCity

Video: Some restaurants produce eight gallons of waste every hour. Thanks to a sustainability plan, Sandwich Me stretched that time...to two years.

 

 

ecowatch.com - Brandon Baker - June 3rd 2014

Quick—how much food, paper and plastic have you thrown in the garbage the past two years?

It’s a question you likely can’t answer, but whatever the amount,  it will certainly exceed the output of Justin Vrany and his Chicago café, Sandwich Me In.

Vrany estimates that an average restaurant dumps eight gallons of trash in a dumpster per hour.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Growing Economy, Falling Emissions

Economic growth has been stronger in nine Northeast states that have a current cap-and-trade program. Carbon emissions in those states have fallen much more quickly than in the rest of the country.

       

The New York Times
Sources: ENE; Energy Information Administration

nytimes.com - by Hannah Fairfield - June 6, 2014

Some critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new requirements for power plants argue that forcing emissions reduction will curtail economic growth. But the recent experience of states that already cap carbon emissions reveals that emissions and economic growth are no longer tightly tied together. . .

. . . The nine states already in the program — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have substantially reduced their carbon emissions in recent years. At the same time, those states have had stronger economic growth than the rest of the country.

Cutting Emissions
At least 10 states cut emissions from power plants by 30 percent or more between 2005 and 2012.

      

By The New York Times
Source: Georgetown Climate Center

nytimes.com - by JUSTIN GILLIS and MICHAEL WINES - June 6, 2014

The cries of protest have been fierce, warning that President Obama’s plan to cut greenhouse gases from power plants will bring soaring electricity bills and even plunge the nation into blackouts. . .

. . . Yet cuts on the scale Mr. Obama is calling for — a 30 percent reduction in emissions from the nation’s electricity industry by 2030 — have already been accomplished in parts of the country.

At least 10 states cut their emissions by that amount or more between 2005 and 2012, and several other states were well on their way, almost two decades before Mr. Obama’s clock for the nation runs out.

submitted by Goldie Rosenberg

fema.gov

LINCROFT, N.J. -- The New York and New Jersey Sandy Recovery field offices are supporting a national initiative to maximize resilience and minimize risk. FEMA is encouraging those rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy to join the agency in its recognition of the 34th annual Building Safety Month (BSM) to promote the importance of high building standards, protecting the environment and saving energy.

BSM is a public awareness campaign established by the International Code Council (ICC). The global campaign focuses on public outreach and education to increase the overall safety and sustainability of buildings through the adoption of model building codes and promotion of code enforcement—elements for New York and New Jersey to consider as the area rebuilds after the storm.

      

fastcompany.com - by Chris Gayomali - May 19, 2014

. . .The big plan entailed the creation of the "NYC Tech Talent Pipeline," an initiative de Blasio said will be dedicated to creating "high-quality jobs" for New Yorkers up and down the tech ecosystem chain. He didn't provide many details, but the $10 million plan will be backed by JP Morgan Chase, among other banking giants.

Mayor de Blasio also hinted at his plans for widespread connectivity, saying that a "vibrant democracy" runs through "universal, high-speed broadband access." Of note was a plan to blanket 95 blocks of Harlem in free Wi-Fi, in addition to a plan to transform the city's unused subway pay phones into wireless stations.

 

      

ncfpd.umn.edu - April 4, 2014

Webinar - Community Resilience and Impacts of Interdependent Infrastructure Disruptions as Experienced from Hurricane Sandy (One hour long)

Presented By: 
Michael D. McDonald, Dr.P.H.
Chairman, Global Resilience Inititatives
Executive Director, Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc. 

Facilitated By:
John T. Hoffman, Col., USA, Ret.
Senior Research Fellow, National Center for Food Protection and Defense

Under the dynamic conditions of rapid climate change and broader global changes, resilience and sustainability are not being achieved through traditional emergency management and humanitarian approaches alone. While community-based resilience networks are now beginning to emerge in a race to stabilize New York City's coastal communities significantly impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, many impacted neighborhoods are still trending toward greater vulnerability plaguing recovery and preparedness for the next wave of potentially larger storms.

nyc.gov

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection offers a grant program for private property owners in combined sewer areas of New York City. The minimum requirement is to manage 1” of stormwater runoff from the contributing impervious area. If selected, DEP will provide funds for the design and construction of the green infrastructure system. Eligible projects include blue roofs, rain gardens, green roofs, porous pavement and rainwater harvesting on private property in combined sewer areas.

Private property owners in the combined sewer areas of all five boroughs of New York City are eligible to apply.   This year, for the first time, DEP will accept applications in both the spring and the fall, and applicants will have the opportunity to review conceptual ideas with DEP engineers prior to submitting their application.  More information on the program and the online application can be found on DEP’s website.   The fall due date is October 21, 2014.

stormrecovery.ny.gov

Governor Cuomo announced that $200 million has been awarded to more than 450 healthcare and human service providers and other community-based organizations following the impact of Superstorm Sandy. The federal Superstorm Sandy Social Services Block Grant is designed to cover unreimbursed expenses resulting from the storm, including social, health and mental health services for individuals, and for repair, renovation and rebuilding of health care facilities, mental hygiene facilities, child care facilities and other social services facilities.

The grants will provide approximately $65 million for repair, rebuilding and renovation costs resulting from Superstorm Sandy; $52 million for unreimbursed operating costs during and after Sandy; $70 million for ongoing or new services to meet the continuing needs of Sandy-impacted New Yorkers; and $11 million for other eligible health and social services costs.

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink - October 27, 2013

WHEN the floodwaters rose around New Orleans hospitals after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, doctors wondered whom to rescue first. Sick babies? Critically ill adults? The elderly?

More than seven years later, as Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, Bellevue Hospital’s basement filled with millions of gallons of floodwater from the East River. The physician heading the intensive care unit was told that most backup power was likely to fail. She would have six power outlets. Which of her 50 patients should get one?

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)