HEROES
Adrian Grenier: The “Entourage” star effectively greened his Clinton Hill house – installing photovoltaic roof panels that convert sunlight into electricity and using recycled denim for insulation.
Aresh Javadi: As co-founder of the More Gardens! Coalition, he has tirelessly advocated the development and preservation of city gardens.
Basil Seggos: As chief investigator for the Riverkeeper, a non-profit that keeps its watchful eye on doings in the Hudson River, Seggos acts on tips from citizen watchdogs to go after polluters.
New York Sun Works Center for Sustainable Engineering: The environmental non-profit unveiled the Science Barge – a sustainable urban farm powered by sun, wind and biofuels and irrigated by rainwater and purified river water – on May 4. It’s currently docked at Pier 84 on W. 44th Street and will make the rounds to six different parks in two years before seeking a permanent home. The idea is to sell New Yorkers on adapting the system for rooftops.
Rafael Pelli: A member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Pelli is the architectural visionary acknowledged for having designed New York’s first green residential tower, The Solaire, which was completed in 2003.
VILLAINS
Christine Quinn: The City Council speaker was lambasted by pedicab drivers and advocates for leading the charge last month to overturn Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of a cap on the bike-operated, non-greenhouse gas emitting transport at 325 vehicles.
Empire Transit Mix: One of the Riverkeeper’s many victims, in a case collaborated on with the EPA (another of our villains, but in this case, the federal agency made good). The Brooklyn-based concrete manufacturer pled guilty in federal court in 2005 for dumping concrete slurry into Newton Creek and agreed to pay a $300,000 fine.
Environmental Protection Agency: In April, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the federal EPA’s refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars and other vehicles, agreeing with the suit initiated by attorney generals from various states – including Eliot Spitzer during his time at that job – that the agency had failed to provide adequate justification for its stance.
ExxonMobil: The company’s forerunner was responsible for a 17-million-gallon oil spill in Newton Creek that was only discovered in 1978. Greenpoint residents filed a class action lawsuit in 2005.
Rudy Giuliani: As mayor, he came under fire from environmental justice groups for turning a deaf ear to their concerns. According to UC Davis professor Julie Sze, author of “Noxious New York” (MIT Press), “His response to environmental justice campaigns was just one more salient example of how hostile attitudes and policies toward low-income communities and neighborhoods of color in New York City were managed by city hall in the 1990s.”
