This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

Living City Block Garners Interest in Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Denver-based organization Living City Block leads effort to retrofit one local block economically and sustainably.

With interest and debate mounting in both the future of the Indian Point Energy Center and hydro-fracking upstate, a local non-profit in Carroll Gardens is also stirring up interest and involvement in its mission to help design and create a new, local model of energy efficiency for urban communities nationwide.

The Denver-based organization Living City Block, which now shares offices with the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation on lower Court Street, held a to raise awareness about its project to retrofit a block of residential and commercial buildings and to engage local residents, concerned citizens, engineers and business owners in visioning a more energy-efficient, economically advantageous future for Gowanus and its contiguous neighborhoods.

LCB has marked Third Street between Smith Street and Third Avenue as their pilot area of study. The project will involve a building-by-building analysis (building owners are still in contract discussions) to see how neighboring buildings could effectively share heating and cooling systems.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Grown out of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Institute, “an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit think-and-do tank,” LCB focuses on finding workable, business-minded solutions for the implementation of renewable energy in existing buildings.

Former RMI Vice President of Communications and current President and founder of Living City Block Llewellyn Wells says building resilience in communities requires a holistic thinking approach that looks at the economic, social, cultural and environmental resources in a community.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

LCB is ready to work with a community that is already engaged in these issues.

“There are a lot of smart people in the area working on this. New York has incredibly strong neighborhoods that are well organized and made up of people who are really interested in building their communities," said Wells. "They’re willing to roll up their sleeves and work, and we want to engage them.”

Living City Block aims to create “deep energy retrofits” that result in at least a 40 percent energy use reduction. Tactics include cogeneration, (or combined heat and power – or CHP), which captures by-product heat from electricity generation for heating; geo-thermal energy, which involves sourcing energy for heating and cooling from underground water sources; and building design efficiency, which looks at everything from windows and door placement and materials, roof insulation, to the use of natural light along with sensors which automatically shut off when a person leaves the room.

Because Third Street has both residential and commercial usage, says Wells, it may be possible to attempt what is called “residence load balancing.” Whereas residences primarily use energy at night, commercial buildings primarily use energy during the day. Excess energy produced by businesses can be used to power residences.

Wells stressed the fundamental importance of working with the people – not just the buildings – living in the community.

“Once we got out in the field and started doing this work we realized these buildings are really a part of communities, and are part of the neighborhood fabric," he said. "This work can only be done effectively if you work at the ground level and work with actual community members.”

The June workshops turned out over 75 people over two days, and most attendees were vocationally or professionally invested in renewable energy. LCB hopes to bring out more home and business owners for future meetings. A meeting is tentatively planned for January in which experts will engage with locals to move the project forward.

The June meeting resulted in five goals that attendees hoped to collaborate with LCB on: green infrastructure (including urban agriculture, storm water management issues, streetscapes /sense of place), energy efficiency and renewable energy, mobility integration (bike shares, car shares, “walkability and bikeability”), maintaining and fostering community identity and innovative economic development.

“The community is extremely concerned with maintaining its existing identity," said Wells, "which stems from experience with development over the years. They don’t want callous development.”

Wells says the key to innovative development is in engaging the creative energy of local residents, combined with the potential of unused spacious buildings.

Economic viability is a key component to LCB’s vision for more energy efficient communities. According to Wells, there has to be a clear economic advantage to retrofitting for renewable energy.

“This will be financed by commercial sources and implemented by commercial companies because there’s a business case for doing so,” he said.

LCB plans to guide and help implement the project over the next six to ten years, but also hopes to become a “permanent part of the fabric of the community.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill