LICBDC Goes Green, Urges Members To Follow Suit
BY THOMAS COGAN

During the luncheon segment of the Long Island Business Development Corporation's annual luncheon and trade show, LICBDC President Gayle Baron mentioned the forthcoming "LICBDC Going Green Guide", designed to show businesses how to adopt methods of operation in keeping with the movement known as "sustainability" or simply "green". The luncheon, held at Terrace on the Park on 111th Street in Corona, introduced LICBDC's green business awards, the inaugural pair of them going to Citibank's second Long Island City building at 2 Court Square and the Community Environmental Center, a non-profit energy conservation group that has operated locally for nearly 15 years. The first William D. Modell community service award went to Sunnyside Community Services. At the trade show, held before the luncheon, LICBDC once again managed to defy anyone who believed from past shows that if the next show drew a comparable or larger turnout there simply wouldn't be room for it in the spaces situated 14 floors below the Terrace on the Park restaurant in the air. But so it was, and the miracle was achieved.

Citibank's 1 Court Square building is the most prominent structure in Long Island City and has been for nearly 20 years. The building boom in the area followed 1 Court Square's opening in 1989, if not immediately. One of the boom buildings is Citibank's 2 Court Square, which has been open for nearly two years. Coming at that later date, it was designed according to the standards of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), which promotes Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED. The new Citibank building, roughly one-third the size of the earlier one, was aimed at USGBC's LEED gold rating. In an effort to meet this standard, a storm water recycling system was installed. It captures water on the roof, treats it and uses it in the building's cooling tower and for irrigation. Preferring exactitude to spectacular rounding out, Citibank says that the amount of potable water saved annually by this method is 969,484 gallons, rather than a million. Water and energy are also saved through use sensors; variation of frequency and modulation in the building's power equipment are said to save energy costs beyond the standards set by ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers. For these and several other steps taken to lessen energy waste and pollution, Citibank at 2 Court Square was made an LICBDC green business honoree. Assemblymember Catherine Nolan presented the award.

Community Environmental Center, with headquarters at 43-10 11th St., is called the largest non-profit energy efficiency contractor in the city and is credited with writing energy performance standards for several state and city agencies. CEC, founded in 1994, produces manuals providing guidance to sustainability, offers LEED certification advice to builders of new and rehabilitated structures and is a leader in home weatherization. Two affiliated groups are located in Manhattan and Astoria: Solar One, a solar-powered classroom where children learn environmental lessons, and Build It Green! (BIG!), a warehouse on 26th Avenue where a random range of manufactured items that would otherwise be dumped on scrap heaps is salvaged. A Daily News feature in October about Build It Green! showed photos of some of its racks and rooms of glassware, statuary and porcelain toilets—those last items being sold by BIG! at one-fifth their retail price. For promoting energy economy and fighting waste, Community Environmental Center was this year's other LICBDC green business honoree. Assemblymember Michael Gianaris presented the award. BIG! President and Founder Richard Cherry accepted it and said, "In between all the stresses of the day, I can think about doing some good in the world." He also suggested that CEC be regarded as "an environmental therapist".

Mrs. William D. Modell presented the community service award named for her late husband to Judy Zangwill, executive director of Sunnyside Community Services. Zangwill called SCS "a major employer" in Queens, which it certainly must be—it serves more than 18,000 borough residents annually. It was started in a church basement in 1974 by the late Glee Kleinberg and moved to facilities on 39th Street between 43rd Avenue and Queens Boulevard in 1987. By then, it had already been in partnership with the civic group Woodside on the Move to develop Sunnywood Apartments, federally subsidized housing for low-income senior and disabled residents at 44-20 64th St. in Woodside In 2001, SCS began an adult day services program for elderly persons with Alzheimer's and other cognitive disorders (though even as the Modell award was presented to SCS, the program's funding through the city's Department For the Aging was cut in half). Funding to another age group, local youth, was begun in 1983 with after-school programs and now encompasses GED and college readiness programs, guidance for immigrant children and employment opportunities. All that and a good deal more qualified Sunnyside Community Services for the first William D. Modell award, named for the dry goods retailer and first president of LICBDC.

The "Going Green Guide", funded by Citibank, is aimed at companies that are already environmentally conscientious or those who may not be but are, like everyone, faced with rising prices. Most of it will be produced electronically and become available by the end of the year through the LICBDC Web site, www.licbdc.org.