20 Unit Coop Wants to Go Green: Ideas?

How good is your insulation? Do you have thermostats on all the heaters? Our building is terrible, and this has to be our largest preventable source of carbon emissions. Buying green power comes after conservation.

How are your windows? I tried to get our co-op to spend money on new windows--they weren't into it. So I forked over the money for them and our building (4 units) was able to lower the thermostat (yes, one for the whole building) by 2 degrees and our apartment was much warmer. And quieter. I think it was an awesome investment. The windows we got were from Marvin and had pretty good insulating ability.

Now the co-op wants to switch to natural gas heat and get new boilers. I still think they should have spent moeny on windows for all.

My mom (who lives in a brownstone) had an energy audit done on her place and beefed up the insulation and ended up turning her thermostat down as well. I can get you the info about the comany that did the audit if you PM me.

This organization might have information:
http://www.nyserda.org/

There are many small things that can be done to increase the greenness of your building. As mentioned above, insulation and new windows are two good starting points. Insulation is the type of thing that can be increased with time if people are balking on the cost. One relatively inexpensive and effective measure is to have more insulation blown into your roof.

You can also plan to go green as repairs need to be made. For instance, plan on a green roof when your current one needs to be replaced. Plan on a high efficiency boiler when it needs replacing. Look into switching to a tankless water heater when it needs replacing.

Other things you can do: be sure all common area lights are fluorescent or compact fluorescent lights. Put motion sensors on lights in areas such as laundry rooms or basement space. When repainting have contractors use low VOC paints, etc. Have the co-op purchase green energy credits to offset the common electricity usage.

These are just some ideas, there are many more. The first step is a commitment by the residents and the board to going green. It does cost more in the short term but if you put together a comprehensive plan it will both pay off in the long term on energy savings as well as add value to the building for any future buyers.

I haven't read the replies yet, first thing first screw being green. get the place well isolated and if its not the double pane windows with some type of gas in the middle, get it, it saves alot of heat.

get automatic heating system. when to shut off when it reaches a certain temperature and get light sensors for front lights. change all the light bulbs to energy savers. and rewire the whole building while you are at it. alot of older buildings have bad wiring. and do the plumbing too.

oh, does anyone use any of those coned green power alternatives?

Subject: ConEd green power

I've used the ConEd green power option for a few years. Just last month I switched to their all-wind option (instead of a blend of wind and hydro which is +1 cent per kilowatt hour). The all-wind is +2.5 cents per kilowatt hour. I don't use that much electricity so I hardly notice. But your bill tells how many kilowatt hours you use, so you could multiply that by 1 cent or 2.5 cents to see how much more you might pay...
Here's their website: http://www.conedsolutions.com/Residential/GreenPowerMain.htm
I'm not affiliated with them, I just think it's a good idea. If we show that there is a market for green power then I think corporations will be more willing to invest in it.