Living Laboratory: Can NYC become the center of eco-living? It's started in Brooklyn Navy Yard
New York was known for Wall Street, but can green make the Big Apple go?
The market for green living is right here, the mayor (Mayor Michael Bloomberg) told Your Home in an exclusive interview. There's an enormous concentration of companies, families and people who are committed to this as a lifestyle. We have the greatest workforce in the world, and this government stays committed to this as a future.
The most ambitious plan by far comes from Duggal Visual Solutions. Changing focus from photo solutions to energy-saving solutions, the company's founder, Baldev Duggal, hopes to revolutionize the home boiler system, take street lights off the city's electric grid and give a New York address to the world's first environment-focused resource center.
This is the time for radical solutions, said Duggal, who came to New York over 40 years ago with $200, a camera and a pocketful of dreams. You don't lose when you do something out of the ordinary, you only lose when you don't. We cannot waste more time waiting for the green movement to come to us.
Duggal has already contributed to the Navy Yard's green status by creating the first New York-made solar panel and wind-turbine powered street lamp.
While similar products exist in France and Japan, importing them to the United States classifies the lights as environmentally incorrect due to the carbon footprint made during transportation.
They're called the Lumi Solair, and 91 of them are being installed in the Navy Yard. As reported in this newspaper, the Lumi Solair will save the Yard $600,000 in installation costs and $11,000 per year in electricity costs.
Duggal plans to turn the building into a work of art. Calling the building a living laboratory, his Greenhouse will be part think tank, museum, events hall and eco-product incubator.
Duggal's Greenhouse will be completely self-sustainable. All 30,000 square feet of roof space will be dedicated to lighting, heating, cooling and providing the building with hot and cold water. At its entrance, the $7 million building will have a stairwell for event seating and a waterfall to collect and filter rainwater. Eight 20-by-20 garage doors will open to the Manhattan skyline. Architects will transform the building from 29,000 square feet to 69,000.
