It is no mystery why many environmentalists are critical of the green building revolution taking the form of $2 million, 4500 square foot homes in tony suburbs or homes that are considered environmentally friendly because they take advantage of nature somehow, like the German Tree House. But there is another green revolution happening simultaneously. It is happening in urban areas, even slums, and in some cases, being led by the residents themselves.
In 2001, Dr. Majora Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx. Even non New Yorkers know that the South Bronx is rough, and that’s putting it mildly. The South Bronx, once home to Jewish immigrants and working class families, has been a symbol of urban decay for many decades. Carter, a life-long resident of the area, founded the organization to focus on environmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs. The organization provides free green collar job training and lobbies for environmental improvements like green roofs, waterfront bike paths, transportation, energy, water and waste policy. The point is to spark both an economic and environmental rebirth in the South Bronx.
In February of this year, former California Treasurer Phil Angelides joined with former basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson as Chair of the Canyon-Johnson Urban Communities Fund. The fund has committed to investing more than $2 billion to acquire, renovate and green residential rental and mixed-use properties in urban communities. Johnson has a history of successful urban investment in partnership with Canyon Capital, with over 30 projects valued at more than $4 billion. This new project will bring these environmental improvements to more that 10,000 urban homes across the United States.
NPR reports on another urban greening project, this one coming out of the slums of Cairo, to put solar water heaters on rooftops. I spent a little time in the slums of Cairo, including the City of the Dead and the Coptic Christian neighborhoods. While Cairo has some very wealthy and tourist friendly parts, it also has a level of urban crowding and poverty that is hard for most people to really comprehend. So it is no small thing that Thomas Taha Rassam Culhane, an Iraqi-American and founder of Solar Cities, a nonprofit that is installing solar hot-water heaters on the rooftops in Cairo, is focusing on the city’s slums.
One of the neighborhoods where Solar Cities is installing the heaters, Manshiyet Nasser, also known as Garbage City, is home to the Zabaleen, a group of people that have served as Cairo’s garbage collection and recycling forces for decades. Recycling by hand up to 80% of the trash that they haul in to their community from the rest of the city, these folks are doing a far better job of recycling materials than most contracted collectors do in the developing world, and certainly better than most of us do in the developed world. The solar hot water heaters help to not only reduce emissions (of which, let’s be honest, the poor have few) but more importantly, reduce the cost of heating for the residents. They are also sourcing the parts for the heaters from neighborhood crafts people, helping to support the local economy and using recycled materials that the Zabaleen provide, including plastic bags, bottles and fluorescent tubes. It’s a closed loop, in many ways, as is much of what happens in Garbage City where cloth and paper goods in the shops are made from recycled materials and students collect the money for recycled shampoo bottles to pay the teachers. The tony suburbs could learn a thing or two about reduce, reuse, recycle by following the lead of these urban dwellers who find ways to be eco-conscious while just trying to survive.
