Sustainable South Bronx
Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx) is a non-profit environmental justice solutions organization in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood, founded by Majora Carter in 2001.[1]
The organization spearheaded the creation of Hunts Point Riverside Park, the first piece of the projected South Bronx Greenway. This organization also pioneered a "green roof" project in the South Bronx with its own for-profit installation company SmartRoofs, LLC, and started a "green-collar" job training program called Bronx Environmental Stewardship Program (B.E.S.T.) which prepares urban residents in areas such as ecological restoration, hazardous waste cleanup, green roof installation and maintenance, urban forestry, and landscaping; the program has a 90% placement rate after four years of operation. They are also proposing a Bronx Eco-Industrial Complex as an alternative use for a piece of land where the city government currently is planning to construct a prison, and are engaged in developing "a collection of businesses in which the waste and byproducts of one business are the raw materials for another one."[1]
SSBx runs the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program, which takes qualifying students through 12 weeks of intensive training covering topics like tree pruning to OSHA brownfield remediation to estuary maintenance to job–life skills. This program aims to give local residents a personal and financial stake in the management of their local environment. In December 2006, Mitsubishi International Corp contributed $150,000.
In 2005, SSBx built the "Cool and Greenroof Demonstration Project" above their offices in the historic American Banknote Building — the first such roof in the City of New York. In 2007, SSBx launched the for-profit SmartRoofs, LLC green roof installation business.
See also
References
- 1 2 Cynthia E. Rockwell, "Breaking the Grip of Poverty", Wesleyan (Wesleyan University alumni magazine), Issue IV 2006, 33–37.