Sustainable South Bronx hopes to build a profitable business.
By Kathy-Ann Joseph
kathyannjoseph@gmail.com
James Wells and Amilcar Laboy, graduates of the BEST program, do weekly maintenance on the roof of Majora Carter’s and James Chase’s home.
While the owners of New York City’s two other single-family homes with green roofs keep a low profile, Majora Carter and James Chase want people to know about the green roof on their Manida Street home.
They hope publicity will build awareness. That would be good for Sustainable South Bronx’s business.
It took two days instead of one to install their roof in October, because a video crew from the Sundance Channel’s show “The Green,”
was recording the moment. In a long article, the Christian Science Monitor also used the couple as poster children for green roofs on urban homes.
If more New Yorkers did install green roofs, Sustainable South Bronx’s for-profit subsidiary, Smart Roofs, LLC, would benefit. The company, in turn, would be able to offer more jobs to graduates of the organization’s Bronx Environmental Stewardship Program (BEST), a three-month training program that teaches participants to install and maintain green roofs.
“I got confidence in SSBX that they will work to bring across more green roof work for us” said Amilcar Laboy, a 44-year-old graduate of the BEST Program who worked on the Manida Street green roof. “Global warming is on people’s minds, and people want to find ways to counteract that, and this is one of them, which we have the skills for.”
The Chase/Carter home is the fourth green roof Laboy has helped install. He also worked on Sustainable South Bronx’s green roof on the Bank Note Building and on another two at the Hunts Point Market.
Every Thursday, Laboy and another BEST graduate, 30-year-old James Wells, come to Manida Street to do maintenance work on the roof. The service, included in the price of the roof, will continue for two years, the time it takes for the plantings to mature. Once they have matured, Wells and Laboy may only be required to check on the roof once every six months.
“It’s basically watering, pruning and sweeping. It’s coming out pretty good,” says Wells. “When you look at all the things you can gain, you’re going to be coming out on top. In this type of environment in Hunts Point, with waste plants and the daily flow of commercial diesel trunks, the green roof will do a part to help to purify the air and counteract pollutants.”
While Wells concerns himself with the potential for air quality improvement, Laboy fantasizes an aesthetic escape. “It can be a place to get away and get some serenity, to even grow your own plants and small vegetables,” he said.
As part of its overall strategy of linking jobs and improving the environment, Sustainable South Bronx also hopes to expand the green roof industry in the Bronx by establishing a factory to make green roof components—drainage plates made from 100 percent recyclable material. The organization reasons that, since the South Bronx already handles so much of New York City’s recyclable waste, establishing such a factory would keep more money in the local economy.