Ronda Kaysen
Writer
Living off-the-grid in Brooklyn
As more buildings go green and developers come up with more innovative ways to reduce energy usage, what strikes me as interesting is that a building is only as green as the tenants inside it. A developer can install 3 watt bulbs (as is the case at the Park Slope property I wrote about for the New York Times), but if the tenant leaves the lights on all day, energy will get depleted anyway. And then there’s the issue of expectation: Even this so-called net zero building has flat screen TVs, which are energy drainers.
