Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill sprang from the Fort Greene Association in mid-2007 with the goal of reducing our neighborhood's contribution to global warming and our use of nonrenewable resources. Our immediate focus has been on measures that everyone could easily adopt and which everyone can see. Much more to come. More ideas most welcome.

Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill is the good work of your neighbors. Volunteer a small amount of time and together we will make a big difference.

Bright Idea

Did you know...

CFL bulbs burn 10x as long as incandescent bulbs and use less than 1/4 of the electricity. If every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL bulb, the energy saved would be enough to light over 3 million homes and the greenhouse gases reduced would equal the emissions of more than 800,000 cars!

14 W CFL replaces a 60 W incandescent     23 W CFL replaces a 100 W incandescent  
Green FG&CH price for a 14 watt CFL $(2.00)   Green FG&CH Price for a 14 W CFL $(2.50)
Electricity saved during CFL's 10,000 hr life $101.20   Electricity saved during CFL’s 10,000 hour life $169.40
Incandescent bulbs not replaced $8.80 Incandescent bulbs not replaced $8.80
Your savings for every 14 W CFL $110.00   Your savings for every 23 watt CFL $175.70

No excuses...

Color: The new generation of CFL bulbs come in warm tones so you look good and daylight tones so you feel good.

Mercury: Sealed in a CFL is a miniscule amount of mercury, about 4-5 mg, an amount that fits on the tip of a ball point pen and is less than 1/100 the amount of mercury in a thermometer. Environmental agencies say that if a CFL bulb breaks, the danger from broken glass is greater than the danger from the mercury. Ironically, each CFL bulb removes more mercury from the environment than the bulb contains. Most of the mercury in our air results from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity. Long-term exposure to mercury in the air negatively impacts human health. Because a CFL bulb uses so much less power and last so much longer than an incandescent bulb, it causes about 76% less mercury to be released into the air than a regular incandescent bulb.

Disposal: Recycle CFL bulbs at Living Lighting, 876 Atlantic Avenue (at Waverly Avenue). If you throw them out, the Department of Sanitation asks that they be put in double plastic bags and placed in the regular garbage.

What we've done so far...

Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill and 26 merchants and restauranteurs sold 3,000 bulbs at a low non-profit price. The energy saved by the bulbs equals the electricity used in 400 apartments in a year.