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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.

Let's recount what we have done and applaud our New York's Greenest, who have brought us this far.

• 1,200 sites for new street trees were submitted to the Parks Department. 280 trees have been planted. More are coming each planting season and model community/Parks Department partnership, which would lead to a massive planting, is being investigated.
  
  
• 24 of us planted trees on our blocks in May 2008 with tools donated by The Home Depot. 200 trees were distributed by community organizations with our support in September 2009. With the FAB Alliance and the New York Restoration Project an additional 200 trees were distributed in April 2010, and residents will get 300 more in spring 2011.
  
  
• Green Streets – wonderful small parks – have been built at Seven Corners (Fulton, South Oxford and Hanson Place). A planted median was installed on Carlton between Myrtle and Park.
  
  
• We launched "Take Back the Pavement," our project to care for our urban forest of mature street trees by expanding tree pits. 3,500 trees will be freed from strangling concrete. In the first phase, young men receiving job training through Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration’s NYC Justice Corps are developing their skills while expanding hundreds of tree beds. Our trees will be happier, getting more water and air to their roots’ trip hazards will be removed from our sidewalks; storm water will be captured on-site rather than entering the sewer system; and hundreds of small garden plots are being created along our streets. Pratt Area Community Council is the project’s major funder and facilities are provided by 470 Vanderbilt.
  
  
• Bike racks have sprouted: we had 56 large racks and 16 small ones (total of 72) installed in 51 different sites. 75 more were added in late 2009 and early this year, and the Parks Department promises more at Fort Greene Park. In addition, an elaborate prototype rack was put at DeKalb and Flatbush.
  
  
• Green Power -- Several hundred applications for Con Ed Solutions Green Power were distributed. Con Ed Solutions did an 11,000 piece mailing together with Green FG&CH encouraging the switch.
  
  
• We sold our first 3,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs at low cost through 26 local merchants. The energy saved by the bulbs is enough to power 425 apartments for a year.
  
  
• 2,000 "no ad" signs were posted on neighborhood gates and front doors to stop unwanted circulars from appearing on our doorsteps. An additional 1,000 are being distributed with support from Thomson-Reuters, and the Society for Clinton Hill is distributing 3,000 signs with Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill.
  
  
• Bottles, cans and paper are now recycled in Fort Greene Park, Cuyler Gore Park and Underwood Playground. With our inspiration and support, public recycling will come to the Fulton Street shopping corridor.
  
  
• With local business owners, we developed a code of environmentally appropriate practices, dubbed "Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill Means Business."
  
  
• Students at PS 46 participated in a science/social studies project designed by Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill. A result was a street tree planted in a location selected by each student.
  
  
• We sold our first 200 very chic Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill reusable shopping bags.
  
  
• Students at the Academy for Young Writers surveyed neighborhood trees for "Take Back the Pavement" and solicited business participation in "Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill Means Business."
  
  
• Green Fort Greene & Clinton Hill is partnering with Pratt Institute's sustainability efforts, generating technical resources, manpower and market-place clout.
  
  
• A Green Map was created, showing our environmentally friendly resources and environmentally sound achievements.
  
  
• We are looking good with a beautiful logo and graphics and an ever more useful website.
  
  

Simultaneously,

• Brooklyn Brownstone Garden District gave away 9,000 daffodil bulbs and 7,000 mixed bulbs for planting in public view.
  
  
• Composting at the Fort Greene Green Market passed 1,500 pounds per week.
  
  
• Pratt Institute announced it would reduce its carbon emissions by 30 percent in ten years.
  
  
• Pratt also is constructing a major new building on Myrtle Avenue. It will meet the environmentally rigorous LEED Gold standard.
  
  
• Through MARP, Myrtle Avenue merchants are selling the same great reusable shopping bags Green FG&CH is offering.
  
  
• Two local buildings have sprouted solar electric installations.
  
  
• Green oriented businesses keep appearing: Fresh Garden and Greene Grape Provisions feature organic food, Bespoke Bicycle and Bike Station keep us rolling, Green Pets looks after our other species, Green in BKLYN covers it all and iStoreGreen presents itself as the first green storage facility.
  
  
• The Hill touted the panoply of green efforts in our neighborhood.