SIEDC Green & Clean Was a Sweep

The Staten Island Zoo was the location of this past weekend's Green & Clean Festival hosted by the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation (SIEDC). A day-long marketplace, sustainable businesses and organizations showcased their services and spread information about sustainability and environmental awareness.

As a member of the Board of SIEDC, Broadway Stages is proud to have supported this event and to help promote the value of sustainability. In fact, our very own green roof project was represented by Niki Jackson of the NYC Audubon on behalf of Kingsland Wildflowers at Broadway Stages, along with Monica Holowacz, Community Relations Director at Broadway Stages. Take a virtual stroll via the photo gallery below. #GOGREEN

Broadway Stages Celebrates Earth Day 2018!

Welcome to Earth Day 2018! It has been over 365 days of energy saving, water conservation, and more by you and members of your community! For a quick recap, let's talk about some of the things that have helped make this Earth Day incredible.

This year, the U.S. has increased solar and wind generation projects while also using fewer non-renewable energy sources, such as coal. These projects reduce carbon emissions in the air, decreasing the greenhouse effect and helping to combat global warming. These projects also clear the air of dangerous chemical pollutants that are the byproducts of coal plants.

And most importantly, global citizens are making being green a trend through social media. This year has marked one of the most unified efforts for global citizens to become environmentally conscious. The progressive movement toward a global system of responsible energy use brings us one step closer to making non-renewable energy sources obsolete.

To encourage and continue the Earth Day celebration, Broadway Stages will share some more tips and tricks to help encourage a greener environment.

1. Reduce, reuse, recycle…. and repair!
   Everyone knows the 3R's reduce, reuse, and recycle, but not many people know its cousin repair. Repairing goods instead of replacing them can significantly reduce your footprint and save you money. For example, durable goods will last longer than lower quality items that need to be replaced more often.

2. Start the compost station!
   A large percentage of most trash in U.S. households is denoted to organic compounds and foods that can be composted. It is time to start considering the benefits of composting. Composting relieves your trashcan of most of its weight and size. Key benefits include replacing your trash bags less often and producing fertile soil that helps your garden grow!

3. Keep the paper in the trees!
   With modern technologies, paper could be made obsolete by writing on tablets or other devices. As deforestation continues to destroy whole ecosystems, global citizens need to protect our precious forests and trees. So next time you are thinking of writing down anything, make an effort to leave no paper trail!

Broadway Stages and North Brooklyn Boat Club Provide Environmental Education

Row, row, row your boat! That was exactly what 100 fourth-grade students did down the Newtown Creek advised by staff from the North Brooklyn Boat Club (NBBC). The boat ride at Broadway Stages' Boatyard located along Newtown Creek, is part of an educational program designed to teach students about the history of the creek and how to keep it clean for the future.

The local creek was once a high-density highway for transportation between New Jersey and New York and a common destination for dumping waste. It eventually became a Superfund site marked for environmental cleanup. However since then, in part thanks to the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment facility and increasing awareness and government intervention, it has become considerably cleaner and safer. Though the water has significantly improved, there is a continuous need to educate locals and boost communal efforts to prevent it from reverting back to how it was.

As a Brooklyn business, Broadway Stages believes that it is part of our duty to the Brooklyn community to increase awareness about the environmental importance of the iconic creek. Believing it is important for future generations to appreciate and preserve the natural ecology of our shared creek, Broadway Stages wishes to improve the Newtown Creek for all Brooklynites to enjoy and works to achieve that dream by setting up educational programs with NBBC. By working with NBBC, Broadway Stages has invited many Brooklynites, with a focus on students, to come to the Broadway Stages Boatyard to learn about the ecology of the Newtown Creek.

Leading the success of the partnership program between NBBC and Broadway Stages are the fun but educational teaching methods. To allow students to thoroughly enjoy the creek, staffers take them on 12-man boat trips down the creek to experience firsthand the amazing ecology of the creek, in the hopes of inspiring them to preserve its current state and work to improve it even more in the future.

Broadway Stages and NBBC hope to restore the Newtown Creek to its natural beauty completely and can only do it with the help of Brooklynites of the next generation. Let's keep Brooklyn clean and eco-friendly!

Broadway Stages Supports Environmental Education Program

ExxonMobil and Broadway Stages funded the S.Y.S.T.E.M Teen Summer Program, which came to an end at the Lentol Garden Wednesday afternoon. Through the program, 12 New York City high school students developed skills to become future leaders of environmental studies. The Greenpoint YMCA and the NYU Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education developed the program with a focus on the integration of STEM standards.