The Bronx has had many first in green technology as many of the new developments built here have green components and are oftentimes LEED Certified —showing that they meet the highest standards of sustainable and green development set forth by the United States Green Building Council.
Now a school in Melrose —the ONLY LEED Certified Neighborhood district in the entire State of New York —has won a major award in the amount of $100,000.
The Bronx Design and Construction Academy won the Zayed Future Energy Prize beating out 2 others schools and thus becoming the only school in North, Central, and South America to win this prestigious award.
The school is located within the Alfred E. Smith High School on East 151st and is home to the first green roof in a public school. According to News12 the Bronx, “the money will go toward making the students’ design of solar panels and an off-grid greenhouse a reality for the school and the community.”
The research center to be created from the award will help students continue their research into sustainable energy and technologies.
Meanwhile in the northern Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, the Daily News reportsthat the Riverdale Country School is the only site in the nation with a new technology called kinetic energy tiles. The floor tiles use the energy of footsteps which it then converts into electricity.
This technology can be transformative in how we power our city when you take into consideration that there are more than 8 million New Yorkers walking around and to be able to harness that power is exactly what Pavegen, the London-based energy company who’s kinetic tiles are at the Riverdale Country School, is working on.
Congratulations to the students of both these Bronx schools for their hard work and showing the world all the great and wonderful things that our borough is capable of and is about.
Watch the News12 interview with students at the Bronx Design and Construction Academy.
Read about the Riverdale Country School endeavor with kinetic floor tiles, in the Daily News.
About The Zayed Future Energy Prize
The world is in desperate need of innovative solutions to create a new, sustainable energy future. No one knows who or where the next great energy solution will come from. Solutions and technologies that could change the world are being developed globally, and the $4 million Zayed Future Energy Prize, managed by Masdar in Abu Dhabi, is ready to recognise and reward these innovators of our time.
The Zayed Future Energy Prize came to fruition as a result of the vision of the late Ruler of Abu Dhabi and Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
In 2008 at the World Future Energy Summit, His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the UAE, announced The Zayed Future Energy Prize, to honour his father’s legacy of environmental stewardship.
With a mind towards ensuring that the Prize reaches out to the different key players in the industry; The Prize will is awarded annually to: A Large Corporation, A Small and Medium Enterprise, A Non-Governmental Organization, a Lifetime Achievement recipient and up to 5 High Schools from 5 different world regions.
