Energy usage and cost savings are on everybody’s mind these days— especially those of us in charge of running our buildings, keeping them both comfortable and financially solvent. Each building community is unique, and boards and manager…
Think about this the next time you throw that banana peel, plastic packaging and junk mail away: residents of New York City and its surrounding boroughs are responsible for generating 12,000 tons (that’s right…tons!) of garbage each day. Pi…
While there are a number of issues that make it to the top of the list of building managers’ and board members’ fiscal worries each year, the standout issue in recent years is energy costs. In light of rising fuel prices and increased de…
You don’t need to go too far back to be reminded about energy conservation. Remember the stifling triple-digit heat in August? The power outages in Queens due to the strain on the distribution grids? And the annual call by public officia…
It’s never easy to get people to do what’s good for them. No one wants to exercise or take cough syrup or lay off the T-bone steaks, even if they know life will be better when they do. For years, it’s been the same way with energy conser…
When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office in January of 2002, he inherited a city still reeling from the September 11th terror attacks—and had to fill the not-insignificant shoes of outgoing mayor Rudy Giuliani. Since then, Mayor Bloom…
For many people, their home is their greatest asset. Yet studies show that 59 percent of today’s homes are underinsured by an average of 22 percent. To protect their investment this hurricane season, homeowners should update their insura…
Any number of things can set off an insurance claim in a co-op or condo building. Someone can slip and fall in the lobby; there can be aesthetic damage from a construction project, or a leaky roof can cause major water damage— sometime…
Insurance sounds like a simple concept: you pay a premium to your insurer, and then when you file a claim, your insurer pays you. Simple. Insuring a co-op or condo building shouldn’t be much different than insuring yourself—just on a b…
Since they were first built, apartment buildings have been insured for disasters and unforeseen circumstances—the things nobody ever wants to happen, but has to admit are possible. Things like fires, floods, earthquakes and so on. In t…