New York City plans to train one thousand superintendents on green buildings this year. City managers of commercial and high-rise residential buildings now have the chance reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city on a sky high level.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg took part in the program, “One Year, One Thousand Green Supers” which was also approved by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Building Performance Institute. It’s also made possible by the Thomas Shortman Training Fund. This is part of NYC’s huge goal to reduce their building-generated carbon footprint.

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Kristen von Hoffmann, Founder of Greenfox Schools

Green Businesses are hotter than ever and even in the worst of economies, Ecopreneurs are looking for ways to get get funded and bring their dreams to fruition. However when it comes to the business of K-12 education, it can be challenging to get the show on the road. It helps of course to have a solid business plan and passion to carry out your mission.

Ecopreneurist recently had the opportunity to interview Kristen von Hoffmann, the president and founder of Greenfox Schools, a consulting company that provides schools with cutting edge environmental technology, products and programs to help them go green. A member of K-12 Sector Team for the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, Kristen bases her company on the Greenfox5, a strategy she developed that defines the five main functional points of optimization for any building as Energy, Waste Disposal, Food, Products, and Greenspace. Passionate about her mission, her is what she had to say to us.

EP: What is Greenfox Schools? When did you begin it?  Why?

KVH: Greenfox Schools is a start-up company founded in March 2008, with the aim of helping schools go green. We are currently a team of 8 people. I was inspired to work on Greenfox when I started teaching elementary school, after I finished college in 2006.

As a Yale undergraduate I was part of the then fledgling Yale Sustainable Food Project (YSFP), which has since grown into a thriving model for campus sustainability nationwide.

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Critics of the plan emerged quickly, and Peru’s prime minister was equally fast to label the critics as “the same ones that some time ago said Peru couldn’t host the EU-LAC summit and were pessimistic when it was announced.” Peru’s current infrastructure does raise numerous doubts about how successful the Olympics could be in Peru. Lima would no doubt host the lion’s share of events, while Cuzco, Trujillo, Arequipa, and others cities might play a part as well. Traffic problems, environmental and social issues, and financial difficulties could all make the Olympics a disastrous and harmful event for Peru. But, also, despite what the critics might say, the move to bid for the Olympics might have been a brilliant and ingenious action thought up by President Alan Garcia’s staff.

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Several of my favorites have included his essays on “Central Park South: New York Selects a Design for Governor’s Island” and “The Spire of Dublin: A Modern Monument That Points Up What’s Wrong With the World Trade Center Memorial.” Unlike his other pieces, his latest slide-show essay, “If You Build It: Two Visions of the Ideal City Rise in the Persian Gulf,” was his first that left me disappointed.

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