Environmental Justice & Literacy through Community Science

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ECOLIBRIUM IN THE NEWS!

ECOLIBRIUM team successfully completed a live test of their prototype wireless air quality monitoring network!

The team, led by Ravi Sharma, a 2nd year Electrical Engineering student at Cooper Union, built the sensors using industrial components and micro-computing modules and open-source code.

The sensor units can be equipped to measure and log indoor and outdoor environmental conditions.

The components tested include sensors capable of measuring the airborne toxins Nitrogen Oxides (NOX), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), Particulate Matter (PM 1, PM 2.5, PM 4, PM 10), CO2, and environmental conditions Relative Humidity and Temperature (RH/T). Future upgrades for other sensor types are in the works.

The remote sensors are programmed to find and connect to their "mothership", a mini-computer hub that acts as a wifi router and VPN, which collects real-time data from sensors within range, and securely delivers the stats to our server at Loisaida, which records and graphs the data for public

display via the web. The networking architecture, design and implementation is done by our Senior Tech Team, led by Daniel Bell of Bell Technologies and Loisaida's Paul Garrin.

Operating next to our prototype is a professional air quality monitor provided to us by Thermo-Fisher Scientific. The Thermo-Scientific GM5000 acts as a reference source for calibrating our lab-built units. In an ideal world, we would deploy hundreds of GM5000's but that proves much too costly for a neighborhood non-profit -- so we took on the challenge to build smaller ones from parts in order to lower the cost and deploy them in large numbers around the Loisaida neighborhood.

ECOLIBRIUM's air quality monitoring network is part of a NY State Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Justice Grant which supports our "Environmental Justice and Literacy through Community Science" program.

Our goal is to inspire and up-skill our community to take effective actions to improve the health and wellbeing of our neighbors, and to create a roadmap toward climate-adaptation, mitigation, and economic opportunities through coordinated, well-timed actions from reducing energy waste, to zero emissions.

On this 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy's devastation to New York City, we must emphasize that facing the CLIMATE EMERGENCY is everyone's job. There's a role and shared-responsibility for all of us. We're all in it together.

ABOUT ECOLIBRIUM

ECOLIBRIUM is an initiative by the Loisaida Inc. Center that has assembled a diverse, multigenerational team of college students, recent graduates, high school seniors, and professionals like data scientists, architects and engineers who all seek to improve public health and environmental conditions in the Lower East Side ("Loisaida") neighborhood.

Through immersive skills-sharing approach, the project uses multimedia resources to enhance environmental and climate science literacy and inspire positive environmental behaviors. 

Our goals are to:

• Bring together new and old community members to envision pathways toward a zero emissions and social equity future for our neighborhood and City.

• Learn about environmental toxins and their sources, climate change and the urban environment, and nature-based solutions at the ultra-local level; from our apartments, to our building, to our block and so on.

• Research the NYC's energy system and public works, and how all buildings are critical infrastructure.

• Draw upon indigenous knowledge to better understand neighborhood geology and urban ecosystems.

• Plan, develop and create local Circular Economies with respect to ecological ventures, community organizing and for planning long-term actions.

Residential Energy Efficiency Survey

Is your fridge or AC always running but never cool? Tell us about it!

We've created a survey to determine just how many home appliances in the neighborhood are due for an upgrade. Not only do older refrigerators and air conditioners waste energy, they can also leak harmful refrigerants which contribute to climate change. Help us take count of how many of us would benefit from new energy efficient appliances that can help lower our monthly electricity bills.

It only takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Take the survey now!

Building Heating & Hot Water Survey

We created this survey is to determine the number of oil and gas burning boilers in our neighborhood. Oil and gas boilers use fossil fuels which have negative impacts on our health. Help us take count of how many of us would benefit from more environmentally safe boilers!

It only takes 5 minutes to complete. Take the survey now!