NYU Footprint Forward Week (November 5-12) is about making an active difference in a livable way. Though presentations, workshops, a guidebook, and an online community, we hope to inspire over 500 students and community members at NYU and in the surrounding neighborhood to live as close to a zero net impact lifestyle as possible for the duration of the week.

While low-impact living necessitates some changes in lifestyle, Footprint Forward is ultimately about doing more, not less. It means making choices that are within the boundaries of our professional, academic and personal needs that help sustain our school, our city, and our world – as well as ourselves.

Footprint Forward begins on November 4th with a private workshop with “No Impact Man” Colin Beavan and culminates in a community wide lecture in the Great Hall at Cooper Union on November 12th. Throughout the week there will be positive impact events, lectures, volunteer opportunities, social opportunities and more. All are welcome to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable.

To register and attend, click here. Hope to see you!

That flag and sign above the air conditioner is more than just a political statement. Yep, even though I’m a strong supporter of equal rights, I must confess that this didn’t go up until someone offered to pay me $80-$160 a month to post it. If you live in a high traffic area, an opportunity like this might be out there for you. In my case, there’s a local scavenger hunt, and that sign is one of the clues. Why not post on Craigslist that you have advertising space available, and get some extra income each month to pay your astronomical rent. If you’re lucky, you might get to put up something that promotes your views while it fattens your wallet.

“Not without a time machine,” you’d probably say. But you can. All over New York, there are great restaurants that offer a bargain hunters dream…BYOB. Pick up a couple of high value bottles, and check out Tartine, or Ivo and Lulu for fine dining at a can’t miss price. (Bonus low impact points to Ivo and Lulu for using all organic ingredients.) These places often don’t take reservations, so bring an extra bottle to keep you warm (or cool) while you wait for a table, and don’t show up with a big group and expect to be seated promptly. There are lots more options than just these two downtown spots, so find some in your neighborhood, and bon appetit!

As a big Yankee fan, I’ve spent the week mourning the end of baseball here in New York. October is becoming an annual disappointment, after the great run through the late 90s. I find it helps to remember all the good times I had at the stadium during the year, and because of some advance planning, I was able to enjoy quite a few games for very little money. Each year, the Yanks offer a series of discount tickets, the best of which is the Fujifilm $5 night. On those days, you can get Tier Box seats, which usually run $40+ for just $5 plus Ticketmaster blood money. (About $9 total.) The trick is, these deals sell out pretty quickly, so you have to be on top of things when they release the schedule in December. This past year, they sold holiday ticket packs of every Fujifilm game, which was even more of a steal since the cut to Ticketmaster was lower. Then, be generous. Offer your extras around to friends for free, especially if they are big fans. I guarantee this generosity will come back around to you, (and the people you take for free will buy you drinks too!)

If the package seems like too many games, wait till individual games go on sale in January, and jump on it. Many of the discount tickets sell out in a day. Demand is liable to be even higher for next year, the last season at old Yankee Stadium… so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Man, just writing this up has me excited already. We’ll get ‘em next year.

Here’s a really quick step you can take to seriously decrease your carbon footprint without making a huge dent in your wallet: green power. Here’s a blurb from the site:

If just 10 percent of New York’s households purchased green power in conjunction with their electricity supply, it would prevent nearly three billion pounds of carbon dioxide, 13 million pounds of sulfur dioxide, and nearly four million pounds of nitrogen oxides from getting into our air each year.

You can easily sign up online with your Con Ed account number. I signed up through Con Ed Solutions, which means I get a single bill, and 100% of my electricity is generated from wind power, one of the cleanest sources available. The premium for wind power is 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, approximately an extra $8.75/ month for a typical household. (Of course, if you have a small place, and are careful to conserve energy in other ways, you’ll pay less.) So for around $100/year, you can remove yourself from the fossil fuel economy. That’s a bargain at twice the price.