FLUSHING—Tucked away at the end of Main Street in Flushing, the Queens Botanical Garden holds the most environmentally advanced building in the entire state of New York. The garden's Visitor & Administration Center, utilizes a number of environmentally sustainable elements, including a full solar panel, a planted roof that absorbs rainwater, and a geothermal heating and cooling system.
To give thanks to those who have demonstrated similar commitment to the environment, the 13th Annual Rose Ball was held on June 17. Honored during this year's award ceremony were president of the Borough of Queens Helen M. Marshall and the President, CEO, and founding Chairman of the US Green Building Council S. Richard Fedrizzi.
Fedrizzi described the benefits that an eco-friendly environment has on children and the future. "The statistics we know about kids in green schools is that they score 20% better on test scores, they have a 28% better reading retention, and a 40% reduction of respiratory illnesses," said Fedrizzi. "Imagine every school in the world built this way."
The garden's eco-friendly structure has received some of the highest ratings possible in terms of sustainability. Fedrizzi discussed the importance of such building practices. "To go forward as a society and a world, we have to go backwards," said Fedrizzi. "We have to learn more of what our grandparents knew because our grandparents lived in a different world. They didn't waste and they recycled everything because they had to. The thought of wasting something to our grandparents was terrible."
"Maybe in the last fifty to sixty years, we forgot those ideas. We forgot that we can grow our own food and that we can harmonize with nature and that we can have a better life as a result," said Fedrizzi. "Many of the green building ideas you hear about today aren't new ideas. They're actually very old ideas."
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