This year Earth Day passed without a Gotham Green Awards® advancing it. Even though I was visiting mom in Florida (while Shelly and Marisa visited Paris), Earth Day 2019 did not pass without a constructive message I could release, tweet and post to Facebook and LinkedIn. It just involved bus public transit. Gotham Green® this year held its awards program on May Day, joint with Gotham Construction.

Gotham Green® annually recognizes those who make a difference in our communities and the world by celebrating people and organizations, both Gotham members and non-Gotham members, who work in ways big and small; for-profit and not-for-profit, to make our world a little greener. GOtham Green® provides a platform for businesses and professionals who seek to connect and promote sustainable business opportunities, practices and relationships.

Gotham Green Awards® recognize three categories:

1. Green Business or Green Initiative – For businesses whose core message and products are green in concept and/or sustainable.

2. Green product, program or building – For businesses that have produced, planned or created a singular item that is green and sustainable.

3. Green/Sustainable non-profit organization – For non-profit organizations that focus on or have created a program or product that they believe contributes to the global sustainability effort.

This year Gotham Green® recognized two deserving awardees who (that) work on environmentally sustainable initiatives and projects:

√ PlantUs NYC (Laura Sauer), a 30-year old, turnkey, urban horticultural contracting company that provides commercial and residential clients with interior and exterior plantscapes, green roofs, and living walls. Most recently, PlantUs has partnered with NYSERDA and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to install green roofs on commercial buildings as part of the Stormwater Runoff Management program, in conjunction with the City of New York’s OneNYC environmental initiative.

√ Nuravine (Alex Babich), an environmental automation company in business for two years and sold our its product in April 2017. It produces hardware and software systems which enable indoor farms to operate more efficiently in order to reduce input costs and create optimal environments for cultivation; one product can save 46 work days annually in terms of efficiency.

As always a special thank you to Gotham co-Founder Fred C. Klein for inspiration. We scheduled this year’s presentation to ensure his presence and we thank the special couple who moved “heaven and earth” (aka performed a bit of magic) to ensure unforeseen transportation challenges posed no upset to long-made plans.

Email GOtham Green® Group Coordinator Sherry Rivera for further information about Gotham's original "Save The World" group (as least that’s how Fred Klein describes it).

p.s. As this past weekend started we attended – as I mentioned in my “’Cause it matters” commentary a few weeks back, this year’s gala of the Theresa Foundation which also recognizes all previous honorees; that includes this commentator and Friday’s blogger.