Sustainable farming and sustainable energy — there’s a link between the two, and one of New York’s best known farmer’s market is going to use a $16,500 donation to highlight it, with the addition of solar panels to an educational van.
The Greenmarket, which happens four times a week in Manhattan’s Union Square, will receive the funding from Green Mountain Energy Company to outfit the van.
The vehicle is used at events where market staff demonstrate to audiences simple ways to buy, prepare and cook farm-fresh products while also offering first-hand accounts of sustainable, small-scale farming in the region where they live.
The addition of the panels means the station will enable visitors to learn not only about the benefits of sustainable farming but also sustainable energy.
In a statement, Michael Hurwitz, the director of Greenmarket, the company which runs the Union Square farmer’s market, said: “Greenmarket ensures that New Yorkers have access to the freshest and healthiest food in the region. To be able to educate customers on this mission as we cook with solar power really brings things full circle.”
Greenmarket is a part of GrowNYC, the nation’s largest urban farmers market network.
The first greenmarket in New York was started in the mid-1970s from a parking lot on 59th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan. Today, GrowNYC has 53 markets in the New York area, with more than 230 family farms and fishermen participating. According to GrowNYC’s website, this has led to over 30,000 acres of farmland being protected from development.
“GrowNYC does a magnificent job of positively impacting the global environment through sustainable agriculture education,” Paul Markovich, the president of Green Mountain Energy residential services, said in a statement. “Green Mountain is pleased to give back to nonprofits that work diligently to make the world a healthier place.”
Green Mountain is a renewable energy retailer. It is one of the longest-serving green power marketers in the U.S and it’s biggest client to date is the Empire State Building, which signed on for a two-year contract in 2011. By purchasing a reported 55 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy each year from the Green Mountain, the New York landmark will cut nearly 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being pumped in to the atmosphere each year.
The donation of the solar panels to the farmer’s market was made possible through Green Mountain’s Sun Club initiative. Via the program residential customers of the energy marketer can give back to deserving non-profit organizations through the promotion of solar power. Customer contributions go toward the funding of solar installations and since the Sun Club began in 2002, customers have helped install almost 500 kilowatts of solar power, representing a 3.3 million pound cut in CO2 emissions.
Last year, Sun Club members in Texas gave a $140,000 donation to the University of Houston for its first photovoltaic (PV) system. The 20.24-kilowatt (kW) PV array on the roof of the university’s Central Utility Plant consists of 88 solar panels and covers 2,000 square feet.