6 minute read
Green Spotlight: Green Energy Technology by JGM
GREEN SPOTLIGHT
Green Energy Technology by JGM
The Queens is Green Initiative works to connect Chamber members and industry leaders in an effort to help businesses become more energy efficient and ensure that Queens is leading the way in the fight against climate change. Through educating, advocating and networking the Queens is Green Initiative strives to make Queens the greenest county in the largest city in America.
This energy partnership will help Queens Chamber members conserve energy and save money. Bringing together Chamber members Reliable Power Alternatives Co., SUNation Solar Systems, Green Energy Technology, CPower Energy Management, National Grid and Con Edison, we will help our businesses become more energy efficient and assure that Queens is the greenest and most energy efficient borough and county in New York.
This month’s Green Spotlight features the work of Chamber member Green Energy Technology by JGM.
Green Energy Technologies on the Queens is Green initiative and where we add value to the mission of decarbonizing Queens and being the “go to” resource for Queen’s Built Environment’s Renewable, Energy Efficiency and Resiliency needs Green Energy Technology by JGM (GET) is honored and privileged to be called upon to participate in the Queens is Green initiative along with our colleagues at SUNation Energy, RPAC, and CPower Energy Management, as we collaborate to improve the environment by working toward the reduction of carbon emissions in the Queens environment. As a total turnkey solution provider for electric vehicle charging stations and their requisite infrastructure, GET has designed EVSE infrastructures in collaboration with the other members of the Chamber of Commerce as close to home for the Chamber as literally right outside the office headquarters with 10 ports about to be installed at the Bulova Building.
In our work with CPower, we have been introduced to a major real estate management company requiring electric chargers for installation at two of their local shopping centers with a total of nearly 800 parking spaces in Brooklyn off of the Belt Parkway and in Flushing, Queens, requiring 45-50 ports for electric vehicle support. GET is also in discussions with Resorts World Casino next to Aqueduct, school bus companies that run their vehicles through the street of Queens, and several organizations at JFK and La Guardia Airports with the same needs on grander scales.
SUNation Energy and GET are working on multiple sites to provide combined resources of solar energy and EVSE to work towards the same objective. And RPAC and GET are in contractual negotiations with significant national realty organizations with properties in Queens requiring EVSE.
Why is all of this important? Electric vehicles emit 60-68% fewer pollutants into the environment than their gas and diesel predecessors. That means cleaner air for the school children riding on buses on their ways to and from school, their parents as they wave them goodbye, shoppers in centers with cleaner vehicles, and on and on.
Together, we are working to improve the quality of the air and the quality of the environment to lead to a healthier and cleaner life for the citizens of a greener Queens.
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COVER STORY
Reducing red tape and building safely
By Matthew Fischetti mfischetti@queensledger.com
Eric Ulrich is the newest commissioner of the citywide Department of Buildings. And while he’s been in charge of overseeing the more than a million buildings in New York City since May, he sees his job as managing people and the overall culture rather than buildings.
“I'm not an architect or engineer, but my first deputy is and that's consistent with the law,” Ulrich said in an interview at the department’s office at 280 broadway, referencing his First Deputy Commissioner Kazmir Vilenchik, whose picture hangs in the walls of the department of buildings, as is traditionally only done for the head commissioner.
The former Queens Councilman represented Rockaway, Howard Beach, South Ozone Park and Woodhaven for eight years. The 37-year-old says he once contemplated the priesthood. Walking the halls with him at DOB offices, while he addressed teams in the department was eye-opening. “These are the men and women who are inspectors,” he said, beaming with pride. “We know you are often viewed as the enemy, but I know you have a passion to make sure buildings are safe. You are all great people,” he said.
One of the first things Ulrich did when taking over the office was reorganize the department to make it more efficient. The licensing unit, responsible for issuing permits for 23 different types of trades people to do their work, had a backlog of over 1,000 a day and was organized under the deputy mayor for legal affairs.
“This backlog is unacceptable. People's livelihoods are on the line. If they don't have a license, and it's expired, they can't file for permits. If they can't file for permits, they can't work, they can’t make money, their employees can't work and they're losing money,” Ulrich said.
Now, after some personnel changes the backlog is only 100 a day. Ulrich said that he and his team are focusing on one or two units under the department every week in order to find inefficiencies and places to make improvements.
“If we can make a change there, imagine how much of a difference
we can make if we can make the right personnel decisions and also digitize and modernize the operations in every other unit,” Ulrich said.
But the job of being commissioner is much more than just finding bureaucratic issues and fixing them, it requires a personal touch. He didn’t want the 1600 building department employees to just know him through a press release, so Ulrich spent time visiting each department.
“I went down to the record room, I went up to the planning room, I went to the inspectors,” Ulrich said. “But I wanted to meet literally every single person, even people that were hiding in the back, asking ‘Who are you? What do you do? Thank you for what you do. My name is Eric. And I just want
to introduce myself, I’m the new commissioner. Feel free to reach out anytime I have an open door policy.’”
And Ulrich said that the approach is working. One woman in the record room said she had been there over 30 years and started to cry, as no commissioner had spent the time to come down to the department in years past, according to Ulrich.
“I realized after that tour of all the offices that the problem with the buildings department is not the people, the people are good. The problem is the process,” Ulrich said. That’s why Ulrich is working with 70 different stakeholder groups, ranging from industry experts to unions, to overhaul the department as part of the “Adams Commission: A Blueprint for a Better Buildings Department.”
“We’re trying to improve customer service, maximize productivity and efficiency and bring this agency into the 21st century,” Ulrich said about the commission and his main goals for improving the department.
The department is currently in the process of moving many of the department’s processes to digital portal through “DOB Now”, an online portal for filings, with a goal of having the agency be completely paperless by the end of next year.
In years past, Ulrich said that the customer service approach from the department has been lackluster, so one of the former councilman’s main focuses was to bring a
