Shaking his head in wonder, Peter Caradonna (B.Arch. ’87) recalls a phone call he received from a developer. The man wanted Caradonna’s advice on a resort he was planning to build in Nicaragua. The Long Island architect listened to the developer’s plans—a huge, multifloor project that would have required the destruction of several acres of forest. Obviously, the developer didn’t know with whom he was speaking.

“Where are you going to get your drinking water from?” Caradonna asked. “The ground,” was the reply. “And where are you going to put the garbage and other waste from your customers?” “The ground,” the man replied again. After a pause,

Caradonna asked the man if maybe, just maybe, that might be a problem. During a series of future calls, the architect talked the developer into considering timber-framed bungalows instead. “People can be convinced to do the right thing when you make them aware of the consequences of their actions and the possibility of alternatives,” says Caradonna.

While some architects might have seen dollar signs in the resort project, Caradonna saw acres of abandoned, rotting timber, filthy water, and several floors of air conditioning creating an unnecessary burden on the Earth’s natural resources. He is just one of many NYIT graduates doing their part to foster innovative and efficient energy and design alternatives.

Caradonna became a sustainable architecture devotee after being introduced to New York City’s high-performance guidelines in the 1990s. “This is the future of our business,” he recalls thinking. He was so convinced that he eventually walked away from a lucrative job at a growing Manhattan firm to open a start-up dedicated to green projects. It was slow going for a long time, but Caradonna’s foresight is finally beginning to pay off.

“We are about to see an explosion of growth in this office,” says Caradonna, who has hired two fellow NYIT alumni, Christine Marie Caruso (B.Arch. ’02) and Erik Heuler (B. Arch. ’05) to help keep up with demand. On the burner now are schools, environmental centers, residential homes, and a firehouse.

Hiring Heuler was an easy decision for Caradonna. They met at an NYIT career fair and fell into easy conversation about Heuler’s role on the college’s Solar Decathlon team. Sponsored by the United States Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon challenges college students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

After participating on the team and taking classes that focused on sustainability, Heuler says, “My eyes were opened to everything that could be done sustainably. I thought, if this is where the profession is going, this is where I’m going.”

Caruso’s introduction to efficiency came from her mother. “She remembers the 1970s gas shortage and told me about the long lines. She was always trailing me around the house telling me to turn off lights and to conserve water.”

Turning off the lights isn’t something Caruso has to worry about at work. They’re rarely turned on. The staff relies on the daylight that streams in the office’s front wall of windows. Caradonna’s office also has flooring made from recycled car tires, special paint, and other sustainable materials. “With every decision you make, you have multiple choices,” he says.

Greener Pastures

Fellow architecture alumnus Roger Smith (B.Arch. ’78) also brings a dedication to sustainability at his firm, Burton, Behrendt & Smith. He considers developing high-performance buildings an enjoyable challenge. “In America, we’re obviously faced with high energy costs, the tremendous expense of operating a building, and declining availability of energy,” he says. “To design a building envelope that reduces the need for some energy uses is ideal.”

His latest project is the Hampton Bays Middle School, a 140,000-square-foot learning center located on Long Island, N.Y. Smith hopes the $40 million project will be one of the first LEED-certified schools outside of New York City in the state. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the national rating system for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings.

“This is not just to create an energy-conscious building but also to create a healthier environment for the children, teachers, and staff,” says Smith. “Studies have shown that when you put students in a high-performance building, you get high-performance results.”

But before the students move in, the building will be allowed to settle, releasing all of the gases that build up from painting and carpet installation. That way, the students are guaranteed fresh air from the very first day, says Smith.

Dina Larios Lima (M.S. ’95) of Hurst, Texas, took a circuitous route to her vocation in all things green. After earning her degree at NYIT in computer science and working in the field for a decade, she realized that she craved a more creative career. Lima had always loved and been intrigued by construction, so, in 2004, she decided to jump out of her comfort zone and start her own business, Emerald Luxury Homes Inc.

Lima quickly found herself immersed in green, learning about energy-efficient systems, high-performance windows, direct-vent fireplaces, radiant-barrier roof decking, and a plethora of other innovations. “The house needs to be seen as a whole system,” she says. “Each process is critical to ensuring that the whole house performs well.”

A year after starting her business, Lima’s efforts had already paid off: Building Savvy Magazine awarded the custom builder its Luxury Home of the Year honor in 2005.

More Power to Them

Green-oriented NYIT alumni are also busy on the energy front. John Eff (B.S. ’73), Randy Spitzer (M.S. ’05), and Steven M. Nadel (M.S. ’86) each tackle energy efficiency in their own way.

While working in traditional energy areas for the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO), now replaced by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), Eff heard the cries of customers calling for help to reduce their energy bills—they wanted alternatives. So LILCO put Eff in charge of finding some, making him in theory a one-man department.

As head of the Department of Independent Power and Alternative Energy, Eff started learning about windmills, fuel cells, and solar energy. “This was an undeveloped area in the early 1980s,” says Eff. “But there was also a lot happening as state and federal governments began promoting financial incentive programs, transforming the energy industry into a competitive market.”

Through the years, Eff has learned many ways to show customers how to save kilowatts—and in turn, he realized, reduce the need for additional energy plants, making the program good for the pocketbook and the planet.

Flash forward to today—one of Eff’s successors is fellow alumnus Randy Spitzer. Since LIPA became the top energy supplier on Long Island in 1998, the alternative energy program has grown. Spitzer is part of LIPA’s Clean Energy Initiative (CEI), a 10-year, $355 million program dedicated to promoting clean, renewable electric-generation technologies and energy conservation.

Right now, Spitzer is involved in a new program—a 40-turbine wind park proposed to be built 3.6 miles off Long Island’s South Shore in the Atlantic Ocean. When the park is completed, each turbine is expected to generate 3.6 megawatts of power—140 megawatts all together—which is enough to power about 44,000 homes. “It’s amazing to be part of history,” says Spitzer. “And I think projects like this bode well for Americans to wean themselves off foreign oil.”

Spitzer spends much of his time encouraging people to make good choices, explaining to developers and business owners the advantages of using efficient materials. He helps them navigate government policy and incentive programs. “The goal is to eventually make some of the things we offer incentive for common practice,” he says.

Spitzer is now working with Eff’s company, which moved from the supply side of energy to conservation earlier this year when he and his peers started Long Island Energy Partners. As a contractor for Lockheed Martin, an international technology company, the firm helps businesses on Long Island conserve energy. In November, Eff brought his team to NYIT’s Old Westbury campus to evaluate the college’s energy use and provide counsel on ways to improve lighting, heating and cooling systems, and other building control systems.

Eff was pleased to see all of the changes to the campus since he was astudent in the early 1970s and praised many of the energy programs the college has already put in place, including the use of solar energy in Anna Rubin Hall.

Diplomatic Solution

And just who brings about the policies that people such as Spitzer and Eff enforce? It’s people like Steven M. Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization that promotes change through advocacy.

Nadel sees his role as a sort of diplomat between policy makers and the technical industry leaders. “I have to be conversant in both worlds,” he says.

He explains what’s possible to policy makers so that they can create the best possible energy efficiency standards and programs. Through the years, Nadel says, he has helped to develop standards for at least 40 different products. “Go into any home and chances are, you’re going to see something that’s more efficient because of our work,” he says. He also helps implement initiatives such as the New York Energy $mart programs now serving consumers and businesses throughout New York state.

Nadel’s work spreads beyond the United States, to developing countries such China and Thailand. He works with local governments to provide training in developing energy-efficiency standards that work specifically for them.

When he thinks about the increase of energy prices and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, Nadel says that something has to be done. He uses it as an impetus for working even harder. “We may not be able to eliminate our reliance on oil imports, but we can significantly cut them.”