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Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder

Now that you’ve watched the Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder video, I’d like you to discuss it with each other. In your discussion consider the following (but you can bring up other points you see as relevant too):

What is the problem identified in this video? Do you think it was solved and if so, how? If not, why not?
Would you have approached this problem differently? Why/why not?
How do you see this video relating to your Engineering Proposal assignment?

Mark Rober tried to pick up a hobby in bird feeding and watching. He put out a birdfeeder to attract the birds in his neighborhood, only for the squirrels to break his feeder and steal all the food. He kept trying by buying more bird feeders, but the squirrels always found a way to break the feeders and steal his food. His solution to this problem was to give the squirrels food as well, but with a twist. He set up his bird feeder like normal, but below it, he built a special squirrel feeder that dispensed walnuts. The only way for the squirrels to get to this feeder was to complete an elaborate obstacle course that Mark Rober designed and built himself. His idea worked, and in the end, Mark developed an affection for the squirrels. He decided to dismantle his obstacle course and instead create a periodic feeder that dispensed walnuts for the squirrels, away from the birds. In my opinion, I think he solved his problem since the squirrels stopped eating the bird feed and destroying the bird feeders.

I would have approached this problem similarly. My first instinct would be to buy better and better bird feeders. I would try different areas to place them, and see if I could outsmart the squirrels,  as I’m sure Mark Rober did. Eventually, though, I would realize that outsmarting the squirrels wouldn’t work, as they seem to get into everything.  Finding out how to compromise with the squirrels and work with them would be my second idea, perhaps by installing a second feeder somewhere else. Honestly, I could also try to kill them, but that would be awful and also maybe illegal.

There may be bigger problems that also require an engineering solution. These solutions could be more than just hobby projects. They could cost thousands of dollars and involve many workers.  An Engineering Proposal is necessary for everyone to be on the same page. Mark had a similar issue. His wife was worried about the safety of the squirrels when he was implementing the trap doors and catapults.  Because of this, he implemented safety measures for the more intense parts of the course.  I’m sure telling this idea to his wife had parallels to an engineering proposal.

Discussion 4: PB&J Challenge

Now that you’ve watched the PB&J Challenge (Exact Instructions) video, I’d like you to discuss it with each other. In your discussion consider the following (but you can bring up other points you see as relevant too):

  1. What challenges does this video highlight about precision of language and communication?
  2. How do you see this video relating to your Technical Description assignment?
  3. Did this video change the way you view technical communication? Why or why not?

One of the challenges highlighted in this video was that the kids assumed that their father knew what they were thinking or what they meant when they wrote their instructions. When the dad would read one of the instructions literally, his son would often add in another detail that wasn’t being followed. This detail was often something in the son’s head that he assumed his dad already knew. This highlights a very frequent issue when it comes to miscommunication in general. This issue being someone’s intent being misread because they didn’t say what they meant clearly enough.

We are taking mundane everyday objects and explaining them in detail in this assignment. If someone were to ask me to describe what a pencil is, I would probably just tell them that it’s a tool that lets you write on paper. If they also asked how to use it, I would tell them that they need to sharpen it first, and then use the tip of it to write. My descriptions assume that the person I’m describing this to has a lot of prior knowledge. I’m assuming they know what a pencil sharpener is, what side of the pencil the tip is on, and how to use that tip to write words. This is similar to how the kids in this video assumed that their dad knew things like what side of the bread to spread jelly on and what side of the knife to use to scoop peanut butter. 

Even though the peanut butter sandwich experiment is an extreme example, it does change the way I see technical communication. The idea is that as we go through our school year and career paths, there will be some concepts that become as easy and obvious to us as making a peanut butter jelly sandwich. It’s important to remember, though, that we understand these concepts because we have a slew of common knowledge built up after taking many classes in the past. Most people outside of our professions don’t have the same academic background as we do. When there are miscommunications and misunderstandings, it can feel as frustrating as the little boy in the video feeling like his dad isn’t doing his instructions according to his own common sense. We need to take a step back and recognize any implicit assumptions we may have made when giving someone explicit instructions.

Self Assessment

In engineering, there is a great deal of communication involved. You might find yourself helping a coworker with a tough engineering problem, but your solution just doesn’t come across to them. You could also find yourself pitching an ambitious project to a board of higher-ups who don’t even know how to use their own home computers. It’s easy to underestimate the amount of communication that we have to do as engineers, especially when we are deep in our own worlds of studying. The fact of the matter is, we are always going to be interacting with and working with people, and what good is your vast engineering knowledge if you can’t express it to people in a way they understand? I was one of those people who didn’t consider the communication aspect of an engineering career. Writing for Engineering taught me this importance. In this course, I learned that there are different ways to write for different audiences and how to take those audiences into account. This course also taught me how to adhere to the writing conventions of commonly used report formats, such as lab reports and technical descriptions. I’d say one of the biggest skills it taught me, though, was how to collaborate with multiple people on a unified project. 

The target audience is a very crucial part of writing for engineering. The main idea I learned on how to account for a target audience is to acknowledge the common knowledge from both parties on a given subject. I personally didn’t have much experience with this. I usually avoided situations where I had to explain a complex topic to someone in another specialty. I’d say this course helped me a lot with this idea. One of the assignments that was very enlightening for me was our second discussion board post. The task of the first part of this post was to explain some specialized knowledge you have with as much technical jargon as possible, and then try to guess what other classmates were talking about. It was an intentionally fun and confusing exercise, but writing that first half was very helpful for the second half. The next part of the assignment was to rewrite your original explanation, but try to make it understandable to an audience that isn’t familiar with your topic. For this part, it really helped to have the first part of this exercise typed out. I was able to look back at the main message I wanted to convey and make edits to it for clarity. I had to really think about what I was trying to say and what parts were important. This meant removing a lot of unnecessary details. It also meant that the details I did include were explained well. Overall, it was a really fun exercise, and even though I talked about something trivial, in my case solving a Rubik’s Cube, there are lots of other examples where I might need to explain something more important. I learned a very valuable way to handle these situations.

Before this course, I wasn’t aware of the writing conventions of professional lab reports and papers. This is very apparent in my first draft of the lab report I had to write for this class. I took a very personal and friendly tone with my writing. I used eccentric punctuation and wrote from my natural voice. I learned in the revisionary annotations that my writing was understandable and easy to read, but it completely violated the writing conventions of a lab report. One of the biggest issues was that I hadn’t stuck to a consistent passive voice when writing my report. The way I understand passive voice is that you refer to only the objects, and don’t refer to people. Instead of saying “I poured water,” you would say “The water was poured.” With this knowledge (and the other revision notes), it wasn’t hard at all to fix my report and write my final draft. I had already written all the information out, all I needed to change was the way this information was being conveyed. I was very surprised how simple it was to take this laid-back and friendly report and make it sound concise and professional. If I wasn’t sure how to convey an idea, our professor had us annotate an already existing lab report to try and deconstruct the writing conventions from there. That exercise really helped, since I was also able to find out other information about these lab reports, like the target audience and the overall structure.

I feel that I learned the most from the Engineering Proposal project. The collaboration aspect of this project was something I hadn’t done before to this degree. If I were to do this project with no guidance and just a team of people, I think it would’ve ended up with one of us doing all the work, or figuring out who does what at the last minute. The way this project was structured, we had to create documents that outlined how we would get our project done. We created a group contract that outlined how we would be communicating and submitting projects. It got really specific and accounted for ideas I hadn’t even thought of, like how long we’d have to wait for a response from one another. We also had to create a Gantt chart, which is a way of dividing up and organizing the tasks that needed to be completed for our project. It made the rest of the project very straightforward, since we knew exactly what we needed to do every step of the way. Another thing I learned from the proposal was how to give a convincing pitch to an audience. We had to be extremely specific in our final proposal. We included a substantial amount of research and got extremely detailed. It made a lot of sense why we needed more than one person to make this report. In the beginning, I might’ve been under the impression that I could go about this alone. We each agreed to take on one part of the project, which allowed each of us to focus on one single aspect of our proposal. One thing I didn’t consider was how all of this information would read, since we did our parts disjointedly. This required one of us to do a final check of all of our submissions to make sure it was all readable. I’m definitely going to use this method when I have to do any sort of collaborative project in the future, since it made the entire process really simple.

CCNY’s engineering program tries to equip you with as much knowledge as it can. They require you to understand the deep underlying physics of everything you’re doing, giving you a sturdy background in your field. Their Writing for Engineering course is part of this program. They try to teach you the overlooked parts of being a good engineer. These parts could be explaining your idea to a target audience. It could also be writing a lab report that adheres to conventional formatting. The most important thing I learned from this course, though, was how to collaborate with others on projects. You could say that all communication is a collaboration between two people, the conscious effort to try to understand and be understood. I believe that through my efforts, my communication skills as an engineer have strengthened. 

Group Contract

  • Our primary method of communication will be Discord. 
  • When sending a message on Discord, we will try our best to respond on the same day. This will apply to weekends as well as weekdays.
  • Our primary method of collaboration will be Google Docs, and it will mainly be asynchronous.
  • We will use the sequential writing strategy, where each member is in charge of writing a specific part and we will write in sequence. Thus, all of us have the role of writer and editor.
  • We will check in as often as possible, and at minimum 2-3 times a week.  
  • For our presentation, we will conduct a zoom meeting while one group member shares the slides from their screen.
  • We aim to receive an A or better on this assignment.

Collaborators

Brendan Johnson

Farhan Khan

Jayden Garcia

Lab Report Rough Draft

Abstract

Using the Piezo Crystal from a standard long necked lighter, you can wire it to an amplifier and headphone jack to create a homemade microphone.

 

Intro

Long neck lighters are a pretty common appliance in most households. They offer a way to start small fires without the risk of burning yourself. A simple clicking ignition button on the lighter requires a small amount of force to start a fire. But how does clicking a button result in a flame? The answer lies in the Piezo Crystal. A Piezo Crystal is essentially a crystal that has a special molecular structure, and it is a main component of any long necked lighter. The main property that results from this structure is that if you hit one of these crystals, you will generate electricity! The amount of electricity you generate depends on how hard you hit the crystal. So, what you’re actually doing when you click the button on a lighter, is pushing down and releasing a small spring with a hammer attached to it. This hammer hits the Piezo Crystal that lies within the lighter, which generates an electric spark at the tip of the lighter. While the button is being held, a flow of flammable gas is being directed to the tip of the lighter as well. Once the gas contacts the heat from the spark, it ignites, and your flame is lit!

Another way we utilize piezo crystals is in microphones. It might sound bizarre, but fundamentally the crystal in a lighter and a microphone serve the same purpose, generating electricity based on force. The sound waves in the air, although small, are in fact a force. A piezo crystal can detect this force and generate electricity directly proportional to the sound waves it’s being pushed by. This electricity can then be fed into a circuit where it’s amplified and then sent to a computer or a speaker.

 

So the question is, can we create a microphone out of a lighter?

 

Materials + methods

1x Long necked lighter

1x Amplifying circuit

1x Soldering Gun

1x Cheap headphones/earphones

1x Thin piece of cardboard

1x Tape

1x Audio recording device

  1. Dismantle the lighter
  2. Extract the Piezo Crystal component
  3. Solder the Piezo Crystal wires to the amplifying circuit
  4. Snip off the end of the cheap headphones, leaving some wire before the headphone plug
  5. Strip off the end of the headphone wire
  6. Connect the left and right channel wires together with the soldering gun
  7. Solder the headphone wires to the amplifier
  8. Tape the Piezo Crystal to the thin cardboard
  9. Plug in the headphone jack to your audio device

 

Results

At first, the wiring was correct, but the experimenter didn’t produce any sound in his audio recording.  He thought this was because the crystal wasn’t detecting enough vibrations, so he taped the crystal to a thin piece of cardboard so that the crystal would collect the vibrations from the cardboard but still nothing. He figured out that the issue was there was a high ohm resistor within his audio device that was completely snuffing out any input from his microphone. The combat this, he added an amplifier to his microphone to make the signal louder, and after doing this his microphone worked. It picked up his voice but the result wasn’t the best quality and it was really noisy.

Discussion

These results demonstrate the properties of the crystal. The force applied to it is proportional to the electricity produced. If it wasn’t, then the microphone wouldn’t be able to produce a clear voice, it would just be random static. Another interesting property is that the crystal can be used as a speaker aswell. The same way you can deform the crystal to produce electricity, you can also feed the crystal electricity and it will deform the same way. Speakers work by vibrating or deforming some element in the same frequency as a given audio input, so the crystal is essentially acting as a speaker aswell.

Conclusion

The crystal in a long necked lighter is functionally the same component as a crystal in a microphone. With this component and enough modification you can successfully create a microphone from a lighter.

 

Bibliography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlVI7YJGHq0&ab_channel=ElectroBOOM

https://www.electroboom.com/?p=1156

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJXA8IqYl8&t=0s

Discussion Post 2: Baffling Description

Create a new thread and write a paragraph or two on a topic about which you have specialized knowledge, and can use specialized terminology to explain the idea or instruct the reader. For example, you might write about effective techniques for executing certain skateboard maneuvers or how to execute a yoga position such as a “downward facing dog.” Try to baffle your audience through jargon–they will have to guess what you are trying to write about. Make it tough for us to guess!

Here are some tips on how to improve your  speed in _________ without having to memorize every single OLL and PLL perm.

One thing you can do early on is make sure you’ve already solved the cross in your head during the examination period.  That way you can focus on the other steps while you solve your cross. There’s a good way to practice this on your own. Start your solve as usual, but instead of the normal inspection time of 15 seconds, take as much time as you need.  Your goal right now is to try and map out the least amount of moves you need to solve the cross. It should almost feel like you’re creating an algorithm in your head. Then, close your eyes and see if you can solve the cross using the algorithm you created. It will be hard at first! It might take you several minutes to figure out your move sequence. But once you can consistently solve your cross with your eyes closed, then you can gradually cut down on the inspection time you need to come up with your cross algorithm. Eventually, you should be able to solve the cross with a brief glance.

The reason this is so useful isn’t just because you cut down on a step, but now you can use that extra time to scout out your F2L pairs BEFORE you insert them. A lot of F2L time is wasted looking for your pairs, since doing your F2L case algs and insert algs are relatively quick. The goal here is to try and make each step an opportunity to look ahead to your next step.   If you get good enough, you should be able to figure out which OLL alg you need for the top layer right when you’re inserting your last F2L pair. PLL should be fairly easy if you know a good amount of perms. Even if you haven’t memorized much, and you’re still doing intermediate 4LL CFOP, this should still cut down your times significantly!

In a reply to your original thread, rewrite the paragraph (or two) so that a general audience (someone with zero expertise in your topic) can understand it. Were any of the guesses right? What did you have to change so that your audience could better understand you?

Here are some tips on how to improve your speed in solving a rubiks cube without having to memorize a bunch of insane algorithms.

Contrary to how you would think to solve a rubiks cube, you don’t solve it by completing one side at a time. The way 99% of people solve a Rubik’s cube is by solving it in “layers” instead. So naturally when you start solving you would start with your first layer. Your very very first step is to complete what is known as the White Cross. The white cross is essentially a completely solved white side of the Rubiks cube, but without any of the corners of that white side in the right place, hence the cross pattern. Completing this part takes a little bit of thinking but should be fairly easy. Most people gloss over this step and try to improve their times on the later steps since they are harder. However, if you can manage to create your white cross faster (and eventually without even looking!) then you can significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to solve your cube.

Remember when I mentioned that the white cross is just the white side of the cube without the corner pieces? Well, the very next step after the white cross is to try to find these missing corner pieces and place them where they need to go. The idea behind doing your white cross without looking is that you can now focus on finding those corner pieces while you solve your cross. This pattern of looking ahead to your next step while you complete your current step is a key part of solving your cube faster and it all starts with solving your cross as fast as you can.

Most people were able to understand what I wrote since they had learned to solve a rubiks cube before. I’m sure most engineering students dabbled in speedcubing once, it’s simply in our problem-solving nature!
To rewrite my tutorial, I omitted a lot of unnecessary information that would hinder comprehension instead of helping it. I also simplified the complex ideas, basically just explaining why they were important instead of exactly what they are.

Lab Report

Abstract

A Piezo Crystal is a component that generates electricity based on the force applied to it. It is found in most household lighters as well as microphones. Connecting the crystal from the lighter to an audio input should theoretically create a functioning microphone. The sound waves picked up by the crystal are small and don’t produce sufficient electrical signals to an audio input.  Connecting an amplifying circuit and sound conducting material to the crystal produce legible results and turn the crystal into a low quality functioning microphone.

Intro

Long neck lighters are a common household appliance that can generate a flame using a small amount of force. This is done using a clicking ignition button that the user presses. The Piezo Crystal is the component in the lighter that allows this to happen. A Piezo Crystal is a crystal that has a specific molecular structure that lacks symmetry on specific axes. When force is applied to the crystal, the structure warps and the net positive and negative charges become offset, which creates a voltage (Appendix A).

When the switch of the lighter is clicked, there is a small hammer on a spring that is released and positioned to hit the crystal. Once the crystal is hit, electricity is generated, and a spark appears at the top of the lighter. While the switch is being held, a flow of flammable gas is being fed to the top of the lighter as well. When the spark and the gas collide, the flame is produced.

Another way Piezo Crystals are utilized are in standard microphones. Fundamentally the crystal in a lighter and a microphone serve the same purpose, generating electricity based on force. The sound waves in the air function as a small force. The piezo crystal detects this force and generates electricity directly proportional to the sound waves. This electric signal is then be fed into a circuit where it is amplified and then sent to a computer or a speaker.

The hypothesis being tested is whether the Piezo Crystal from a long-necked lighter can be reutilized as a microphone.

Materials + methods

1x Long necked lighter

1x Amplifying circuit

1x Diode circuit

1x Soldering Gun

1x Cheap headphones/earphones

1x Thin piece of cardboard

1x Tape

1x Audio recording device

I started by dismantling the lighter and identifying where the spark is created at the top. Then I cut off the audio jack from a pair of headphones, leaving about two inches of wire exposed. I stripped the end of the wire and soldered the left and right audio wires together. I connected a diode circuit (Appendix B) to the wire so the voltage would not blow out the speakers. Then I soldered that circuit directly to the top of the lighter and plugged the audio jack into the camera audio input. I spoke into the lighter at varying volumes and degrees and recorded the resulting audio.

I extracted the Piezo Crystal component from the lighter and glued it to a thin piece of cardboard. I unsoldered the headphone jack and diode circuit from the lighter and resoldered it to the wires already attached to the crystal. I plugged in the audio jack and spoke into the cardboard at varying volumes. I recorded the resulting audio. I then connected a capacitor to the already existing diode circuit and recorded another audio test.

I created an amplifier circuit on a breadboard (Appendix C) and replaced the diode circuit with it. Now I had a Piezo crystal glued to a thin piece of cardboard, wired to an amplifier circuit, which itself was wired to a headphone jack. I plugged in the headphone jack to the camera audio input and spoke into the cardboard at various volumes, recorded the resulting audio.

Results

The first audio recording, with the crystal being connected to the lighter, did not have any recognizable speech being produced. My voice did not have any effect on the signal. The only signal being heard was loud noise. When I clicked the lighter button there was a brief and audible spike in the audio signal. The second audio recording, with the crystal glued to the carboard, gave the same results, with no recognizable speech being produced and only loud noise. After I connected the capacitor, the third audio recording resulted in the same loud noise, but faint recognizable speech could be heard when I talked with a loud volume.

The fourth audio recording produced recognizable audio. There was a large amount of noise, and the audio quality was low. The speech being recorded was quieter and tinnier compared to a standard microphone input.

Discussion

The fourth resulting audio recording proved the hypothesis that a Piezo crystal from a lighter can be utilized as a microphone. It also demonstrates and proves the properties of the crystal. The force applied to it is proportional to the electricity produced. If it wasn’t, then the microphone wouldn’t be able to produce a clear voice, it would just be random static.

There are various kinds of Piezo crystals for different uses, the one in a lighter is not meant to provide a clean electrical signal as one in a microphone is meant for. It is simply used to produce an electric spark. This may be a reason why there is significant noise in all of the audio recordings. A reason why the first signals weren’t being picked up by the camera audio input could be because of the inner circuits of the camera. The camera input contains circuits that will not pick up small audio signals in an effort to reduce noise. Since the electrical signal from the crystal was minuscule, it was likely being dampened by that circuit. This is the reason an amplifier had to be implemented.

Conclusion

The crystal in a long-necked lighter is functionally the same component as a crystal in a microphone. With this component and enough modification, you can successfully create a microphone from a lighter.

References:

Mould, Steve. “Piezoelectricity – Why Hitting Crystals Makes Electricity.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 May 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJXA8IqYl8&t=0s.

“Piezoelectricity – Lesson.” TeachEngineering.Org, 17 June 2022, www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/uoh_piezo_lesson01.

Sadaghdar , Medhi. “LIGHTER Is a MICROPHONE.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Apr. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlVI7YJGHq0&ab_channel=ElectroBOOM.

Sadaghdar, Mehdi. “Microphone in a Lighter, A Piezo Application.” Electroboom, 5 Apr. 2020, www.electroboom.com/?p=1156.

APPENDIX:

(A) www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/uoh_piezo_lesson01.

(B) www.electroboom.com/?p=1156.

(C) www.electroboom.com/?p=1156.

 

 

Engineering Proposal

 

 

 

Proposal

 

Farhan Khan, Jayden Garcia, and Brendan Johnson

Grove School of Engineering, City College of New York

ENGL 21007: Writing For Engineering

Professor Julia Brown

May 6, 2025

 

 

 

 



Summary

The most prominent source of greenhouse gases in New York City is its buildings. These greenhouse gases cloud our Ozone layer and perpetuate global warming. The program we propose to mitigate this is to add an easy-to-install, self-maintaining rooftop garden onto the majority of the buildings in New York. We would use easy-to-manufacture mechanical systems that automate the process and require little interference. The budget would range from about 50-100 million dollars. The team comprises one of New York City’s financial advisors, Jayden Garcia, former NASA engineer Farhan Khan, and well-known environmental scientist and activist Brendan Johnson.

Intro

This proposal focuses on the implementation of rooftop green spaces/gardens across residential, commercial, and municipal buildings across New York City, aiming to reduce air pollution, specifically carbon emissions. The scope of this project includes buildings across all five boroughs with flat, open rooftops that meet structural load requirements, access standards, and zoning regulations. The initial implementation would prioritize neighborhoods with high levels of air pollution, such as East Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights, low green space per capita, and buildings compatible with rooftop adjustments.

New York City faces some of the highest air pollution levels in the country, primarily driven by emissions from buildings, automobiles, and industrial sources. When ranked on which state emits the most CO2, New York places 8th among the 50 states. (Choose Energy.) According to the NYC Climate Dashboard, building energy use, such as heating, cooling, and electricity, contributes to nearly 70% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. (New York City Comptroller). The emissions from New York City alone account for 20% of the CO2 emissions in the entire state. These emissions result in climate change as well as serious public health issues, including increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and other respiratory conditions.

    Rooftop gardens, also known as green roofs, present a practical, sustainable solution to this problem. These systems typically include layers such as a waterproof membrane, a root barrier, a drainage layer, soil, and vegetation. While they may seem simple in concept, their impact is significant and multifaceted. One of the main objectives of rooftop gardens is to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Through photosynthesis, plants pull CO2 out of the air and store it in their biomass and the surrounding soil. For example, a single mature tree can absorb about 48 pounds of CO2 annually.

They also help cool the surrounding environment through a process called evapotranspiration, a process where plants release water vapor into the air, lowering the overall temperature. This helps fight the urban heat island effect, which worsens air pollution by increasing ozone formation (Brooklyn Grange). 

Green infrastructure, particularly rooftop gardens, has gained increasing popularity for its environmental and economic benefits. In major urban centers such as Lower Manhattan, rooftop gardens have been implemented to reduce stormwater runoff, combat high-pollution urban zones, and improve air quality.

According to Brooklyn Grange, New York City already hosts several functional green roofs, including farms that grow produce and reduce building energy use through insulation (Brooklyn Grange). Additionally, The Nature Conservancy reports that green roofs in NYC reduce CO2 emissions and combat the heat island effect by lowering surrounding temperatures by several degrees (The Nature Conservancy). Current market analyses suggest that the return on investment (ROI) for green roofs is competitive, especially in cities where heat, stormwater, and emissions pose costly infrastructure burdens (BIMsmith). The ROI of these green roofs could come from many sources. The property value of the buildings could increase as green roofs gain popularity. The installation of these green roofs requires workers, which means jobs are created and the money is funneled back into the economy. The reduction of emissions could lead to a cooler New York, which in turn decreases the electrical costs that go into cooling systems such as air conditioners and fans. Green roofs are said to have an estimated ROI of 224% (GSA).

    Perhaps most importantly, rooftop gardens play a key role in the broader ecosystem of urban vegetation. A 2023 study by Columbia University’s Climate School found that the combined greenery of New York City, including trees, parks, and rooftop plants, absorbs a surprising amount of the city’s CO₂ emissions, especially during the peak growing season (Schlossberg). This reinforces the idea that rooftop gardens have a significant impact on the city’s green infrastructure rather than just contributing cosmetically or aesthetically.

The scale of implementation remains modest relative to NYC’s potential. The opportunity exists to position NYC as a national leader in green infrastructure by expanding rooftop garden adoption. Other states could take influence and develop their own similar programs after seeing one work successfully in practice. The benefits of this proposal could spread worldwide if done correctly.

There are about 730 Rooftop gardens in New York, or “green roofs”(The Nature Conservancy). If we could expand this to have even the smallest rooftop garden on each of the 1 million buildings (NYC Mayor’s Office) in NYC, we could easily offset the carbon emissions in the city.

 

Project Description

The way we will use our budget is by manufacturing rooftop garden units. These garden units are intended to maximize the effect of the little space they occupy. Our units will include plants that can manage to survive in close proximity, in order to increase the concentration of plant life on the roofs. It will also be easy to install and maintain. Ideal plants for these rooftop gardens should be durable, low-maintenance, and pollution-absorbing. One plant species that would be effective in our solution is the serviceberry plant, which is a small shrub that is effective at sequestering CO2 and filtering pollutants like fine dust out of the air. Another good choice of plant would be the sedum plant, which is a durable flowering plant. It is able to withstand drought-like climates and is also effective for filtering particulate matter from the air and absorbing CO2. Additionally, its size and minimal root structure make it suited for shallow soil rooftops. The installation of one of these units shouldn’t take more than a few days. The maintenance will include cheap mechanical automatic systems, such as automatic sprinklers and fertilizers. The units are designed in a modular way. This means that they break down into separate parts that can be installed onto any flat surface on the roof. This allows for a non-invasive and passive approach to having a rooftop garden. The residents of the building will be able to easily co-exist with and maintain their gardens. The city would fund and provide these gardens to the major buildings in New York, with typically higher scores on the CO2 and energy efficiency chart.

    However, there are several limitations to our approach. Firstly, structural feasibility is a concern given the weight of the gardens. Not all rooftops can support the added weight of a garden without significant reinforcement, which may increase costs (BIMsmith). Next, although the units are automatic, rooftop gardens still require regular upkeep, irrigation systems, and seasonal care, which can be financially challenging to sustain on a city-wide scale (Ecosustainable House). One way to introduce a degree of automation into our system is to use smart irrigation systems that rely on rainwater to drip water onto the gardens. These systems can be powered by solar panels and monitored remotely to ensure efficient water use, reducing both labor and utility costs over time. While automatic maintenance is ideal, realistically, there has to be some human intervention. The baseline we propose would be watering once a month, if the smart irrigation systems fail. Alternatively, the residents could hire specialists to fix these issues. This process could take indefinite amounts of time and cost unpredictable amounts of money. On a small scale, the cost is reasonable, but the scope raises this cost. The high initial cost creates barriers for widespread adoption. Although long-term benefits are notable, the upfront installation costs can deter adoption, especially in low-income communities (BIMsmith). However, using low-maintenance and durable plants like sedum and serviceberry can minimize these costs.

There are a few limitations associated with this proposal. Due to climate limitations, seasonal changes in NYC may restrict year-round plant growth and CO2 absorption efficiency (Ecosustainable House). Additionally, gaining permissions from building owners and navigating property laws presents logistical challenges. There would have to be laws put in place and voted on that allow the city to intervene in the building owner’s property. However, there are ways to counteract these limitations. To avoid the expensive process of litigation, we can use incentives and assistance to motivate and educate the public to adopt green roofs. For example, programs such as New York City’s Green Roof Tax Abatement currently offer up to $15 per square foot of green roof. We can incentivize building owners to adopt green roofs by strengthening these kinds of programs and making them easier to access and more economically feasible for them. In residential or multipurpose buildings, we can employ tenants and local neighborhood organizations in co-managing these rooftop gardens to increase community involvement and reduce the workload on the property owner. Finally, we can offer pre-built green roof templates or installation kits to reduce the knowledge barrier to adoption and simplify the process for potential green roof adopters. 

Budget 

To begin with the process of the idea, an estimated budget and how many buildings are in New York must be considered. According to NYC.gov, New York has an approximate amount of 1 million structures/buildings of every type and combination (NYC Mayor’s Office). With this amount of buildings, the estimated cost of each rooftop garden will vary depending on how much space the roof has. However, for most rooftops, the average price to install a rooftop garden will be at most $100 more or less. To do this for almost half of the buildings in NYC, it would take about 50-100 million dollars to ensure this can be done successfully and without future issues. Additionally, making sure that the building is suitable enough to hold the garden, the materials, design, and labor also increases the cost. These can impact the cost, all depending on where the area is, how the resources around them are, and if creating more space is needed for the garden to survive. 

 

Budget Breakdown

Items:

Prices/Total cost:

Waterproof membrane

$5,000-$15,000

Draining system

$22 per square foot

Lightweight containers 

$12-$50

Lightweight soil

$60-$85 per cubic yard

Trellises (Windbreak)

$60

Water Source

Varies between method

Water Storage

Varies between method

Plants

Varies between plant
 

Total: $5,154+

 

Conclusion 

The purpose of this proposal was to find a solution to reduce carbon emissions in the five boroughs of New York using rooftop gardens. From what was researched and calculated to the positives, negatives, and budget for this, it should be possible for this to work correctly as long as everything is done correctly. Having this project go through can greatly improve the air quality in all five boroughs and the surrounding environment, overall making the lives of people here better. New York ranks 8 out of 50 for the states that emit the most carbon gas. This means that New York is one of the top ten states in America that contributes to climate change negatively. New York’s pollution level is already bad, and if this continues, the air we breathe every day will become toxic to the point of no return.  If New York City managed to balance out the carbon emissions it created by using our proposal, then the whole state of New York would rank at 11. (US Energy Administration) With your help, we can make everyone’s lives here better. So please, help us give the citizens of this State in all five boroughs a healthier experience to live. 

 

Works Cited

 

“Buildings.” NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Justice, https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/subtopics/buildings/#:~:text=With%20over%201%20Million%20buildings,and%20resiliency%20in%20this%20sector

“Carbon Dioxide Emissions by State.” Choose energy, https://www.chooseenergy.com/data-center/carbon-dioxide-by-state/

“Emissions.” Office of the New York City Comptroller, https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/nyc-climate-dashboard/emissions.

“Energy-Related CO2 Emission Data Tables.” US Energy Administration, https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state/

“Green Roofs.” U.S. General Services Administration, https://www.gsa.gov/governmentwide-initiatives/federal-highperformance-buildings/resource-library/integrative-strategies/green-roofs

“Green Roofs in New York City.” The Nature Conservancy, https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/new-york/stories-in-new-york/green-roofs-new-york-city.

“How Much CO2 Does One Tree Absorb?” One Tree Planted, https://onetreeplanted.org/blogs/stories/how-much-co2-does-tree-absorb.

“How Much Impact Do Green Roofs Actually Have?” BIMsmith, https://blog.bimsmith.com/Rooftop-Gardens-How-Much-Impact-do-Green-Roofs-Actually-Have

“NYC Green Roof Advocacy.” Brooklyn Grange, https://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/blog/nyc-green-roof-advocacy.

“New York City’s Greenery Absorbs a Surprising Amount of Its Carbon Emissions.” State of the Planet, Columbia Climate School, 5 Jan. 2023, https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/01/05/new-york-citys-greenery-absorbs-a-surprising-amount-of-its-carbon-emissions.