NEW YORK HEARTS TREES

Last week the sun was soaring high above the clouds in New York City, the week of Earth Day.  Our CEO, Pankaj, was in town for a series of interviews.  Here you can see him standing in front of the shop window of the NBC Experience Store in Rockafeller Center where GreenDimes had set up a kiosk for people to sign up to our service.  A portion of the store's proceeds will be donated to MillionTreesNYC, a program set up by Mayor Bloomberg with a plan to plant 1 million trees by 2017.

In fact, THIS IS THE MONTH! Besides MillionTressNYC starting a movement with set goals to increase tree planting in the city with the determined stance that New Yorkers are the active go-getters to make this happen, they have also called for people to start planting as much as they can this month.    An ode to Earth Day and the shift into springtime, they are calling on people to either let them know about streets which need attention or joining planting groups in local neighborhoods.

NBC Universal also hosted a Green is Universal initiative where up to 150 NBCU volunteers planted trees in East Harlem, New York City, an area with a low population of trees and children with a high asmtha rate.

Cast members from Lipstick Jungle, The Real Housewives of New York City, Saturday Night Live and Bette Midler, were also getting the spades and buckets out for the MillionTreesNYC project. 

In addition to  their partnerships with MillionTreesNYC, recycling bins were set up around the TODAY studio where people could drop off their unwanted electronics - cell phones, old laptops, cameras, Blackberries, etc.  This was a partnership of NBC Universal with Environmental Media Association, HP and Staples in a project called Green Screens, an act that also took place around 76 Staple branches throughout the NYC boroughs and Long Island but occurred prior to Earth Day Week.  The donated cellphones were transferred into an art installation by Kevin O'Callaghan and his students at the School of Visual Arts, on exhibition throughout the week.