The New York City Green Codes Task Force yesterday issued 111 recommendations for improving the city's environment.

"Green building remains the exception rather than the rule for the building industry. While many green building techniques and materials have spread throughout the industry, most buildings do not even come close to achieving their potential for efficiencies. Also, green building has been limited mainly to expensive, high-end buildings, depriving middle- and low-income New Yorkers of the benefits. Yet, it is the city's poorest residents who are least able to afford the high operating costs of inefficient buildings," the report stated.

The panel urged that existing buildings not be exempted from green codes and that landscape and site design be added to the city's building code. It noted that "indoor air quality has a greater impact on the health of New Yorkers than does outdoor air," adding that the levels of indoor pollutants can be up to 1,000 times higher than outdoor levels.

It recommended that volatile organic compounds be limited in adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings and carpets, and that the content of formaldehyde be limited in composite wood materials that are widely used in construction, and that new buildings be mandated to install permanent entry mat systems to capture particulates brought in literally by foot traffic.

Reduce the city's requirements for emergency lighting by half, and phase out all polychlorinated biphenyls and magnetic ballasts in light fixtures by 2019 and also create a task force for the safe disposal of fluorescent lamps and ballasts that contain mercury, and require that wastewater from concrete mixer trucks be either treated on site or returned to the manufacturing plant for treatment.

Stairways in buildings can be improved, the panel maintained, by using transparent doors and requiring that their doors be unlocks. People should be encouraged to use stairs by hold their doors open by magnets that release the doors when smoke is detected. The panel also suggested that buildings that design prominent and accessible stairs should be rewarded with a zoning bonus.

Drinking fountains in buildings should be increased and the fountains should include faucets for filing bottles to discourage the consumption of bottled water and sugary drinks.

The panel's recommendations would also seek to remedy the fact that the city's regulations penalize thick, energy-efficient walls and rewards poorly insulated thin-wall construction and also permit exterior insulation on existing buildings to extend into side and rear yard setbacks.

The panel also urged that restrictions on the area of roof that solar panels can cover before counting as another floor be rewritten to exempt solar panels from limits on rooftop coverage. It also wants to permit "alternative energy" equipment to be not included in regulations regarding building height.

The panel urged that large new developments analyze the potential for co-generation energy systems, and that hotels turn off equipment in empty rooms, and that stores turn off their non-window-display lights after hours.

It said that all new or reconstructed heating systems that use Con Edison's steam be required to maximize the recovery of heat from steam condensate. It also wanted toilets and faucets to be able to operate without building power for at least two weeks and it also wants to prohibit the removal of existing water towers. It also seeks to reduce the use of drinking water to clean sidewalks.