Looking for a Bright Green Future

Rocky Mountain Institute, abundance by design

2008-07-15T14:55:00.003-04:00

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency has been a major focus for Rocky Mountain Institute since its inception, and most of its present activities grew out of a strategy of targeting sectors with the biggest energy-saving opportunities.

RMI's early energy work was aimed mainly at electric utilities and oil companies, advocating the advantages of reducing demand through efficiency rather than simply increasing supply. In recent years we've shown many other types of companies and organizations how they can boost profits by using energy more productively.

panel discussion on Negawatt energy:
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid323.php

Negawatt Energy Policy April 1996 special issue on the future of DSM
http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Energy/U96-11_Negawatts12-8-1.pdf

RMI energy library archives (Negawatt)
http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid258.php

First Solar Town, http://www.soldiersgrove.com/History.htm

2008-07-15T14:08:00.006-04:00

Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin

2008-07-15T00:15:00.012-04:00

The pioneer of sustainable redevelopment for flood communities is Soldiers Grove, a picturesque village of about 600 on the banks of the Kickapoo River in southwest Wisconsin. Nearly 20 years ago, after decades of repeated flooding, residents decided to build a new town center on higher ground. The new Soldiers Grove was officially completed in 1983.

Soldiers Grove was ahead of its time for a number of reasons. First, by opting to relocate, the villagers chose to work with the river rather than attempt to control it. They chose mitigation at a time when dams and levees were hailed as monuments to society's dominion over nature.

Second, Soldiers Grove saw the relocation project not just as an opportunity to duplicate their old town, but as a chance to create something much better. Rather than rush to get buildings up and running as quickly as possible, the villagers took their time.

Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of that careful planning process was the decision to make all of the new town center buildings energy-efficient and solar-heated. Soldiers Grove became the first business district of its kind in the nation. The village passed ordinances stipulating that new buildings be built to specific thermal performance standards and obtain at least 50 percent of their heating needs with solar systems. Residents also passed a solar access ordinance to ensure that future buildings don't block the sun for existing structures.

Finally, Soldiers Grove pioneered the concept of "multipurpose recovery" for hazard-prone communities. The villagers used the occasion of relocation to solve a number of community problems. The energy efficiency and solar ordinances helped to keep valuable energy dollars from escaping the local economy. The old floodplain was developed into a well-used municipal park. The town center was once again adjacent to the state highway, which had bypassed the old town in the 1950s, hurting businesses. A second municipal well and reservoir were built outside the floodplain, and sewer and water services were extended into new areas, paving the way for future growth.

The steps taken by Soldiers Grove in the late 1970s are just as viable today, 20 years later. But although today's disaster-prone towns have better tools at their disposal, there remains much to be learned from Soldiers Grove in the area of organizing people. Even the most progressive and well-thought-out sustainable development plans will fail without the full support of the community. (article by http://www.freshstart.ncat.org/case/soldiers.htm).

http://www.soldiersgrove.com/History.htm

AutoLib electric car sharing program in paris inspired by the velib program

2008-06-29T17:00:00.002-04:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/20/france.travelandtransport

Inhabitat

4000 electric cars on the road by next year!

New York Water System

2008-06-23T10:11:00.002-04:00

New York City's water supply system has grown from a few wells on Manhattan Island to one of America's most extensive municipal systems. Today, it relies on a combination of tunnels, aqueducts and 19 reservoirs both in the city and far upstate to meet the daily needs of 8 million residents and countless visitors. Thanks to well protected wilderness watersheds, New York's water treatment is simpler than in other American cities. Downhill flow allows the system to do without pumps.

The complex system is divided into three separate systems:

The Croton system, the oldest and smallest, sits in Westchester and Putnam Counties.
The Catskill system, built decades later, is significantly larger then the Croton. In the early years of the 20th century, the city and state designated thousands of acres in the eastern Catskills to build two reservoirs that more than doubled the city's capacity.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the city expanded its water system again, tapping the east and west branches of the Delaware River, as well as other tributaries of the Delaware and Hudson rivers to create the newest and largest of its three systems, the Delaware system, which provides around half of the city's water supply.

The Croton system is the source of numerous turbidity issues for the city's water. Engineering studies in 1903 also recognized that the clay of the steeply sloped Eastern Catskills turned the clear waters of the Schoharie and Esopus Creeks (which feed the Catskill system) muddy after storms. In addition, both the Cannonsville reservoir of the Delaware system, as well as many reservoirs within the Croton system have also had quality issues related to algeal blooms.

The city has sought to restrict development throughout its watershed. One of its largest watershed protection programs is the Land Acquisition Program, under which the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has purchased or protected through conservation easement over 70,000 acres (280 km²) since 1997.^[1]

World's 1st mobile water purification system debuts - April.26.2005

Jean-Michel Cousteau, explorer, educator, environmentalist and film producer, joined business executives yesterday, in New York, in launching the first water purification unit that converts polluted water into drinkable water.

The 12-meter-long mobile emergency filtration system, or MEFS, which was on display at a Manhattan pier in Chelsea,(pictured), took in large quantities of the Hudson River and converted the brown liquid into clear water during a process that took about 15 minutes, as reported by Kyodo News and published by Japan Today.

The unit, which is the first of its kind, is capable of producing 60,000 gallons of high-quality water per day and was created by Ecosphere Technologies, a subsidiary of UltraStrip Systems, Inc.

The self-contained unit could be installed on an emergency or temporary basis and would be capable of providing enough water for the daily needs of 10,000 people.

New York Water System: Reservoir Management

2008-06-23T09:24:00.003-04:00

the water test:

Many New Yorkers say they drink bottled water because it tastes better, but ABC's 20/20 did a blind taste test.

They offered people New York City tap water and five other bottled waters, Evian, the top-selling bottled water Aquafina, Poland Spring, Iceland Spring (which comes all the way from Iceland), and American Fare, a discount brand from Kmart, which sells for less than half the price of Evian.

"In our test of bottled waters, Kmart's American Fare — the cheapest brand — won. Big-seller Aquafina came in second.

Iceland Spring tied the ordinary tap water for third place. Fifth place went to Poland Spring, and in last place, by far, with almost half the testers saying it tasted bad, was the most expensive water — the fancy French stuff, Evian.

"It tasted like toilet water," one man said.

Evian had no comment about that review.

Bottom line, if you buy bottled water because you think it's healthier than tap, test after test shows no evidence of that. And if you buy fancy brands because you think they taste better, you're probably just buying the hype. " ::ABC

Note: While New York City may have some of the best water around, your building may compromise it with old lead pipes. Read Umbra in Grist.

LANDSCAPE: Greensburg, Kansas, GreenTown

2008-06-22T23:30:00.007-04:00

Rebuilding Greensburg

Eleonore de Lusignan

After the tragic tornado storm that swept through Greensburg, Kansas on May 5th, 2007, the town is left to rebuild itself from scratch. So why not doing it right and making it the most sustainable in America? With the support of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Greensburg has established a Long-Term Community Recovery Plan that as stated sustainability as there number one priority. The decision made along several town meetings, energy use was put on top of the list and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has established a field office in the town.

Green Source:

There’s a constant tension between rebuilding as fast as possible and making the right decisions. But because Greensburg was already on a slow, steady decline prior to the tornado,” explained Hardy, “residents know that if they were to simply jump in and rebuild exactly as before, there’s no reason that trend would change. They recognize that and want to do something different.”

Greensburg-based companies are using the disaster as an opportunity to advance their businesses by embracing environmental responsibility.

TH: So what led to the desire of the townspeople to rebuild green?

BD: I think several things have contributed to it. Number one is that we’ve all been called to be good stewards of what the lord has blessed us with, and that’s just naturally going green because we’ve all become aware that the fossil fuel resources are running out. So we’ve lessened our use of fossil fuels and cut utility bills; sometimes without spending a tremendous amount of money by 30, 40, even 50 percent.

In rural America we are the original recyclers and our forefathers and pioneers knew the advantages of passive solar heat with their animals and homes, and geothermal energy as well, using it through dugouts and cellars with root crops. They were aware of all that technology generations ago. So that’s where we go back to as our roots; take care of the land because it takes care of you.

And being close to nature has also really spurred us on now that we’ve had the opportunity to rebuild from scratch. " Treehugger

Inhabitat

Planet Green’s GREENSBURG docu-series premieres June 15th!

WATER: Greywater Guerrillas

2008-06-22T23:13:00.005-04:00

The Greywater Guerrillas are a collaborative group of educators, designers, builders, and artists who educate and empower people to build sustainable water culture and infrastructure.

According to the New York Times, they are "a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water — the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines — to flush toilets or irrigate gardens." with a mission: “It’s about trying to use resources to their full potential and interact with ecosystems in a beneficial way.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/garden/31greywater.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

This is not just using a hose to spray your garden with shower water, this is a sophisticated recovery system. the picture above shows "A pipe running from the house deposits shower and sink water into an elevated bathtub in the yard that is filled with gravel and reeds, and the roots of plants begin filtering and absorbing contaminants. The water then flows into a second, lower, tub, also containing a reedbed, before flowing into a still-lower tub of floating water hyacinths and small fish."

recently published "Dam Nation: Dispatches from the Water Underground"

Dam Nation is a people's history of water—and the water grid; a detailed accounting of the fallout from a century of Manifest Destiny's attacks on wild rivers. The book traces how—across five continents—beleaguered commoners block the neoliberal makeover of the world and endeavor to restore balance between humans and watersheds. These strategists and innovators blow open the scarcity myth to show how local democratic control coupled with watershed restoration can provide water for everyone.
http://www.greywaterguerrillas.com/index.html

What is graywater ?
Any water that has been used in the home, except water from toilets, is called graywater . Dish, shower, sink, and laundry water comprise 50-80% of residential "waste" water. This may be reused for other purposes, especially landscape irrigation.

Why use graywater ?
It's a waste to irrigate with great quantities of drinking water when plants thrive on used water containing small bits of compost. Unlike a lot of ecological stopgap measures, graywater reuse is a part of the fundamental solution to many ecological problems and will probably remain essentially unchanged in the distant future. The benefits of graywater recycling include:

Lower fresh water use

Less strain on failing septic tank or treatment plant

Graywater treatment in topsoil is highly effective

Ability to build in areas unsuitable for conventional treatment

Less energy and chemical use

Groundwater recharge

Plant growth

Reclamation of otherwise wasted nutrients

Is graywater legal?
In practice, greywater legality is virtually never an issue for residential retrofit systems—everyone just bootlegs them. However, graywater legality is almost always an issue for permitted new construction and remodeling, unless you're in a visionary state such as Arizona or New Mexico. For details see our Grey water policy center and Builder's Graywater Guide (book).

LANDSCAPE: New Chinese Cities, Bill McDonough + Partners

2008-06-22T15:09:00.009-04:00

Leap frogging to future sustainable cities in China.

Eleonore de Lusignan

After the success of Bill McDonough's book Craddle to Craddle, China has implemented it into there government policy and McDonough's + Partners was given the responsibility to design 7 new cities with the expectancy that 400 million new Chinese citizens will need new homes within the next 12 years. For starts, Bill has begun designing two city plans: Guantang Chuangye Sustainable Conceptual Master Plan, and Tangye New Town Concept Master Plan.

"
Guantang Chuangye Sustainable Conceptual Master Plan
Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of

China

Overview:

This concept master plan aspires to indicate, through design strategies, a future that is positive and hopeful in all aspects.

Striving to maximize social engagement, the plan creates an urban structure that promotes walking and healthy activities in its multitude of parks, paths and trails. The development will also preserve existing stream and wetland communities, returning clean, healthy water to the ecosystem at equal rates and in the same patterns of the undeveleped site through the use of integrated strategies. Befitting its designation as a demonstration project, the plan demonstrates what is possible in Liuzhou, in China, and in communities around the globe. The project serves as a challenge to seek excellence in placemaking that will enable Liuzhou’s children to live and work in concert with a world full of potential and opportunity."
Ningbo View (image courtesy of EDAW and William McDonough + Partners)

"Each of the demonstrations feature cradle to cradle design principles that are gaining recognition in part due to the recent Chinese printing of the book “Cradle to Cradle: Exploring Design for the Circular Economy” by William A. McDonough and Michael Braungart.

The sustainable design of urban centers is of vital importance to China and the world. In the coming two decades, 300-450 million people will move from the countryside to China’s cities. This year alone, China will build 5 billion square feet of new housing and consume 40% of the world’s production of cement. Over 65% of China’s cities are in a water shortage and 90% of urban watersheds are considered contaminated by Chinese government standards.

The China-US Center for Sustainable Development’s strategic goals are to set the standards for sustainable development and build the human and organizational capacity to achieve them. The Center’s mission is to accelerate sustainable development so that commerce, communities and nature can thrive and prosper in harmony – what China is now calling a “circular economy.” "

Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang AR

Tangye New Town Concept Master Plan
Jinan, Shandong Province, People's Republic of China

"Overview

This concept plan outlines a sustaining vision for a new administrative and cultural center for the government of the Licheng District in rapidly growing Eastern Industrial Zone east of Jinan. Working under the guidance and support of the China Housing Industry Association and the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development, the design team has developed conceptual plans for a new urban district that would house 180,000 people and embodies the principles of Cradle to Cradle Design.

The plan develops a framework for achieving the ultimate goal of safe, healthy and delightful solar-powered cities. By considering issues beyond the initial use and operations of the development, the plan supports later adoption of emerging technologies and systems not readily available at the time of construction. For instance, proper orientation and solar access will enable the town to install photovoltaics should current trends continue make solar energy equal in cost to coal-fired electricity by 2016.

The pattern and organization of development responds to site-specific environmental features, systems, and flows. Vegetated fabric defines a patchwork of developable areas that imply a network of residential neighborhoods and commercial/public precincts. A series of linear parks running from east to west convey storm water to existing gullies and provide a setting for neighborhood amenities and a structure for pedestrian and bicycle routes throughout the new district. The plan also facilitates the integration of innovative infrastructure for water, wastewater, and energy production and use.

In addition to benefiting the people of Jinan, this anticipatory design provides a replicable model for a country embarking on a campaign to house 400 million people in the coming decade, giving China the opportunity to redefine cities in ways that lead the world in the realization of truly sustaining future."

" Under the guidance and support of the China Housing Industry Association and the China-US Center for Sustainable Development, William McDonough + Partners with the support of WSP Environmental LLC was commissioned to create a concept master plan that embodies the principles of the Cradle-to-Cradle Design Protocol and sustainable design.

The concept plan aspires to indicate, through design strategies, a future that is positive and hopeful in all aspects; one that:
- Maximizes social engagement and community
- Creates an urban structure that promotes walking and healthy activities
- Effectively leverages the scarce land available for development
- Promotes alternative and renewable technologies
- Treats water as a precious resources
- Improves the quality of storm water leaving the site
- Uses biological resources to build and restore soil quality
- Restores habitat and biodiversity
- Learns from and respects the quality of the land and people"

LINKS:

We lay the city out so everyone can move in parks without crossing traffic, the buildings have daylight lighting, the university is at the centre, and with hi-tech connectivity

William McDonough, architect

BBC News

Metropolis: Eternal Optimism

The Great Green Leap Forward: Energy-Hungry China and India Leapfrog to the Front of the Global Green Building Movement
By Kevin Sullivan

Resources: The Revolution Begins

LANDSCAPE: The Ford Rouge Plant, D.I.R.T Studio

2008-06-22T12:23:00.006-04:00

Revitalizing a Sustainable Industrial Landscapes.

Eleonore de Lusignan

The Ford Rouge project in Dearborn, Michigan is a collaborative effort between Bill Ford, Bill McDonough, and D.I.R.T to remediating the landscape of one of our most historical and monument factories in the automotive industry. The main focus has been on the use of phytoremediation, a process that uses plants to treat polluted environments by absorbing or digesting toxins to clean the contaminated soil, water and air. The expert in this field, Clayton Rugh, has his installed a central scientific laboratory at the Ford Rouge power plant and is in charge of directing this process.

"In 1999 McDonough entered into an agreement with Ford Motor Company to redesign its 85-year-old, 1,212-acre Rouge River facility, an ambitious and innovative industrial/environmental makeover that will require 20 years--and $2 billion--to complete."

Overview by Will McDounough and Partners:

"This landscape master plan celebrates the potential to bring natural and industrial systems together to create a productive, regenerative landscape.

Henry Ford’s vision of linear production fundamentally reshaped the American manufacturing system --and provided a compelling framework for the transformation of this historic industrial site. Embracing Ford's heritage of innovation and business strength, the plan draws its inspiration from the features of the site and gives shape to the themes of linear production, historical legacy, and environmental regeneration. The large-scale interplay between the industrial and natural systems creates a new model for the regeneration of air, water, soil, and habitat through natural processes.

Devised for implementation over two decades, the design enables an orderly flow of people and delivery of materials through the site. A rectilinear pattern of hedgerows, swales, and trees reinforces the pre-existing street grid and creates a system that filters the millions of gallons of stormwater and reestablishes wildlife habitat.

The plan also reshapes Miller Road, the thoroughfare along the Rouge's eastern edge, as a tree-lined public boulevard highlighting the site's industrial heritage.

Additionally, the complex hosts groundbreaking research in phytoremediation. Researchers identified a dozen plants that successfully absorb and neutralize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the soil and established a 1.6-acre demonstration garden and research lab near the old coke oven by-products operations.

By rebuilding the processes of the site, the plan recreates the 20th century’s preeminent model of vertically integrated industry as a replicable model of sustainable manufacturing and a positive legacy for the future.

Ford Rouge Plant, Dearborn, MI. PILOT PROJECTS + PROTOTYPES: Storm water channels and porous paving retention beds (under the Mustangs), native shrub mosaics and phytoremediation research plots. Collaborators: Ford Motor Company, William McDonough + Partners, architects; Nelson/Byrd, landscape architects; Cahill Associates, engineers; Dr. Clayton Rugh, scientist.
from Archinect

Links:

D.I.R.T website

Think Green, Metropolis

Could DC's bike share program be really on its way?

2008-05-20T13:14:00.001-04:00

SmartBike DC just unveiled!!

Landscape - Suggestions

2008-05-01T17:56:00.001-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to the landscape that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 4/12 to 4/13.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

Buildings - Suggestions

2008-05-01T17:54:00.001-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to buildings that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 4/10 to 4/11.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

Water - Suggestions

2008-05-01T17:53:00.001-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to water that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 4/14 to 4/15.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

Transportation - Suggestions

2008-05-01T15:00:00.000-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to transportation that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 3/3 to 3/9.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

Energy - Suggestions

2008-05-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to energy that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 3/10 to 3/11.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

Food - Suggestions

2008-05-01T13:00:00.000-04:00

Have we missed an idea, proposal, policy or project that pertains to food that can be realized in the short term and yields environmental benefits? Make a recommendation, include a summary and link to an image as a comment under this post. Refer to posts dated between 3/12 to 3/17.

Please note, all comments are moderated so if we think its interesting it will be posted here only after its approved.

RadioHead cancel US concert to protest airplane carbon emissions

2008-04-27T11:51:00.004-04:00

Radiohead go green for live show
Thom Yorke

Radiohead have decided not to travel to the US for a promotional performance because of concerns over global warming.

The Oxford five-piece are due to appear on a special edition of NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

The band opted to record a live version of House Of Cards in London rather than fly over to the US for the one-off performance.

Radiohead will appear on the show on Wednesday as part of NBC's Green Week.

Frontman Thom Yorke said the band avoided leaving a carbon footprint equivalent to driving a car for a solid year by recording the track in London.

Climate Change

RADIOHEAD GREEN FACTS
Radiohead always consider the carbon footprint when on tour
Thom Yorke's fears over climate change made him back the Big Ask campaign which urges ministers to bring in laws to reduce C02 emissions
He refused to discuss climate change with Tony Blair because he felt the fromer PM had "no environmental credentials"
The band have been long time campaigners on green issues with Yorke recently guest editing The Observer Magazine to promote climate change awareness.

Yorke also recently urged politicians to introduce sweeping measures to cut carbon emissions by 2020.

"If we don't get stuck in now, in 20 years' time it will be worse and things will be more extreme," he said.

The band kick-off their In Rainbows world tour with a show in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 5 May.

Water–Bottled Water

2008-04-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

Water–Bottled Water
Mary Banas

Why bottled water? (or why not bottled water...)
• Bottled water bottles are made from oil, a limited resource. Just making the containers alone consumes more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute. (Maybe we should get rid of the cars, but that’s a topic for another time.)

• It takes a lot of oil to transport bottled water from supposedly pristine springs all over the world to us. That bottle of Fiji water really does come from Fiji — and it doesn’t walk here by itself.
And all those trucks eventually clog our roads and double park in front of stores and offices to deliever their unneeded goods. But that’s just the production half of the equation, there’s the disposal too:

• Thirty million bottles end up in landfills every day — and considering that New York doesn’t have its own landfill anymore, we have to pay to dump our empty water bottles elsewhere.

• New York City tap water is safer and better than bottled water anyway. The Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for tap water, for example, is stiffer than the Food and Drug Administration’s standard for bottled water. Plus, our tap water tastes better than all those fancy waters (the Aquafina that’s bottled in Queens actually is New York City tap water — which is then distilled and reconfigured with Aquafina’s proprietary mix of minerals.)

How it works?

• The world spends $100 billion a year on bottled water at a time when the United Nations says that just $15 billion could double the number of people who have access to safe drinking water.

• And, rich people consume far more bottled water than poor people — so if tap water quality declines, it will fall to the politically less powerful to fight for cleaner water because the rich have turned their backs on the entire system.

What the individual can do:

1. At home, use a cup and fill it with tap water
2. On the go bring along a reusable hard plastic bottle and refill as necessary with tap water, remember to wash it periodically.
3. At the office, leave behind some mugs and cups that you can use there, again washing them periodically - the same applies to your morning coffee
4. If you end up having no choice and bottled is all there is available, save that bottle and reuse it later when you see a tap or a water fountain.

Benefits?
• less carbon
• utilizing resources close to home instead of depleting those half way around the world (like the island of fiiji)
The Pacific Island Countries also face critical water supply and contamination problems because of the inability of governments to maintain ageing water reticulation and treatment systems set up during the colonial period. Fiji has the largest water system in the Pacific Islands based on an economy of scale, but this is a legacy from when Fiji was a British colony. The system has deteriorated steadily since Fiji became independent and is now a major impediment to future tourism development. Between 1991 and 1995, for example, the amount of water lost through broken pipes, leaks, and clandestine connections increased from 36% to 43%

Implementation in other cities
City of NY---campaign to drink tap water

The City of New York is trying to persuade its people to give up bottled drinks and consume tap water instead to help protect the environment.

According to published reports, the city is pouring $700,000 of taxpayer money into ads promoting New York City water.

New York City boasts wonderfully clean water piped in from six huge reservoirs west of the Hudson in the Catskill mountains, as far as 125 miles from Manhattan. The city is currently running a huge campaign for New Yorkers to "Get Your Fill." But is New York water really that clean? ABC news' 20/20 took 5 bottles of national brands and a sample of New York water to be tested by a microbiologist. They found no difference between the samples.

Sources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6286606.stm
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/tap.water.new.2.245310.html
http://challengeandfun.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/water-bottles-w.html
http://www.unescap.org/mced2000/pacific/background/freshwater.htm

Water-Tips to Green you Water

2008-04-14T11:50:00.000-04:00

How to Green your Water

1. No drips
A dripping faucet can waste 20 gallons of water a day. A leaking toilet can use 90,000 gallons of water in a month. Get out the wrench and change the washers on your sinks and showers, or get new washerless faucets. Keeping your existing equipment well maintained is probably the easiest and cheapest way to start saving water.
2. Install new fixtures
New, low-volume or dual flush toilets, low-flow showerheads , water-efficient dishwashers and clothes washing machines can all save a great deal of water and money. Aerators on your faucets can significantly reduce water volume; water-saving showerheads can cut the volume of water used down to 1.2 gallons per minute or less, and some even have a “pause button” to let you stop the water while soaping up or shampooing. Our interns recently pointed out that “spending about $30 on low-flow showerheads and faucets is estimated to save 45 gallons of that 260 gallons of water [used in a typical household per day], almost 18% of your usage. Splurging on a low-flow toilet could save another 50-80 gallons of water a day. Together, those changes nearly cut in half the household's daily use, saving a considerable amount of water – and passing that savings on to your water bill, as well as your water heating bill.”
3. Cultivate good water habits
All the water that goes down the drain, clean or dirty, ends up mixing with raw sewage, getting contaminated, and meeting the same fate. Try to stay aware of this precious resource disappearing and turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving and always wash laundry and dishes with full loads. When washing dishes by hand, fill up the sink and turn off the water. Take shorter showers or, as the old joke goes, shower with a friend: Treehugger TV shows you how. To put things in perspective, take a quick look at your next water bill when it arrives. It probably won’t be costing you too much, but the average household consumes multiple thousands of gallons each month. See if you can make this number go down. If you’re the graphing type, go nuts.
4. Stay off the bottle
By many measures, bottled water is a scam. In most first-world countries, the tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. (You can look up your water in the National Tap Water Quality Database) Taste tests have shown that in many municipalities, tap water actually tastes better. Bottled water is not as well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly pure. A four-year study of bottled water in the U.S. conducted by NRDC found that one-fifth of the 103 water products tested contained synthetic organic chemicals such as the neurotoxin xylene and the possible carcinogen and neurotoxin styrene. (Grist) Much bottled water doesn’t come from a “Artesian springs” and is just tap water anyhow. (Coca-Cola adds salt to its Dasani water to make it taste better, just like fast food.) Not only is it more expensive per gallon than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint from its transportation, and the discarded bottles are a blight. It’s no wonder that some people even think it’s a sin. If you want to carry your water with you, get a bottle and fill it. (Look here for some advise on durable, non-toxic container options.) If your water at home tastes funny, try an activated charcoal or ceramic filter. Here is a comparison of home-use water filters from Grist.
5. Go beyond the lawn
Naturalize it using locally appropriate plants that are hardy and don’t need a lot of water. If you have to water, do it during the coolest part of the day or at night to minimize evaporation. Here is a useful calculator to figure out landscape water use. Xeriscaping is a method of landscaping that utilizes only native and low water plants. It is an especially appropriate approach for states like California and Arizona where people often plant lawns like they live in Florida despite living in the desert.
6. Harvest your rainwater
Put a rain barrel on your downspouts and use this water for irrigation. Rain cisterns come in all shapes and sizes ranging from larger underground systems to smaller, freestanding ones. Some even glow!
7. Harvest your greywater
Water that has been used at least once but is still clean enough for other jobs is called greywater. Water from sinks, showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers are the most common household examples. (Toilet water is often called “blackwater” and needs a different level of treatment before it can be reused.) Greywater can be recycled with practical plumbing systems like the Aqus, or with simple practices such as emptying the fish tank in the garden instead of the sink. The bottom line? One way or another, avoid putting water down the drain when you can use it for something else.
8. At the car wash
Car washes are often more efficient than home washing and treat their water rather than letting it straight into the sewer system. But check to make sure that they clean and recycle the water. Better yet, try the waterless car wash. If you live in Manchester, the Levenshulme Baptist Church is recycling water from its Baptistery pool for charity car washes http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/baptismal_water.php .
9. Keep your eyes open
Report broken pipes, open hydrants, and excessive waste. Don’t be shy about pointing out leaks to your friends and family members, either. They might have tuned out the dripping sound a long time ago.
10. Don’t spike the punch
Water sources have to be protected. In many closed loop systems like those in cities around the Great Lakes, waste water is returned to the Lake that fresh water comes out of. Don’t pour chemicals down drains, or flush drugs down toilets; it could come back in diluted form in your water.

www.treehugger.com

The Water Saving Hero campaign highlights simple and effective steps Bay Area residents can take to conserve water now and for the future. This site can help you learn more about water conservation programs and cash rebates provided by your local utility. With these resources you can become a Water Hero, saving water and money throughout your home and business.

www.watersavinghero.com

Landscape- Urban Agriculture, Chicago Farm

2008-04-13T15:20:00.012-04:00

City Farm: Chicago, Illinois

urban sprawl is eating up

farms as suburbs expand.

"Why not bring farms to the city?"

City Farm is a project of the Resource Center, the city’s oldest nonprofit recycling program. The idea behind City Farm is that an urban farming program is not just about raising food, but also about doing it with minimal environmental impact.

THERE ARE more than 80,000 vacant lots in Chicago and the way Ken Dunn sees it, there's the potential for thousands of jobs. Founder of the Resource Center, a Chicago-based nonprofit environmental organization,

City farm started investigating whether intensive urban farming could provide enough income to support a house hold

"We found that by planning and planting carefully, you can create a job for an individual on about 10,000 square feet or about four lots,"

The anchor of the urban farming program is the center's static pile composting operation. The center contracts with bars, restaurants and grocery stores for food residuals; it has agreements with the Chicago Police Stables for its horse manure; and it accepts yard trimmings from landscapers - producing approximately 10,000 cubic yards/year of compost.

Another link that must be strong is the one between the farm and the community. An ideal situation, Dunn explains, has been established between a farmer and a school that has an adjacent plot of land. The farmer is allowed to use the land in exchange for teaching students about growing produce in a school gardening curriculum. "The nice thing about that situation is that one of the requirements of having an urban farm is having a relationship with the community and with the kids," says Dunn.

Four restaurants and three farmers markets currently purchase the produce. Contracts with restaurants are especially helpful because the fees are paid up front. On the other side, the chefs are paying for convenience and peace of mind. "We've discovered an attractive mix," Dunn notes. "Chefs don't have the time to purchase everything themselves or train a staff member what to look for. Our growers consistently produce the quality in appearance and taste that the chefs require and deliver it to the restaurant."

http://www.resourcecenterchicago.org/index.html

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5378/is_199903/ai_n21438778

Landscape- Stormwater Management, Green Streets Portland Oregon

2008-04-13T11:39:00.000-04:00

Green Streets Portland, Oregon

Trigger
1. Manage stormwater runoff both at the source and the surface.
2. Use plants and soil to slow, filter, cleanse, and infiltrate runoff.
3. Design facilities that aesthetically enhance the community.

Effect
* traffic calming
* increases livability
* increases community involvement

Other Benefits
* recharges groundwater supply
* stormwater harvesting for reuse
* reduces runoff volume
* cleans automobile drips of hydrocarbons and other pollutens (bioremediation)
* stores large volume of water

Managing stormwater runoff from the street through vegetated planters for flow and water quality benefit. A green street retrofit which manages stormwater at the source through a vegetated swale, while enhancing the neighborhood.

Stormwater Facility Science
The surface area of a typical stormwater facility allows runoff to pond and evaporate while sediments settle into a layer of mulch. The organic mulch layer prevents soil bed erosion and retains moisture for plant roots. It also provides a medium for biological growth and the decomposition or decay of organic matter. The soil stores water and nutrients to support plant life. Worms and other soil organisms are very good at degrading organic pollutants, like petroleum-based compounds. They also help mix organic material, increase aeration,
and improve water infiltration and water holding capacity. Bacteria and other beneficial soil microbes process the majority of pollutants, including most of the nitrogen. The stiff structure of plants such as rushes and sedges slows water passage and traps sediments within the surface area of the facility.

Mt Tabor Middle School
This summer, the City will build stormwater management facilities at the school and on SE 57th Avenue just south of Pine Street. The project will feature a raingarden, infiltration planters, and a stormwater curb extension. Over the last year, Environmental Services has worked closely with Portland Public Schools and the Portland Office of Transportation to design these facilities. The new systems will dramatically reduce the amount of runoff draining to the sewer, and reduce the risk of sewer backups in homes on Pine Street. These attractive facilities
are designed to improve the school grounds and the urban environment, in addition to managing runoff.

SW Hillsdale
Construction is completed on two water quality planters in downtown Hillsdale in southwest Portland. The planters will treat stormwater runoff from 20,000 square feet of SW Capitol Highway. Runoff will enter the planters through curb openings and filter through soil to remove pollutants. The filtered water will flow into a storm sewer that drains to Fanno Creek. Each planter will have shrubs to improve their appearance, provide root structure to help maintain soil infiltration, and create habitat for soil organisms that help break down pollutants. The City will evaluate these planters, along with another design installed at New Columbia in north Portland, for potential use at other locations.

SW Texas
This summer, the City will build stormwater facilities along SW Texas Street to treat, detain and dispose of drainage from 17-acres bounded by SW California Street, SW Nevada Court, SW Capitol Highway, and SW 26th Avenue. The project will consist of a combination of conventional
stormwater conveyance systems and stormwater swales to manage runoff from roofs, driveways, and streets.

This project is the City’s response to a citizen-led initiative. This flexible, innovative project meets the needs of the neighborhood,helps meet regulatory requirements, and improves quality of life. The completed green street improvements will direct runoff away from homes and backyards, alleviate basement flooding, and reduce street erosion. The project will also protect
the City’s sewer infrastructure by managing stormwater that contributed to problems downstream in the Burlingame sewer.

NE Fremont and 131st Place
This project is the first in Portland to manage street runoff and accommodate a ramp crossing for pedestrian safety. The City removed 400 square feet of asphalt on either side of the pedestrian ramp and installed a variety of plants. Stormwater enters the vegetated area on the
west side through a curb cut and flows under the ramp to the vegetated area on the east side. The soil and vegetation slow runoff flow, filter sediments and pollutants, and allow the stormwater to soak into the ground, which reduces the burden on the combined sewer system and recharges groundwater. This was a collaborative project between Environmental Services and the Portland Office of Transportation. The two bureaus will team up on future projects to manage stormwater runoff, protect pedestrians and increase neighborhood livability.

Housekeeping
Maintenance Policy Development
Because the number of Portland green streets is increasing, the City is drafting a formal green street maintenance policy to ensure facilities have long, productive lives and to let property owners and neighbors know what their responsibilities are. The main responsibility is simple maintenance. Neighbors and property owners should keep litter, brush and trees out of the green street facility, and shouldn’t stack or store anything in it. All other maintenance will be conducted by the City.

Owners would be responsible for items needed to maintain the facilities such as yard debris bags
and tools. The draft policy also recommends sending regular green street update letters or flyers to property owners and neighbors. The City wants to make sure that as new neighbors move in, they learn about their neighborhood green street and their maintenance responsibilities. We also want neighbors to know when city scheduled maintenance has occurred at a facility.

Testing
Gathering performance information on green streets and other stormwater management facilities is an important part of Portland’s Sustainable Stormwater Management Program. The City uses the information to determine which designs work best in specific locations to help plan and design new green street projects. So far, the City has tested the NE 35th and Siskiyou green street and the Glencoe Rain Garden. Tests at NE 35th and Siskiyou show the facility
cuts peak stormwater flows to the sewer system by an average 85% and that it captures and infiltrates all the stormwater during most rain events. The test shows the facility is effectively doing what it was designed to do, reduce residential basement flooding.

The City built the Glencoe Rain Garden at SE 51st and Morrison in response to a severe basement sewer backup problem on a residential street. Stormwater runoff from 35,000 square feet of asphalt flows into the rain garden. The facility captures all the runoff from small rain events and it reduces peak flows by an average 80%. Tests on green streets at SE 56th and Ankeny and SW 12th and Montgomery showed both facilities are meeting expectations. The tests also indicated the need for some simple design modifications to make the facilities more effective. This spring, the City will do more tests including the stormwater curb extension
at NE 131st and Fremont.

References
*images above from SW 12th Avenue Green Street Project, Portland, Oregon
Kevin Robert Perry, ASLA, Sustainable Stormwater Management Program, City of Portland, Oregon
http://www.asla.org/awards/2006/06winners/

Environmental Services City of Portland, Green Street News Projects around the city
Green Streets Tour Map

Landscape- Sustainable South Bronx: Green Roofs

2008-04-13T10:05:00.000-04:00

Green Roofs:

A green roof system is an extension of the existing roof which involves a high quality water proofing and root repellent system, a drainage system, filter cloth, a lightweight growing medium and plants.

Green roof systems may be modular, with drainage layers, filter cloth, growing media and plants already prepared in movable, interlocking grids, or, each component of the system may be installed separately.Green roof development involves the creation of "contained" green space on top of a human-made structure. This green space could be below, at or above grade, but in all cases the plants are not planted in the "ground'. Green roofs can provide a wide range of public and private benefits.

"Heat Island Effect":

Heat absorbency by roofs and pavement, air conditioner use, and the power plants that supply electricity for them help to create what is known as the Urban Heat Island Effect. This can exacerbate certain health conditions, and lead to more air conditioner use in a vicious cycle that costs government and individuals money. About 20% of NYC’s surface area is covered by non reflective roofs, so there is plenty of room to work with.

Benefits:

Temperature Reduction and Energy Conservation:

Reduced cooling costs by keeping the heat off the building and increasing the amount of insulation. Improved longevity for the roof by minimizing wide temperature fluctuations and exposure to the elements.

Stormwater Management:

Green Roofs provide a way to prevent overflows by absorbing and holding onto the majority of water that falls on them during a typical rain. This water is then slowly released from the soil and into the atmosphere through the foliage – in a process called transevaporation.

Improved Air Quaility:

The amount of Oxygen produced by one tree with a 16 foot diameter canopy is equaled by the amount of Oxygen produced by a 16 square feet patch of green roof with 15 in. high foliage.
In NYC, it costs over $1000 to plant a small tree that takes years to grow that big, but it costs far less to build 16 square feet of green roofs today.

Vegetative surfaces also trap harmful airborne particulates and keep them from entering our lungs, and can dampen noise pollution too. Pollutants in the air are less harmful under lower temperatures that these roofs maintain.

Cost:

Retrofitting and existing building with a green roof costs more than a conventional roof, but this investment yields cost savings over time through energy conservation and rooftop longevity. A green roof can also increase the resale or rental value of a property, as well as provide aesthetic enjoyment for you in the meantime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslD7H6ruMM

Sustainable South Bronx:

Founded in 2001 by life-long South Bronx resident, Dr. Majora Carter, SSBx addresses land-use, energy, transportation, water & waste policy, and education to advance the environmental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx, and inspire solutions in areas like it across the nation and around the world.

Landscape- CityTrees

2008-04-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

CityTrees is a volunteer-based non-profit organization improving the environment and building community in Redwood City through a coordinated program of tree planting, pruning, and education. CityTrees works in close conjunction with the City of Redwood City Public Works Services Department. Since 2000, CityTrees has planted over 1,800 new trees in Redwood City. Our pruning program helps ensure the young trees we plant grow strong and healthy.

CityTrees raises funds for the purchase and maintenance of trees through grants, local business sponsorship, and individual memberships and contributions. CityTrees also recruits volunteers from the community to plant and maintain trees, and has established a number of ongoing partnerships with service groups and businesses.

The community organization of CityTrees could provide a solid foundation for community development while increasing Denver's Arboreal Infrastructure (see Ron Henderson above).

Their history http://www.citytrees.org/planting_history.html

Resources.

http://www.citytrees.org

Landscape- Las Gaviotas/ what can I do?

2008-04-12T14:32:00.000-04:00

The eco-village known as Las Gaviotas is a research center located in eastern Colombia, South America. It is the only project in the world with a twenty-three year track record of the sustainable regeneration of tropical rain forest. As of this year, las Gaviotas will have successfully reforested 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of fully canopied, poly-culture rain forest.

The results of this success are many. They include:
• Pure drinking water.
• 10% increase in annual rainfall.
• Dramatically decreased surface soil temperatures.
• Net cooling effect.
• Sustainable living wage economy for indigenous population.
• Development and use of alternative sources of energy.
• Proliferation of plant species, 253 at last count and rising.
• Sustainable sources of lumber, resin, cashew and bio-fuels.
• Sensible and sustainable management of natural resources.
• A model for sustainable third world rural development.

As a result of this success, Las Gaviotas has 144,000 tons of carbon offsets to offer on an annual basis. This tonnage of annual carbon sequestration is calculated using formulas developed in response to the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming known as the Kyoto Protocol. The 8,000 hectares of existing maturing tropical rain forest is the source for this annual tonnage of carbon offsets.

90% of all donations received by the Marion Institute in support of this initiative will pass through directly to ZERI Eje Cafetero in Colombia to fund the planting regimen and related research at Las Gaviotas. 10% of the funds will remain with the Marion Institute to cover the costs of administering the program and to fund the ZERI Learning Initiative. The ZERI learning Initiative is devoted to the training of teachers in how to teach systems thinking and sustainability to K-12 age school children throughout the US.

www.zeri.org
www.marioninstitute.org

Landscape- Arboreal Infrastructure

2008-04-12T13:55:00.000-04:00

ARBOREAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Sustainable Technologies for Urban Transformation
Balancing systems for an ecological urban transformation

key words: ecological infrastructure
urban forest
landscape urbanism

In the middle of our life's path I found myself in a dark forest, where the straight line was lost. (Dante, Inferno 1:1-3)
INFRASTRUCTURE IS NATURE
Ecological infrastructures, such as aquatic and arboreal systems, are insidious agents in urban -regional territories. These infrastructures are dynamic fields of biology and metabolism that are inhabited by human and non-human ecosystems alike.

NATURE IS ARTIFICE
One of these, the urban forest - or what could be called Arboreal Infrastructure - is the matrix of urban forest that is, worldwide, the most rapidly expanding forest of all. As global cities expand, they inherit edge conditions that are more densely forested than the historic city centers so the percentage of forest cover increases. Additionally, municipalities such as Beijing and Chicago have aggressively acted to enlarge the arboreal infrastructure of their metropolitan regions. Beijing has planted over 30 million trees in the past ten years. Chicago has planted fewer, but these are strategically located as part of the transportation infrastructure - the largest and most "everyday" of the more traditional communication and transportation infrastructures.

ARTIFICE IS ECOLOGY
The mechanism for the expansion of these urban forests are national and municipal policy initiatives that quantify the tree canopy coverage as a percent of the total land area of these municipalities. Twenty five percent tree canopy coverage has been identified by the United States Department of Agriculture as a threshold at which significant ecological benefits are produced from the urban forest. In a small city such as Providence, Rhode Island (population 180,000) the increase in canopy from 18% to 25% will require the planting of a flock of 37,000 trees. Beijing recently announced that it had achieved the 50% tree canopy coverage it promised the International Olympic Committee prior to the 2008 Olympic Games.

A brief history of the transformation of urban tree planting from agricultural plot to microclimate enhancements to delineators of urban space will be reviewed with a conclusion outlining current shifts in urban forest policies from beautification to ecology as the basis for the planting and management of the urban forest. Advances in the technology of arboriculture will augment this review and amplify the artifice of ecology in the urban forest.

Ron Henderson is a landscape architect based in Providence, Rhode Island USA. He is Visiting Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Landscape Architecture Design Studios in the newly established Department of Landscape Architecture at Tsinghua University, Beijing PRC. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at Roger Williams University, Rhode Island USA and founding principal of L+A Landscape Architecture. He directs a policy initiative, Arboreal Infrastructure, that coordinates national, state, municipal, academic, non-government organizations, and professionals that has resulted in the drafting, review, and adoption of one of the most advanced ecological municipal landscape ordinances in the United States.
1500 bc fresco of garden high official's tomb trees, orchards, palms, groves, vineyard, pools, birds, pavilions, .... already the components of all gardens of all times were already represented. (Vercelloni, 1990) repetition - groves and orchards - not individual plants (Far Eastern)

15C Milan Filarete's Sforzinda palace-garden (Vercelloni, 1990, pl. 28) roof garden rather than a garden BESIDE the palace

Jacopo De'Barari's bird's eye view of Venice coincide with those shown on Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published by Also Manuzion a year earlier in 1499. The walled gardens are tended but the public realm is less tended and wild. (Vercelloni, 1990, pl.31)

June 29, 1545, the Senate of the Serennissima Repubblica di San Marco decreed the establishment of the first botanical garden in Europe, in Padua, on the Venetian mainland. 1,168 species classified in beds using monastic wisdom and recent scientific knowledge. (Vercelloni, 1990, pl. 39)

Jacques Androuet de Cerceau' Les plus excellents bastiments de France (Vercelloni, 1990, pl. 43) extroverted garden

what is the difference between gardens, parks, and forests JDHunt first second and third nature

Gabriel Thouin, 1820, published a tableau in his treatise on gardens. These might also record the various classifications of arboreal use: economy, agriculture, botanical, pleasure. Do we now add ecology ? (Vercelloni, 1990, pl.166)

"This isn't yours," he repeated, "because it's the ground that's yours, and if I put a foot on it I would be trespassing. But up here, I can go wherever I like." Baron in the Trees, p. 19

Trees seem almost to have no right here since my brother left them or since men have been swept by this frenzy for the ax. And the species have changed too; no longer are there ilexes, elms, oaks; nowadays Africa, Australia, the Americas, the Indies, reach out roots and branches as far as here. What old trees exist are tucked away on the heights; olives on the hills, pines and chestnuts in the mountain woods; the coast down below is a red Australia of eucalyptus, of swollen India rubber trees, huge and isolated garden growths, and the whole of the rest is palms, with their scraggy tufts, inhospitable trees from the desert. Baron in the Trees, p.17

Beauty demands peace; peace depends on a new contract. Serres p.25

The only strong or concrete reason that peoples and states have found to join forces and institute a lasting truce among themselves is the formal idea of perpetual peace, an idea that has always been abstract and inconsequential because nations have been able to consider themselves, as a group, alone in the world. Nothing and nobody and no collectivity was above them, and thus no reason. >

Since the death of God, all we have left is war. >

But now that the world itself is entering into a natural contract with the assembled peoples, however conflicted their assembly may be, it gives the reason for peace, as well as the sought after transcendence. >

We must decide on peace among ourselves to protect the world, and peace with the world to protect ourselves. Serres, p. 25

Most of Toronto's ravine parks run north-south and lack the east-west connections that could allow animals to move from watershed to watershed. The land included in the existing parks is also often steeply sloping; there are few good examples of upland areas that include interior spaces protected from obvious human disturbances, such as trampling. Downsview offers a rare opportunity to establish protected interior habitat and to simultaneously connect two north-south ravine systems (the Don and the Humber River systems). With careful spatial strategies in design and management, this infrastructure could be built to support biodiversity while encouraging humans to enjoy social recreation. it is not an "either/or" choice but rather a matter of establishing an informed basis to achieve "both/and." The basic idea is not new, but I believe that explicitly creating an infrastructure that supports regional biodiversity on a site-by-site basis while recognizing cumulative effects would be a new goal for urban design. (Hill, in Downsview, p 98)

Infrastructure is a prevalent term among the Downsview projects that can be posited as an operation, architecture and landscape are both understood as originary conditions in an urban environment, where a natural or real ground no longer exists. According to this point of view, the notion of infrastructure challenges the idea of a seamless, naturalistic, or naturalized surface that blurs particularities and differences, by making visible the graft that joins landscape to architecture, opening both toward a new definition of urban space. (Pollak, Downsview, p.45)

Tree Ecology. The designer is wise to respect certain ecological relationships among trees. Trees associated in nature have a more comfortable appearance when used together; they are usually complimentary in color and texture, and have similar cultivation requirements. When they are used together maintenance is obviously simpler than when trees with different moisture and soil requirements are grouped. (Zion, p.83)

The potential of trees in shaping and humanizing cities remains an unperceived amelioration for a civilization that has nearly forgotten the relevance of art in civic design. paradoxically, the opportunity to use trees as part of the city has been impeded by confusing the intrinsic characteristics of the forest and the city. Current urban planting design tries to represent the way trees grow in nature. This is our inheritance from the nineteenth century. The proper use of trees in cities should reinforce the structure of the city according to the disciplines of urban design, not plant ecology. Unity, continuity and scale have more consequence than natural history in weaving together the diverse threads of the urban fabric. The civic designer, like the artist and craftsman, expresses his understanding of nature not by copying but by creating an interpretation of our elusive relationship with the organic world. (Arnold, p.41)

ARBOR-, SILVA-, AND FOREST
The word 'forest' comes from the Latin 'foris,' which means outdoors or away from civilization. Forest shares an etymological root with "forum," an outside place.

-sen, -lin
Early Urban Forests
http://www1.brcc.edu/murray/Urban_Forestry/module/overview/A102a.htm

Difficulties Studying Early Urban Forests
The history of urban forestry is difficult to document by conventional research techniques. The green infrastructure of urban areas does not preserve as well as the gray infrastructure and archeologists are not actively searching to uncover evidence of ancient landscapes. Urban forests are not as well documented in literature and historical documents. Since a significant portion of early urban forests existed in open space, they were probably then, as they are now, sacrificed to make way for urban sprawl.
Reasons for Early Urban Forests
As early as 2,000 - 3,000 BC, Egyptians were lining ceremonial routes with trees. Around the fifth century BC, Athenians installed public gardens and street trees in their city and maintained them with elaborate irrigation and drainage systems (Hyams, 1971). Roman emperors had trees planted along routes in cities to make it easier for troops to navigate through urban areas. Kublai Kahn mandated the planting of trees along major urban routes so his armies could still follow the assigned routes during sand and snow storms.

Hyams, E. 1971. A History Of Gardens And Gardening. New York: Praeger Publishers

Antwerp
Prior to, and during, the Middle Ages, some cities set aside open areas for military exercises and citizen enjoyment. No evidence exists that any attempt was made to landscape these open areas. The city of Antwerp undertook two aggressive tree planting initiatives during the Middle Ages (mid- to late-1500s) making them one of the earliest pioneer cities in urban forestry. Antwerp’s first urban forest consisted of a landscape that was designed and installed along public walks and gardens just within the fortified walls of the city (Girouard, 1985). This new urban forest became very popular and attracted wealthy merchants that purchased adjacent land in order to build their homes around the gardens. During the same time period, Antwerp accommodated their citizens with a second tree planting initiative along a series of elevated earthworks (ramparts) built as fortifications during the Renaissance. The city planted a triple row of trees that shaded the citizens as they strolled along the old fortifications and enjoyed the views and fresh air turning these old fortifications into tree-lined boulevards (Girourard, 1985).
Paris
Paris improved upon Antwerp’s boulevard concept with an extensive planting of elm trees along an avenue called Cours La Reine. Instead of landscaping an existing open space associated with the city’s fortifications, the Parisians planted trees along existing avenues, creating some of the earliest tree-lined avenues. The primary purpose of these tree-lined avenues was for socialization. Wealthy citizens dressed up and rode in their ornate carriages while others, on foot, promenaded under the shade of the elm trees. In addition to the social spectacle, citizens enjoyed a view of the Seine river, fresh air, and cooler temperatures.

Girouard, M. 1985. Cities And People: A Social And Architectural History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

Evolution of the Tree-lined Boulevards
Raised earthen ramparts were usually built as a defensive structure and served as a boundary between the city and country. Trees may have been planted on the ramparts to help conceal the location of the town and to strengthen the embankment against cannon fire. Influenced by the tree-lined ramparts of Antwerp and the Cours La Reine, Parisians performed an extensive tree planting initiative on ramparts around Paris in the 1670s (Girouard, 1985). At this time, warfare with cannon artillery had evolved making the city’s ramparts no longer effective as defensive barriers. The trees were planted on the ramparts in four rows to create a central drive for carriages and two sidewalks for pedestrians. These tree-lined boulevards eventually became connected and experienced an increasing volume of traffic. Citizens preferred traveling along the shaded boulevards instead of the congested, noisy, treeless streets of the inner-city. By the late eighteenth century, tree-lined boulevards were spreading across France and Europe and the term boulevard was no longer associated with ramparts of fortifications.
During the eighteenth century, the French improved the tree-lined boulevards and avenues and demonstrated how trees could be planted in uniform rows to establish spatial boundaries (Kostoff, 1991). Napoleon also helped to shape the urban landscape around this time by widening all of the major avenues to decrease the opportunity for protestors and invading forces to erect roadblocks. Napoleon propagated these wide tree-lined boulevards in countries that he conquered.
Influential designers in the mid-eighteenth century, like Andre Le Notre, were routinely planting multiple rows of trees along major avenues in Paris to achieve an architectural goal of structural space (Kostoff, 1991). The incorporation of tree-lined avenues soon became an established practice in urban design and continues today.

Girouard, M. 1985. Cities And People: A Social And Architectural History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Kostof, S. 1991. The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History. Boston: Little, Brown and Company
History of Urban Forests in American
Due to the haphazard growth of Jamestown there was no attempt by the early settlers to plan for landscaped areas. In fact, the citizens were slow to even plant gardens since they were preoccupied with the more profitable practice of raising cattle and tobacco. The Virginia Company had to pass a law in 1629 requiring the Jamestown settlers to plant gardens (Hyams, 1971). Williamsburg’s layout was probably influenced by European urban design so that in addition to broad, straight streets there were also open spaces (Brinkley and Chappell, 1996). These open spaces, or village greens, were at the center of colonial villages in New England and used by the local militia for mustering and drilling and by the local residents as a common pasture for livestock and horses. By the late eighteenth century trees were planted in village greens and along streets. Early American cities, like British cities, had tree-lined streets in residential areas but not in city centers. Kostoff (1991) recognizes a distinction between avenues, which were primary traffic streets, and boulevards, which were broad, straight roads with landscaped medians. Boulevards were often located around the periphery of cities and used to connect parks. As in Paris, vehicular traffic eventually took over the boulevards for rapid transport across cities to avoid congested city streets.
The French tree-lined avenue influence was evident in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s design for Washington, D.C. L’Enfant purposefully designed broad avenues to facilitate the planting of trees and open spaces for monuments and for use by the public. In 1869, two influential landscape architects, Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvin Vaux, famed designers of Central Park in New York City, increased the public’s awareness of tree-lined streets in residential areas with their design of Riverside, Illinois. Olmstead and Vaux purposely designed and insisted on the installation of thousands of trees along the curved streets of one of America’s earliest planned suburban residential neighborhoods. It’s important to note that Olmstead and Vaux scaled their design for pedestrians – not vehicles (Kunstler, 1993). Sadly, as long as vehicles rule the residential roads, we will not be able to experience the vistas and other experiences designers such as Olmstead intended around our homes and communities.

Brinkley & Chappell, 1996.....
Hyams, E. 1971. A History Of Gardens And Gardening. New York: Praeger Publishers
Kostof, S. 1991. The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History. Boston: Little, Brown and Company
Kunstler, J.H. 1993. The Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline Of America’s Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster

Federal and State Involvement
Before the economic and ecological benefits of urban forests were known, tree planting was performed as a part of a beautification effort to block undesirable views. In the early and mid-1950s, landscape architects often used trees to create the perception of open space since available space was being rapidly developed to support increasing urban populations. It should come as no surprise that the origins of the federal urban and community forestry assistance grant program was rooted in the perceived need to beautify urban areas. President Johnson initiated a task force on natural beauty and one member of this task force, Whyte (1965), proposed a landscape-townscape program that was eventually included as a provision in the Housing Act of 1965. The Department of Housing and Urban Development modified Whyte’s original provision and titled it “Urban Beautification.” This program provided 50 percent matching grants for landscaping and beautification efforts for communities. This money went directly to local governments, bypassing state governments. In 1978, Congress recognized that urban forests improve the quality of life for residents and that the health or urban forests were on the decline. The Congress passed the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act to provide financial and technical assistance to improve urban forests across the United States.
Current State of Urban Forests Across the United States
In order to determine if urban forests are increasing or decreasing across the United States an accurate baseline must first be established. Using satellite imagery, high-altitude photography, and computer software (CITYgreen) American Forests has been able to document a change in tree cover over urban areas across the United States. CITYgreen software generates a detailed inventory of vegetation by combining the images and photographs with available field data. In Washington, D.C., American Forests calculated the heavy canopy cover (acreage with 50% or more tree cover) and discovered that between 1973 and 1997 there was a loss of 64 percent (American Forests, undated). Based on a survey of 20 cities, a third of the cities only planted one tree for every eight removed, and about half of the cities faired slightly better by planting one tree for every four removed (Moll, 1987).
Moll, G. 1987. The State of Our Urban Forests. American Forests May/June.
Whyte, W.H. 1968. The Last Landscape. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Bibliography

Arnold, Henry, Trees in Urban Design, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1993
Calvino, The Baron in the Trees. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1959
Harrison, Robert Pogue, Forests, the Shadow of Civilization, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992
Hill, Kristina, "Urban Ecologies: Biodiversity and Urban Design," in Julia Czerniak, Case: Downsview Park Toronto, Munich: Prestel, 2001
Pollak, Linda, "Building City Landscape: Interdisciplinary Design Work in the Downsview Park Competition," in Julia Czerniak, Case: Downsview Park Toronto, Munich: Prestel, 2001
Sauer, Leslie Jones, The Once and Future Forest, Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1998
Serres, Michel, The Natural Contract. Translated by Elizabeth MacArthur and William Paulson, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995
Vercelloni, Virgilio, European Gardens: An Historical Atlas, New York: Rizzoli, 1990
Vico, Giambattista, The New Science. Translated by T.G. Bergin and M.H. Fisch. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968
Zion, Robert, Trees for Architecture and the Landscape, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1968
CCTV 12 March 2006 6:30 pm report:

CHINA
-12 billion trees planted in China in past 5 years
- in 2005, 3.79 million hectares planted
- nationwide, 18.21 canopy coverage

BEIJING
-50% canopy coverage in Beijing achieved - as promised to IOC

How does one walk in a straight line through a forest ? rph p.113

not just enough to imagine the rational consequences of the urban forest - the mystery of Vico's giants of the Grimm Brothers must present itself in the rationality of the street tree.

p.211 rph forests cannot be owned

The only true shelter on earth is the earth itself. rph 234
Arboreal infrastructure and the accomplishments Wangari Maathai. Arboreal Infrastructure has been endorsed as an agent of Peace.
Do trees equal peace ?

ARBOREAL INFRASTRUCTURE

How does one walk in a straight line through a forest ? The mind's eye immediately conjures a dense forest, Bavaria or Virginia perhaps. Yet these forests are in decline in quality and quantity globally.

In the United States, the only forest that is growing is the urban forest. Suburbanization and mineral extraction are reducing the area of the forests. Climatic shifts and pollution of many sorts are degrading the forests that remain. Yet, in cities as diverse as Beijing (population 15.0 million) Chicago (population 2.5 million) and Providence (population 180,000) the urban forest is being expanded.

As a significant component of a comprehensive analysis of urban ecological systems, the urban forest

No one has ever won the Nobel Peace Prize for building a structure, but they have won for planting a tree.

4. URBAN FOREST TERMS

1. 1. All trees and other vegetation in and around dense human settlements. http://hermes.richmond.edu/urbanforests/glossary.html
2. 2. Created where people congregate and build communities. Since humans are the main inhabitants of the urban forest, they largely determine the tree species in this forest. http://www.lpb.org/programs/forest/glossary.html
3. 3. For the purposes of micro-climate regulation, aesthetic value and water absorption, certain area shall be designated as urban forest. http://www2.bonet.co.id/dephut/41-99-1.htm
4. 4. Forests in, next to or nearby a specific urban area, of which the decision-making processes on desirable functions are dominated by local actors and their objectives, resulting from their perceptions, norms and values. Urban forestry is believed to differ structurally from forestry at large in terms of the geographical location, structure and ownership of the forested area, as well as in terms of the density of (recreation) facilities, actors involved in policy-making, major uses, policy instruments and the occurrence of social conflicts and dynamics of policy processes. http://www.efi.fi/publications/Working_Papers/12.html
5. 5. The approach was to use an urban forest concept with the concept of the 20-20 rule. The 20-20 rule referred to development sites preserving 20% of total lot planting area and 20 trees per acre being required as a measurement of urban forest. http://www.cityofdenton.com/council/minutes/021798.html
6. 6. The term we use for ALL the trees and woods within the Black Country. http://www.nufu.org.uk/htmfiles/bcuf.html
7. 7. The sum total of all vegetation growing in urban areas - www1.br.cc.va.us/.../module/ overview/A101a.htm
8. 8. The trees, forests, and associated organisms that grow near buildings and in gardens, green spaces, parks and golf courses located in village, town, suburban, and urban areas http://www.forestry.utoronto.ca/ac_staff/emeritus/My%20Webs/english.htm
9. 9. The trees, woodlands, woody shrubs, ground vegetation and associated green space within the urban environment http://www.susdev.gov.mb.ca/wildlife/misc/glossary.html
10. 10. The vast supply of recyclable paper produced in our cities, particularly office paper, represents a considerable untapped resource and has been coined the “urban forest”. http://www.foe.co.uk/camps/indpoll/paper.htm
11. 11. Urban Forest - The current EMO defines urban forest as performing several functions. Two of these functions require that an urban forest be located in the front of site along the roadway. Thus, if a site has urban forest in the rear or along the sides, the urban forest does not qualify to meet the 10 percent requirement. However, the EMO grants a credit (in the form of an increase in the percentage of the actual area preserved) if the urban forest is preserved along the front of a site. This is an obvious conflict in the EMO. Staff is proposing to correct this problem by clarifying that an urban forest may perform any one of the functions itemized in the definition, but not necessarily all of the functions. Thus, if a site has urban forest in the rear or the sides, it can qualify to meet the 10 percent requirement. The definition of urban forest also states that an urban forest is measured by using the tree drip line. The drip line of a tree represents the vertical projection (on the ground) of the outer perimeter of the crown of a tree. The problem with utilizing the drip line of a tree to measure urban forest is that measuring the drip line of a tree is not a standard technique that is typically used in the field by site designers. This measurement is also difficult to obtain for deciduous trees which lose their leaves in the fall. To correct this problem, staff is recommending that the term drip line be replace with the term "critical protection zone." The critical protection zone is a standard that is currently defined in the EMO and has been traditionally used and is accepted by site designers to comply with the EMO’s tree removal section. The critical protection zone is a circle surrounding a tree described by a radius of one foot for each inch of the diameter of the trunk of a tree. A public hearing has been scheduled to be held on May 3, 1999, before the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Commission on Ordinance No. 99-O-0020. The Planning Commission will review the ordinance for consistency with the Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan. http://fcn.state.fl.us/citytlh/agenda/1999/990512/29.htm
12. 12. Urban or community forestry is the planning for, and management of, a community's forest resources to enhance the quality of life. The process integrates the environmental, economic, political, historical, and social values of the community to develop a comprehensive management plan for the urban forest. A community in this definition is an area of human settlement in a rural or metropolitan region. The urban or community forest includes the vegetation, open space, and related natural resources of the area. http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~forestry/guide/pref.html
13. 13. We simply mean all trees and shrubs growing in populated areas. http://www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/education/shed.html

Landscape- Herman Miller Parking

2008-04-12T10:25:00.000-04:00

The Herman Miller furniture manufacturing and assembly plant is situated on a 70-acre site in rural Georgia. The project’s modest building and site budget included no provision for landscape architecture before the architects invited Michael Van Valkenburgh, Inc. (MVVA) to join the design team. The client required parking for 550 cars and 120 semi-trailers—a total area of 10 acres. Runoff from the parking surfaces, the roadway, and the roof of the 330,000 square-foot facility would have had a devastating impact on the surrounding fragile creek ecosystems. The landscape architects determined that treating and slowly releasing the massive runoff in the landscape must become an essential priority for the project.

MVVA approached the porject with a simple strategy: grade the entire 22-acre building site at 5% to place the factory on a level base, so that water would sheet drain from impervious areas into wetlands constructed for the purpose, thereby eliminating the need for curbs, pipes, and manholes. The parking lot was divided into three bays that drain into wetlands planted with grasses, forbs, and sedges. When dry, these areas become meadows. The edges of these wetland trays transition to 10 to 15-foot-wide thickets of floodplain tress.

Using hydrologic management as an engine of this project’s design, the landscape architects extend Olmsted’s lineage with hydrologic systems to a new project type: the rural factory. We showed the client how to redirect money from the engineer’s budget and use grading, planting, environmental stewardship, and site organization to integrate storm water management into a vast factory system. In our scheme, parking became part of a thriving ecological system that neutralizes the impacts of runoff, provides habitat for wildlife, and offers a compelling arrival and departure experience to the three-shift factory’s employees.

By integrating ecology into acres of hardscape in an honest, elegant manner, this project creates a new model for low-cost, low-maintenance, environmentally sound factory landscapes. This model could be applied with equal success in suburban and urban areas and demonstrates how landscape architects can take a lead in linking effective hydrological management with good design.

Buildings- Personal Choices

2008-04-11T20:47:00.005-04:00

Green Home Checklist

Whether you’re a homebuyer or a renter looking for a green home, how do you know if a home is truly green? What should you look for? This checklist will help you identify a truly green home and ensure you get a healthier, high-performance green home that costs less to operate and has fewer environmental impacts:

Location: New green homes and neighborhoods must not be built on environmentally sensitive sites like prime farmland, wetlands and endangered species habitats. The greenest development sites are “in-fill” properties like former parking lots, rail yards, shopping malls and factories. Look for compact development where the average housing density is at least six units per acre. Your home should also be within easy walking distance of public transportation – like bus lines, light rail, and subway systems – so you can leave your car at home. A green home should also be within walking distance of parks, schools, and stores. See how many errands you can carry out on a bicycle. That’s healthier for you, your wallet, and the environment.
Size: No matter how many green building elements go into your home, a 5,000-square-foot green home still consumes many more natural resources than a 2,000-square-foot green home. The larger home will also require more heating, air conditioning and lighting. If you really want a sustainable home, choose a smaller size.
Building Design: The home should be oriented on its site to bring abundant natural daylight into the interior to reduce lighting requirements and to take advantage of any prevailing breezes. Windows, clerestories, skylights, light monitors, light shelves and other strategies should be used to bring daylight to the interior of the house. The exterior should have shading devices (sunshades, canopies, green screens and – best of all – trees), particularly on the southern and western facades and over windows and doors, to block hot summer sun. [t4]Dual-glaze windows reduce heat gain in summer and heat loss during cold winter months. The roof should be a light-colored, heat-reflecting Energy Star roof, or a green (landscaped) roof, to reduce heat absorption.
Green Building Materials: A green home will have been constructed or renovated with healthy, non-toxic building materials and furnishings, like low- and zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and sealants and non-toxic materials like strawboard for the sub-flooring. Wood-based features should come from rapidly renewable sources like bamboo, but if tropical hardwoods are used, they must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. A green home uses salvaged materials like kitchen tiles and materials with significant recycled content.
Insulation: A non-toxic insulation, derived from materials like soybean or cotton, with a high R (heat resistance) factor in a home’s walls and roof will help prevent cool air leakage in the summer and warm air leakage in the winter.
Windows and Doors: Windows and exterior doors should have ENERGY STAR® ratings, and they should seal their openings tightly to avoid heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter.
Energy Efficiency: A green home has energy-efficient lighting, heating, cooling and water-heating systems. Appliances should have ENERGY STAR® ratings.
Renewable Energy: The home should generate some of its own energy with technologies like photovoltaic systems.
Water Efficiency: A green home has a water-conserving irrigation system and water-efficient kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Look for a rainwater collection and storage system, particularly in drier regions where water is increasingly scarce and expensive.
Indoor Environmental Quality: Natural daylight should reach at least 75% of the home’s interior. Natural ventilation (via building orientation, operable windows, fans, wind chimneys and other strategies) should bring plentiful fresh air inside the house. The HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system should filter all incoming air and vent stale air outside. The garage should not have any air handling equipment or return ducts, and it should have an exhaust fan.
Landscaping: Vine-covered green screens, large canopy trees and other landscaping should shade exterior walls, the driveway, patios and other “hardscape” to minimize heat islands. Yards should be landscaped with drought-tolerant plants rather than water-guzzling plants and grass in most regions.

FOR POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS click here

Buildings- Glidehouse, Prefab Housing

2008-04-11T20:18:00.013-04:00

Michelle Kaufmann's Glidehouse factory built housing

- Eleonore de Lusignan

Designed for clean, simple living. The Glidehouse is built in a factory, using the most modern and environmentally friendly building methods and materials. It can be built in as little as 10 to 14 months at a cost comparable to or below traditional site-built homes.“Michelle Kaufmann Designs Glidehouse™ is nationally recognized as a contemporary, sustainable residence, setting the standard for pre-fabricated architecture. From design to construction, this home has been designed to harmonize with nature for clean, green, healthy living and to stand the test of time. The Glidehouse home proves that a low maintenance, sustainable residence can be high-quality, well designed, and cost effective. The Glidehouse meets the Energy Star® program standards for energy efficient homes and meets the performance standards of the American Lung Association Health House program.”

Publisized in the series "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" by the Sundance Channel, Michelle Kaufmann Designs, are acclaimed for their holistic approach to architecture design. The average home size in the USA has increased from 980 to 2350 sq. ft. in 50 years. The energy costs and carbon emissions emitted by the construction housing are significant. When constructing a home one should consider the cost no just on day one but for the next five years. Once MK designs saw the great benefits in prefab housing, they decided to do a case study and compared the construction of two houses with the exact same architecture: one site-built the other factory built. The results were impressive; the site-built home took 14 months to construct and cost 20 % more then the factory built home which was built in 4 months.

There are several was of putting modular housing together. Michelle Kaufmann explains their processes begins in the factory, by creating the frame horizontally. Then an overhead grid system assembles the frame in two to three days. Once it is set into place the interior dry wall and insulation is fixed. By progressing from the inside - out, the workers can do the interior finishing during the exterior construction. In addition to this form of construction, MK designs addresses smart design, eco materials, energy efficiency, water conservation and a healthy environment.

“Who: Developers Susan Powers and Chuck Perry
� What: Two-story, factory-built, energy-efficient, modular town-homes ranging from 1,100 to 1,500 square feet. They will be built in an All American Homes factory in Milliken and put together on the site to reduce construction cost and time.
� Where: 21 acres near Regis University, West 52nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard
� Architect: Michelle Kaufmann”

Building- Burnside Rocket

2008-04-11T14:57:00.001-04:00

Burnside Rocket
The Burnside Rocket Building

The Burnside Rocket is a new mixed-use building located at the corner of East Burnside and NE 11th Avenue in Portland, Oregon. The site is a 3,800sf (350m^2) former vacant lot, adjacent to an indoor rock climbing gym. The building includes 16,500sf (1533m^2) of indoor area on four floors, plus outdoor terraces at each level. Construction was completed in April 2007, and the building is fully leased. The project team is projecting LEED Platinum certification.

An "edible roof" garden supplies fresh produce for top floor restaurant. Climb a ladder behind the kitchen of Leather Storrs' Rocket restaurant, and you step out of the roof hatch onto dirt. The view of downtown is great up here, but keep one eye on the ground to avoid crushing the peppers and tomatoes growing in raised beds & planters. During the past several weeks, master gardener Marc Boucher-Colbert has used several innovative techniques to help plants thrive in this hot, windy environment. Having a garden this close to the kitchen allows staff to pick ingredients at peak ripeness, and brings a whole new meaning to the idea of "Eating Local".

Window Shades as Art: Operable windows with artistic shutters allow sun control and natural ventilation for office tenants, and a head-turning display for passers by. Twenty sliding panels flank each window on the 2nd & 3rd floor office spaces. Four fixed panels are located on the ground floor. These panels provided a blank canvas for 24 emerging artists that live, work, or show art in Portland's Central Eastside Arts District. The installation was curated by Ruth Ann Brown, owner of the New American Art Union located nearby at 922 SE Ankeny St. The panels were installed last week, and will remain in place for five years before being auctioned to raise money for a new round of artwork.

Project team is projecting LEED Platinum Certification. After paperwork is reviewed by the US Green Building Council, the Burnside Rocket should join the ranks of LEED Platinum certified buildings. So far there are just two in Portland (The Armory & OHSU Center for Health & Healing) and just 40 nationwide. The Burnside Rocket is designed to use just 50% of the energy of a typical commercial building. An innovative Geo-Exchange system uses water from an on-site well to heat or cool air that is distributed through voids in the concrete floor slabs. Many of the features that won LEED points also make the building a great place to work: roof gardens, operable windows, excellent air quality, and daylit spaces.

San Francisco's Carbon Fund

2008-04-11T14:45:00.000-04:00

San Francisco Launches Carbon Offset Program
Rather than funding replanting tree farms in other hemispheres or investing in alternative power systems on the other side of the planet, San Francisco has created the San Francisco Carbon Fund, a first-ever city-based carbon offset program that will fund local green activities such as energy efficiency projects and solar panel installations for low-income housing, as well as biodiesel conversion programs that support the conversion of waste into fuel.

“Globally, the market for carbon offsets is growing rapidly, estimated to top $10 billion by 2010, and there is absolutely no regulation,” said Jared Blumenfeld, director of San Francisco’s Environment Department. “However, by developing our own program and funding local projects, we have the ability to assure that the offsets actually happen, benefit the local community, and help achieve our aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals.”

The plan is for the carbon fund to begin as a pilot program to offset emissions from municipal air travel. It will be expanded to San Francisco residents, businesses and visitors once the program infrastructure has been established.

When the program is rolled out citywide, the Department of the Environment will issue an RFP for local greenhouse gas reduction projects that can be covered by the fund.

Buildings- Cherokee Property, Benny Hill (Historic Renovation)

2008-04-11T09:06:00.009-04:00

Cherokee, a private equity firm that specializes in the sustainable redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties worldwide,
received Platinum certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s
(USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green
building rating system for its new corporate headquarters. The firm’s Platinum-certified headquarters is in a hundred-year-old historic building in downtown Raleigh, N.C. Cherokee worked with local groups, Tise-Kiester Architects, Empire Hardhat Construction, Carter & Burgess, Engineered Designs, Inc. and Thompson Consulting to rehabilitate the former furniture warehouse into an innovative, award-winning, green building that is fit with hundreds of environmentally responsible and high performance features.

Cherokee’s new office is one of only 61 LEED Platinum projects in the world, and the first ever in North Carolina. Only six percent of the LEED-certified projects worldwide are designated with Platinum status. Moreover, Cherokee's headquarters is one of a few known historic renovations worldwide that have earned this distinct honor and the first LEED-certified building in the city of Raleigh.

Cherokee Investment Corporation is a private equity firm that specializes in brownfield redevelopment. Created in 1984, the firm focuses on delivering strong financial returns while creating positive environmental and social results. Headquartered in downtown Raleigh, N.C., Cherokee has invested in nearly 550 properties worldwide and currently has over $2 billion under their management. To support the organization’s mission and illuminate its values, Cherokee sought to inhabit a facility in downtown Raleigh that needed a little TLC. “We were outgrowing our past office space and decided we had to move,” says Chris Wedding, Cherokee’s LEED accredited professional on the project. “We wanted to make sure that the place we moved into fit not just our values, but also our business focus.” In addition to increasing value in the downtown infrastructure by renovating a historic property, Cherokee also sought to provide their employees a work environment that was as healthy and sustainable as possible.

Begun as a shell renovation, the project combined 8 properties with 10 addresses in downtown Raleigh. The shell building occupies a corner of downtown and encompasses 48,000 square feet. Cherokee, the primary tenant occupies 22,000 square feet. The new facility incorporates energy-saving concepts such as a highly insulated, reflective roof to reduce heat gain, ENERGY STAR-certified office equipment and efficient lighting systems. Craig A. Carbrey, AIA, the project architect, explains that daylighting was the toughest issue for the design team. “The fact that it was an existing building made that much more challenging, since only the south and west walls of the existing buildings had windows,” he says. They hurdled the obstacle by “cutting a few strategic windows here and there” so that 90 percent of the office occupants have views to the exterior. Other sustainable measures include high use of FSC-certified woods, efficient faucets and waterless urinals, high efficiency HVAC, and zero- or low-VOC paints, adhesives, sealants, furniture, and carpeting. The facility provides occupants with easy access to public transportation, along with showers and bike storage to encourage zero-emission transportation. Through the carefully executed renovation, approximately 86 percent of the construction and demolition waste was diverted from the landfill. Greater than 60 percent of the office interior was reused, yet energy consumption is reduced by over one-quarter and water consumption is down by nearly half. Finally, the office workstations selected by Cherokee contain 82 percent recycled content.

Cherokee:

Cherokee is the leading private equity firm investing capital and expertise in brownfield redevelopment. For more than two decades, Cherokee’s executive team has produced strong financial returns while delivering positive environmental and social results. Cherokee has invested in more than 525 properties worldwide. The firm has more than $2 billion under management and is currently investing its fourth fund. The company has evolved its leadership role in the reclamation of brownfields by applying expertise, creativity and resolve to sustainable redevelopment of properties after remediation.

U.S Green Building Council:

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices. USGBC is composed of more than 13,500 organizations from across the building industry that are working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. Members includes building owners and end-users, real estate developers, facility managers, architects, designers, engineers, general contractors, subcontractors, product and building system manufacturers, government agencies, and nonprofits.

USGBC's mission is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System:

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED is a third party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders and government officials all use LEED to help transform the built environment to sustainability. State and local governments across the country are adopting LEED for public-owned and public-funded buildings; there are LEED initiatives in federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and State; and LEED projects are in progress in 41 different countries, including Canada, Brazil, Mexico and India.

LEED Rating Systems are developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. Each volunteer committee is composed of a diverse group of practitioners and experts representing a cross-section of the building and construction industry. The key elements of USGBC's consensus process include a balanced and transparent committee structure, technical advisory groups that ensure scientific consistency and rigor, opportunities for stakeholder comment and review, member ballot of new rating systems, and a fair and open appeals process.

Buildings- What You Can Do

2008-04-11T08:40:00.004-04:00

There are a number of options for a home owner to improve their house to be more sustainable, each with differing degrees of commitment. Energy and water usage, material selection, insulation, indoor environmental quality, maintenance and efficient appliances are the main considerations.

SYSTEMS

Energy Efficiency
44 percent of average home’s energy use is used for heating and cooling. If it is reduced by ten percent, hundreds of dollars can be saved while cutting household energy use by 4.4 percent.

Energy efficiency can be improved by in a number of ways: check to confirm that walls and attic are well insulated, replace windows, plant shade trees and shrubs around your house, replace old furnace with a high-efficiency system, improve efficiency of hot water system, replace incandescent lights with compact florescent lamps, if replaced, do not keep using old refrigerator, take advantage of new tax incentives for home improvements, use Energy star appliances, consider alternative energy resources, use of daylight, improve roof quality and schedule an energy audit for more expert advice concerning your home.

Maintenance
Use non-toxic furnishings and cleaners, make effective use of equipment, update old and inefficient appliances, and participate in a recycling program.

ELEMENTS OF A HOUSE

Exterior Walls
Effectively insulated use R-25 if possible for this and air seal, also use flashing details to keep wall interiors dry, but make sure they can air out if needed.

Exterior Surfaces
Use a surface material that reduces rain penetration, avoids moisture damage, requires minimal maintenance, is recycled and/or recyclable or biodegradable, is produced well, lasts a long time and is installed effectively.

Interior Surfaces
Use recycled or fully recyclable building materials, coatings that are non-toxic, and wood from certified forests.

Site
Use sun, control water on-site, protect existing planting and soils, use native plants, reduce or eliminate the use of chemicals on landscape, reduce waste and recycle during construction and use permeable surface material.

Foundation
Avoid moisture, provide effective water away from the foundation, use flyash in concrete foundations, use a least a R-10 insulation system, consider frost-protected shallow foundation, no asphalt base dampproofing and non-toxic form release agents.

ROOMS IN THE HOUSE

Theses are the rooms with the most opportunity for improvement that are also good example of how improvements can be implemented. Some of these methods can be used in other areas around the house.

Bathroom
Reduce Water Use:Replace old toilet water, replace old shower head, 1.5 to 2 is recommended, replace faucets with 0.5 or 1 gpm models or install aerator heads on old faucets and consider new technologies including dual flush toilets, touchless faucets, greywater systems and composting toilets.

Reduce Energy Use: Insulate water heater and hot water pipes, install a hot water recirculation pump on water fixtures, consider a drain-water heat recovery system and replace water heaters 15 years or older.

Indoor Environment: Check to make sure ventilation system is effective, use materials that are from a clean manufacturing process, check windows to make sure they can be opened and caulk unnecessary gaps and replace windows with Energy Star windows if needed.

Improve Building Materials: Make sure cleanly manufactured, impervious to water, preference to reusable materials; tile, stone and concrete recommended for multiple elements of a bathroom; and use caulk when necessary.

Construction: Seal pipes or wiring where they enter into the bathroom, insulate hot water pipes, replace or cover vinyl tiles and work with your constructor with improvements.

Use and Maintenance: Turn water heater down to 120 degrees F, lower thermostat, install showerhead shutoff valve, run fan after showers, use water sealants when needed and properly dispose of toxic cleaning materials.

Kitchen
Install operatable windows and skylights, use a high-efficiency ceiling fan, use high-efficient compact florescent lights, look for Energy Star lighting and appliances, consider an on-demand hot water pumping system, replace plumbing fixtures installed before 1992, replace refrigerator 10 years or older and use appropriately sized appliances.

RESOURSES

www.greenhomeguide.com

www.greenhomeguide.org

Energystar.gov

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy:

www.eere.energy.gov/buildings/info/homes/index.html

U.S. Green Building Council: www.usgbc.org

Cleveland Green Building Coalition: www.clevlandgbc.org

Buildings- RISD Solar Decathlon

2008-04-11T01:37:00.004-04:00

The Rhode Island School of design was one of 18 institutions to be selected to compete in the 2005, solar decathlon, an intercollegiate design competition sponsored by the Department of Energy. The teams, made up of students goal was to design, build and operate an 800-square foot, solar house.

RISD’s TOWN HOUSE

RISD’s entry takes the emerging practice of sustainable architecture to another level as the house will not only power itself, but will actually produce an excess of energy. The goal was to build a house that convinces visitors of the viability of solar and sustainable design and demonstrates that the aesthetics and utility of the solar house are as important as the operational technology.

The house's mechanical core differs from traditional houses in two ways: it is both more compact and expansive. The stacked organization of high performance equipment minimizes duct and pipe runs and therefore provides increased efficiency. In addition, components that extend to the envelope of the house are made up of new energy exchanging and phase change materials that react to the movement of the sun. The floor and roof do the work of old mechanical machinery to mitigate the temperature differentials.

Exterior
A performative, louvered skin tracks the circuit of the sun and, according to the season, reflects or absorbs heat and provides ventilation. As the earth spins the exterior skin produces a changing visual effect through a graphic use of hidden color.

Roof Garden
The garden utilizes a series of planter boxes in which vegetables and herbs, as well as shade plants grow. This again reduces the solar load on the building and insulates the roof. The relationship between the deck and the roof is central the townhouse concept and it was a goal to allow the garden to spill down the southern façade into a deck mounted planter, shielding the house from solar gain in the summer and providing it with solar gain in the winter when the plants are dormant.

Interior
The overriding concept for the interior is the architectural promenade – a clearly choreographed path through the house for the occupant and the visitor. The path winds through the living room, around the central core, through the home office and out onto an expansive deck, where visitors circle back where they started.

The most energy and assembly efficient component of the house is the central mechanical core. The hot water heater, the bathroom fixtures and the washer/dryer unit sit on a platform, which becomes the bathroom of the house. The bathroom shares a wall with the kitchen, minimizing plumbing runs. A fresh air supply and return fan resides above to maintain the correct humidity levels. Since the bathroom shares walls with both the bedroom and the living/dining area, ducting is virtually eliminated. The compact nature of these mechanical/ plumbing systems allows the 'core' of the building to be shipped as a unit, slid into position and hooked up in relatively short time.

Solar Energy Design
Substantial planning went into the choice of solar panels, as the house must be powered only by solar energy over the course of 10 days. After exhaustive research, the risd solar team chose Sanyo Panels. These panels produce 190 watts for each panel – a high number based on the relatively small size of the panel. The house uses 24 photovoltaic panels, which translates to the production of 4,560 watts of power at any (sunny) time of the day. The house and its solar panels have been designed to accommodate all of the appliances used during the normal course of the day.

Structure
By designing an attachment system for the panels, which can be utilized for all the major joints in the building, the assembly becomes straightforward.
This system of attachment relies not so much on the design of new pieces, but upon the implementation of existing off–the–shelf products in non-traditional use. Because the systems are modular, the number of differing pieces can be reduced to a minimum and parts can be fabricated in a simple assembly line process.

Modularity
The RISD Solar house was built in Providence in modules, then disassembled and transported by Paul Arpin Van Lines to Washington, DC. Once in Washington, the house was reassembled on the Mall (the grounds of the decathelon).
The house is divided into seven modules; two at north, two at the core, and three at the south. The south and core modules are fabricated with the roof attached because of the height of the north end of the house, the roof and triangular wall sections will be shipped separately.

solar.risd.edu/

Building- Renovation Construction

2008-04-11T01:30:00.004-04:00

Cherokee Investment Corporation new LEED certified headquarters.

Renovation of existing structures is an inherently green building process. By reutilizing an existing structure you are taking advantage of the energy already embodied in the creation of the materials already in existence as well as the energy used in it’s construction. LEED –the certification system for green architecture- doesn’t recognize this type of construction to the extent it should. Cherokee’s new office headquarters defies the system, renovating an existing building while at the same time achieving LEED platinum status.
Cherokee is a company that focuses on the remediation of brown fields, as well as their redevelopment. The new office building is a century old furniture store located in downtown Raleigh NC. By utilizing an in-house LEED accredited team, as well as outside architects Cherokee was able to create platinum certified building.

Building features:

Insulated reflective roof to reflect heat gain
Energy Star office equipment
Utilizing daylight
FSC-certified wood
Efficient faucets/waterless urinals
Zero/low VOC items
Easy access to public transportation
Showers and Bike storage facilities
86% of construction waste diverted from landfill
Over 60% recycled materials
¼ reduction in energy use
½ reduction in water consumption

The Benefits

Aside from this just being a really great efficient building, it has other benefits.

2 main ones:

As Cherokee is a company that has dealt with issues of sustainability and the remediation of brown fields it’s workers are familiar with these issues. However by creating an environment where the workers can interact with and see this mentality on an everyday basis has given them a greater connection with the issues. The renovation of this building has coincided with Cherokee’s conversion from cleaning and than selling off the brown fields for development to cleaning up and having a hand in the development themselves as a way of making sure the land is used in a sustainable way.

While in the process of searching for LEED certification for the building, Cherokee’s lead LEED Chris Wedding- was surprised at how LEED doesn’t recognize renovation. Since the platinum certification of their headquarters Wedding is pushing for a change in LEED’s certification process to recognize this sort of building. He is hosting a conference on how to push this shift forward

Buildings- Zero Energy Developments

2008-04-10T23:39:00.002-04:00

The Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is the UK's largest carbon-neutral eco-community - the first of its kind in this country. BedZED was developed by the Peabody Trust in partnership with Bill Dunster Architects and BioRegional Development Group, environmental consultants.

Background
The BedZED design concept was driven by the desire to create a net 'zero fossil energy development', one that will produce at least as much energy from renewable sources as it consumes. Only energy from renewable sources is used to meet the energy needs of the development. BedZED is therefore a carbon neutral development - resulting in no net addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

What are the features of BedZED?
The design is to a very high standard and is used to enhance the environmental dimensions, with strong emphasis on roof gardens, sunlight, solar energy, reduction of energy consumption and waste water recycling.

BedZED provides 82 residential homes with a mixture of tenures, 34 for outright sale, 23 for shared ownership, 10 for key workers and 15 at affordable rent for social housing - with a further 14 galleried apartments for outright sale.

The homes are a mixture of sizes and the project also includes buildings for commercial use, an exhibition centre, a children's nursery and a show flat so that visitors may see what it is like to live at BedZED.

The buildings
Buildings are constructed from thermally massive materials that store heat during warm conditions and release heat at cooler times. In addition, all buildings are enclosed in a 300mm insulation jacket.

BedZED houses are arranged in south facing terraces to maximize heat gain from the sun, known as passive solar gain. Each terrace is backed by north facing offices, where minimal solar gain reduces the tendency to overheat and the need for energy hungry air conditioning.

BedZED's architecture
BedZED has been designed to address environmental, social and economic needs. It brings together a number of proven methods - none of them particularly high tech - of reducing energy, water and car use. Crucially, it produces affordable, attractive and environmentally responsible housing and workspace.

Key features include:

Using renewable materials
Where possible, BedZED is built from natural, recycled or reclaimed materials. All the wood used has been approved by the Forest Stewardship Council or comparable internationally recognised environmental organisations, to ensure that it comes from a sustainable source.

Space heating
Through the innovative design and construction, heat from the sun and heat generated by occupants and every day activities such as cooking is sufficient to heat BedZED homes to a comfortable temperature. The need for space heating, which accounts for a significant part of the energy demand in conventional buildings, is therefore reduced or completely eliminated.

BedZED homes and offices are fitted with low energy lighting and energy efficient appliances to reduce electricity requirements.

To enable residents and workers to keep track of their heat and electricity use, meters are mounted in each home and office kitchen.

Combined heat and power plant
BedZED receives power from a small-scale combined heat and power plant (CHP). In conventional energy generation, the heat that is produced as a by-product of generating electricity is lost. With CHP technology, this heat can be harnessed and put to use.

At BedZED, the heat from the CHP provides hot water, which is distributed around the site via a district heating system of super-insulated pipes. Should residents or workers require a heating boost, each home or office has a domestic hot water tank that doubles as a radiator.

The CHP plant at BedZED is powered by off-cuts from tree surgery waste that would otherwise go to landfill. Wood is a carbon neutral fuel because the CO2 released when the wood is burned is equal to that absorbed by the tree as it grew.

Green transport plan
Transport energy accounts for a large proportion of the energy consumption of any development.

A green transport plan promotes walking, cycling and use of public transport. A car pool for residents has been established, and all these initiatives have helped to provide a strategic and integrated approach to transport issues.

The BedZED project shows that it is possible to reduce reliance on cars and introduced the first legally binding Green Transport Plan as a condition of planning permission.

BedZED's target is a 50% reduction in fossil-fuel consumption by private car use over the next ten years compared with a conventional development.

BedZED has been designed to encourage alternatives to car use.

Reducing 'embodied' energy
Embodied energy is a measure of the energy required to manufacture a product. A product that requires large amounts of energy to obtain and process the necessary raw materials, or a product that is transported long distances during processing or to market, will have a high-embodied energy level.

To reduce the embodied energy of BedZED, construction materials were selected for their low embodied energy and sourced within a 35-mile radius of the site where possible. The energy expended in transporting materials to the site was therefore minimised.

Education and employment
BedZED has become an excellent learning centre for sustainable development, attracting considerable local, national and international media coverage and interest.

The project also demonstrates imaginative ways of creating employment and funding the provision of affordable homes, with grants from the Housing Corporation supporting the development of the homes for shared ownership. Peabody also worked hard with Sutton Council to ensure that the properties available for shared ownership were as affordable as possible.

http://www.peabody.org.uk/pages/GetPage.aspx?id=179

http://www.bioregional.com/programme_projects/ecohous_prog/bedzed/bedzed_hpg.htm

http://www.zedfactory.com/zedfactory_home.htm

Buildings- LiveRoof

2008-04-10T14:05:00.005-04:00

LiveRoof is a company which sells a modular removable green roof system that is delivered fully grown. "instant green roof gratification." Liveroofs are made from 100% recycled polyproylene: then local growers deliver and install.

LEED Certified:
The LiveRoof System can achieve LEED certification in several categories–above and beyond that of just any green roof system. LiveRoof can actually enhance LEED ratings in categories that might not usually apply to a typical green roof. Below are the major categories of the USGBC rating system and potential points that can be influenced by the LiveRoof® system.

Sustainable Sites
If you think about it, wherever there is a building, there once was some type of vegetation. Green roofs help to reclaim green space, and in the process they provide habitat (for songbirds, butterflies and a host of other invertebrates) and help to promote biodiversity.
Potential Rating: 1 point.

Storm water Management
LiveRoof® systems help to prevent excess storm water discharge. They also help to filter and detoxify storm water by removing suspended solids and other pollutants. Potential Rating: 1 to 2 points.

Urban Heat Island Effect
LiveRoof® significantly reduces roof temperatures during the summer months, and the USGBC specifies green roofs as a means of mitigating the urban heat island effect. Potential Rating: 1 point.

Water Efficiency/ Water-Efficient Landscaping
When vegetated with drought resistant LiveRoof® plants, LiveRoof® installations require little or no irrigation. Additionally, LiveRoof® growing media acts as a sponge to collect excess rainwater. Any runoff can be channelled into a cistern for reuse on the LiveRoof® or other parts of the landscape.
Potential Rating: 1 to 2 points.

Energy and Atmosphere
Green roofs of the same depth as the LiveRoof® system have been documented to reduce energy demand by up to 50% annually in certain types of structures. More typically, green roofs have proven to substantially reduce the need for air conditioning, and therefore require smaller cooling systems, lower capital costs, and lower operating costs.
Potential Rating: 1 to 8 points, depending on total energy reduction as a percent versus conventional buildings of the same size.

Materials and Resources
The LiveRoof® system acts as a protective umbrella over the roof membranes and therefore can substantially extend the useful life of the roof and contribute to the LEED reuse objective. Potential Rating: 1 to 3 points.

Local Sources
LiveRoof® modules are manufactured within a 15-mile radius of distribution. Also, since plants are obtained at local nurseries, LiveRoof® may contribute to the 50% extracted regionally credit. Potential Rating: 1 to 2 points.

Recycled Content
LiveRoof® modules are constructed of 100% recycled polypropylene which exceeds the LEED target of 5% or 10% of project components. Potential Rating: 1 to 2 points.
Rapidly Renewable Materials
LiveRoof® plants are harvested within a 10-year cycle (actually much shorter), and therefore contribute to this objective.
Potential Rating: 1 point.

Innovation and Design Process
LiveRoof® systems may qualify for innovation and design credits by helping to create a better work environment. LiveRoof® installations can be used for meetings and relaxation, and perhaps more importantly, they create beautiful vistas, beneficial to people’s health and state of mind. Additionally, green roofs can reduce exterior sound by up to 40 decibels and therefore create a more peaceful and less stressful interior environment. Potential Rating: 1 or 2 points.

Here is it being used on top of the Grand Rapids Ballet Company

Buildings- One Bryant Park

2008-04-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

The Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park in New York City is a $1 billion skyscraper project currently undergoing construction, on the west side of Sixth Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Street, opposite Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. It has been designed by Cook+Fox Architects to be one of the most highly efficient and ecologically friendly buildings in the world. Midtown Manhattan

The tower has an architectural spire that is 1200 ft (366 m) tall. The building will be 54 stories high and will have approximately 2.1 million square feet (195,000 m²) of office space. Upon the placement of its spire in December 2007, the tower has become the second tallest building in NYC, after the Empire State Building. The building will have three escalators and a total of 53 elevators – 52 to serve the offices and one leading to the transit mezzanine below ground.

Environmental Features

The design of the building will make it environmentally friendly, using technologies such as floor-to-ceiling insulating glass to contain heat and maximize natural light, and an automatic daylight dimming system. The tower also features a greywater system, which captures rainwater and reuses it. Bank of America also states that the building will be made largely of recycled and recyclable materials. Air entering the building will be filtered, as is common, but the air exhausted will be cleaned as well, making the tower a giant air filter for Midtown Manhattan. Bank of America Tower is the first skyscraper designed to attain a Platinum LEED Certification.
The Bank of America tower is constructed using a concrete manufactured with slag, a byproduct of blast furnaces. The mixture used in the tower concrete is 55% cement and 45% slag. The use of slag cement reduces damage to the environment by decreasing the amount of cement needed for the building, which in turn lowers the amount of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas produced through normal cement manufacturing. (One ton of cement produced emits about one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.)

One Bryant Park will use translucent high-performance glass in floor-to-ceiling glazing to permit maximum sunlight in interior spaces, in addition to featuring "floating" floors to facilitate more even, healthful, and efficient heating and cooling. It will capture and reuse all rainwater and wastewater, saving millions of gallons of precious water each year. A very high percentage of the buildings materials will come from recycled and renewable source within 500 miles of New York city.

Control of the temperature of Bank of America's tower, and the production of some of its energy, will be done in an environmentally-friendly manner. Insulating glass will reduce thermal loss somewhat, which will lower energy consumption and increase transparency. Carbon dioxide sensors will signal increased fresh air ventilation, when elevated levels of carbon dioxide are detected in the building.
The cooling system will produce and store ice during off-peak hours, and then use ice phase transition to help cool the building during peak load, similar to the ice batteries in the 1995 Hotel New Otani in Tokyo Japan. Ice batteries have been used since absorption chillers first made ice commercially 150 years ago, before the electric light bulb was invented.
The tower has a 4.6-megawatt cogeneration plant, which will provide part of the base-load energy requirements. Onsite power generation reduces the significant electrical transmission losses that are typical of central power production plants.

ENERGY- AMAZING! UNSCREW AMERICA

2008-04-07T12:37:00.002-04:00

Awesome- Microchips that run on Body heat

2008-03-31T07:17:00.002-04:00

Policy- Presidential Climate Action Plan

2008-03-30T11:25:00.001-04:00

The Presidential Climate Action Plan has developed a non-partisan plan for presidential leadership within 100 days of Inauguration. PCAP presents a specific and comprehensive blueprint for bold leadership, rooted in climate science and designed to ignite innovation at every level of the American economy.

The University of Colorado Denver has facilitated the development of the plan with the advice of a prestigious board of top climate science and policy experts. PCAP incorporates many of the best ideas put forward by the presidential candidates, universities, non-governmental organizations and others, as well as new ideas based on original analyses commissioned by the project. PCAP’s comprehensive plan encourages a more creative level of public discussion about how the nation will address global warming. A final plan will be issued to the candidates in September 2008, reflecting new policy ideas, science, research and federal action that emerge during the campaign.

PCAP is rooted in the conviction that we must build an innovative environmentally sound economy for the new realities of the 21st Century. That economy must achieve three goals for this and future generations: security, opportunity, and stewardship.

The Presidential Climate Action Plan will consist of four parts:

1) Goals and milestones for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
2) Actions the President can take under his/her executive authority during the first 100 days in office
3) Actions for the Administration's first 1,000 days in office
4) Initiatives the President can include in his/her first budget and legislative package to Congress.

The PCAP will not be prescriptive; rather, it will consist of a menu of action options, each accompanied by an estimate of its impact on GHG emissions to the degree possible. This will allow the President to create an action plan of his/her choosing, while meeting recommended targets for GHG emission reductions.

Action options in the PCAP will include changes in Federal programs, policies, budgets, statutes and regulations, subsidies and incentives, agency authorities and personnel. The PCAP also will include actions to improve the energy efficiency and GHG emissions profile of the Federal government itself -- the nation’s largest energy consumer and due to its size, a potential market-shaper for low-carbon products and services.

Goals

Engage the best thinking of America’s leaders in government, science and civil society to identify actions that will empower all elements of society to meet the challenges of energy security and climate change;

Define achievable but effective greenhouse gas reduction goals and timeframes for the United States;

Create a sound portfolio of action options, including policies, programs, statutory and regulatory changes, and budget and staffing options for the 44th President and the 111th Congress;

Collaborate with many of the multiple efforts underway to improve the nation’s energy economy, GHG emissions profile and national security so that collectively, respective efforts will result in a more effective whole;

Set the stage for candidates running for public office in 2008 to take positions on specific proposals to address climate, energy and national security;
Focus the nation’s attention and catalyze concrete action on the most important issues of our time.

Security: Stabilizing the climate, the economy and the international community

To achieve true security, the people of all nations must achieve a decent and sustainable standard of living. This cannot be done with the same carbon-intensive energy resources that powered the industrial era. Those resources are moving us to the threshold of dangerous climate change. Further, we cannot be secure in a future of global resource conflicts as developed and developing nations compete for the same finite fossil fuels. We must make a rapid transition to unprecedented levels of energy efficiency and to low-carbon, renewable resources. PCAP’s recommendations include:

-To stop subsidizing war, conflict and terrorism, cut America’s oil consumption in half by 2020 and eliminate all petroleum imports by 2040 without increasing domestic production. Create an international Organization of Petroleum Importing Countries (OPIC) to collaborate on reducing international dependence on oil.

-Redirect federal subsidies for fossil fuels to dramatically increase our investment in low-carbon energy technologies, designs and products.

-Conduct a national security analysis on the implications of increasing America’s reliance on imported resources such as natural gas and uranium, and the homeland security implications of constructing additional LNG import facilities and nuclear power plants.

-Seek the declaration of the Persian Gulf as a “zone of international interest” protected by a multi-national peacekeeping force that guarantees the free flow of oil as OPIC nations reduce dependence on petroleum imports.

Opportunity: Unleashing the marketplace

Millions of new jobs will be created to stabilize the climate, sequester carbon and adapt to climate changes already underway. The federal government should align, synchronize and create incentives, bust barriers and help correct price signals in the marketplace. It also should launch new public-private partnerships to build a robust low-carbon economy.

PCAP’s recommendations include:

-Set life-cycle performance standards for new power plants, buildings and vehicles – the principal sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Starting immediately, new power plants must
be carbon-neutral. By 2020, America’s passenger vehicles must average at least 50 miles per gallon. By 2030, all new buildings must be carbon-neutral.

-Establish an oil price floor of $45 per barrel to encourage and protect capital investments in renewable energy.

-Offer $1 billion in incentive awards for breakthrough technologies.

-Create 40 million new jobs in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries by 2030.

-Provide $1 billion annually to states and localities to implement their own aggressive plans for energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate action, including rate reforms that allow
utilities to profit from energy efficiency.

-Replace the U.S. Department of Energy with a small dynamic agency that merges DOE’s technology programs with the U.S. Small Business Administration to create the new businesses and jobs that will transform our energy economy.

-Redirect federal rural development programs, including the Rural Utility Service loan program, to invest in the technologies and infrastructure that will make America’s farms and rural communities the rich new frontier for renewable resources.

Stewardship: Marrying Ecology, Economy, and Equity

Global warming proves that economic and ecological health are interdependent. The impacts of climate change on natural systems and their services affect not only our species but all species; not only this generation but those that will follow. These adverse impacts will hit some nations, industries, communities and families more than others. For these reasons, stewardship – in other words, caring for natural systems, the disadvantaged and future generations – forms an essential component of the 21st Century economy.

PCAP’s recommendations include:

-Reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 3% each year until 2020 and 2% annually thereafter to achieve a 30% reduction by 2020 and a 90% reduction by mid-century.

-Engage the international community to set similar goals for the world’s five largest developing nations, starting in 2020. Implement a cap-and-auction system involving the 2,000 “first providers” of fossil fuels to achieve carbon pricing in 100% of the economy.

-To guarantee early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while the cap-and-auction regime is taking hold, direct EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions immediately under the Clean Air Act.

-Champion a 10-fold increase in the Weatherization Assistance Program for low-income families.

-Create a Green Jobs Corps to train 35,000 underprivileged youth each year in the “green trades” essential to the new energy economy.

-Make the nation’s largest energy user – the federal government – carbon neutral by 2050.

-Propose omnibus legislation to reshape federal programs and update current environmental laws to address global warming and climate adaptation.

-Reform U.S. lending and development programs to stop funding carbonintensive
projects overseas and champion changes in international trade agreements to remove the
barriers to climate action.

Food- Holistic Management

2008-03-17T10:09:00.007-04:00

Holistic Management International (HMI) is an Albuquerque-based, international nonprofit organization that provides training, courses and consulting services to stewards of large landscapes, including ranchers, farmers, pastoral communities, government agencies, NGOs, environmental advocacy groups and other non-profits. Currently 30 million acres of land worldwide, benefit from Holistic management practices by:

-Improving soil health and biodiversity of rangelands and pastures.
-Increasing grazing and wildlife capacity.
-Increasing annual profits and enhancing livelihoods.- Optimally using rainfall and conserving water.
- Growing healthier crops and achieving higher yields.
-Reversing desertification in brittle environments.-Breaking the cycle of food and water insecurity.
-Enhancing family relationships.-Resisting and positively affecting global climate change.

Holistic Management in the U.S.

Active networks of Holistic Management practitioners and educators have developed across the U.S. in California and the West, the Northwest, the Southwest, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

Horizon Organic

HMI has a contract with Horizon Organic Dairy, the nation’s largest organic dairy. HMI provides the framework and tools for Holistic Management planning and decision making at Horizon Organic’s dairies in Idaho and Maryland.
Certified organic in 1994, Horizon’s dairy, in Paul, Idaho was the first large certified organic dairy in the country. The practices pioneered there proved the viability of organic dairying, and paved the way for hundreds of other dairies to convert to organic.Since its opening, the Idaho dairy has helped prompt the conversion of nearly 30,000 acres of organic land in the state of Idaho.More than 80 independent farms have converted to organic to supply Certified organic in 1994, Horizon’s Idaho dairy was the first large certified organic dairy in the country. The practices pioneered there proved the viability of organic dairying, and paved the way for hundreds of other dairies to convert to organic.
Because no pesticides or chemical fertilizers, like nitrates, are used on the ground, and no added growth hormones or antibiotics are given to the cows, the Idaho farm is dramatically more sustainable and earth-friendly than a conventional dairy farm of the same size. This is especially critical given the farm's location along the important Snake River aquifer.

With the help of Holistic Management, Horizon was able to create a leading-edge example of how to run large dairies with animals out on the land in such a manner that the health of the grazing land is also maintained and improved. Horizon Organic has a network of more than 540 dairy farmers; 340 are currently organic, and more than 200 are transitioning to organic.

Oklahoma

The D. Joyce Coffey Resource Management and Demonstration Ranch was a privately owned 2,600-acre (1,053-hectare) ranch in Marietta, Oklahoma until 1981–a typical southern Oklahoma ranch with cropping in open land and continuous grazing in rough and wooded areas.
The degraded rangeland had a mixture of 60 percent low successional species (usually weedy annuals with low forage quality), 12 percent mid successional species, and 5 percent high successional species (highly desirable forage quality for wildlife and livestock).
In 1987 they began practicing Holistic Management the ranch. At that time the stocking rate had decreased from 300 to 67 animal units per year.
From 1987 to 1991 the stocking rate increased by 30 percent, from 110 animal units to 140 at the same time that biodiversity increased. Exposed soils with various degrees of erosion were covered with healthy plants, and white tailed deer increased 100 percent.

By 1994, high-successional species had risen to 25 percent and low-successional species were down to 25 percent. The stocking rate had now increased 100 percent from 1987 rising from the original 110 to 200 animal units.
Because of improved ground cover, there was less soil erosion. Ponds, which once had high turbidity (cloudiness due to silt), now had low turbidity, and two springs, which had dried up, now began running again. Moreover, the nutrient cycle had also improved so that manure now decomposed in 5 days, where it had taken 2 to 3 years before Holistic Management.

West Virginia
The Fichtner family moved to the 79-acre (32-hectare) Windy Slope Farm in Leon, West Virginia in 1981. At that time the farm was overrun with multiflora rose, and the soils were severely eroded. At one time this land had been fire-maintained savanna, and more recently it had been plowed for maize and then put into sod that supported a few horses and cattle.
In 1990 the Fichtners began Holistic Management planned grazing using a diversity of livestock (dairy goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys, hogs, chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys) to improve farm management.
The hogs were used to break up and compost manure in the barn. The ducks controlled flies. The Scottish Highlander cattle were rugged browsers and cleared brush efficiently. The donkeys kept coyotes at bay. The cattle broke the parasite cycle by grazing after the sheep.
In 1990 they had eight pasture plant species and needed five acres (two hectares) to carry one animal unit. By 1995, they had 32 pasture plant species (including more perennials, a higher successional plant) and needed only one acre (0.4 hectare) to carry one animal unit.

HolisticManagement.org

RANCHING OVERVIEW

What it is:
Ranching is the raising of livestock, generally for meat, dairy, or wool.

How it works:
Grain Fed (Feedlot)
Virtually all of the meat, eggs, and dairy products you find in the store come from animals raised in large, confined facilities called feeding operations or feedlots. Animals raised in factory farms are given unnatural diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredients of their diets are grain and soy that are kept at artificially low prices by government subsidies.

Free Range
Recently, a growing number of ranchers have stopped sending their animals to the feedlots to be fattened on grain, soy and other supplements. Instead, they are keeping their animals home on the range where they forage on pasture, their native diet. This type of ranching and dairy is generally referred to as grass fed or free range.

Why ranching is important
Ranching has a potentially large impact on the environment, economy, animal welfare and human health. The tentacles of ranching branch out into many sectors, and can have super detrimental or immensely positive effects.

ALL OF THE ASPECTS

Free Range (Grass Fed)

Human Health
• Lower in Fat and Calories. There are a number of nutritional differences between the meat of pasture-raised and feedlot-raised animals. To begin with, meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep, and bison is lower in total fat. If the meat is very lean, it can have one third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal.

• High in Vitamins. Meat from grass-fed animals has two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain- fed animals. Studies suggest that diets rich in Omega-3s may reduce your risk of cancer. Meat from grass-fed animals is also higher in vitamin E, a natural antioxidant.

• Less Exposure to Disease. A virulent strain of E. coli comes from the GI tracts of cattle that have been fattened with grain (particularly corn) instead of grass or other silage. Grains and corn are not the natural foods of cattle, and when cattle are fed nothing but corn in an effort to fatten them, they develop highly acidic GI tracts. The E. coli O157:H7 is a strain that has evolved to live in this highly acidic environment. Consequently, this virulent E.Coli is immune to the acid in our own stomachs that is typically potent enough to knock out the harmless garden-variety E. coli we most often encounter.

• No Antibiotics. Animals are less likely to get sick when they are fed what they are naturally built for, meaning they do not need to be fed antibiotics, thus minimizing our exposure to antibiotics. This minimizes antibiotic resistance.

Animal Health
- Eat Natural Food, animal is built for.
- No Antibiotics
- Animal Cruelty is minimized: animals treated humanely, not concentrated in small spaces.

Environment
-Green Grazing. A growing number of grass farmers are practicing "green grazing" or "conservation grazing," a type of management that is specifically designed to restore grazing land to a more natural and sustainable condition.

-Utilizes Land otherwise unusable. 2/3 of the worlds land is untilable (meaning it can not be utilized for traditional farming) but a good portion of that land can be ranched.
Map of untillable land

-Increases Land productivity. It’s a closed, sustainable system When animals are finished on pasture, their manure is deposited naturally and evenly over a large area of grassland, allowing the nutrients to be put to immediate use. On pasture, grazing animals do their own fertilizing and harvesting. The ground is covered with greens all year round, so it does an excellent job of harvesting solar energy and holding onto moisture.

-Prevents Erosion. Year round greens also hold on to topsoil. Currently, the United States is losing three billion tons of nutrient-rich topsoil each year. Growing corn and soy for animal feed using conventional methods causes a significant amount of this soil loss. Compared with row crops, pasture reduces soil loss by as much as 93 percent.

-Turning over soil decreasing desertification. Desertification is when soils become dirt devoid of moisture and nutrients. Grazing converts grasses into manure, returning the nutrients to the soil much more rapidly than plants that die and dessicate.

- Animal grazing on grass do not require fossil fuel-based fertilizers

- decreases shipping feed from exterior places

Economic
- Localizes Economy. Utilizes Resources within closer proximity, decreasing shipping feed from exterior places.
- Smaller ranches are more likely to have their products consumed locally

Feed Lot (Grain Fed)

Human Health
- Fattier
- Lacks Vitamins
- Higher probability of Ecoly
- Antibiotics and Hormones

Animal Health
- Animals Grow Faster, have larger weights and are slaughtered younger
- Because animals are consuming grains instead of, they often get digestion Issues, lack vitamin nourishment and get sick. This means they are more prone to disease and are often on antibiotics.

Environment
- GMO’s. A high percentage of the grain fed to feedlot cattle and bison is from genetically modified (gm) crops. According to the New York Times, there is new evidence that gm corn is harmful to beneficial insects. Researchers gathered leaves from plants growing in and around gm cornfields and fed them to Monarch butterfly caterpillars. According to the Times, "Twenty percent of the caterpillars eating leaves bearing genetically engineered pollen died, while all caterpillars eating leaves with regular corn pollen survived."

-Congestion of cattle, means manure is concentrated (Toxic), gets into streams, ground water etc.

- Utilizing corn and soy from industrial agricultural sources depletes soil, creating dirt.

- Far more petroleum is used, meaning increased miles.

-The animals are crowded into sheds or kept outdoors on barren land and all their feed is shipped to them from distant fields. On those fields, the crops are treated with fossil fuel based fertilizers, sprayed with pesticides, and planted, tilled, and harvested with heavy equipment. Each of these operations requires non-renewable fuel. Then the feed is shipped to feed manufacturers where it is dried, flaked or polluted, and mixed with other ingredients and then, finally, shipped to the waiting animals, using yet more fossil fuel.

Economy
-Globalizes production, there are morelinks in the chain of production. Corn must be grown in one place, manufactured in another, before it makes it to the animals. This means shipping and more food miles in production of a grain fed animal.

-The corn and soy utilized in the in many feedlots is subsidized by the United States government.

-Animals grow faster, are heavier and can be slaughtered younger, this means it takes less time to grow an animal to mature weight saving money. It takes almost a year more per animal when doing free range ranching.

Sources:
eatwild.org, americangrassfed.org, holisticmanagement.org

Food - BluePrint Demonstration Farm

2008-03-17T02:23:00.010-04:00

Laredo Blueprint Demonstration Farm

The Laredo Blueprint Demonstration Farm, constructed in Laredo, Texas in 1990 by the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS). The Laredo Demonstration Farm was created for the Texas Department of Agriculture, and the community of Laredo, Texas. It employs a flexible building system designed to respond to farmers' changing needs due to climatic variation, market demand, and added value potential.

Located on the U.S.-Mexico border, the farm was conceived as a community-based demonstration of sustainable building, water, energy, food, and waste systems appropriate for semi-arid areas of Texas and the southwest. At the center of the project are five structures housing offices, classrooms, workrooms, and storage areas, which take shape from the way they harness climactic elements and from the materials used to build them. Surrounding the buildings are twenty acres of vegetable-growing area. A wind-generated electric system is used to pump water from the Rio Grande River for irrigation.

Reflecting a decade of political changes, the farm has experienced a complete transformation in use and purpose. It currently serves as the headquarters and environmental education center of the Rio Grande International Studies Center (RISC), a living museum representing the fauna and flora of the lower Rio Grande River valley and featuring a variety of specimens within a simulated river habitat for the public. Over 40,000 people, a majority from the local community, visit the RISC facility each year.  
The project's design is based on a 30 by 30 foot grid cell system, a fundamental component of CMPBS' master planning approach based on the Plate Carre projection system. CMPBS incorporates this system into its planning projects because of its equal area and infinite grid procedures. The building is efficiently cooled using downdraft evaporative cooling towers modeled after those in the Mid-East, and is built with plastered straw bale walls, a folded sheet metal roof, and stabilized earth floors.   The extensive shade system, a principal design element, is built over the grid, creating a 3-D environment enabling many plant and animal species to thrive at multiple elevations, and supporting a variety of farming activities. The envelope, consisting of light filter, plant trellises, variable shade cloth, and bird netting, becomes part of an integrated pest management system, as well as a micro-climatic environment suitable for plant growth in this semi-arid region. Beneficial insects are surrounded by a protective envelope and birds are kept in, as in an aviary. Additionally, the 3-D context becomes the basis for an input-output simulation process that can be analytically applied to the farm, through which major material and energy flows can be directed within the farm and connected to the adjacent urban environment. 
The building system's success is reflected in the local community's embracing its inherent flexibility, as evidenced by the successful transformation from farm to the RISC office/educational center, and the adoption of several core design and construction principles as the site and facilities are expanded. These include the stuccoed straw bale walls, the shading system, and the pole-based structural grid. Today, the facility provides an opportunity for thousands of local school children to experience both the wonders of their local environment and the ability of design to provide a meaningful context.  

Advanced Green Builder Demonstration

This demonstration project, which serves as our office and studio, links building design and construction to the central Texas region, integrating the supply and use of water, food, energy, waste, and material resources with local and regional businesses and utilities. At the building scale, it represents the best example of how our Eco-BalancePlanningTM methodology operates, reflecting the spatial footprints resulting from the life cycles of sustainable technologies incorporated in the project. These spatial planning footprints of technologies, coupled with those footprints reflecting human requirements, become the basis for the building's design.

The AGBD is designed as an open, flexible building system that can be modified to adapt to changing needs and working conditions while keeping the basic spatial life cycle footprints as efficient and site-dependent as possible. For example, all infill walls are removable (straw, unstabilized compressed earth block, recycled EPS, etc.), all partitions and work surfaces are adaptable, and even the kitchen is mobile. Sustainable design features include: climatic design and orientation, daylighting, rainwater harvesting, on-site wetland wastewater treatment, composting toilets, solar photovoltaic panels, straw bale and straw panel walls, caliche block, fly ash concrete, recycled content steel post and beam structure, and food-producing landscaping.
Analysis

The Laredo Demonstration Farm is a great example of a successful sustainable system on a relatively small scale.

The farm serves as a model for how to efficiently use local resources as well as a model for a building system that can adapt to changes in use and purpose.

The CMPBS has several projects around the world that provide great examples for sustainable building systems and agriculture

Food- Small Scale Urban Agriculture

2008-03-17T01:01:00.010-04:00

Why small scale urban agriculture?

At the center of the small scale urban agriculture movement is a growing community of artist-maker-activists. Rather than embracing a fear driven movement of food security and catastrophic climate change their work addresses a self-sufficiency because it fuels creativity, arms people with a sense of empowerment and strengthens communities.
Victory Gardens:

During WWII 41% of all produce consumed in the US was produced in “victory gardens” which were encouraged individual efforts to help support the cause of the war.

In this same spirit Amy Franceschini, started Victory Gardens which calls for a more active role for cities in shaping agricultural and food policy. It is a concept currently in development with the city of San Francisco that would provide a subsidized home gardening program for individuals and neighborhoods. Offering tools, training and materials for urban dwellers to participate in a city-wide transformation of underutilized backyards.

Benefits:
Less CO2 emissions, neighborhood organizing, self reliance, seasonal growing, seed saving, art, action and independence from corporate food systems

Edible Estates:
In the same vain as Victory Gardens Fritz Haeg has started transformation of front yards rather than back ones.

Fritz is interested in singular gestures that become models --- small gestures in response to common issues that can be instituted by anyone in the world.

By putting the garden in the front for everyone to see he challenges others to question it’s relevance. He wants people to be unsettled with the gardens and then realize they can’t come up with a good argument against them.

Implementation in Other Cities:
The beauty of these projects is the adaptability. Both projects are meant as demonstration projects to show the utility and benefits of doing these things your self without the help necessarily of a city of large organization. It would be very easy for other cities to set up comprehensive websites or brochures demonstrating successful crops for the soil and weather conditions found local areas.

Also a strength of both of these as well is the demonstration of collaboration. Both projects focus on the creation of a community and the necessity of consulting and bringing in the expertise of others who know more about ecology perhaps than you, but demonstrates that it is completely feasible.

Sources:
Metropolis Magazine March 2008 p. 174-179
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005961.html
www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates
http://www.futurefarmers.com/victorygardens/

Food- How to be a Locavore?

2008-03-17T00:43:00.005-04:00

What is a Locavore?
They are people making a effort to build a more locally based, self-reliant food economy. Local food systems are alternative to global corporate models, where producers and consumers are separated through a chain of processors, manufacturers, shipers, and retailers. The belief is that the more middle men there are the more the quality of the product declines. "Buying and producing locally enables accountablility"

Top 12 reasons to buy locally:

1) Freshness. Locally-grown organic fruits and vegetables are usually harvested within 24 hours of being purchased by the consumer. Produce from California can't be that fresh.
2) Taste. Produce picked and eaten at the height of freshness tastes better.
3) Nutrition. Nutritional value declines, often dramatically, as time passes after harvest. Because locally-grown produce is freshest, it is more nutritionally complete.
4) Purity. Eighty percent of American adults say they are concerned about the safety of the food they eat. They worry about residues of pesticides and fungicides. These materials are not permitted in an organic production system either before or after harvest.
5) Regional Economic Health. Buying locally grown food keeps money within the community. This contributes to the health of all sectors of the local economy, increasing the local quality of life.
6) Variety. Organic farmers selling locally are not limited to the few varieties that are bred for long distance shipping, high yields, and shelf life. Often they raise and sell wonderful unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.
7) Soil Stewardship. Soil health is essential for the survival of our species. Conventional farming practices are rapidly depleting topsoil fertility. Creating and sustaining soil fertility is the major objective for organic growers.
8) Energy Conservation. Buying locally grown organic foods decreases dependence on petroleum, a non- renewable energy source. One fifth of all petroleum now used in the United States is used in Agriculture. Organic production systems do not rely upon the input of petroleum derived fertilizers and pesticides and thus save energy at the farm. Buying from local producers conserves additional energy at the distribution level.
9) Environmental Protection. Soil erosion; pesticide contamination of soil, air, and water; nitrate loading of waterways and wells; and elimination of planetary biodiversity are some of the problems associated with today's predominate farming methods. Organic growers use practices that protect soil, air, and water resources; and that promote biodiversity.
10) Cost. Conventional food processes don't reflect the hidden costs of the environmental, health and social consequences of predominate production practices- of, for instance, correcting a water supply polluted by agricultural runoff, or obtaining medical treatment for pesticide induced illness suffered by farmers or consumers. When these and other hidden costs are taken into account, as they should be, locally grown organic foods are seen clearly for the value they are, even if they cost a few pennies more.
11) A Step Toward Regional Food Self Reliance. Dependency on far away food sources leaves a region vulnerable to supply disruptions, and removes any real accountability of producer to consumer. It also tends to promote larger, less diversified farms that hurt both the environment and local economies/communities. Regional food production systems, on the other hand, keep the food supply in the hands of many, providing interesting job and self-employment opportunities, and enabling people to influence how their food is grown.
12) Passing on the Stewardship Ethic. When you buy locally produced organic food you cannot help but raise the consciousness of your friends and family about how food buying decisions can make a difference in your life and the life of your community; and about how this basic act is connected to planetary issues.

www.locavores.com

Best Website's for Local Food:

www.buylocalpa.com
Pennsylvania’s buy local website, good idea of how to make it obtainable. This website is strong because it was developed by the state, so it has a smaller audience, thus is able to be updated quite frequently. The national websites struggle to keep accurate data.

LocalHarvest.org
This website is dedicated to connecting people with local food, they have a very easy interface which puts you directly in contact with the farms in your area. The website is okay, but lacks up to date information, and it is the only website which has the entire US listed.

Their Mission:
“The best food is what's grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many others.”

Locavores.com
Is a San Fransisco based group that has formed an online community around eating locally. They have created a support system which enables other people in the area to blog how to find local food. Great for San Fransisco users, but could be applied more broadly. They do local events such as each local month in August, and celebrations for people who have made it a whole year eating locally.

Food - Local Systems, Farmer's Diner

2008-03-16T23:41:00.009-04:00

Why Local Systems?
The Farmers Diner shortens the road from the farm field to the diner plate. The current commercial food system is a mess. The Farmers Diner follows a simple design: buy great ingredients directly from area farmers and prepare great meals for local customers. Why would a Vermonter eat lamb from New Zealand? This makes no sense environmentally, agriculturally or economically.

The Farmer's Diner makes it easy to eat locally, which is sustainable for communities as well as the planet by combining time-tested restaurant-chain basics
with socially responsible economics and operations.

How it Works:
• A regional pod of five diners will create an annual market of $1,200,000 for local and regional farmers and producers. A "pod" is a group of diners that share purchasing and preparation by a central commissary that makes purchasing, delivery by farmers, and initial processing much more efficient than if each diner did it alone.

• The Farmers Diner buys the best-raised local and regional farm products, with a preference for the highest quality, closest-by products. Beef must have access to the outdoors and pasture as a principal part of their feed ration and may not be raised with added hormones nor antibiotics. The local area pork that we purchase is raised without added hormones or antibiotics and are raised outdoors or on deeply bedded packs. These practices eliminate improper waste management and focus farmers on husbandry and not industrial management.

• In-season vegetables, when not available from area organic sources, will be sourced from area growers who use Integrated Pest Management systems, thus reducing the amount of harmful chemicals and poisons released into the environment. When local or close-by regional produce is not available, The Farmers Diner currently uses an area produce company supplying typical commercial vegetables.

• Using the Department of Commerce multiplier for dollars spent in local communities, it is estimated that the $1,200,000 spent by a 5-diner pod in local agrarian communities will translate into an economic force of approximately $6,000,000 annually. This will encourage other farm and distribution-related services to be created.

• Each pod of five diners will help maintain and create new farms. With each farm or local processor supplying $30,000 - $120,000 worth of food to The Farmers Diner this translates into 10-40 local farms or other food businesses more secure in their economic viability.

• Using the pod commissary model for processing local produce will help farmers to diversify their operations and receive better compensation without the time requirement of coordinating processing and distribution. This will assist farmers in moving towards polyculture (multiple products) and away from sole dependence upon commodity monoculture.

Our method for creating more The Farmers Diner restaurants will be pretty simple. In each new market area we attract a local group of farmers, business leaders, investors and others who care about viable communities. The Farmers Diner provides the local partners with technical and financial resources in launching and managing a pod of new diners in their area.

This model allows The Farmers Diner to leverage its core business processes, technology and management expertise across multiple locations with significant economy of scale. This will allow us to increase benefits to employees, pay profitable prices to local farmers and provide a good return to our investors.

Benefits:
+ supports and sustains local agriculture
+ creates jobs
+ strengthens communities
+ less need for current food transport system = less carbon
+ increases transparency of where food comes from (listing sources on menus)

Other restaurants with menus built around locally harvested foods:
Chez Panisse: http://www.chezpanisse.com/
The White Dog Cafe: http://www.whitedog.com/
Local 121: http://www.local121.com/home

Sources:
Farmer's Diner website:
http://www.farmersdiner.com

Food- Home Delivery

2008-03-16T23:34:00.006-04:00

What: Home delivery service of groceries, such as Peapod.com. Others include CSA (community supported agriculture) for urban lifestyles where farms participate and community supported to have food delivered to customer’s door weekly. A problem is the delivery of boxes, limited selection in large quantities.

Peapod has one model (centralized distribution) with two formats (wareroom/fast-pick center and warehouse). Both provide next-day delivery, capitalizing on a supply chain that keeps the cold chain intact. This allows us to use the assets of the store as we open markets, and then transition to warehouses as the business grows; leveraging the power of Ahold stores helps us maximizes quality, minimize out-of-stocks, control inventory and provide superior service. Peapod having served more than 8 million customers has secured its position as the country's leading internet grocer, serving 18 U.S. markets. Now owned by Royal Ahold and working closely with Stop & Shop and Giant Foods. With more than 10,000 products for shoppers to choose from such as: grocery basics, farm-fresh produce; meats and seafood; prepared foods and party trays; deli meats and cheeses, Kosher, organic and specialty foods; a vast selection of produce; a variety of beer, wine and beverages; pet supplies; videos; office and school supplies and private label products from supermarket partners Stop & Shop and Giant.

Peapod services: the Greater Chicago area, Greater Boston area, Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Benefits: Some consumer journeys to shops can be saved, but more importantly the distribution chain for products can be a lot shorter and more efficient. Instead of a product travelling to a series of depots and distribution centres, the journey to the consumer can be more direct.

Who: Peapod, the online grocery store started in 1989 by brothers Andrew and Thomas Parkinson.

How it works: Go to website, browse “express shop” or “browse aisles,” add to cart desired items, check out and pay (delivery fee*), look for desired drop off time, wait for groceries to arrive at designated time.

*Delivery Fees Consumers pay as low as $6.95 for orders greater than $100; $9.95 for orders between $50-$100.

Also have the option of Shop&Drop, a password-protected area built into a house or garden, much like the coal-bunkers of yore, where groceries or any products bought online can be left securely, meaning you don't have to be in when they arrive. http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/lowcarbonliving2022/products/shopndrop

Features: Peapod enhances and organizes the shopping experience by organizing products and purchase history to ease the shopping experience with features including:

Sort by Nutrition
New Items
Express Shop
Shopping Lists
Aisle Browsing
Item Search
Recipes & More

Peapod serves customers with two freestanding, 75,000-square-foot warehouses in:

Chicago (Lake Zurich, Ill.)
Washington, DC (Gaithersburg, Md.)

The company also hosts "warerooms" (7,000 square feet each) adjacent to partner stores in:

Connecticut (5 locations)
Massachusetts (4 locations)
New York (3 locations)
New Jersey (3 locations)
Rhode Island (1 location)

The delivery system maintains products at their optimum temperatures, from the farm all the way to a customer's front door. Warehouses, trucks and delivery bins are all climate-controlled.

Implementation in other cities? Yes. Peapod's focus is to expand market share on the East Coast in locations where Ahold U.S.A. has a significant presence with its Stop & Shop and Giant Food stores. This is applicable to other models as well.

Food- Environmental Defense Part II

2008-03-16T22:55:00.000-04:00

THE FARM BILL

The Farm bill is considered the single largest source of conservation funding in the US. In July, the U.S. House passed its version of the Farm Bill, called the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007. The Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill in December. Both the House and Senate made steps in the right direction, but did not do enough to meet farmer demand for conservation programs. Now the two parts of congress must consolidate their two versions of the bill.

In the House, the bill provided for $4.5 billion in funding for new conservation programs, but this is still considered and insufficient amount to ensure that farmers are not rejected when they apply for conservation assistance. more than 50,000 farmers (two out of every three that apply) are rejected each year when they offer to share the costs of a healthier environment.
In the Senate their version of the bill failed to make reasonable reforms to farm subsidy programs. despite many reform amendments offered on the Senate floor during debate, the Bill continues with one type of subsidy, direct payments, which flow to farmers regardless of need.
The Senate Bill in fact, increases subsidies rather than reducing them by increasing support levels for some crops, creating a new $5.1 billion "permanent disaster" program, which will encourage more intensive crop production on marginal lands wasting taxpayer dollars + harming the environment. Despite the fact that a clear majority of Senators voted in favor of reforms to impose reasonable payment limits for subsidy recipients and to prevent already wealthy individuals from receiving subsidy checks, a deal struck by Senate Leadership requiring a 60-vote supermajority to pass these amendments thwarted reform efforts. As a result, the farm bill passed by the Senate will continue to allow millionaires to collect unlimited farm subsidies while leaving conservation and other critical programs under funded.

Synopsis
As of now, the farm bill is doing little for conservation programs. Instead, subsidies are focused on production, so that the largest 10 percent of subsidy recipients collect 70 percent of all subsidies (some subsidized farmers collect more than $2 million a year, but most collect less than $200 a month). Subsidies are concentrated on a handful of crops (corn, wheat, soy, rice, & cotton) in a handful of states (eight states collected more than half of farm spending between 1995-2004). As a result of this funding imbalance, most producers are rejected when they seek conservation subsidies. Essentially, the farm policy benefits large production farming, marginalizing crop variation, and creating detrimental effects to our soil, landscape, air and health.

Recommendations:
The Environmental Defense has twelve recommendations for farm and food policy. Below are 7-12.

7. Help Farmers Make the Transition to Organic

Helping farmers make the transition to organic will benefit consumers, the environment, and the economy. There is a huge demand for Organic farming in the US, unfortunately the cost of the three-year transition to organic (a period when farmers abandon the use of pesticides but cannot yet label their products as organic) is significant. Farm and food policies should help many more farmers make the transition to organic production systems by sharing in transition costs as farmers move from conventional to organic production.

8. Target Land Retirement and Restoration Efforts
By restoring millions of acres of grasslands, forests and wetlands, the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) and WRP (Wetlands Reserve programs) have produced enormous environmental benefits. Lands enrolled and restored through the CRP, annually sequester 48 million tons of carbon and annually reduce the amount of soil washed into streams by about 450 millions tons (or by enough dirt to fill 37.5 million dump trucks). The 2007 Farm Bill should expand the Wetlands Reserve Program to 5 million acres. This program has already protected 1.6 million acres.

9. Protect 10 Million Acres from Sprawl

More than 80 percent of our fruits and vegetables, and more than 60 percent of our dairy products, are produced in areas threatened by sprawl. At current rates, America is losing two acres of farm and ranch land every minute (Many of those farms and ranches fall in the path of development). The Farm Bill should provide sufficient funds to USDA’s Farm and Ranchland Protection Program so that the program can continue to match vital state and local efforts around the country to protect working farms and ranches, the bill should also include an expansion of the Grassland Reserve Program to protect more than 10 million acres of grassland from subdivision and conversion.

10. Promote Cooperative Conservation Projects

Farmers, ranchers and family foresters working together to solve local and regional environmental challenges typically provide clean water, clean air and wildlife habitat faster and at less cost than when landowners adopt conservation practices in isolation. The Farm Bill should increase annual USDA conservation spending from $4 to $7 billion and should reserve 20 percent of all working lands funds to provide grants to groups of farmers, ranchers and family foresters working together to address local environmental priorities. The USDA should hold back 10% of all working lands conservation funds to reward states that do the best job of implementing conservation programs in a way that encourages farmers to work together to meet local and regional environmental priorities.

11. Promote Healthy Food Choices

Rising rates of diet-related diseases such as diabetes have increased the cost of America’s health care system by about $100 billion a year. The next Farm Bill should expand programs that link schools, hospitals and other large institutions with local producers of fruits and vegetables. Linking consumers with local farmers, and building the shipping, packing and processing infrastructure to facilitate these connections, would improve diets, reduce health care expenses, and improve the profitability of farmers threatened by sprawling development.

12. Cultivate a New Generation of Stewards
Farmers over the age of 65 outnumber those below the age of 35 by more than four to one. Over the next two decades, about 400 million acres of agricultural land will be transferred to new owners. But, many new farmers face high land costs and barriers to credit and insurance (many of these new farmers are growing crops that are not eligible for traditional subsidies). The Farm Bill should dramatically expand programs that provide grants and loans to help new farmers and ranchers, new policy should also phase out the use of subsidies tied to the production of certain crops.

Sources:

edf.org

Food- Environmental Defense Part I

2008-03-16T22:53:00.020-04:00

Introduction:
The Environmental Defense is a multidisciplinary organization that makes recommendations concerning the environment based off of scientific and market analysis. They are “finding the ways that work” in a number of areas including farming and food policies.

Why Listen to the Environmental Defense's Recommendations on Food Policy?
Policies concerning food and farm affect a number of people including consumers, farmers, ranchers, taxpayers, trade and the environment. This is because it shapes the use of energy, fuel, water and land for production while impacting trade and taxes for competitive distribution. Over half of America is managed by farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners, however the interest in health food and positive environmental choices is difficult to sustain on farms and ranches due to the lack of government incentives and subsidies. The dynamic research that the Environmental Defense complied lead to logical recommendations to address these issues.

Benefits:
Though directed specifically to food production, the policies extend past their immediate realm due to their impact on public health, the environment, trade and energy. By improving this system, many others will benefit.

Implementation:
Though a local issue, the federal government is the main player for the implementation of policy.In 2007, Congressed had a chance to reinvigorate its Farm Bill, where the two houses are now consolidating their own versions.

Recommendations:
The Environmental Defense has twelve recommendations for farm and food policy. Below are the first six.

1. Help more farmers and rural communities:
The main goal would be to help farmers with economic independence by promoting innovation and environmental responsibility. Currently, farm subsides are only given to a handful farmers, thus creating funds for conservation and energy could benefit all producers. Furthermore, developing conservation, renewable energy, and rural development programs would be beneficial in addition to creating an account system which could help with rural business ventures and planning for the future.

2. Reward-don’t reject-good stewards:
The activities of producers greatly affects the environment, however many farms and ranches are a sources of water pollution with fertilizers and air pollution from animal waste. Many are addressing these problems, but are having problems acquiring government funding. USDA conservation spending should increase from 4 to 7 billion in addition to reforming the farm subsidies program. Air pollution is a particular problem, where the Environmental Quality Incentives Program should be improved by reserving funds to help regions of farmer with air pollution. If farms and ranches manage their waste better with the help of USDA, public and environmental health improves.

3. Invest in renewable energy with environmental benefits:
Individuals are interested in investing in renewable energy. With the amount of land involved in farming and ranching, an opportunity arises for the harnessing of wind and solar energy as well as energy from crop waste. Future USDA investments should help promote renewable energy.

4. Reward economic innovation, don’t create dependence
Farm Income Stabilization accounts should be adapted for they would promote innovation and economic independence of producers. It would help create new markets and investments in food production. The farmers’ market should be expanded by improving the next Farm Bill to link customer to farmer.

5. Reward rising levels of stewardship:
In 2002, the Conservation Security Program (CSP) was created to support high levels of environmental performance by producers. This should continue and also be made available to all farmers who meet the standard. Improvements could also be accomplished by balancing the reward between past and future accomplishments. Environmental stewardship could also be linked to income support as an incentive to create sustainable practices. Spending for the 2007 Farm Bill should increase from 4 to 7 billion, where extra would go toward air and water quality stewardship incentives as well as wildlife and wetland restoration.

6. Help farmers get ready for a carbon cap
Farmers should be prepared for carbon markets for they are beneficial to power plant owners, the environment and producers. This can be achieved by developing standards and protocols to certify emissions reductions and its worth. In order to help farmers be more prosperous in this market, policies should be developed to help improve tillage, fertilizer use, and methane capture.

Sources:
Environmental Defense: edf.org

Food–The Vertical Farm Project

2008-03-16T19:31:00.007-04:00

Agriculture for the 21^st Century and Beyond
Columbia University

“A Columbia professor believes that converting skyscrapers into crop farms could help reduce global warming and make New York cleaner”. Lisa Chamberlain

WHY VERTICAL
What does this have to do with climate change? The professor believes that only by allowing significant portions of the Earth’s farmland to return to forest do we have a real chance of stabilizing climate and weather patterns. Merely reducing energy consumption—the centerpiece of the proposal Al Gore recently presented to Congress—will at best slow global warming. Allowing forests to regrow where crops are now cultivated, he believes, would reduce carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere as least as much as more-efficient energy consumption.

There is another reason to develop indoor farming: exploding population growth. By 2050, demographers estimate there will be an additional 3 billion people (a global total of 9.2 billion). If current farming practices are maintained, extra landmass as large as Brazil would have to be cultivated to feed them. Yet nearly all the land that can produce food is already being
farmed—even without accounting for the possibility of losing more to rising sea levels and climate change (which could turn arable land into dust bowls).

OTHER EXAMPLE
Depending on the crops being grown, a single vertical farm could allow thousands of farmland acres to be permanently reforested. For the moment, these calculations remain highly speculative, but a real-life example offers a
clue: After a strawberry farm in Florida was wiped out by Hurricane Andrew, the owners built a hydroponic farm. By growing strawberries indoors and stacking layers on top of each other, they now produce on one acre of land what used to require 30 acres.

1. The Solar Panel
Most of the vertical farm’s energy is supplied by the pellet power system (see over). This solar panel rotates to follow the sun and would drive the interior cooling system, which is used most when the sun’s heat is greatest.

2. The Wind Spire
An alternative (or a complement) to solar power, conceied by an engineering professor at Cleveland State University. Conventional windmills are too large for cities; the wind spire uses small blades to turn air upward, like a screw.

3. The Glass Panels

A clear coating of titanium oxide collects pollutants and prevents rain from beading; the rain slides down the glass, maximizing light and cleaning the pollutants. Troughs collect runoff for filtration.

4. The Control Room
The vertical-farm environment is regulated from here, allowing for year-round, 24-hour crop cultivation.

5. The Architecture
Inspired by the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Circular design uses space most efficiently and allows maximum light into the center. Modular floors stack like poker chips for flexibility.

6. The Crops
The vertical farm could grow fruits, vegetables, grains, and even fish, poultry, and pigs. Enough, Despommier estimates, to feed 50,000 people annually.

The vertical farm doesn’t just grow crops indoors; it also generates its own power from waste and cleans up sewage water.

1. The Evapotranspiration Recovery System
Nestled inside the ceiling of each floor, its pipes collect moisture, which can be bottled and sold.

2. The Pipes
Work much like a cold bottle of Coke that “sweats” on a hot day: Super-cool fluid attracts plant water vapors, which are then collected as they drip off (similar systems are in use on a small scale). Despommier estimates that one vertical farm could capture 60 million gallons of water a year.

3. Black-Water Treatment System
Wastewater taken from the city’s sewage system is treated through a series of filters, then sterilized, yielding gray water—which is not drinkable but can be used for irrigation. (Currently, the city throws 1.4 billion gallons of treated wastewater into the rivers each day.) The Solaire building in Battery Park City already uses a system like this.

4. The Crop Picker

Monitors fruits and vegetables with an electronic eye. Current technology, called a Reflectometer, uses color detection to test ripeness.

5. The Field
Maximization of space is critical, so in this rendering there are two layers of crops (and some hanging tomatoes). If small crops are planted, there might be up to ten layers per floor.

6. The Pool
Runoff from irrigation is collected here and piped to a filtration system.

7. The Feeder
Like an ink-jet printer, this dual-purpose mechanism directs programmed amounts of water and light to individual crops.

8. The Pellet Power System
Another source of power for the vertical farm, it turns nonedible plant matter (like corn husks, for example) into fuel. Could also process waste from New York’s 18,000 restaurants.

9 to 11. The Pellets
Plant waste is processed into powder (9), then condensed into clean-burning fuel pellets (10), which become steam power (11). At least 60 pellet mills in North America already produce more than 600,000 tons of fuel annually, and a 3,400-square-foot house in Idaho uses pellets to generate its own electricity.

www.verticalfarm.com
http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/

Food- Beeline: Food Miles cont.

2008-03-16T15:45:00.001-04:00

Beeline is a food distribution system concept for fresh produce in the Northwest Pacific coastal region, designed to support local economies while cutting out the wasted money and transportation commonly associated with getting produce from farmers to retailers. By creating an online virtual marketplace for connecting farmers to retailers, Beeline optimizes food transportation energy by "carpooling" pickups and deliveries in a region and provides a robust information system for auditing each shipment's energy use. The system significantly reduces miles traveled and carbon emissions, eliminates warehouses and facilities, provides equitable markets for local food, and educates customers.

A database provides a web-based interface for farmers, retailers, and customers to learn more about each other, and combines social networking with education. Clients' user accounts that go into further detail about food miles, carbon emissions, and opportunities to coordinate pickups and deliveries with other participants in a way that further optimizes the system. In addition, retailers are provided with printable point-of-purchase graphics that educate the customer about the farmers, their farms, and emissions data specific to that shipment.

By analyzing the multiple pick-up and deliveries scheduled at any time, Beeline is able to design the most optimal route for trucking. This is the key to Beeline's overall energy efficiency, and we maintain a detailed database of the day-to-day performance of this system. The system conserves energy and passes those savings on to its clients.

Beeline not only informs the system but changes it as well. Knitting information into product technology, it's built as a service business and system design. Merely localizing food systems is insufficient; local distribution has to be done with maximized efficiency. As the UK's DEFRA report points out, food tonnage can increase when moving towards localized food systems if food items are transported inefficiently. Beeline's system allows us to eliminate waste: wasted miles and wasted labour, as well as wasted space in warehouses and inventory. Ultimately, it enables us to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions associated with food transport and support long-term food security and economic vitality.

http://www.doorsofperception.com/juice/archives/participants/beeline.php

(check out the links on the right side)

http://www.thersa.org/exh/artist/artist.asp?artid=013

Food-Food Miles

2008-03-16T15:42:00.004-04:00

The concept of food miles is part of a broader issue of sustainability which deals with a large range of list of environmental issues, including local food. The term was coined by Tim Lang (now Professor of Food Policy, City University, London) who says: "The point was to highlight the hidden ecological, social and economic consequences of food production to consumers in a simple way, one which had objective reality but also connotations." ^[1]

A DEFRA report in 2005 undertaken by researchers at AEA Technology Environment, entitled The Validity of Food Miles as an Indicator of Sustainable Development, included findings that "the direct environmental, social and economic costs of food transport are over £9 billion each year, and are dominated by congestion."

Recent findings indicate that it is not only how far the food has traveled but how it has traveled that is important to consider. The positive environmental effects of specialist organic farming may be offset by increased transportation, unless it is produced by local farms. But even then the logistics and effects on other local traffic may play a big role. Also, many trips by personal cars to shopping centers would have a negative environmental impact compared to a few truck loads to neighborhood stores that can be easily accessed by walking or cycling. A flavorer endeavors to eat food from within a "food shed" having a radius of 100 miles.

Business application

Business leaders have adopted food miles as a model for understanding inefficiency in a food supply chain. Wal-Mart, famously focused on efficiency, was an early adopter of food miles as a profit-maximizing strategy. More recently, Wal-Mart has embraced the environmental benefits of supply chain efficiency as well. In 2006, Wal-Mart, CEO, Lee Scott said, "The benefits of the strategy are undeniable, whether you look through the lens of greenhouse gas reduction or the lens of cost savings. What has become so obvious is that 'a green strategy' provides better value for our customers" ^[2]. Wal-Mart has since made a series of environmental commitments that suggest the company is looking more holistically at supply chain sustainability, such as restricting seafood suppliers to fisheries independently certified as sustainable, a practice that may increase food miles.^[3] Still it is undeniable that Wal-Mart's strategy of using supply chains from as far away as China exorbitantly increases greenhouse emissions. They are often criticized for "green washing" and only adopting large-scale green tactics, which make them appear earth-friendly but actually have little positive environmental impact.

Non-holistic approach

Critics of food miles point out that transport is only one component of the total environmental impact of food production and consumption. In fact, any environmental assessment of food that consumers buy needs to take into account how the food has been produced and what energy is used in its production. A recent DEFRA case study indicated that tomatoes grown in Spain and transported to the United Kingdom may have a lower carbon footprint in terms of energy efficiency than tomatoes grown in the United Kingdom, because of the energy needed to heat greenhouses in the UK ^[4].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_miles

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html

Food- Aquaculture and other quick proteins

2008-03-16T10:55:00.008-04:00

Is Aquaculture the future of fish farming?

Eleonore de Lusignan

Aquaculture is commonly defined as the active cultivation (maintenance or production) of marine and freshwater aquatic organisms (plants and animals) under controlled conditions. This definition encompasses a broad range of operations, cultivating a wide variety of organisms, using a wide variety of production systems and facilities. Aquaculture operations across the U.S. produce more than 100 species of aquatic organisms at different life stages, such as catfish, shrimp, salmon, scallops, oysters, and trout.

A common attribute of all aquaculture systems is the use of water as the medium for cultivation. Aquaculture systems must provide a constant supply of sufficiently clean and oxygenated water to support the cultivated organisms, and must carry away deoxygenated water and wastes. Systems that hold organisms within open, natural water bodies (suspended cages, net pens, or racks) rely on natural water circulation or dispersion to accomplish this water "turnover." Wastes released from these systems are not collected or managed. Closed systems employing ponds and tanks, on the other hand, must manage the supply and condition of water in the system, and must remove and manage wastes, largely consisting of wastewater.

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/anaquidx.html

Contessa Green Cuisine Plant
In the fall of 2007, Contessa opened the first environmentally responsible, LEED-certified frozen-food manufacturing plant in the world. The facility, its processes, and the products manufactured there are known as "Green Cuisine." Contessa's Green Cuisine plant is so innovative that it was featured on "CBS News Sunday Morning" in a segment called "The Next Hot Invention."

Worldwide, about 1 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of animal protein. Yet according to a recent report in Science journal, 90 percent of the ocean's edible species may be gone by the year 2048 due to over-fishing, pollution and the destruction of natural habitats.

With our world population increasing by about 80 million people each year, 8 billion people are expected to occupy this planet by 2025. And with the demand for seafood in the U.S. alone expected to increase by more than 3 billion pounds by the year 2010, expanding our resources is no longer an option.

That's where aquaculture comes in.

Aquaculture — the cultivation of aquatic animals — currently accounts for nearly 40 percent of the seafood we consume, and is the fastest-growing food-producing segment in the world. It's a sustainable, reliable way to provide food for the masses.

When carried out responsibly, aquaculture allows shrimp stocks to be maintained and replaced indefinitely. It provides a much-needed source of protein without damaging the ocean floor with shrimp-trawling nets. And it doesn't trap creatures — like sea turtles — inadvertently, only to be thrown overboard as "bycatch." Aquaculture is even used in replenishment programs for a number of overfished species to offset the number that are caught in the wild.

Aquaculture Quick Facts

•	Aquaculture presently provides nearly 40 percent of the world's edible seafood supply.
•	Crustaceans, mainly shrimp and prawns, account for about 5 percent of aquaculture production.
•	About 40 percent of all harvested shrimp are now grown through aquaculture.

Wild-caught vs. Farm-raised: You be the Judge

"Aquaculture — the practice of raising fish, crustaceans or mollusks in captivity for human consumption — is gaining importance as wild fish populations dwindle. If current consumption rates continue, a 2006 scientific study predicted, all wild aquatic species currently harvested for food will fall below a tenth of their largest historic population by 2050."
— Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2007

http://www.contessa.com/green_cuisine/aquaculture.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/asia/15fish.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Net-pen farming can be a messy business
Many farmed fish, including most farmed salmon, are raised in net pens, like cattle in a feed lot. Thousands of fish concentrated in one area produce tons of feces, polluting the water. Diseases can spread from fish in the crowded pens to wild fish. Antibiotics and other drugs used to control those diseases leak out into the environment, creating drug-resistant disease organisms. And if farmed fish escape their pens, they can take over habitat from wild fish in the area. While the U.S. has laws to protect the environment around coastal fish farms, many nations that supply farmed fish to U.S. markets do not.

Shrimp farming can harm the coast
In Thailand, Ecuador and many other tropical nations, coastal forests of mangroves once sheltered wild fish and shrimp, which local people caught to feed their families. Mangroves also filter water and protect the coast against storm waves. Many mangrove forests have been cut down and replaced with shrimp farms that supply shrimp to Europe, Japan and America. After a few years, waste products build up in the farm ponds and the farmers have to move on. The local people are left with no shrimp farms—and no mangrove forest.

Far from the sea may be best
The best way to raise fish may be inland, far from coastal waters where wild fish feed and breed. Tilapia, a plant-eating fish, is easy to raise, and produces protein for people without using wild fish as feed. Catfish and trout are raised inland in the United States. All of these fish can be delicious alternatives to ocean-farmed shrimp and salmon. Even shrimp and salmon farming can be moved inland, where wastes are easier to handle. U.S. shrimp farmers are experimenting with enclosed, recirculating systems that filter wastewater and can be located far from the coast.

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_ac.asp

Global Demand for Aquatic Products

• Ocean capture fisheries, which have long provided the majority of edible fish products for the world, have reached maximum sustainable yields.

• Demand for fishery products will continue to increase in response to projected human population growth of nearly 50%, to 9.1 billion, by 2050.

• Key constraint to sustainability of aquaculture production will be the availability of cost effective, renewable protein ingredients for fish feeds.

• Global fishmeal supplies are already insufficient to sustain the growing aquaculture production using fishmeal-based feeds.

Cost

• Soybean meal has a significantly lower cost than most animal meals, particularly marine animal protein meals.

• Reducing feed cost is critical to improving efficiency and maintaining sustainability in aquaculture operations.

Availability

• Soybean meal is a renewable plant protein ingredient.

• Availability of renewable protein products will be critical to the future of the global aquaculture industry.

• In comparison to static production of marine animal meals, soybean production has grown more than tenfold in the last four decades, and can continue to grow to meet demand from the aquaculture industry.

http://www.soyaqua.org/quickfacts.html

Food- Wikiseedia

2008-03-16T01:38:00.001-04:00

Contributed by Anita Yufe

Why my Topic?

Networking for farmers is an important tool that can be facilitated through the use of the web. It allows farmers to share acquired knowledge and techniques to one another other in an online global environment. This sharing of important information by farmers will ultimately benefit the public with available quality food.

“But learning what's local and eating accordingly in the 21st century will be a lesson in perennial change, because as the climate changes, agricultural zones shift, and that means what's local now may not be the same stuff that will grow well in your region in ten or twenty years”.

How it works:

The structure includes a speculative anticipation of what a model for tracking and trading local knowledge about farming and food in an open, global network might look like, called seedpod. It is an imagined toolkit to keep seeds moving, farmers thriving and communities fed in the face of massive environmental change.

SeedPOD includes programs both online and on-site which allow farmers to share their own observations of their land and crops, to advise one another on cultivation strategies for introducing a "new native" species, to save seeds and preserve biodiversity, and to establish a community of peer teachers who can guide each other through the adaptation process.

Citizen Science

Changes in agricultural zones will likely occur faster and more widely in coming years. Before scientists can publish peer-reviewed research or governments can announce official responses, farmers will be developing appropriate solutions on the spot, by necessity. It only makes sense to network those farmers to better distribute their solutions and make them widely accessible.

Fortunately, the rate of Net access distribution around the world may be rising almost as fast as the rate of change in agricultural conditions. By connecting large numbers of participants in both the Global North and Global South, SeedPOD becomes the virtual laboratory in which mass collaboration can yield quick conclusions.

Collaborative Online Agricultural Resource

In tandem with the online exchange, seedPOD will host an open archive of resources which can be augmented and developed through the discoveries made by citizens and farmers called, Wikiseedia -- a collaborative, free online agricultural encyclopedia.

Wikiseedia will be presented and continuously translated into a multitude of languages, and SeedPOD will also work to install community internet hubs and wireless versions where access is scarce or nonexistent, so that rural farmers in the developing world can take advantage of these tools, too. Trained scientists will be able to check in on Wikiseedia and the online citizen science lab to gain the most current agricultural information available for inclusion in longer-term research, and to participate in the collaborative editing process, as well.

Think of it as something akin to the Open Architecture Network, for agriculture, bringing together great existing efforts (like the Honey Bee Network) and best practices (like greenbelt efforts in the Sahel) with a platform for sharing undiscovered or newly invented innovations.

Benefits:

It helps to imagine how new models and designs might help address critical food-related sustainability issues. In addition, it addresses a problem of farming and gardening in a world of climate change.

Such efforts in all disciplines, from architecture to farming would have such collaborative repositories of knowledge, and all of the efforts would be interoperable and easily dovetailed, so that a person working in a specific context could easily learn how to find and use detailed knowledge from a number of disciplines and projects.

Seed Collection and Savings Banks

Probably the least hypothetical component of the seedPOD toolkit, seed banks already exist all over the world as preventative measures against the loss of barnyard biodiversity. The model collided with future scenarios with the announcement of plans to build a huge doomsday seed vault near the Arctic Circle which would be more secure and stable than existing banks -- able to withstand the more catastrophic possible outcomes of climate change (or war or asteroid impact).

SeedPOD seed banks will be a network of living facilities (rather than sealed vaults) where seeds can be deposited as they become threatened, or taken and planted where they couldn't previously have grown. Though seedPOD is primarily citizen driven, this will be one place where staff will be employed to catalog and archive records of the flow of seeds through the bank, and the locations from which they originate and to which they go. By supporting the existing, highly-stressed seed bank organizations around the world, creating such a network also meets the purpose of preserving existing seed collections.

Protection of Indigenous Rights

With any attempt to gather local knowledge of food crops, issues of biopiracy almost immediately rear their heads. How do we ensure that the communities that have developed crops for millennia retain commercial control over these heritage plants and animals? One method is through the establishment of prior art claims: documentation that sequences the genome of crop species, asserts the existence of the community's right to the crops it has developed, and helps prevent the patenting of those crops genetic material by others.

Traditional Knowledge Sharing

Of course, this new process is not just about obtaining, planting and cultivating seeds; it's also about harvesting and making use of their yield. Beyond sharing farming practices, seedPOD's online network will be a platform for exchanging traditional methods of harvest, preservation, cooking, and eating newly local food.

Food is culture: new foods will require cultural innovation and cross-pollination. Such efforts could be furthered as well by good approaches to intellectual property, using Creative Commons licenses and related tools to create a global food culture commons. Indeed, in some places, gathering that knowledge to share with others could help make that knowledge more widely available, more useful and more likely to be preserved at home.

Global Community Supported Agriculture

Supporting farmers locally through community supported agriculture programs (CSAs) is a great idea; increasingly, it may even be possible for us to imagine using similar tools for supporting farmers in far-off lands. As farmers learn to grow new crops, direct farm-to-table support will be more necessary than ever. SeedPOD envisions a widespread network of interlacing relationships, connecting directly consumers in one climate with farmers not only in their area, but in places with different climates who grow crops they've come to love.

Sources

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006588.html

http://www.wikiseedia.com

Food-CSA

2008-03-12T17:10:00.001-04:00

The Problem with Food:
Did you know that food travels and average of 1300 miles before it reaches the grocery shelves? In addition, for each dollar you spend on produce, only 10 percent of the money returns to the farmer. The other 90% of your money goes to pay for the food transportation, packaging, and marketing.

Top 12 reasons to buy locally:
1) Freshness. Locally-grown organic fruits and vegetables are usually harvested within 24 hours of being purchased by the consumer.
2) Taste. Produce picked and eaten at the height of freshness tastes better.
3) Nutrition. Nutritional value declines, often dramatically, as time passes after harvest. Locally-grown produce is freshest, it is more nutritionally complete.
4) Purity. Eighty percent of American adults say they are concerned about the safety of the food they eat. They worry about residues of pesticides and fungicides. These materials are not permitted in an organic production system either before or after harvest.
5) Regional Economic Health. Buying locally grown food keeps money within the community. This contributes to the health of all sectors of the local economy, increasing the local quality of life.
6) Variety. Organic farmers selling locally are not limited to the few varieties that are bred for long distance shipping, high yields, and shelf life. Often they raise and sell wonderful unusual varieties you will never find on supermarket shelves.
7) Soil Stewardship. Soil health is essential for the survival of our species. Conventional farming practices are rapidly depleting topsoil fertility. Creating and sustaining soil fertility is the major objective for organic growers.
8) Energy Conservation. Buying locally grown organic foods decreases dependence on petroleum, a non- renewable energy source. One fifth of all petroleum now used in the United States is used in Agriculture. Organic production systems do not rely upon the input of petroleum derived fertilizers and pesticides and thus save energy at the farm. Buying from local producers conserves additional energy at the distribution level.
9) Environmental Protection. Soil erosion; pesticide contamination of soil, air, and water; nitrate loading of waterways and wells; and elimination of planetary biodiversity are some of the problems associated with today's predominate farming methods. Organic growers use practices that protect soil, air, and water resources; and that promote biodiversity.
10) Cost. Conventional food processes don't reflect the hidden costs of the environmental, health and social consequences of predominate production practices- of, for instance, correcting a water supply polluted by agricultural runoff, or obtaining medical treatment for pesticide induced illness suffered by farmers or consumers. When these and other hidden costs are taken into account, as they should be, locally grown organic foods are seen clearly for the value they are, even if they cost a few pennies more.
11) A Step Toward Regional Food Self Reliance. Dependency on far away food sources leaves a region vulnerable to supply disruptions, and removes any real accountability of producer to consumer. Regional food production systems keep the food supply in the hands of many, providing interesting job and self-employment opportunities, and enabling people to influence how their food is grown.
12) Passing on the Stewardship Ethic. When you buy locally produced organic food you cannot help but raise the consciousness of your friends and family about how food buying decisions can make a difference in your life and the life of your community; and about how this basic act is connected to planetary issues.

What is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA):
CSA is a strategy to connect local farmers with local consumers. People make a financial commitment to a farm, and they become shareholders or members of that community, in return they recieve fresh produce every week. Most people pay at the beginning of the season, prices usually range from $300-$600 for 20 weeks of fresh produce. This mutually supportive relationship between local farmers and local consumers, creates economically stable farm operation, in which members are assured the highest quality produce often below retail prices. In return, farmers and growers are guaranteed a reliable market for a diverse selection of crops.

Food-Problem Statement

2008-03-12T16:38:00.001-04:00

A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food.

A growing middle class in the developing world is demanding more protein, from pork and hamburgers to chicken and ice cream. And all this is happening even as global climate change may be starting to make it harder to grow food in some of the places best equipped to do so, like Australia.

Kaith Bradsher
A New Global Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories
New York Times, 01.19.2008

Energy - Large Scale Solar Farms

2008-03-11T16:05:00.011-04:00

Sarah Sandman

How Solar Power Works
Converting Photons to Electrons

howthingswork.com

"The solar cells that you see on calculators and satellites are photovoltaic cells or modules (modules are simply a group of cells electrically connected and packaged in one frame). Photovoltaics, as the word implies (photo = light, voltaic = electricity), convert sunlight directly into electricity. Once used almost exclusively in space, photovoltaics are used more and more in less exotic ways. They could even power your house. How do these devices work?

Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently the most commonly used. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely. PV cells also all have one or more electric fields that act to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off to use externally. For example, the current can power a calculator. This current, together with the cell’s voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce."

What are Photovoltaic Power Plants?

howthingswork.com

"Photovoltaic power plants - Solar modules are nowadays parts of large standalone or grid-connected systems. Large photovoltaic power plants (MW range) have beeing constructed in Germany, Spain, USA, Italy, Netherlands etc. Worldwide more than 250 large PV power plants with peak power 1 MWp or more (each plant) are connected to the public grid(s)."

Worldwide Photovoltaic Power Plant Breakdown

solarserver.de

"80% of all large photovoltaic plants (power related) are installed in Europe (700 MWp). The share of the USA accounts about 16 % (142 MWp) and in Asia 4 % (34 MWp) are installed. At present Germany hosts nearly 50 % of the world’s installed photovoltaic power, but its market share was decreasing slowly within the last months.

The most dynamic market is Spain - where an extreme increase of installed power has been observed in 2007. In the last decade only the USA and Germany created a steady growth of their photovoltaic market. The fast growth in Spain started about three years ago and led to an extreme increase in 2007. Further progress is visible in Europe and in South Korea. Italy, particulate France, and Greece turn out to be auspicious markets. The rest of the world (i.e. Africa, South America and Australia) represents less than 1 % of global installed PV power but shows significant potentials for future solar energy use in these regions.

Countries with cumulative installed power more than 1 MW of large photovoltaic power plants (> 200 kWp each considered plant) are listed in Table 2 a the end of this report. Germany leads with more than 400 MW, followed by Spain (almost 250 MW) that displaced the USA (140 MW) at the second position. Italy and Japan (each about 17 MW) Korea (13 MW) and Portugal (12 MW) anyhow reached two digit figures. Countries with less than 1 MWp installed are Thailand, France (without overseas territories), United Kingdom, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg, Rwanda, India and Mexico.

Primary PV world markets are still Germany with about 45 % of the installed power, followed by Spain (28 %) and the USA with 16 % market share. Spain proved as the most dynamic PV market with an impressive growth that might be probably lower this year. The average installed capacity of a single large commercial power plant has increased from 400 kWp in 1997 to 1,64 MWp in 2007. The average capacity of sole commercial PV plants accounts for 1,14 MWp."

Parque Solar Hoya de Los Vincentes
Jumilla, Spain

http://technology4life.wordpress.com

January 31, 2008

"With an installed peak power of 20 MW, the solar park at Jumilla, Murcia (Southeastern Spain) is the world’s current highest capacity PV plant and the most efficient to-date.

It took a team of 400 people 11 months to build the Jumilla plant, where 120,000 solar panels are grouped into 200 separate photovoltaic arrays -owned by different investors- to convert light from the sun into electricity. It’s expected to generate an estimated annual income of $28 million (€19 million) and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 42,000 tons a year.
jumilla_solar_farm.jpg

The plant covers an area of 100 hectares in La Hoya de Vicentes, Jumilla, (see picture) where the local Mayor says 300 days of sun a year are guaranteed. Its total annual production will be the equivalent of the energy used by 20,000 homes.

Different measures were taken following the recommendations from a local association, Juncellus, to ensure high environmental criteria in the construction of the plant. They included replanting an area of almost 5.4 thousand square yards around the plant, water deposits for fires, drinking troughs for birds and other such details."

Solarpark Waldpolenz
Brandis, Germany

renewableenergyworld.com

February 23, 2007

"Construction on a 40 megawatt (MW) solar generation power plant is under way at a former military base in the Saxon region of Germany. The total surface area of the planned photovoltaic (PV) installation? It’s comparable to about 200 soccer fields, said Matthias Willenbacher, cofounder and CEO of the juwi group.

The “Waldpolenz” solar park -- which is being developed by the juwi group in the township of Brandis -- will be comprised of approximately 550,000 First Solar thin-film modules. The direct current produced in the solar modules will be converted into alternating current and fed completely into the power grid.

Once completed in 2009, the project will be one of the largest photovoltaic projects ever constructed. Currently the biggest PV plant in the world has an output capacity of around 12 megawatts."

With a specific price of approximately Euro 3,250 per kilowatt [U.S. $4,226], the power plant is expected to be around 20%-40% cheaper than the going German market price. In addition, after just a year in operation, the “Waldpolenz” will have produced the energy needed to build it.

Stirling Energy and SoCal Edison
Mojave Desert : Victorville, CA

wikipedia.org

February 2, 2008

Stirling Energy is a United States company which develops equipment for utility-scale renewable energy power plants and distributed electrical generating systems. In California’s Mojave Desert, already home to 354 megawatts of SEGS solar thermal facilities, Stirling Energy Systems in conjunction with utility company Southern California Edison is erecting a 500 megawatt, 4,600-acre (19 km²), solar power plant to open in 2009. [1]

According to their website, Stirling Energy Systems (SES) is a systems integration and project management company that is developing equipment for utility-scale renewable energy power plants and distributed electric generating systems (“gensets”). Stirling Energy stands to rake in upwards of $90 million a year once the solar dishes are generating 500 MW in 2011. For SCE, already the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the U.S., the extra 500 MW will more than double the 354 MW of solar power it tapped in 2004 from nine other solar-thermal operations in the Mojave. It will also add almost 20% to SCE’s 2,588 MW of renewable energy sources, including 1,021 MW of wind power. Last year more than 18% of the electricity that the utility delivered to its customers came from renewables.

China’s Solar Projected Future
Dunhuang, China

redherring.com

November 20, 2006

In the latest sign that solar projects are growing larger, China announced plans Tuesday to build the world’s largest solar power plant in Dunhuang, a city in the northwestern Gansu province.

The plant, which will take five years to build, will yield 100 megawatts of peak capacity and will cost an estimated 6.03 billion yuan (about $766 million), according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

That’s small compared to conventional coal-fired plants, which generally have capacities in the “hundreds of megawatts, if not a thousand megawatts,” said Joel Serface, director of the Austin Clean Energy Incubator.

But it’s large for solar, and it’s only one of several projects claiming to become “the world’s largest,” rapidly growing the world’s solar energy capacity.

Still, the latest announcement is significant news because China could potentially become one of the “world’s largest markets” for solar power, said David Saltman, chief executive of solar company Open Energy.

sources:

howthingswork.com
redherring.com
solarservice.de
wikipedia.org
renewableenergyworld.com
technology4life.wordpress.com

Energy-Off Grid

2008-03-11T14:55:00.001-04:00

What is off grid?

Off grid technologies allow for private homes and people to access
Environmentally friendly methods of attaining power independently from public power sources.

The benefit of off grid power is that it can decrease or rid customers of a power bill, allowing the consumer to make more environmentally conscious decisions about the source of their power (if local power companies are not already doing so).
Some states, such as California give large rebates and cash back to private individuals that utilize off grid technology. If you connect home-generated power to the grid, you can add power back to the grid, running your meter backwards, potentially making a bit of money (though this is usually minimal).

What are the Options?

Solar
Due to the price of solar power systems, solar power is most common in off grid applications. There are two types solar energy systems: solar thermal systems collect radiant energy to produce heat; photovoltaic-cell systems convert direct sunlight into a stream of electrons to produce energy.

Photovoltaics are the most common form of off grid home generated power. Many homeowners are proud to have solar panels bolted to their roofs, but those who want solar power without the bolt on look can now use building integrated photovoltaics. Most of these are solar shingles, which are intended to cover your roof like shingles. Most of these shingles tend to be between 10-20 percent efficient. Though photovoltaics have been around since the 1970’s, new materials have allowed them to be produced in a myriad of ways allowing them to be used in a variety of ways from building materials, to components on new gadgets. Also, the modular setup of solar power means it is easy to expand on existing solar projects.

Wind
Wind is generally considered the cleanest alternative energy source, and is beginning to scale down for home use (though it tends to be more practical in rural environments than urban ones). A small wind turbine is enough to offset a good portion of electricity in a typical home, and best of all can be easily retrofitted to existing homes.

Anew breed of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) from Helix Wind offers a promising design that may change the way we do wind at home. The Helix Wind Savonious 2.0 uses a unique rotor capable of capturing omni-directional winds to provide quieter, kinder small wind power for your urban home.

Water
Have a small stream or creek on your property? Waterwheels have been used around the world for centuries to mill grain and de-hull rice. Now some of these wheels are being retrofitted with generators to provide electricity, too. In some places, entirely new systems are being installed, these systems are called micro-hydro systems, because they are generally capable of powering only a few houses or a small village and they can be plopped down in a river without significantly affecting its flow, banks or general ecosystem as a large hydroelectric dam would.

Geo-Thermal
Ground-source heat pumps use the earth or groundwater as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. Using resource temperatures of 4°C (40°F) to 38°C (100°F), the heat pump, a device which moves heat from one place to another, transfers heat from the soil to the house in winter and from the house to the soil in summer.
Geothermal heat pumps can be used almost worldwide. The earth's temperature a few feet below the ground surface is relatively constant everywhere in the world, while the air temperature can change from summer to winter extremes. Unlike other kinds of geothermal heat, shallow ground temperatures are not dependent upon tectonic plate activity or other unique geologic processes. Thus geothermal heat pumps can be used to help heat and cool homes anywhere.

Fuel Cell
Fuel cell technology can be used to make electricity to power vehicles, homes, and businesses. Unlike conventional technologies, fuel is not burned but is combined in a chemical process. A fuel cell consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen passes over one electrode and hydrogen over the other, generating electricity, water, and heat.

The problem with fuel cells is that the hydrogen utilized to power the cells must be initially produced by a primary energy source. The idea is, if you use a renewable energy source as the main source of hydrogen, a fuel cell can be considered a renewable energy source. It is more efficient to just use the renewable energy source from the start though, making hydrogen a bit impractical at the moment.

Eco Futurists still promote hydrogen as the replacement for fossil fuels. Many are banking on common green algae that excrete hydrogen when deprived of certain nutrients. Scientists are currently working on making the algae more productive at producing the hydrogen in a lab setting.

Synopsis
Essentially, solar is the best option for residential, off grid technology. While wind has the potential to be very effective, most residential environments do not work well with wind due to scale logistics (unless you live way out in the country). Hydrogen fuel cells look great for the future of energy production, but the technology is not yet there today to make it truly sustainable

Sources
http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/renewables
http://www.gosolarcalifronia.ca.gov
http://www.geothermal.org
http://www.helixwind.com

Energy - SunEdison

2008-03-10T23:57:00.001-04:00

Introduction:

SunEdison in the largest solar energy provider in North America, helping commercial, governmental organizations and utility providers establish and maintain a solar unit. Holding long-term relationships with trusted suppliers and manufacturers, SunEdison is reliable. Due to the complex financing elements needed to make it solar energy a viable solution, SunEdison is also a service agent, helping customers manage and install solar units’ specific to their needs and location. In each case SunEdison will analyze, design, manage materials, construct, certify, activate, monitor and maintain a unit. With customers such as Whole Foods and Staples, SunEdison is showing that solar power is as much of a positive environmental move and an economic investment.

Commercial and Government

Setting up and maintaining a solar unite is simplified for the customer for Sun Edison will do the work and only ask the company to pay for the solar energy produced; no upfront capital is required. It makes it an easy choice for it is predictable and straightforward. While the unite is in use, SunEdison will continue with monitoring and service where a customer login page is created for the company to see detailed information on their personal energy system and production.

Commercial/Kohls: Leading by Example

Kohls is serving a leader in using solar power as a long term solution. In September, the first of 63 roof top electrical systems was activated at the Laguna Niguel location in California. The company is conscious of government goals, where the 25 MW that will be produced by the total of this endeavor will be a large step toward the California Solar Initiative’s goal of 3,000 MW by 2017. Kohl’s has been recognized with their high rankings on both the EPA’s Top 10 Retain List and Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge.

Government/Department of Energy: Recognizing the Potential

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has called upon SunEdison to develop a solar energy unit at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. Expected to be completed by May 2008, the project is a large venture, however toped with great benefits. The project is one of the two largest projects at the NREL; five-acres of solar panels will be used to generate 750kW of clean power, which is expected to power seven percent of the facilities needs.

“We commend NREL for its progress in providing clean, renewable energy”

-Thomas Rainwater, CEO of SunEdison

Utility

Energy utility providers are feeling pressure from customers and the Renewable Portfolio Standards to provide a certain amount of solar energy. From building to maintaining, SunEdison makes it simple. Furthermore, SunEdison will also help the utility providers with delivering solar energy to utility’s customers as well as create a system to develop Solar Tariffs.

Xcel Energy: Throwing the Big Switch

SunEdison made it easy. So easy that this solar plant, the largest of its kind, was activated in December of 2007 before its completion date. SunEdison made this possible by financing and building the plant in addition to guaranteeing maintenance. As a significant power provider in Colorado, this project highlights the state’s renewable energy commitment. However, this venture is not only a benefit to the environment, but the community as well, where it is expected to create new jobs and create energy independence/ Colorado Governer Bill Ritter calls it a “win-win for everyone.”

Energy- Solar Edison

2008-03-10T23:56:00.001-04:00

Website:

www.solaredisonllc.com

Introduction:

Solar Edison is about practical, economic, and sustainable energy. The company creates renewable energy systems for residential and commercial use in New England, which can be configured either on or off the grid. Representing solar panel and PV component manufactures, Solar Edison is able to resourcefully supply the customer with a system that will eliminate an electric bill and carbon emissions.

The Solar Power System by Solar Edison is an affordable solution for the supply of electricity. Due to its novelty, the company is committed to helping design as well as installs the system. Furthermore, there are a number of benefits for using solar electricity, where Solar Edison is committed to helping the customer by assisting them to obtain rebates and tax incentives.

They are also dealers of a number of products including ZAP! Electric Cars, Trucks, and ATVs, as well as renewable energy products.

Commercial Use

A grid tied system is used, which is economical because it reduced energy bills, earns utility rebates of up to $2.50 per installed watt, qualifies for tax credit, and is exempt from state sales tax. In the first year, approximately 75% of the capital cost is earned back in the first year and the remaining in following four years.

Residential Use

This system is beneficial for residential use for it is economic, environmentally conscious, and recognized as a means to earn state and federal rebate as well as tax incentives. Through using this system, a customer’s energy bill is reduced or eliminated; it is also sustained for it fixes the cost of electricity over 20 years and avoids increases in utility rates. The customer can also sleep at night for the energy source is pollution free, reducing the world’s CO2 emissions. The three most common solar systems for residents are a Grid-Tie PV System, Off-Grid/Stand Alone System, or Grid-Tie/Battery Back Up.

Products

Solar Edison sells a range of products for renewable energy including Photovoltaic Solar Panels, Fronius Inverters, Crown Deep Cycle Batteries, and ZAP! Electric Cars, which are electric or solar-electric hybrids.

My Analyses

When reading about Solar Edison, it seems so logical and I wonder why more people are not adapting this system. I am impressed by the company’s initiative concerning renewable energy and their emphasis on its economic benefits.

Energy- There is No Such Thing as Clean Coal

2008-03-10T21:56:00.002-04:00

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel today, accounting for more than 80% of all recoverable fossil fuels. In addition, coal is relatively cheap compared to the perpetual climb of oil and natural gas prices. However, these advantages are completely superficial. The environmental costs of coal apply to every stage of converting coal to energy, making the coal fuel cycle one of the most devastating activities for the environment.

Coal Production:

- The largest coal resources are held by the United States, followed by Russia, China, India, and Australia. U.S. recoverable coal resources of 270 billion tons are about 250 times current annual production, while China’s recoverable resources of 190 billion tons are about 80 times its current annual production.

- The United States produces more than 1 billion tons of coal each year

- More than 40 percent of U.S. coal production comes from federal public lands, primarily in the West, and this production has increased by 20 percent in the last five years. In 2005 more than 453,000 acres of federal land were under coal leases, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sold the rights to mine 1 billion tons of coal on this land.

-Almost 90 percent of western coal production is from surface mining, which accounts for nearly all of Wyoming’s production.

- About 65 percent of Appalachian production is from underground mining, whereas about 60 percent of Interior production is from surface mining.

- China produced more than 2.3 billion tons of coal in 2006, nearly 40 percent of the world’s total and more than the United States, Russia, and India combined.

- More than 95 percent of China’s coal comes from underground mines, often with a high sulfur and ash content. China’s coal mining industry employs more than 7.8 million people in around 25,000mines

Coal use:

-Coal-fired electricity generation has increased by 24% between 1990 and 2004

-In 2004, the use of coal resulted in 2.6 billion metric tons of heat trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China and 3.9 billion metric tons of CO2 in the United States, adding up to more than 20 percent of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.

- In China, more than half of the coal supply is used to generate electricity, with the rest used primarily for production of steel, cement, and chemicals, as well as for domestic heating and cooking.

- About half of the U.S. electricity supply is generated using coal-fired power plants.

- More than 90 percent of the U.S. coal supply is used to generate electricity in some 600 coal fired power plants scattered around the country, with the remainder used for process heat in steel manufacturing and other heavy industrial production. Coal is used for power production in coal-fired power. Texas uses more coal than any other state, followed by Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Environmental Effects of Coal Production:

Health and Safety Risks:

- Coal mining industry about five times as hazardous as the average private workplace (fatality rate of .23 per thousand workers)

- 22 fatalities in 2005, 47 fatalities in 2006 (2,518 fatalities in 1925)

- Coal miners suffer many nonfatal injuries are are vulnerable to serious diseases (most notably black lung disease)

- China’s coal mining industry is the most dangerous in the world. Although it produced nearly 40 percent of the world’s coal in 2005, it reported 80 percent of the total deaths in coal mine accidents. With soaring demand for coal in China, mine operators often ignore safety standards in search of quick profits. Other factors include inadequate safety equipment and a lack of safety education among miners. In 2006, 4,746 coal mining deaths were reported, occurring due to coal mine floods, cave-ins, fires, and explosions, resulting in an average of 13 coal miner deaths a day

- Some scholars indicate that, including unreported deaths, coal mining in China could result in closer to 20,000 deaths a year.25 In addition, about 300,000 coal miners suffer from black lung disease in China, with 5,000 to 8,000 new cases arising each year

Destruction of Terrestrial Habitats:

- Coal mining—and particularly surface or strip mining—poses one of the most significant threats to terrestrial habitats in the United States. The Appalachian region, for example, which produces more than 35 percent of our nation’s coal, is one of the most biologically diverse forested regions in the country. But surface mining activity clearcuts trees and fragments habitat, destroying natural areas that were home to hundreds of unique species of plants, invertebrates, salamanders, mussels, and fish.

- Surface mining activities cause severe environmental damage as huge machines strip, rip apart, and scrape aside vegetation, soils, and wildlife habitat as they drastically—and permanently—reshape existing land forms and the affected area’s ecology to reach the subsurface coal. Strip mining replaces precious open space with invasive industrialization that displaces wildlife, increases soil erosion, takes away recreational opportunities, degrades the wilderness, and destroys the region’s scenic beauty. Forty-six western national parks are located within 10 miles of an identified coal basin, and these parks could be significantly damaged by future surface mining in the
region.

Water Pollution:

- Coal mining of all types can also lead to increased sedimentation, which affects water chemistry and stream flow and negatively impacts aquatic habitat. Valley fills in the eastern United States and waste rock from strip mines in the West add sediment to streams, as do the construction and use of roads in mining complexes. A final physical impact of mining on water involves the hydrology of aquifers. MTR and valley fills remove upper drainage basins and often connect two previously separate aquifers, altering the surrounding groundwater recharge scheme.

- Chemical pollution produced by coal mining operations comes most significantly in the form of acid mine drainage (AMD). In both underground and surface mining, sulfur-bearing minerals common in coal mining areas are brought up to the surface in waste rock. This problem could be exacerbated to the extent that advanced sulfur dioxide pollution controls allow increased use of high‑sulfur coal. When these minerals come in contact with precipitation and groundwater, an acidic leachate is formed. This leachate picks up heavy metals and carries these toxins into streams or groundwater. Waters affected by AMD often exhibit increased levels of sulfate, total dissolved solids, calcium, selenium, magnesium, manganese, conductivity, acidity, sodium, and nitrate, reflecting drastic changes in stream and groundwater chemistry. The degraded water becomes less habitable, non potable, and unfit for recreational purposes

- In the eastern United States, AMD has damaged an estimated 4,000 to 11,000 miles of streams. In the West, estimates are between 5,000 and 10,000 miles of streams polluted.

Air Pollution:

- There are two main sources of air pollution during the coal production process. The first is methane emissions from the mines. Methane is a powerful heat-trapping gas and is the second most significant contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. According to the most recent official inventory of U.S. global warming emissions, coal mining results in the release of 3 million metric tons of methane per year, which is equivalent to 68 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

- The second significant form of air pollution from coal mining is particulate matter (PM) emissions. While methane emissions are largely from eastern underground mines, PM emissions are particularly serious at western surface mines. Mining operations in the arid, open, and frequently windy region creates a significant amount of particulate matter. These wind-driven dust emissions occur during nearly every phase of coal strip mining in the West, but the most significant sources are removal of the overburden through blasting and use of draglines, truck haulage of the overburden and mined coal, road grading, and wind erosion of reclaimed areas. The diesel trucks and equipment used in mining are also a source of PM emissions.

- Particulate matter emissions are a serious health threat that can cause significant respiratory damage as well as premature death.

- 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary human cause of global warming--as much carbon dioxide as cutting down 161 million trees.

- 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which causes acid rain that damages forests, lakes, and buildings, and forms small airborne particles that can penetrate deep into lungs.

- 500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, as well as haze obstructing visibility.

- 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx), as much as would be emitted by half a million late-model cars. NOx leads to formation of ozone (smog) which inflames the lungs, burning through lung tissue making people more susceptible to respiratory illness.

- 720 tons of carbon monoxide (CO), which causes headaches and place additional stress on people with heart disease.

- 220 tons of hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOC), which form ozone.

- 70 pounds of mercury, where just 1/70th of a teaspoon deposited on a 25-acre lake can make the fish unsafe to eat.

- 225 pounds of arsenic, which will cause cancer in one out of 100 people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion.

- 114 pounds of lead, 4 pounds of cadmium, other toxic heavy metals, and trace amounts of uranium.

Waste Generated:

-One significant waste is the sludge that is produced from washing coal. There are currently more than 700 sludge impoundments strewn throughout mining regions, and this number continues to grow. These impoundment ponds pose a potential threat to the environment and human life. If an impoundment fails, the result is disastrous.

- Waste created by a typical 500-megawatt coal plant includes more than 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber each year. Nationally, more than 75% of this waste is disposed of in unlined, unmonitored onsite landfills and surface impoundments.

- Toxic substances in the waste -- including arsenic, mercury, chromium, and cadmium -- can contaminate drinking water supplies and damage vital human organs and the nervous system. One study found that one out of every 100 children who drink groundwater contaminated with arsenic from coal power plant wastes were at risk of developing cancer.

- Once the 2.2 billion gallons of water have cycled through the coal-fired power plant, they are released back into the lake, river, or ocean. This water is hotter (by up to 20-25° F) than the water that receives it. This "thermal pollution" can decrease fertility and increase heart rates in fish. Typically, power plants also add chlorine or other toxic chemicals to their cooling water to decrease algae growth. These chemicals are also discharged back into the environment.

- Much of the heat produced from burning coal is wasted. A typical coal power plant uses only 33-35% of the coal's heat to produce electricity. The majority of the heat is released into the atmosphere or absorbed by the cooling water.
Coal Transportation:

- A typical coal plant requires 40 railroad cars to supply 1.4 million tons in a year. That's 14,600 railroad cars a year.

- Railroad locomotives, which rely on diesel fuel, emit nearly 1 million tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 52,000 tons of coarse and small particles in the United States. Coal dust blowing from coal trains contributes particulate matter to the air.

Carbon Capture and Disposal of CO2:

- The critical technology for coal is CO2 capture and geologic disposal. This is the only technology that will make continued coal use compatible with protection of the climate. Marginal improvements in coal plant efficiency will not deliver reductions on the scale needed to stabilize concentrations at reasonable levels.

- Coal-based CO2 capture and disposal system (CDS) have all been demonstrated at commercial scale in numerous projects around the world. But there is large potential for optimization of each element, and their integration, to bring down costs and improve efficiency. In addition, experience with large-scale injection of CO2 into geologic formations is still limited.

Liquid Coal:

- The considerable economic, social, and
environmental drawbacks of coal-derived liquid
fuel preclude it from being a sound option to
move America beyond oil

- Relying on liquid coal could nearly double global warming pollution per gallon of transportation fuels, and increase the devastating effects of coal mining felt by communities and ecosystems stretching from Appalachia to the Rocky mountains.

- If the CO2 from liquid coal plants is captured instead of being released into the atmosphere, then well-to-wheels CO2 emissions would be reduced some but would still be higher than emissions from today’s crude oil system

Analysis:

- The U.S is addicted to coal, and our problem is that we have way too much of it. Coal means a boost in our economy but it also means the destruction of the environment.

-Enforce and strengthen the laws that already exist (Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Surface Mining Laws, etc.)

-No EPA exemptions

-Making the production and use of coal a cleaner process takes a lot. A lot of money, time, and work that should be directed toward clean, more efficient, renewable energy.

-Is Carbon Capture and Disposal really the answer? Does it even work?

Sources:

www.nrdc.org
www.ucsusa.org