Our Green Streets Blog

We received this uplifting correspondence from Maxine Mitchell, working at communications outreach for Steven Apfelbaum’s Applied Ecological Services (AES).

Steven Apfelbaum, founder of AES Photo: AES

Mitchell writes, “For more than three decades, Steve, and the AES team have developed land-use solutions to help farmers, companies, landowners, and communities around the world strike a balance between cost and ecology. From transforming dismal landfills and dusty iron mines into pristine preserves and prairies, Steve continues to show how ecosystem services result in healthy wild, rural, and urban landscapes while boosting the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.”

She included an article for Green Streets to share that Mr. Apfelbaum recently wrote concerning the Gulf of Mexico and its unhealthy status even before the oil drilling disaster caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident. What he proposes here should be seriously considered by all communities, landowners, businesses and farmers wanting to help turn overwhelming problems into solutions. And while this post is longer than usual, it is very much worth reading and sharing.

Apfelbaum’s article follows (our emphasis marks provided):

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A composting toilet from BioLet in Sweden. Photo: BioLet

For those considering building without a septic tank or access to a sewer line, it might be time to look at composting toilets, especially if putrid smells can be avoided.  Swedish-based BioLet has manufactured waterless toilets for 35 years and indicates odor is not a problem, especially in Sweden where waterless toilet systems are required in many places. Here, the average American uses 7,665 gallons of water each year just flushing the toilet.

Just a few years ago mention of a composting toilet brought far more in the way of frowns than applause. As Peter Andersson, BioLet USA’s president pointed out in a press release, “People would go, “A what toilet…?!?” You either quickly changed the subject, or went into an ever-lasting explanation about what it is, how it works and especially why on earth anybody would want to have a toilet that doesn’t flush. Things are changing.”

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Mohammed Bin Abubakar, explains nursery to writer, Glenn Meyers. Photo: Oteng Foster

As gardeners go, Mohammed Bin Abubakar holds a unique position. He has built a forest where once there were only rushed rocks and the unsightly remnants of an old gold mine.

He serves as the reclamation coordinator at Newmont Mining Corporation’s Brong Ahafo Gold Mine in Ghana which started production a few years ago. One Newmont employee, Gloria Dwummah-Adu, says Abubakar has made a beautiful forest out of this mining wasteland and that many should follow this model.

Fondly, she refers to this 75-acre site as “Bin’s garden.” Now birds sing and the shade from the rapidly growing forest is a welcome relief to all who enter these woods.

Abubakar’s reclamation work began some time ago when Australian-based Normandy Mining employed him. When Normandy was sold to Newmont in 2002, he began working for Newmont Ghana Gold, Ltd. This is a green, well-designed forest that invites exploration.

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Of the many species of grasses, bamboo provides many uses. Source: Master Garden Products

Who knows? Perhaps one gateway out of America’s economic doldrums will come from a boom. There are plenty of people looking at what was once just regarded as a tropical and oriental product, bamboo.

As writer Harry Sawyers noted over a year ago in Popular Mechanics, “Bamboo has come into vogue as a green, sustainable resource that’s used for everything from cutting boards to clothing to wood floors. But until now, almost all of the bamboo in products sold here has come from overseas. That could change soon, as new planting techniques may lead to millions of new acres of bamboo shoots in the American South.” Some wonder if a plant like bamboo can revitalize farmland on the Mississippi Delta.

The American Bamboo Society (ABS) was formed in 1979. Today it counts over 1,400 members living throughout the U.S. and in 37 other countries. For those who are interested, the ABS issues a bimonthly Magazine and the Journal to disseminate information about the use, care, propagation and beauty of bamboo.

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IDE's water technologies have had an important impact on poor rural farmers in developing countries. Photo: IDE

In Denver, an important art exhibition from developing countries opens in Denver, along with another feature concerning sustainability and affordable water technologies. The exhibition, titled, The Art of Dirt, has been organized by Denver-based IDE The exhibition takes place at the EventGallery 910 Arts and will run through September 25.

According to IDE, The Art of Dirt allows visitors to learn how simple, affordable technology design has improved the incomes and lives of the millions of people at the base of the economic pyramid. The exhibition includes photographs, videos and a tomato garden growing in the gallery that has been irrigated using IDE water technology.

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i-plas makes lovely products from recycled plastics. Source: i-plas

Massachusetts’s grocers are decreasing the number of disposable bags being used in an effort to develop sounder approaches for waste management. At the same time, the use of recycled plastics products in the construction field is growing.

Waste & Recycling News reports that early results show the number of disposable plastic and paper bags has dropped significantly in Massachusetts following the implementation of a public-private partnership aimed at discouraging plastic bag use at grocery stores.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Food Association began the program in 2009. The joint initiative to reduce the distribution of disposable bags shows 12 supermarket chains, covering 384 stores report the 25% disposable bag distribution reduction. The state and grocers have a goal of reaching at least 33% by 2013.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the innovative recycling technology at i-plas is being used to develop many attractive commercial and residential building products that may otherwise have gone to landfills. The UK company reports or plastic waste that other recyclers cannot handle are being used to produce a range of recycled plastic products which outperform the traditional alternatives of wood, steel and concrete; products which are technically advanced, commercially successful and environmentally responsible.

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Enel Archimede plant in Italy. Photo: Enel

This July the Italian utility Enel unveiled “Archimede”, one of the most important developments in the emerging field of concentrating solar power (CSP). The launch showcases this power plant as the first CSP  plant in the world to use molten salts for heat transfer and storage.

Archimede, a 5 MW plant located in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily). The breakthrough project was co-developed by the utility, Enel, and ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development. The name, “Archimede,” refers to the rows of huge parabolic mirrors used to capture the sun’s rays, recalling the “burning mirrors” that Archimedes is said to have used to set fire to the Roman ships besieging Syracuse during the Punic War of 212 BC.

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TSC Global's hypar roof is located next to the light ril tracks, just south of downtown Denver

Evidence of new buildings featuring an innovative and cost-effective roof can now be seen in a growing number of African nations, including Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan, as part of a Roofs for the World initiative.

This roof is called a Thin Shell Composite Hyperbolic Paraboloid, or TSC Hypar, thus the name, TSC Global, which proclaims  the building methodology using this roof has the potential for revolutionizing roofing and construction in the most impoverished and remote parts of the globe. TSC Global executive director, Brad Wells, says that compared to the corrugated steel roof structures seen everywhere in the developing world, TSC roof construction requires a minimum in cut lumber, demands no power machinery for construction, and leaves almost no carbon footprint. In addition, buildings featuring these roofs are significantly quieter in rain and windstorms, and can be earthquake resistant.

Denver-based TSC Global was created to build, promote and fully develop this construction method, with the belief that there is real potential to dramatically enhance the overall quality and affordability of structures used by millions if not billions of people worldwide. It is now focusing on a potential rebuilding program for Haiti.

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Innovative new ways of including lush and visually intoxicating gardens in homes or buildings are surfacing – no longer on plots of land but on sections of vertical walls.

Vertical garden on French building from Patrick Blanc Photo: Blanc

Credit for inventing the vertical wall goes to French botanist and inventor, Patrick Blanc,  shown in this building photo.  According to Blanc’s website, the vertical garden was conceived from watching natural environments – many in jungle locations – and watching how plants can grow without soil. The vertical wall can also functions as an air purification system.

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What is being done with beetle-killed forests. Photo: CSU

From the bark beetle epidemic that has already destroyed millions of acres of trees in Western states, good uses for the dead trees are now becoming more widespread as the wood is harvested.

Even with such huge damage, the wood, when harvested, has been put to striking uses in furniture, flooring, and paneling applications. It has also been used for  structural beams.  The list of structures built using beetle-kill pine includes everything from outhouses to garden sheds and benches. On a more expansive level, dead forests are now being considered as a source of biomass production to generate electricity.

As Colorado Senator Mark Udall has said, “Wood is the most renewable resource we have and as an energy source, it’s carbon neutral. Biomass generators can efficiently turn dead trees into electricity for our homes and offices, and new technologies have shown the potential to turn biomass into liquid fuels. Read more of this >>