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.

Vertical garden options from Vertigarden

One up and coming vertical gardening company in America, PlantsOnWalls, based in San Francisco, is developing and marketing numerous vertical wall applications for interior and exterior walls, calling them living walls (lower photos). Another vertical gardening company of note is a UK-based VertiGarden, whose work is shown here.

PlantsOnWalls system for growing herbs vertically. Source: PlantsOnWalls

PlantsOnWalls states that its panels are made with 100% recycled water bottle PET plastic fiber felt that is non-toxic, UV stable and will last a lifetime. The felt pockets that are part of the wall system are mounted to a lightweight recyclable plastic board that provides support, while keeping the back dry.

Many observers might ask how a vertical garden can be watered. Simply water the top row of pockets that are part of the wall system, the company Website says. This patent pending design is intended to keep the interior moist while keeping the front dry. And in cases of overwatering, excess moisture not absorbed by the plants will drip from the bottom of the panel. Runoff can be collected in drip trays to be recirculated or drained away. A video of how this system works can be seen here.

Plants that can be grown in such a wall system include succulents, various ivies, herbs and low-light ferns. The company adds that most plants can be grown where it receives its proper light, water and nutrient requirements.

Post from D Grifen
– Supporter of all things green and progressive

With some of the brightest young engineers coming straight out of  the University of Illinois, it’s no wonder why the city is involved with major green initiatives. This includes the development of land conservation efforts driven by the Chicago Department of Environment, and some significant advances in Green Space/architecture during the 21^st century.

Chicago’s demand for greener jobs is being answered by companies like the West Pullman Plant, the largest urban solar planet in the U.S. In a report filed by the Chicago Sun Times, Jim Amedeo, Lead Supervisor, states “Solar plants are only going to get smaller and more efficient, and solar energy will get cheaper to use.”

Residential areas are progressively doing their part to ensure a smarter, energy efficient planet by exploring solar alternatives. With the housing tax credit extension, homeowners are definitely more inclined to enhance their efficiency and find new ways to go green. Reports substantiated by NBCNC of Chicago find that American homes generated twice as much power from rooftop solar panels. This is especially true in Chicago; hopefully with the expansion of plants like West Pullman, we’ll see an increase in solar powered homes and renewable energy.

Leading the way in green civil design in large is Niranjan Shah, CEO of Globetrotters Engineering Corporation out of Chicago, IL. Globetrotters has been granted monies in excess of $13.7 million, all for city consulting and engineering contracts since March 1994. “For over three decades, the firm has provided a full range of professional architectural and engineering consulting services we have also been active in program management, construction and energy management; property and facilities operation and maintenance; and technology integration and development.” (GEC) In building, the firm abides by USGBC guidelines; further promoting sustainability.

The rest of our nation keep an eye on the initiatives being taken in Chicago. Miniscule Individual lifestyle changes, such as brushing your teeth with the water off, are a step in the right direction. With the implementation of land conservation and Green Space, Chicago, along with the rest of the nation will effectively see costs go down in the long-term. This will in turn lead to a relatively fast economic incline.

Safeway has become a founding member of the Sustainability Consortium, the group launched in support of Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Index.

The goal of the consortium is to develop guidelines and promote innovations as the supply chain seeks to reduce its energy use, emissions and packaging. The consortium made headlines in January when Wal-Mart and Best Buy, together with electronics suppliers Dell, HP, Intel and Toshiba, officially launched the effort.

The consortium is administered by Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas, with financial support from Wal-Mart.

The consortium has courted Safeway, in hopes that it would become involved in what could be an industry wide sustainability metric system.

Safeway made its involvement in the initiative public March 1, reports Supermarket News. Safeway is the first grocer to join the group, according to a press release.

The retailer will use life cycle assessment data to create a company-wide supply chain policy encouraging sustainable purchasing and manufacturing practices throughout the organization’s direct and indirect buying.

“I am issuing a challenge for the year 2010: Build out a 100 acre turnkey algae production facility (growing, harvesting and extraction) without any local, state or federal grant funds.”

Mr. Cohen’s greeting to all for the beginning of 2010 is well worth reading, especially by all who want to see alternative fuels gain more solid footing on the American (and world) energy charts.

The accounting of his challenge ias worth the read:

“When this (American oil production) all started in 1859, nobody had all of the answers. 150 years later, the oil industry is still looking for answers. A 100 acre turn-key commercial-scale algae production facility will allow algae producers to look at real commercial algae production and operations as well as economies of scale issues. It will give algae researchers a much better understanding of commercial-scale algae production issues to work on as opposed to small raceway ponds and desk-top lab photobioreactors. It is, at this point, useless to continue to fund algae research without seriously funding commercial-scale algae production farms. As some have already learned, intellectual properties have no practical use if there is not an industry to use them. In order to create any value in existing algae technologies, we must have commercial-scale algae production facilities that can use them!

“Commercial-scale algae production is key to our industry and is one solution that helps to reduce dependence on foreign oil, to create new jobs and reduce CO2 emissions. The NAA challenges the algae industry to build a 100 acre commercial-scale algae production plant without any local, state or federal grants – this will be the true test of algae production farming and algaepreneurism at its finest!

“I would like to see the first 50 acres of production with proven benchmarked results – totally designed, developed and put into production without a single dollar of government money. The next 50 acres can be improved by making minor changes based on what was learned from the first 50 acres. I know it can be done, and you know it can be done – it´s time to do it!”

The entire document can be read at the association’s website .

Source: Cleantech Group

“Venture capital investments in green technology companies declined by 33 percent from $8.5 billion in 2008 to $5.6 billion in 2009, despite a flurry of government subsidies for renewable energy, according to a preliminary report by the Cleantech Group and Deloitte,” the Environmental Leader post stated.

As to the numbers, investments in green technology companies declined from $8.5 billion in 2008 to $5.6 billion in 2009. The decline would have been worse except for a flurry of government subsidies that were made for renewable energy.

For more detail on this report, visit either Fort Collins, CO – based Environmental Leader or The New York Times’ Green Inc. blog.

www.treeculture.org

The Canada-based Tree Culture Association, founded by people who have put tree products to use — printers — is introducing new digital gift card. The gift cards are already available in different denominations through the Tree Culture website, www.treeculture.org, across Canada and the United States.This is a website worth the visit.

According to this organization, the person looking to give a unique gift simply needs to visit the Tree Culture website, choose how many trees to give, fill out some basic information, add a personal message to the recipient, and set a date to send the gift card. The recipient will then receive an email with an attached digital gift card. “They read their congratulatory message and follow a link to the world map. There they get to drag a tree around the map and place it in one of the regions where Tree Culture Association has planting projects in place. Our system registers that” says Igal Rogalsky, one of this organization’s founders.

Tree Culture Association is a non-profit initiative that was established by Victor Narynskyyi and Igal Rogalsky in Kelowna, BC. Both come from the printing industry and Tree Culture Association is a result of their efforts to make the printing businesses more environmentally sustainable. The mission of the organization is to compel producers and consumers of printed materials to plant a tree with every print order. The gift cards is their initiative to create more public awareness about their organization.

We send our hearty applause for this effort!

Mark Stoiber

“Executives today are being taught about ’social innovation’, a term that seamlessly incorporates the best of the above three terms, and reaches further – bringing along collective spirit, new thinking and economic responsibility for the ride.

“How does this work in real life? Consider:

“Ford developed a plastic shipping container used to ferry parts from one plant to the next. The shipping container eliminates the use of cardboard, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, reduces the number of shipments required, and is more ergonomic for factory workers. It is also recycled into splash shields for the F-150.

“This shipping container saves Ford 25% in shipping costs, helps people, and helps the environment.

“Another thing we need to do – show people that there is an intersection where desire and virtue meet. You can still fulfill your desire for wants beyond needs, and make the world a better place at the same time.

“Maybe Bono summed it up most succinctly, talking about his new line of products under the RED label…

“‘And that’s what Red is all about, the knowledge that desire – the desire to shop – and virtue – the wish to see the world a better place – are not always contradictory.”

“No longer optional.

“We need to make sure companies that we work with know that if they don’t start acting on sustainability initiatives now, they are going to be stuck in a losing game of catch up.

“Sustainability is on the very cusp of being mainstream and it will move forward quickly. Grab the advantage before it becomes table stakes.”

Marc Stoiber is an entrepreneur with experience building brands, and has nearly two decades of global experience in every sector from packaged goods and beverage alcohol to pharma, financial services and tech. In addition to leading Change, he is a public speaker on the subject of green brand innovation.

Here are clips from Mr. Edwards’ letter (emphasis place by me):

“…we manufacture and distribute water products, mainly through Natural Foods Retailers across the Nation. We have been in business for over 15 years and our products offer consumers a way to live litter free and chemical free lives by filtering the water they drink,  they shower and bathe in, and a way to ease the problem with our nation’s landfills.
“There are many environmental issues facing the world today. One of which is the bottled water epidemic that is systematically helping to destroy the environment we live in. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil — enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year — to make the plastic bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water, according to the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., environmental think tank. Furthermore, The kind of plastic most commonly used for water bottles — polyethylene terephthalate, or PET — is recyclable. But consumers recycle just one of every five bottles they drink, with the rest ending up in landfills, said Pat Franklin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute….we here at New Wave are trying to combat this by promoting re-usable bottles and home water filtration.

“We offer a full line of BPA free plastic bottles made out of Eastar™ resin, we were the first company to change from poly-carbonate when the BPA studies first came out….We are also proud to carry a corn resin bottle with a built in filter, the first of its kind, which is completely bio-degradable in 180 days in a commercial compost. With these products we hope to alleviate some of the problems facing us today.

“I would like to send you some samples to review, and possibly post on your site.
New Wave Enviro is based in Colorado and being in business over 15 years means we were green when green was still just a color.”

Thanks for your note and your innovation. Send a sample so we can share our analysis and shout loudly. And I look forward to that particular time when I can use your last quote!

from Open Forum

Eco-terre-orism on the Rise

Haily Zaki (Inhabitat)

Oct 05, 2009 -

The national alert is high, code level…green.  Whether we notice it or not, a group of eco-terre-orists are waging a quiet war against neglect and scarcity of public space.   From London to Berlin, Miami to San Francisco and Southern California, a new breed of free range tillers are harnessing their inner flower (and fruit and veggie) power, sewing seeds for a greener tomorrow.  They hope that their hard (and surreptitious) work will help transform derelict soil and abandoned lots into floral and food outposts.

Manufacturing an urban seed ball Credit: Los Angeles Times

Their weapon of choice?  The seed ball.

Made from clay and compost mixed with seeds, these little life mines are tossed into neglected patches of urban landscape in the hopes that they will take root and explode with green over time.

Guerilla gardeners communicate and track their work via blogs like Guerilla Gardening.  Regional chapters like Los Angeles Guerilla Gardening are popping up, serving as resource to help coordinate eco-terre-orism efforts.  If one is considering joining the eco-crusade but can’t find a local chapter, there are guidebooks on how to prepare for seed bombing campaigns.  Some guerilla gardeners are transforming mild civil disobedience into a new form of public art, like Toronto’s Posterchild, who made an old flyer box into a perky and poignant urban marigold garden.  Some groups have formal names, likeTree-0-5 in Miami, and take credit for their work as they continue to explore creative ways to spruce up their cities.  Others move under cover of darkness and prefer to remain anonymous.

By day they lead normal lives.  By night (or weekend), they don their secret identities and deploy throughout the world’s cities, seed bombing, watering, and fertilizing.  It’s certainly not a crime to transform wasteland to green space, but if labeling urban gardening a guerilla enterprise helps make more people want to do plant seeds, than all the better.  It sounds more powerful anyhow to say that one is a guerilla, not just an activist.

“Six new products have been certified by the Green Good Housekeeping Seal — a first.

“Known for decades as the authority in product testing for its Good Housekeeping Seal, the new seal certifies products that not only live up to marketing claims for efficacy, but for its sustainability. Good Housekeeping Research Institute evaluates various criteria, including reduction of water use in manufacturing, energy efficiency in manufacturing and product use, ingredient and product safety, packaging reduction, and the brand’s corporate social responsibility.

“The Good Housekeeping Seal was originally created to protect consumers from potentially dangerous products and false claims,” said Rosemary Ellis, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping. “Today our readers are interested in making choices that are healthier for their families and for the planet, so we’re continuing our legacy of consumer advocacy with the Green Good Housekeeping Seal, offering consumers a guide, backed by scientific research, for products making significant steps towards being environmentally sound.”

“The best part: If the product fails to live up to its claims in the first two years, Good Housekeeping will replace the item or refund the consumer.

“The first round of testing included cleaning and beauty products. Upcoming tests will include more than a dozen categories, including building products, home appliances, consumer electronics, textiles, and children’s products.

“Here are the newly certified products, and Good Housekeeping’s description of them:

1. Aveeno’s Soothing Bath Treatment is made of 100 percent pure natural colloidal oatmeal that works as a cleanser, while relieving itchy, irritated skin. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product performed particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; sourcing of product ingredients; sourcing of packaging materials; producing low levels of greenhouse gases; and reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing. AVEENO and its parent company Johnson & Johnson are also making great strides in improving their distribution carbon footprint including increasing the number of hybrid vehicles in their fleet 36 percent in 2008 from 2007.
2. Physicians Formula’s Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Tinted Moisturizer, a lightweight tinted moisturizer with SPF 15, consists of 100 percent natural ingredients including organic jojoba, organic shea butter, and organic sunflower oil, with 80 percent of its ingredients produced from organic farming. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product performed well in the following areas: use of energy efficient and renewable energy processes in manufacturing; toxicity and product safety; sourcing of product ingredients – especially the use of ingredients from certified sources; reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing; producing low levels of greenhouse gases.
3. Green Works’ Natural Bathroom Cleaner, which removes soap scum, hard water stains, and rust, is made with at least 95 percent natural plant and mineral-based biodegradable cleaning ingredients. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product did particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; sourcing of product ingredients; sourcing of packaging materials, especially using recycled content in their packaging and packaging recyclability; producing low levels of VOCs. Green Works and its parent company Clorox are also taking substantial steps to improve the environmental impact of their company as a whole, committing to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy use and waste.
4. Nature’s Source All Purpose Cleaner uses plant-based cleaners to remove grease and dirt from a variety of surfaces including porcelain, fiberglass, chrome, ceramic, and stainless steel. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product did particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; using energy efficient distribution practices; reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing; producing low levels of VOCs.
5. Nature’s Source Glass & Surface Cleaner contains plant-based cleaning agents derived from natural substances such as coconut oil or palm-kernel oil and also corn-based ethanol, a plant-based alcohol that allows surfaces to dry streak-free. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product did particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; using energy efficient distribution practices; reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing; packaging of the product.
6. Nature’s Source Laundry Stain Remover combines simple, biodegradable ingredients into a natural solution and contains no ammonia, bleach, phosphorus or dyes. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product did particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; using energy efficient distribution practices; reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing; sourcing of product ingredients.
7. Nature’s Source Natural Bathroom Cleaner attacks and loosens soil with the power of lactic acid, which is produced from the breakdown of natural sugars in fruits, vegetables and a variety of other sources. In the Research Institute’s environmental evaluations, the product did particularly well in the following areas: toxicity and product safety; using energy efficient distribution practices; reducing industrial and hazardous waste from manufacturing; producing low levels of VOCs.”

Store this in your sustainability encyclopedia!