Urban Ecoist

I will totally admit that I stole this idea from this month’s National Geographic, but I really did think that it is such a good idea that really, I am just passing this on…It’s allowed.

Meet Ecofont. And it looks its best in 10 point. Anything bigger and you can start to see the holes. See what I mean?

The trick is that each letter, number or symbol has all these little holes in it. Holes mean no ink in that spot, obviously, and thus the savings in costly printer ink and more ink cartridges going into landfills by those of us that don’t bother to recycle them (I’m guilty of this sometimes).

Now, it’s not like you are going to save the world with a font here, but if you can conserve ink, why not, right? I have recently gone back to get my masters (the reason for sporadic new posts) and suddenly, I find that I am printing out a lot more than I used to. So this ecofont couldn’t have come at a better time. I cannot give you any quantifiable savings on my end as a newbie user, and I really doubt that I will be able to perceive a discernible difference considering my control (previous amount printed) was just changed. But I have faith that I will save ink, dammit!

Anyhoo, the font is available to you free via this site, ecofont.eu (yes, it’s a European product, because they care more about the world than we do here in ‘merica).

It’s a zip file and it is pretty easy to install. You can read some help files on the site if you find that you are having problems getting the file into your fonts drive, or whatever I did to get this to work. The only problem that I had was trying to find it listed under Ecofont. It’s Spranq eco sans in Word.

Ecofont download available here

National Geographic, ecofont, printing, ink

I know, I know, everybody is talking about eating local and seasonal so as to lower your carbon footprint — in that your food doesn’t travel thousands of miles by carbon dioxide spewing trucks because it comes from within 100 miles or so, among many, many other reasons.

But are you drinking local?

Check this out. National Geographic has a one-pager on the carbon emissions from the transport of wine around the world. Another blogger (who says we are all a bunch of hacks?) Dr. Vino Tyler Coleman and Pablo Paster, a sustainability engineer, put together some numbers and Nat Geo put together a rather telling graphic.

The gist of it is that if you are really serious about how many natural resources it takes to put food and drink in your belly, you should not be choosing you wine based on what’s trendy or highly-rated, but instead choose wine (and spirits) from a more local source or if you do have a thing for foreign wine, choose wine from the country that can ship it to you via ocean trade routes.

For instance, according to the map, Napa Valley wines are big emitters due to the lengthy road journeys from California to the East Coast markets. But those same California Cabernets are shipped via boat to Asia and Australia, and thus the cargo ship shipping lowers those per bottle emissions. So, you must figure out where your wine is from, and then figure out a better way to get a buzz.

I happen to live in Oregon, so I am one of those lucky imbibers that lives close to three pretty top-notch wine regions. But I happen to love French and Spanish wine. I could either give up my love affairs with Gigondas and Piorat, or I could move to the East Coast of the US (given that I would remain in the US). This graphic and the idea behind it gives me extra motivation to drink more Pinot Noir. But what about that poor oenophile in Iowa City?

Now, I grew up in Michigan, so I can relate to land-locked winos. And for those of you that don’t live near a coastal port or within a few hundred miles of such ports, there is local wine everywhere. I learned to love Gewurztraminers and Reislings living in Michigan, as those are the grapes that grow well there. I have tried sparkling wines from New York’s Finger Lakes region that were equally tasty. The Chardonelle I tried in Misssouri — not so good, but they did have other varietals. I have even had some Petite Syrah from Mexico.

Use this topic as a challenge to not only find local wine, but local beer and spirits. You may just like what you taste. If not, have a few more drinks, and you will.

wine, transportation, carbon footprint, wine industry, carbon emissions, cargo ships, trucks, New York State wine, Michigan wine, Missouri wine, Oregon wine, French wine, Spanish wine, eat local, local foods, seasonal foods, beer, spirits

Maybe a year or two ago, I ran across a show on maybe Science Channel or National Geographic about this company in New Jersey that made organic fertilizer and packaged it in “reclaimed” milk jugs. I thought to myself, “Now that’s using your noggin’!”

Well, methinks that the show was on National Geographic, because starting tonight National Geographic Channel premieres Garbage Moguls, a show about that same company. And on Earth Day, now that is foresight!

I happened to receive some info on Garbage Moguls, thanks to the good people at NatGeo. Truthfully, I would prefer an ongoing series, to witness and share the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of the company called TerraCycle , run by a Princeton drop-out (why is that everyone that thinks outside the box and goes to a top private school drops out?) and his merry band of eco- and cash-minded cohorts, but then again, how exciting can garbage or a Princeton drop-out really be?

Despite my misgivings about the show due NatGeo’s tendency toward repetition after commercial breaks (like we cannot remember two minutes ago, give your viewers some credit NG!) and to the press release for Garbage Moguls, which says things like it’s a “real-life Generation ‘Y’ dramedy in the vein of ‘The Office.’”, I’m hoping Garbage Moguls will be interesting and informative enough to inspire viewers to also think outside the box in terms of what you are throwing away around the house. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen TerraCycle featured on a television program before tonight (9pm EST/6pm PST with additional airings Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and next Wednesday — check out NatGeo for times) and as I still remember it, it must have been pretty good.

Also, and I’m just putting this out there, but I’m a little confused as to why Terracycle has to preserve the overt branding involved in the original materials. Maybe by removing the brand name labels from the plastics used by TerraCycle would dimish the quality and integrity of the materials, but I have to say that having a kite made from Oreo packaging with the word OREO splashed all over is not all that appealing to a girl like me that doesn’t like advertising all over her stuff. Maybe it’s because these particular kites are destined for Wal-Mart (yet another no-no in my eyes).

In addition to info about Garbage Moguls, I noticed that the website has some DIY projects using trash. Click on the “MORE” option on the site and you can learn how to make things yourself with something that you’d be throwing away. These beads made from cookie wrappers look good in a digital image, but I have to wonder how they look up close. Only one way to find out…

National Geographic, Garbage Moguls, NatGeo, television, Earth Day, TerraCycle, New Jersey, garbage, trash, landfill, reclaimed, recycled, DIY, projects

Within days of Michelle Obama breaking ground on the White House’s South Lawn, California’s First Lady Maria Shriver announced that she too will be putting in an “edible garden” in Sacramento’s Capitol Park.

Will the updated “victory garden” become the new black…or rather green?

According to the White House blog, First Lady Michelle Obama and a group of students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, DC got out the shovels and starting digging up the South Lawn. They are putting in a vegetable garden complete with herbs, both perennial and annual. You can click here to see a PDF of the somewhat ambitious garden plans. I love the idea to include edible flowers (nasturiums) and beneficial flowers (marigolds, zinnia) to attract or repel insects. So much better than nasty pesticides.

The official story is that it will be the kids working the “kitchen” garden, and I applaud the fact that the crops planned are the easy

“kid-friendly” peas, lettuces, spinach, and onions. There is some room for broccoli and fennel as well. I’m sure there will be a garden staff to help out in addition to the student labor.

The White House Kitchen Garden, as the blog refers to it, is the first such garden at the White House since World War II and Eleanor Roosevelt. The Clintons had a rooftop garden, but this is the first to go in the actual grounds of the White House in some 60 years.

It wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t mention that the WHKG was “suggested” to the Obamas by more than 100,000 petitioners.

More than 100,000 people have lobbied the president online to plant a garden on the White House lawn, according to Kitchen Gardeners International, a coalition of gardeners whose mission is to inspire and teach people to grow their own food. The group’s Eat the View campaign to plant “high-impact gardens in high-profile places” urged the first family to start an edible garden within the first 100 days of the Obama administration. –LA Times

Not to be outdone in green cred, the California First Lady is planning a vegetable garden to be a demonstration garden for the city of Sacramento. Shriver is working with Alice Waters, who is a big advocate for kitchen gardens and local foods and teaching kids to grow things, and her organization, Edible Schoolyard. The plan is to have the garden as a classroom for kids to learn about food and its production.

The White House kitchen garden will provide organic produce for the White House kitchen, appropriately enough. How cool is that? Dignitaries come into town and eat peas from the White House’s personal garden. Take that, Europe. We’re down with veggies here in the US and we even know how to grow them instead of driving our Hummer to the mega-huge-chain grocery store selling GM crops.

The WHKG will also donate to a local food bank, Miriam’s Kitchen. The California Capitol Edible Garden (CCEG) will “probably” be donating to a food bank.

Michelle Obama, kitchen garden, garden, White House, South Lawn, local food, victory garden, recession garden, first lady, California, Maria Shriver, organic, Alice Waters, Edible Schoolyard

You may not know about all the chemicals floating around in your house or even your office, and chances are you are not aware of how dangerous some of the Volatile Organic Compounds that are given off by synthethic materials that are found in your home. It’s a process called off-gassing. For example, particle board (that cheap stuff that all cheap furniture is made of) off-gasses formeldahyde. But here’s the deal. Even natural products off-gas, so it’s not like you can ever fully remove VOCs from your home. Anything plastic gives off VOCs, but then wood also gives off gases.

Much like a garden can be a “sink” and a “scrubber” for water and pollutants, your indoor houseplants can help you remove volatile organic compounds (loosely defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as any compound that photoreacts or easily vaporizes and enters the atmosphere. The problem with VOCs in your house is that because you keep your house closed up (especially in colder weather) those VOCs can reach some pretty high levels, even 5 times more than if you were outside.

And your houseplants are effective at removing VOCs from your house. Of course, some plants are better than others. Here’s a top 15 to get you started.

1. Philodendron scandens `oxycardium’, heartleaf philodendron
2. Philodendron domesticum, elephant ear philodendron
3. Dracaena fragrans `Massangeana’, cornstalk dracaena
4. Hedera helix, English ivy
5. Chlorophytum comosum, spider plant
6. Dracaena deremensis `Janet Craig’, Janet Craig dracaena
7. Dracaena deremensis `Warneckii’, Warneck dracaena
8. Ficus benjamina, weeping fig
9. Epipiremnum aureum, golden pothos
10. Spathiphyllum `Mauna Loa’, peace lily
11. Philodendron selloum, selloum philodendron
12. Aglaonema modestum, Chinese evergreen
13. Chamaedorea sefritzii, bamboo or reed palm
14. Sansevieria trifasciata, snake plant
15. Dracaena marginata , red-edged dracaena

That list comes from Clean Air Gardening.

And get this…the study of using plants to clean the air all started with NASA in the 1960’s. The materials used in the enclosed environments in space are synthetic and the VOCs off-gassed were making people sick. An environmental scientist named Wolverton started studying how plants could clean up toxic waste, and he found that simple houseplants can be really effective little cleaners of indoor air pollution. Today, Wolverton’s company is working on using natural materials derived from plants as filters for enclosed environments.

plants, indoor air quality, indoor air pollution, VOC, volatile organic compounds, plastics, synthetic materials, indoor environment, health

This week is National Poison Prevention Week, as if you didn’t know. But you may not know that this is the 48th of such weeks, and National Poison Prevention Week is one of the longest running public health campaigns.

In fact, did you know that 30 children a year die in the United States from accidental poisoning? Thanks to the National Poison Prevention Week, that number is down from a high of 216 in 1972. What I think is even more impressive is that the numbers of accidental poisonings are down despite the increase in household poisons we keep around our typical American homes. Good work, NPPW!

And it’s not just cleaning products or drain openers that are poisoning our kids. Half of all accidental poisoning in very young children involve prescription drugs and dietary supplements.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission offers tips on preventing accidental household poisonings, including not referring to your medicine as candy in front of kids. No kidding. Also, keep an eye on your kids when any hazardous material is present. Keep everything dangerous out of reach or better yet, locked up. Also, and I thought this is a good one, do not have colorful lamps and candles that have lamp oil in them. The stuff may look like Kool-Aid to kids, but even more deadly.

I’m going to go you one better and suggest that instead of keeping lots of chemically-delicious household cleaners around the house, explore other ways to clean your house with natural ingredients. Not that a tummy full of borax would be good for your child upon ingestion (it really wouldn’t), but it cannot be as bad as some of the stuff that may be under your sink.

poison, poisoning, National Poisoning Prevention Week, Consumer Product Safety Commission, children, health, death, chemicals, household cleaners, prescription drugs, medicine, dietary supplements, natural, borax

“Smart Grid” is quickly becoming a buzzword among politicians, environmentalists, and utility companies. But what exactly is a Smart Grid and how it is going to save the planet?

The “smart grid” is not a single thing, but rather a whole host of technologies that can be used to create or upgrade an electric grid using digital devices to keep track of usage and monitor peak usage as well as controlling the usage within a home or building to ensure that high-energy devices are switching on during off-peak times when possible. A smart grid may include monitors within buildings that allow users to better manage their energy usage. Smart grids will also become necessary to allow individual sources of energy, like home solar panels or geothermal systems, to upload to and feed the grid. And electric cars that you plug in at home? Yeah, those will need smart grid technology to work.

It’s not like a Smart Grid will solve all of our problems, but it may help us use energy more efficiently, and that is something that is becoming extremely important as the world’s thirst for cheap power grows. Even a small percentage of efficiency in a major city’s electrical grid means big savings in terms of carbon emissions. The US’s electricity grid was first developed and built in the early part of the 20th century, so yeah, that’s not outdated or anything.

Leave it to the Dutch to take the lead in converting the first major city to full smart grid technology. The city of Amsterdam may provide us with a useful case study on how a large city can install and benefit from a smart grid. Amsterdam is currently restructuring its energy infrastructure to be “smart” and hopes to have it all done in the next few years.

All told, the municipality, energy outfits, and private companies are expected to invest more than $1 billion over the next three years. That figure includes a $383 million investment by local electricity network operator Alliander in so-called “smart grid” technology that uses network sensors and improved domestic energy monitoring to trim electricity use. Also part of the plan: up to $255 million to be spent by local housing cooperatives on boosting household energy efficiency, and $383 million from companies including Phillips (PHG) and Dutch utility Nuon to be invested in other energy-efficient technology.

“In the next year and a half, we expect to be the leading smart city in Europe,” says Ger Baron, senior project manager at the Amsterdam Innovation Motor, a public-private joint venture that is overseeing the project. “We’re in the right place at the right time.”

The focus on cutting cities’ emissions could have a major impact on the battle against global warming. As of 2006, more people now live in urban areas than in the countryside, and the sprawl surrounding megacities such as Mumbai and Saõ Paolo is only likely to increase. Consultancy Accenture (ACN) reckons cities produce almost two-thirds of total global carbon dioxide emissions through a combination of car fumes, household energy use, and industrial manufacturing. In the coming years, policy shifts from the U.S. and elsewhere will put even more pressure on controlling carbon output.

“Until now, there’s been an underemphasis on what cities can do to cut emissions,” says Mark Spelman, Accenture’s global head of strategy. –Business Week

Global technology companies like IBM and Cisco are also getting in on Amsterdam’s plans to change the way the city uses energy. And Dutch banks are going to provide small loans to homeowners to purchase and install green improvements around the house, with the intention that the costs saved from energy efficiency will pay for the cost of the loans.

The Business Week article also mentions that Xcel Energy is working in the city of Boulder, Colorado to connect 60,000 homes to a smart grid.

Considering that in most cases, smart grids are being pushed by energy companies and that is a positive move. Whether it is just to make more money or not, moving forward in innovation is what this world needs, rather than trying to squeeze more money from the planet’s dwindling resources.

Smart Grid, electricity, energy, Amsterdam, technology, efficiency, homes, usage, solar panel, geothermal, electric car, IBM, Cisco, Xcel Energy, Boulder, Colorado

Ok, so normally, I am not one to count on celebrities to either a) do something or anything important enough for me to care about or b) tell me how to think about things that I may already care about. However, as this is a site with a focus on all things sustainable, I have made an exception in Mr. Brad Pitt’s and Make It Right NOLA’s case.

So, in my first installment of “green” celebrity news…I bring you…Brad Pitt.

Enough about making grandchildren envious already, and nice shiny suit there, Brad. Oh, and you forgot that top button, too. Ok, I got that out of me…

Visiting D.C. within just a few weeks of his frequent co-star, George Clooney’s visit, Pitt’s star power was kept as secret as humanly possible in the cesspool of Washingtonian politics. But according to the AP story about the visiting “dignitary”, “The Power of Pitt drained entire congressional offices of their female employees and quite a few male aides as well, all of whom could be picked out by the way they suddenly appeared in the Senate’s doorways and halls, nonchalantly cupping cell phones and cameras at their sides and hanging around waiting news crews.”

Pitt was in Washington (Angie is also shooting a movie there, so he was in town already) to talk with the people in power about affordable, sustainable housing. If you didn’t know, Pitt is the starpower behind an effort in New Orleans called Make It Right NOLA (click on that link to read more about Make It Right). MIRNOLA is working to design and build green housing in the Lower Ninth Ward, an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina and an area home to a predominantly low-income minority population.

While on the Hill, Brad Pitt met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about “nationalizing” Make It Right’s ideas and designs for more American cities that have been afflicted by disasters, both natural and man-made (hello, Detroit, Michigan).

Brad Pitt, NOLA, New Orleans, Make It Right, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Lower Ninth Ward, affordable housing, sustainable housing, George Clooney, green building, green design, low income

I was just reading the City of Chicago’s Green Alleyways Handbook, and I came across the idea of building a rain garden to help with storm water runoff. Then I started thinking about it, and with Spring’s showers on the way, now would be a good time for us all to consider building a rain garden in our urban spaces.

Now, obviously, some urbanites will not have the option to construct a rain garden, large or small, as they may not have any yard space at their disposal. It’s not like you can build a container rain garden (or can you?) — but you can find a way to capture your own fair share of rainwater to save from the sewer (but make sure it’s not in a copper bowl like in that one episode of Different Strokes when Dana Plato’s hair turned green), for example, in a rain barrel. But that’s another topic, another day.

Rain gardens are not rocket science, but you do have to do some planning and a little science will come into the project before it’s done. It is best for your back if you already have noticed a spot in your yard where there is a depression where rain water already collects during storms. If you have multiple low-spots, choose areas next to paved areas like patios or roadways or by downspouts. Although remember that you will not want the water too close to your house (within 10 feet) or large trees, either. Sure, a rain garden may be dry 85% of the time, but there is still that other 15% of the time.

A great place to start your planning is a site called Raingardens.org. appropriately enough. It’s a really comprehensive site, which I won’t do justice to by gleaning pertinent info and passing it off as my own, so check it out by clicking here. The organization is based in Western Michigan, but anyone living anywhere can learn from the site’s extensive information.

Whether you have a little space or a lot of space, you give a little something back to the groundwater that supports your life by letting a bit of your garden space work to recharge that groundwater. Rain is filtered naturally through your rain garden, where it finds its way down, down into the deep soil and into the groundwater supply. If it were not for your rain garden, that same storm water may instead find its way into a swollen roadway which picks up all the leaking fluids from cars young and old and then into the sewer system, where it will meet more microbial friends, before being treated at a facility and then returned to your groundwater supply.

Maybe I’m being overly dramatic, but with the inevitable Water Wars coming…start planning now.

rain garden, garden, gardening, rain water, storm water, rain, water management, sewer, treatment, groundwater, water supply

Who drives around the city all day and all night, slowly, sometimes just idling in a park or parking lot, looking for trouble? It’s the cops, man.

Well, in NYC, those cops will be driving and idling hybrids now and hopefully more so in the future.

It’s always good to see city governments take the lead in cutting carbon emissions of their vehicle fleets, as it is such organizations that have hundreds of vehicles in use. Besides being better for the planet, it doesn’t hurt that hybrids get nearly double the mileage than traditional cars. Which leads to considerable savings in fuel costs for those cities.

The details…New York City will soon have 40 2009 Nissan Altima hybrids on the streets of the Big “Green” Apple. 18 of which will be used on regular patrol, 20 will be undercover, and two will be made to look like yellow taxis. Cute. Anyway, it’s the 18 on patrol that will be the most scrutinized, as it is unsure whether a hybrid vehicle can withstand the long days of constant patrol enough to be feasible as replacements fleetwide.

By the way, the 2009 Nissan Altima hybrid is only available in such progressively green states as New York, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Oregon, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Jersey. It’s funny that back in the 50’s being “red” was being a communist and today a “red” state is just the opposite (though still a little fascist perhaps). Ah, you have to love the irony of history.

And get this, the Altima hybrid gets better fuel economy in the city as opposed to highway-driving. How ’bout that? The numbers are 35 mpg city and 33 mpg highway. The regular old cop cars get half that; the V-8 version of the Chevy Impala gets 16 mpg city, and the Ford Crown Victoria gets .

Although, it should be noted that Ford is not taking this threat of the hybrid cop car lying down. Ford’s website for the specialty Police Interceptor version of the Crown Victoria announces that the Police Interceptor is now offering E85 capacity. The pdf claims that the “flexible fuel” option supports “America’s farming economy.” Yeah. That’s what it does.

NYC, New York City, Nissan, Altima, hybrid, green cars, fuel economy, mpg, fuel costs, fleet, Chevy, Impala, Ford, Crown Victoria, Police Interceptor, flexible fuel, ethanol, E85, carbon emissions

Those eggheads at MIT…is there anything they can’t do?

Being an urban ecoist, it should come as no surprise that I have and ride a bike. I would love to brag about how much I ride and how easy it is to do 7 miles here in Portland, Oregon, but truthfully, I sometimes long for a little extra help in managing the rolling hills of my city. But I adore my vintage 3-speed’s style, and I don’t have the funds to buy a new-fangled electric bike…what’s a girl to do?

The Smart Cities program at MIT has recently started testing a new bike hub that will convert any bike to one with electro-awesome power.

Meet the GreenWheel (photo from MIT Media Lab).

This nifty little device that’s about a big as a dinner plate that’s 2 inches thick can be relatively easy to install for spokeheads or your local bike shop. The GreenWheel’s housing contains a generator, motor and batteries. There is also a throttle to be installed. The bike spokes will have to be changed out for shorter ones to accommodate the new hub. And that’s it. Pedal to charge the batteries. Coast when you need, and use the motor to help get you up hills or through those rubbery legs.

Under its current configuration, a bike powered solely by a single GreenWheel (front, rear or both wheel can be equipped with a GreenWheel) has an estimated range of 25 miles. Pedaling the bike doubles the range under electric power, provided the rider isn’t traveling at the nearly top speed of 30 miles an hour. The bike can be charged by pedaling or by plugging it into the electric grid.

…

The GreenWheel is also durable. The team estimates its range at 40,000 miles, or about eight years work of travel at an estimated 20 miles per business day. — MSNBC

According to the article, Copenhagen, Norway and South Africa are looking into having fleets of the GreenWheel-equipped bikes for visitors attending the upcoming 2010 World Cup as well as creating bike-sharing programs with the newly electrified bikes.

The batteries in the GreenWheel are also innovative in that they are lithium ion batteries rather than the traditional lead batteries used in most electric bikes.

MIT, bicycle, bicycling, biking, bike, electric bike, GreenWheel, generator, motor, lithium ion battery, lead, Smart Cities, commuting

A “green” or “living” roof is nothing new, really; Europe has been a big fan for some time now. However, the US is just starting to catch on to the idea, and again it floors me that something that is this good of an idea didn’t catch on years ago. Kinda like solar panels on the White House…

The idea is simple. Instead of traditional roofing materials, layers of materials including “soil” (it’s really more of an aggregate like in hydroponic growing methods) are installed complete with plantlife. Instead of a hard surface, rainwater falls onto the soils and the plants. The natural roof filters water naturally and slowly, rather than just rush the water off through the storm drains into the sewer system. Some green roofs go all out and actually use the space to grow crops or create a natural habitat for wildlife.

The Fairmount Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver, BC, Canada has a roof-top garden that produces about $30,000 worth of produce and herbs yearly.

The “green roof” trend is growing outside of Europe. Japan requires that 20% of all new roofs on larger buildings be “planted.” The self-proclaimed “greenest city in America”, Chicago, Illinois is encouraging green roofs on new buildings and on retrofitted roofs with tax credits.

There are some downsides in green roofs, mostly by way of costs and the feasibility of retrofitting older buildings that were not designed to carry the extra weight of the plant-roofs. But costs can be mitigated by way of the savings that green roofs bring in terms of cooling costs. Hard-surface roofs can get mighty hot in the summer, and that heat is transferred inside to an extent. A green roof will stay around the ambient temperature, even in the middle of August.

Those cooling tendencies of green roofs also help out the area around the building, and by extension, if all roofs were green or partially green at least, the surrounding community will benefit. That is why Tokyo is pushing green roofs so hard. Tokyo’s average temperature has outpaced global warming increases by 5.

green roofs, natural roofs, eco-roofs, plant roofs, planted roofs, roof construction, sustainable roofs, green building, sustainable building, US, Tokyo, Europe, Chicago, Illinois, heating, cooling, costs, global warming, temperature

Like many cities around the world, lax land use laws have lead to what we all know and love as urban sprawl. Back in the days of cheap fossil fuels and a “what, me worry” attitude concerning our natural environment, cities grew out willy-nilly from a central area in which older buildings were abandoned for newer ones in outlying areas and suburbs. This kind of growth leads to residents living farther away from other areas that house commercial buildings where many of those residents work or shop. This in turn leads to more and more cars on the roads, more traffic, more pollution, and I think you get it so far.

Welcome to the Carbon Era. Now, cities are trying to reverse urban sprawl and Sydney, Australia is one of those cities. The Australia Prime Minister and his Labour party are trying to gain support for their plans to rethink Sydney in ways to increase density within areas closer to the city centre. The plan is to put in two new subway lines and develop high-density housing close to the stations. Think high-rise near-suburbs.

The PM feels that Sydney can be made to be of a similar density of people and jobs as some of the world’s largest cities that rely on efficient mass transit to shuttle their citizens around, like say, London or Tokyo. He’s so sure of it that he’s willing to spend $13 billion on the plans.

Of course, there are a number of reasons to re-envision the modern city, and ‘re-densifying” (my own word there, enjoy!) is a crucial component to making a city work. It seems counter-intuitive — to make more people live in a specific area rather than spread them and their waste out, but the more efficiently cities use space for residences and businesses, the more space that will be available for trees and nature — and less need for hour-long commutes.

mass transit, subway, Sydney, Australia, urban sprawl, urban, city planning, urban planning, urban design, space, residences, commercial buildings, city, cities, trains, London, Tokyo

Americans don’t seem all that keen on their fruits and veggies, or at least not as keen as they should be, unless we are talking potatoes. And especially when they eat out, Americans are more concerned about proteins and starches, relegating the veggies to mere side dishes, if included in the meal at all.

And then, add the seasonality of fresh fruits and veggies, and we can see that sometimes eating fresh produce is hard to do, especially if you are on a budget or if you don’t want to purchase imported produce that requires fuel and produced more carbon emissions to ship to your local grocery chain. Also, keep in mind that so-called fresh produce was most likely picked unripe (which means that it did not spend enough time “on the vine” to develop all its healthy nutrients) and has been traveling for a week or more before it even gets to your store.

What’s an urban ecoist to do?

Two options are canned or frozen vegetables and fruits. But which is better?

The canning process involves heating, which will kill any microorganisms that may be living on or in vegetables and fruit. It is very rare that a canned product will carry food-borne illness (which has become a problem with fresh produce lately). However, some nutrients withstand the canning process better than others. Vitamin C and folate are two such nutrients that can be lost during canning.

Frozen produce may be a better choice for most fruits and veggies. Produce undergoes freezing soon after it is picked, so there are less nutrients lost due to age, which may make frozen produce better than some imported “fresh” produce.

Of course, we wouldn’t be very responsible ecoists if we didn’t take some other things into consideration, such as packaging. Cans are highly recyclable and can be reprocessed almost infinitely, but more and more cans are lined with a plastic that contains Bisphenol-A (BPA), which more and more research is showing to leach into foods (especially acidic ones, like tomatoes). Scientists are finding evidence that BPA may cause developmental damage in humans. The EPA is working with some manufacturers to voluntarily reduce BPA use in cans, but I can forecast a day soon when you will be looking for a “no BPA” label on canned goods.

Frozen produce are usually packaged in plastic bags, and the plastic, usually HDPE (#2), used is not as easily recyclable and rarely included in curbside recycling programs. Unfortunately, even the cardboard packaging used with frozen produce is lined with plastic, which also makes it harder to recycle.

Another consideration is where those canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are coming from, and usually that’s a factory farm. Depending on where you live, that can of peas may have traveled thousands of miles to get to your grocery store shelves.

Geez, it’s not easy being green…but if you are serious about it, you may want to can or freeze your own veggies and fruits. When you are at your local farmers market or farm stand this summer, buy larger quantities of fresh produce and process them yourself for winter consumption. Start out freezing fruits like berries, which are easy, and as you become more comfortable and savvy, try your hand at tomatoes.

I remember the cellar at my great-grandfather’s house in Dearborn, Michigan and the shelves stocked with mason jars full of stuff like tomatoes and pickles. He grew everything in his own urban backyard. It’s too bad that as a society, we have become more and more reliant on grocery stores to bring us our produce, when really we could be providing our own — saving money and nutrients at the same time.

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So, we have been discussing planning and creating a roadside garden for your city space. These gardens can be either between your lawn and the street or between a sidewalk and the street, depending on what level of urban dwelling you call you own. Of course, often in cities, you may be renting and live in an apartment with no yard whatsoever. We can talk about that, too, in the future, that is how to create “temporary” garden spaces.

I have already mentioned that urban gardens must be able to tolerate higher levels of air pollution than, say, a country home’s garden (depending on the country house, unfortunately, it seems that no where is clean).

When planning a garden space in such an area, you may or may not want to incorporate taller plants such as trees and schrubs. But with taller plants, you can create a bit of privacy for your front yard, an urban oasis if you will. Not only that, but you can create a screen for that car-generated pollution, in addition to a nice spot for birds, bees and butterflies.

Shrubs

Trees can be a bit much — too tall or too wide for many smaller urban spots, so luckily, there are some really fabulous shrubs and bushes out there that are both evergreen and deciduous and can withstand urban pollution.

Butterfly Bush: I love butterfly bushes (left). They can grow tall and hedge-like, or you can prune them severely and grow them smaller. In addition to attracting this bush’s namesakes, hummingbirds also dig the butterfly bush. The flowers grow out on graceful arching branches and they are quite fragrant. They make super cut flowers in the house, and the more you cut, the more purple or pink flowers these bushes will produce.

Forsythia: Forsythias are wonderful and a welcome sign of spring. This shrub breaks out of the “new season” gate with bare branches that load up with little yellow flowers very early in the spring. Forsythias are easy growers and easily pruned back to whatever space you want them to fill with vibrant green leaves. They also live for a very long time if cared for, properly. The picture above is a forsythia bush that is over 50 years old.

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