DePave Portland
DePave is a project of the Portland non-profit City Repair who’s goal is to remove unnecessary concrete from urban areas, and to aid and educate other people who would like to do the same thing. Depaved areas can change a concrete area into a beautiful lush garden that provides the city with cleaner air, cleaner water, less stormwater runoff cost, and ultimately a cleaner river. Not to mention a community garden is much easier on the eyes than a parking lot. Just another awesome non-profit in Portland that is trying to help the world one lot at a time in a very innovative way. Check DePaves website for information on how to start your own depaving project.
Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Portland, Rainwater Harvesting, Sustainable, Water Conservation | Tagged: depave
Clean Water Services Field Operation Center
Clean Water Services is a utility serving a large portion of the Portland metro area designed and operated for the sole purpose of protecting the Tualitin river and the watershed. One of the first of its kind in the nation, Clean Water Services is responsible for protecting water quality in the Tualitin river, manage flooding, protect fish and their habitat, and manage the flow of the river. They are also responsible for the four treatment facilities spread throughout the area that are responsible for cleaning over 64 million gallons a day. Clean Water Services has also been working on innovations and keeping up on the green curve by fostering a progressive environment where new ideas are readily accepted. Their new Field Operations Center has undergone a greening including permeable parking concrete in the employee lot which reduces runoff water from rain by allowing it to soak right into the ground instead of puddling. Their extensive eco roof also reduces and cleans rainwater runoff. Around their facility there are also several rain gardens with native Oregon plantlife that soak up and clean the rainwater instead of flowing down to the river (See Landscape Urbanism for photos more). Their most recent treatment facility upgrade brought their Durham facility up to LEED Silver certification level with another certification from the US Green Buildings Council.
Filed Under: LEED, Portland, Rainwater Harvesting, Water Conservation | Tagged: clean water services
School Air Quality Concerns in NW Portland
Some recent air quality concerns have arisen with residents of Northwest Portland. USA Today ran a report in December of 2008 called “The Smokestack Effect” which detailed and rated the worst schools in America as far as environmental air quality. Normally you don’t associate Portland with dirty air, but it seems that Chapman Elementary is among the worst 2% of schools for air quality because of it’s close proximity to ESCO Corp in NW (a metals manufacturer). Residents of the area have also been concerned for years about the light black dust that settles on their cars, lawns, and homes. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is a reactionary organization that has essentially refused to acknowledge the problem, or even their responsibility in the matter. Residents have complained that DEQ is esentially useless and does not want to help. With ESCO’s DEQ air quality permit up for renewal, the push is on from residents who would like more oversight and monitoring of the air quality around the factory. Most residents would be happy with air quality monitoring, and most don’t really want the factory shut down as it provides donations and jobs to the local community and economy. Jump over to Neighborhood Notes for more details, or USA Today for their report on “The Smokestack Effect”.
… Read the full story »Filed Under: Education, News, Portland | Tagged: air quality, air quality concerns, portland schools
Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
I love living in a city where we actually have a department for sustainability. Portland merged the departments of Planning and Sustainability in January of 2009 in order to create a single unit of thought and planning. Listed on their website is information on their current projects and goals including waste management, stormwater management, energy conservation, renewable energy, and sustainable purchasing practices.
… Read the full story »Filed Under: Northwest, Portland, Sustainable | Tagged: Green Government, sustainability
Globe Hotel renovation in Chinatown
Portland, OR: The Globe Hotel or the “Import Plaza” is going to be remodeled completely bringing the building up to a LEED Gold standard certification. The Globe Hotel will become home to the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine after its reopening for the fall 2010 school year. This renovation will further the city’s goal to revitalize the Chinatown neighborhood including other projects like the Mercy Corps world headquarters just a block away. The historic original sign that rotates above the building currently will be kept, but it will be updated to say “OCOM” along with a general repainting makeover. The building will be receiving a seismic upgrade as well for earthquake safety along with some eco features like stormwater management, low flow water fixtures, and a high efficiency HVAC system. See more information here.
Filed Under: LEED, News, Portland | Tagged: green renovation, portland chinatown
Wind power from electrical towers
Here is a brilliant idea from a French design group that uses existing electrical towers in order to generate, well, more power. The large metal electrical towers that you see running up every hillside and down every highway can be useful for more than just carrying electricity, they can now generate it too. In an ideal situation with some good wind speed, a turbine set inside one of those large electrical towers could generate enough power for 20 average homes. For France, that ends up being about 5% of their total electricity demand. The electrical towers have to be there anyway, so we might as well get multiple uses out of them and harness some of that free, renewable, clean electricity. Jump over to Inhabitat for more information.
Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Green Energy, Sustainable, Wind Power | Tagged:
Vertical Farm in Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC, in an effort to become the most sustainable city in the world held the “FormShift Vancouver” Competition which sought ideas to improve liveability through greener, denser urban development. Romses Architects met that call with the Harvest Tower concept. This Vertical Farm would be a beautiful and functional building that provided many services to the city including an underground transit station for buses and trains, farmers market, grocery store, a complete farm including plants and animals alike and self sustainable renewable energy from several sources.
The tower would be constructed of many connecting prefabricated tubes that interlock together to create the farm facility. Fish aquaculture, grazing land for livestock, and growing fruits and vegetables would provide food to supply the farmers market and grocery store in a local and sustainable way (not to mention fresh!). Electricity for the building would come from 3 sources, the wind turbines on the top, and a photovoltaic (solar power) coating on all of the outside surfaces and windows. The third source of energy is the most interesting; decaying plant and animal matter is composted and both the heat and offgases (mainly methane) are harnessed to both create electricity, and supply the natural gas needs for the on site living facilities.
The project is in the concept stage for now, but lets hope that we start seeing Vertical Farms start to pop up everywhere around the world, it looks like an amazing way to bring fresh, sustainable, local food with little environmental impact to the masses. Check out www.verticalfarm.com for more.
… Read the full story »Filed Under: Eco Ideas, Food, Northwest, Rainwater Harvesting, Sustainable, Water Conservation | Tagged: vertical farm, vertical farming
Bomb the Deserts
The deserts of the world are growing. The process of desertification is quickly taking hold of once good land that supported plant life. Desertification has several causes, most of them due to human encroachment on habitat, deforestation, and climate change. Once an area has become desert, it is nearly impossible to get it back to a condition that can sustain life. A plant that tries to grow in this area often dies because of the harsher conditions and lack of cover from fellow plants. So what do we do? We bomb the crap out of the desert…..with seeds.
SeedBombs are a conceptual design that may help reverse desertification. The SeedBomb is meant to be dropped with many others of its kind from a plane onto an area experiencing desertification. A SeedBomb is a pill shaped device that contains a seed inside of nutrient rich soil and moisture. The top half of the pill is clear so that natural sunlight will cause the seed to grow. The biodegradable plastic shell will dissolve slowly, allowing the plant to grow into a sustainable healthy size before dissolving. This keeps the plant away from the harsh elements long enough to grow up, but dissolves before it hinders the plants vertical growth. Jump on over to Inhabitat for the original article and more details.
The Living Building from Sera Architects
Portland has often been called the “greenest city in the world” and this new project will help us keep that title. Sera Architects is going to build a Living Building for the challenge put together by the U.S. Green Building Council. The project will create a home for 4 or 5 families, plus a built in day care space. Each aspect of the building from the raw materials, to the location chosen, and the appliances inside have been specifically designed and chosen for their high efficiency and low environmental impact. That includes a large rainwater harvesting system with an underground cistern large enough to hold water for everyone for 6 months. The showers, toilets, and even the washing machine are special models that use very low amounts of water. This way the Living Building is completely self sustainable for water, and partially self sustainable for electricity. Tenants inside of the building have to agree to some lifestyle changes to live inside of the house, for instance, they can only use environmentally friendly household products because the grey water from the sinks, showers, and tubs is used to flush the toilets (no, the toilet water never gets re-used). The Living Building is going to cost about twice as much as a standard building of the same size, which is why funding is a bit of a problem at the moment. The cost can be justified though, as the self sustainability will bring benefits to the owners, tenants, and the environment for as long as it stands.
More information and sources:
Kenton Living Building Official Website
… Read the full story »