Your Water Footprint

A friend asked me today about the environmental reason for "preserving water." For those if us in big East Coast cities, water appears plentiful. We use this potable water, it moves through municipal systems, is treated, and available again as potable water after a certain amount of time. Why all this focus on capturing rainwater and minimizing potable water use? Can't we just continually clean and reuse it?

Though we both knew there was a flawed logic in this, we had trouble explaining it. After a little research, I think I get why saving water is important for our planet. Here's the logic. Much of this info pulled from savewater.com.au.

1. We don't have much fresh water to start with. First off, of all the water in the world, only 3% is fresh. Less than one third of 1% of this fresh water is available for human use. The rest is frozen in glaciers or polar ice caps, or is deep within the earth, beyond our reach.

2. More people over time will be using a limited amount of fresh water. Global water consumption has risen almost tenfold since 1900, and many parts of the world are now reaching the limits of their supply. World population is expected to increase by 45% in the next thirty years, while freshwater runoff is expected to increase by 10%. UNESCO has predicted that by 2020 water shortage will be a serious worldwide problem. One third of the world's population is already facing problems due to both water shortage and poor drinking water quality. Effects include massive outbreaks of disease, malnourishment and crop failure. In addition, excessive use of water has seen the degradation of the environment costing the world billions of dollars.

3. "Embodied" water requirements are increasing. Embodied water is not the water you drink, wash your clothes/dishes with or flows through your toilet, but the amount of water used during the growing, processing and transportation of the goods we use or consume, or the services we use. As an example, it takes 37 gallons of fresh water to produce 1 cup of coffee or 4,227 gallons of water to produce 2.2 pounds of beef.

4. The need for increased water consumption can have significant negative environmental impacts. For example:

• Building more dams. This has severe environmental effects such as destruction of wilderness, creation of greenhouse gases from rotting vegetation, altered stream flows and degraded ecological health. It’s also very costly.


• Maintaining other infrastructure for water supply and use. This includes costly upgrades and maintenance of pipes, sewers and treatment facilities. Three feet of storm water drain costs about $2,000 to install.


• Erosion, salinity and desertification. Water consumption for agriculture alters the natural water cycle. This degrades production areas and intensifies other environmental problems such as land clearing and desertification. Salinity is said to directly cost Australia over 1.5 billion dollars a year, but true figures are probably a lot higher than this.


• Degradation of water bodies. Many of our rivers, wetlands and bays are degraded. This is partly due to the high levels of water extracted, as well as polluted surface runoff and storm water flushed into them.

I know there has been a lot of buzz about carbon footprint lately, but honestly, I think we may suffer a clean water crisis before anything else. You may already measured your carbon footprint, if so, kudos. Now it's time to take your water footprint. Go here: waterfootprint.org

I just used the quick version of the calculator and it says that my water footprint is 4,347 in cubic meters per year as an average meat eater in the U.S. The global average is 1,243. What can I do to drastically reduce my consumption? One way is to become a vegetarian! Here's the breakdown of water consumption by food type.

The other significant way to reduce my individual water footprint is to move to Tanzania. See the Institute for Water Education's Water Footprints of Nations to see your country's per capita footprint (and other data).

But if you're an American and a meat eater who doesn't plan on giving up being either, start with taking some steps at home. Try this site for tips on saving water in the kitchen, the laundry, bathroom, in your pool and elsewhere. And share what you learn with others (and this blog).

Japan's Zero Emission House

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has unveiled its “Zero-Emission House” in parallel with the Hokkaido Toyako G8 Summit that is currently taking place.

This prefabricated house exhibits robots that serve tea to guests, a washer that requires no water, an air conditioner that sends cool air towards people in a room rather than general empty space, and a wind-turbine generator and a photovoltaic system which produces about 15 kilowatts of energy a day.

The structure has great insulation, natural aeration to maintain dry conditions and is designed with the seismic technology, SHEQAS, to mitigate damage due to earthquakes.

The waterless washer is a three-in-one machine that uses high-powered air to wash clothes without water. The process known as "ozonation" uses about twice as much electricity as a regular wash, but only one-fifth the total energy of a comparable full wash and dry because it operates without a drying system.

Additionally, there is a solar-powered TV, a roof-top vegetation system comprised of a thin film of moss grown on tile plates attached to the roof of the house which can also be fitted and grown alongside solar panels.

Very cool.

Recycling your Bottles?

Poor naive me, I really thought that the majority of people were actually recycling, but a couple of incidents over the past few days have brought my naivety to my attention.

Incident #1: Office Conference Room – Trash can full of plastic cups and aluminum cans.
Incident #2: Office Cleaning Staff – dumping recycling into trash Incident #3: Friend Visiting my Home – “You’re really into green, I mean, you guys even recycle here.”

Then I read an article that confirmed my suspicions: “Bottles, Bottles, Everywhere…Can you give up bottled water?” This article addresses the myriad issues associated with drinking bottled water, including carbon footprint impacts, use of oil to generate bottles, and water use in bottle production. None of this was particularly surprising, as the war on plastic water bottles has resulted in a flood of information on all of the negative impacts (note: we should all be drinking tap water from reusable containers).

What did surprise me were the stats on recycling:

• Less than 20 percent of the 28 billion single-serving water bottles that Americans buy each year are recycled
• National recycling rate for all beverage containers is 33 percent
• In states with deposit systems, this jumps to 65-95 percent
• 11 states have deposit systems; only three of these include deposit requirements for non-carbonated beverages
• Non-carbonated beverages now comprise 27 percent of the market

I questioned whether these stats were legit or not, and did some internet research. This is what I discovered:

• 12% Plastic Water Bottle Recycling – includes hugely disturbing visual of what this means.
• 12% Plastic Water Bottle Recycling – gives some reasons as to why it’s so low, and what the impacts are.
• 60 M Plastic Water Bottles Discarded Daily
• 90% of Plastic Water Bottles End Up in Landfills in Some Countries

Check out the article as well as the other resources, and be sure to recycle both at work and in your home!

Image Source: www.greenlivingonline.com

Showering.....to save the planet

One of the benefits of working at an architecture firm is occasionally getting to try out some new products to see if they are something that we might recommend to a client.  Whether it is carpet tile, wall finish material, or furniture, it is always fun and makes you think really critically about the products and their application.  Just this week, I had a chance to try out something really exciting.....a new shower head.  I'm not kidding, I was actually really excited.  I had an old shower head that used to just spit water out at an alarming rate....so fast in fact, that I would always run out of hot water in about 2 minutes.  In the midst of studying hard for my LEED exam, I realized that 340 billion gallons of water are withdrawn everyday for our use.  My new Oxygenics shower head is quite an improvement in many ways.  I've found that my water pressure has increased, I have a much better looking shower, the oxygen content in the water has increased drastically (better for your skin), and I have been saving a ton of water! 

It only uses a maximum of 1.9 gallons per minute.  (Just for clarification, I have no relationship with Oxygenics).  There are a lot of manufacturers that make great water efficient fixtures.  While they may be a slightly higher initial investment, the payback is typically very quick. Check the calculator on the Oxygenics website ( http://www.oxygenics.com/).   So if you are considering putting some new showers in your home or office consider one of these low flow fixtures.           

Why green roofs matter

Many older cities have combined storm and sanitary sewers that overflow with even moderate rainfall. This overflow means raw sewage can end up in the local waterways. Our waterways provide not only habitat for a diverse range of flora and fauna, but they are often a potable water source for nearby communties as well. Yuck.

By increasing the pervious surface area of our densely built urban environments, we can reduce the amount of runoff and burden on the municipal infrastructure that struggles to handle the increasing runoff as development flourishes and severe weather events occur with greater frequency. The EPA has recently recognized that green infrastructure can be a more expedient and cost effective way to handle this urban problem when compared to digging up exisitng combined sewer lines and splitting them up: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/gi_action_strategy.pdf.

In addition to aleviating stormwater issues, green roofs can keep ambient temperatures lower through evapotranspiration, which translates to lower cooling loads for the buildings in our urban environments and keeps everyone's carbon footprint a little smaller.

If you're interested in learning more about the costs, benefits and implications of green roofs, there are places to go to learn from the experts. One such event is coming up soon in Baltimore April 30-May 2.

The details:
•1000+ green roof professionals
•Trade show with 75+ exhibitors showcasing green roof products and services
•World-wide experts on issues related to policy, design and research
•Opening Reception and Awards of Excellence Luncheon
•Green roof training courses
•Continuing Education Credits
•Baltimore green roof tours
•Bookstore of green roof books
Register at: http://www.greenroofs.org/

Baseball Goes Silver…but There’s Still Work to Be Done

Last night was Major League Baseball’s opening day and the first game of the season just so happened to be in my home town at the brand new Nationals Stadium. I managed to score tickets to both opening night and the exhibition game the night before. I am happy to report that the Nats won both the exhibition game (versus the Orioles) and also beat the Braves on opening night!

HOK designed the stadium, and I must say, the designers did a fabulous job. The stadium is fantastic! A tremendous leap from RFK, and as an ex-Marylander it pains me to say it, but this place far surpasses Camden Yards.

One of the greatest things about the new stadium is that it’s achieved LEED Silver – it is the first LEED certified ballpark. This is an amazing accomplishment!

After spending a couple of evenings at the stadium, there were a few things I noticed that the owners/managers might want to work on to make the facility even more green:

• As a LEED facility, there is no smoking permitted inside the stadium; however, there is a dedicated smoking zone immediately outside the park. This is located right where you have to walk by to get to the gate to get in – lovely to walk past a haze of smoke. The location of the smoking enclosure is also an exit – lovely to walk through a haze of smoke and across a field of cigarette butts on the way out.
• There are recycling bins all over the stadium; however, there is not one next to every trash can, and as far as I am aware, there is no additional signage, announcements, or other reminders to fans to recycle their beer bottles.
• The beer vendors sell their wares in what at first glance appear to be plastic cups, but if you look closer, they are actually compostable cups made from corn. Very cool, except that they are either being thrown in the plastic recycling bin or in the trash, neither of which gets the cup composted.
• The ladies rooms have dual flush toilets, but the only signage is a teeny tiny little up and down arrow on the toilet flushing lever. Unless you already are familiar with flushing up for #1, it’s extremely likely that you will flush down. Additional signage or announcements might help this.

Again, many props to the designers, construction professionals, and visionaries that helped bring this great stadium to DC. I sincerely hope that as operations continue, the facility will continue to meet and surpass expectations as a green facility.

If it’s Brown, Flush it Down!

Our office just got dual-flush handles for the toilets in the ladies room – hooray! If you flush down, it uses 1.6 gallons of water; an up-flush uses only 1.1 gallons – a savings of half a gallon per flush.

This is great – in our office of 150 people, there are approximately 75 women…that’s a lot of toilet flushing! If you figure each of the 75 women use the toilet three times per day, with three 1.6 gallon flushes, this equates to 360 gallons of water per day. If we all modify our behavior to two up-flushes and one down, this is a total of 285 gallons per day – a savings of 75 gallons per day. Over a year, this is nearly 20,000 gallons of water saved in our office alone!

Growing up in a household with a well and septic system, I am very familiar with the concept of “if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down!” I can definitely remember to flush down for #2, BUT remembering to flush up for #1 is MUCH harder than I expected. I think I’m remembering only about 50% of the time (even with the little sign there). This is going to take some time to retrain my muscle memory!!

The Bottled Water Alternative

"Americans send about 38 billion water bottles a year to landfills. Considering the 1.5 million barrels of oil needed to make those bottles, the environmental impact of plastic bottle waste is truly staggering." (from Filter for Good)

So filter your water! It saves money and the environment. The low tech route? A water filter on the faucet or a filter pitcher in the fridge. A slightly higher tech version? Try the Innowave Chiller (pictured.) It filters water three times over from your tap.

And take the pledge to reduce bottled water! Go to Filter for Good and find out ways to reduce bottle waste. You can also "map the pledge" to see how many people have pledged to save bottles in your city.

The Story of Stuff

I just chanced upon a fantastic short movie called The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. You need about 20 minutes to view it, but it is really, really well done. Put on your earplugs and watch. It's one of the best explanations I've seen about the cycle of production and our role in it.

Produced by Free Range Studios.

Hosted by The Ethical Brand.

Could I Get You Something To Drink?

While reading my favorite bike rag there was an advertisement for a cycling event that perplexes me, the Redlands Cycling Classic, http://www.redlandsclassic.com/. It is a road / mountain / kids / track /time trial cycling race / event. One cool thing is that often there are not enough commercial hotels to go around, so the teams stay at host family houses to lessen the demand on local hotels. Hmmm [Could be another blog, yes?]

Anyway getting back to the point, the last page of the add was for a small brewing company that I like, Sierra Nevada. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they take their impact on the food cycle very seriously. They create their electrical power from a fuel cell, they recycle their industrial waste, recover heat from their kettles and CO2 from their fermentation process, not to mention that their waste is used as feed for live stock. Check them out at http://www.sierranevada.com/environment.html.

If nothing else, their Pale Ale is delicious and they are a relatively small business. So enjoy one the next time you are out.

Deep Lake Water Cooling

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, Enwave Energy Corporation, through partial financial backing from the City of Toronto, developed the deep lake water cooling system that uses the cool energy in cold water to air-condition high-rise buildings in downtown Toronto. It currently cools 47 buildings, with the potential to cool many more. The system benefits the City by:

• reducing energy consumption by up to 90% (compared to conventional chillers)
• reducing carbon dioxide emissions
• improving the water supply by using new intake pipes that are deeper
• investing in a corporation in which the City is a shareholder

How does this work exactly? Enwave's three intake pipes draw water (4 degrees Celsius) from 5 kilometers off the shore of Lake Ontario at a depth of 83 meters below the surface. Naturally cold water makes its way to the City's John Street Pumping Station. There, heat exchangers facilitate the energy transfer between the icy cold lake water and the Enwave closed chilled water supply loop.

The water drawn from the lake continues on its regular route through the John Street Pumping Station for normal distribution into the City water supply. Enwave uses only the coldness from the lake water, not the actual water, to provide the alternative to conventional air-conditioning.

When I first heard about this initiative in Toronto, I was shocked. Shocked as in ... why are we not doing this everywhere?!! Seems like a logical move for all cities next to large bodies of water, say Cleveland, Chicago, etc. How can we get organizations, energy companies, city government officials, etc. to take a harder look at our cities and start investing in "Energy Independence?" Yes, there is a major initial investment involved, but it seems like such a win-win scenario in the long term. Let's start a letter writing campaign and make this happen!

Greening the Office Resources

One of the listservs I subscribe to had a discussion about green office– many subscribers threw in ideas of where to look for resources. While there were tons of suggestions from several different people, I’ve compiled some of the ones that I found most relevant/widely applicable:

• Green Practices Guide - List of facts, practices you can do, and links to resources for each of the following categories: transportation; waste; coffee breaks and lunches; cleaners; water consumption; energy; and responsible shopping
• Green Office Checklist – List of general practices for employees and overall office operations
• The Twin Cities Green Guide: Green Office – Ideas for reducing waste, better office design, resource ideas
• Green Office Guide – Click on the “green office – see how” for a fun clickable diagram
• Green Office Guide – list of opportunities including lighting; office equipment; paper products; heating and cooling; water; cars and parking; and “other”
• “Green at Work” Guide - Document sharing ideas of simple changes regarding facilities, office supplies, recycling, equipment use, meetings, and other day-to-day workplace activities
• Greening Your Office and Saving Money – ideas on waste reduction recycling
• Guidelines for Greening Offices – Includes suggested goals for greening the office along with other info on environmental pollution.

Water Conservation and LEED

....Again, I love LEED and the USGBC because without them we would not be writing about a lot of the 'stuff' we are talking about here. That being said I have recently had a frustrating experience in calculating our water usage on a project.

Very early in the project the engineers suggested designing a cistern to collect rain water from the roof, condensate from the air handlers and environmental rooms, and the backwash of specialty equipment. Since this water should be relatively clean they wanted to use is as make-up water for the cooling tower, as opposed to irrigation. [A few weeks ago I wrote a note about how much water electrical plants use, so hold on to your hat.] For our ~280,000sf lab project we are estimating that the cooling towers will require 8.5MILLION gallons of water per year. [Don't think your 500,000sf office building is any better by the way.] The cistern collecting water from the three sources listed above should collect ~2million gallons per year. Even though this is a 24% reduction in our cooling tower usage, it does not count towards our water efficiency credits under the LEED 2.2 rating system. Fear not, we are going to get at least a 40% reduction by using low flow fixtures and the like, but this seems a bit odd to me.

All of this being said I am going to try and explain some of the stuff in the previous paragraph. [Disclaimer, I am a designer not an engineer so please correct me on my technical errors.]

A cooling tower is essentially a big radiator on top of a building. It's sole purpose is to reject heat from the building to facilitate the refrigerant cycle enabling the 68 degree, low humidity environment we have become addicted to.

Roof run off is pretty easy to understand. Rain falls, it hits the roof, goes into a roof drain, and normally goes to a storm sewer in the street. There is growing concern over this because in large urban areas this leads to two major problems. First the water table never gets replenished. All of the water goes into the sewer instead of percolating back into the ground. This was a huge problem a few years ago in places like New Jersey where there was a drought. Everybody kept watering their fields and lawns and such. All of a sudden the water wells for the public water supply were dry and there was no water to drink let alone take a bath. Second the water is diverted into major waterways such as streams and rivers. This water is warmer and flows more quickly than normal, so it destroys sensitive habitats and accelerates erosion downstream.

Condensate water is water that condenses on the cold mechanical equipment in the building. Most large buildings have air handling units [AHU] to push the air around to all of the space in a building. These AHUs have coils in them that are either hot or cold depending on the weather outside. In most office building and such, you are cooling almost year round due to the heat gain from the people, equipment, lighting, and other heat sources from within the building. [By the way this is a pretty energy efficient way to do it. Many of the buildings you see every day have DX units for heating and cooling which are much less energy efficient.]

Certain equipment, especially in lab buildings, are backwashed to clean the filters. Think of a Britta filter on your kitchen sink, but instead of wanting a glass of water you need tens of gallons per minute. Obviously that little filter would need to be replaced very frequently. So in lab buildings instead of replacing those filters they backwash them to clean the filters out. That 'reject water' is usually put into the sanitary sewer, refer to the roof run off paragraph above to see why this is an issue.

Tossing millions of gallons of water into the air is not great, but that is where we are today. Even if we are not going to get a coveted LEED point for cisterns we should still try to conserve water. Oh, by the way there are cooling towers available that reclaim the evaporated water and recycle most of the water. But like most cool, pun intended, building technologies they are only widely available in Europe, right now.

Our Contributions to Earth's 8th Continent

I just read an incredibly disturbing article...Earth's Eighth Continent (http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/11/21/PacificGarbagePatch/). This describes a giant patch of trash out in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas! Unbelievable.

This made me think about MY contributions to the giant floating trash heap: I do recycle and I do not litter, but sometimes despite my/our best efforts, items don't always end up in the right place.

Some important things we can do in both the workplace and at home (please add your ideas, too):

• Properly sort recyclables so that they don't end up at the dump
• Ensure our service providers (both office cleaning folks and the waste companies) dispose of our waste in the appropriate ways
• Pick up all remnants from trash day
• Secure trash and recyclables in bags or bins so wind doesn't send it into the storm drains or nearby streams
• Pick up trash out on the street/in our backyards/wherever
• Purchase items in bulk or items with no/minimal packaging
• Reduce consumption...which means less trash!

A few simple steps will at least help slow the growth of the Pacific trash heap.

Keeping the Green Momentum

The first step in green building is starting with a beautiful, healthy, energy & water efficient, overall high performance building.

Many LEED projects have come on line to date and have had a chance to 'prove' themselves in the marketplace. While many are lauded in the media for delivering the results promised, there are still many others that aren't delivering. Why not?

There are several answers, but here are the top two that I see the most often:

1. Often building occupants end up using a space in a different manner than it was designed for. If people are sharing offices meant for single occupant use, or using spaces designated as meeting/conference rooms as office space, or partitioning open office space, then some of the benefits of 'green' features such as occupant controls, daylighting and views may lose their efficacy. Building in the flexibility and the capacity to change/shift/expand contract/move/transform in a space while still maintaining the environmental quality to maximize the workspace for occupants is key. It can not only help maintain quality of workplace, but can save money in alterations and reorganization.

2. Another hugely influencing factor on the performance of green buildings is operations and maintenance. While the typical LEED charrette is doing a great job of bringing the architects, owners, engineers and even contractors to the table early on, it is very rare that facility operators are included in the discussion. Building staff have much to contribute to the optimization of building use and performance and their involvement in the creative, integrated thought process can help the team make useful decisions about where to invest green building capital. Continuing education and training for facility managers and their staff can also ensure consistent quality of operations as well as the energy savings the building was designed to achieve.

The market has evolved to a point where we are labelling the environmental attributes of new construction and major renovations with a LEED plaque (or Green Globes, etc), but we haven't yet begun to address the same level of accountability in operations.

Food for thought:

In the UK there is a labelling program for public buildings that makes it very visible to both the tax-paying citizens and to building occupants how the building was a) designed to perform and b) how it is operated. See label graphic above and check out this site for more information:
http://www.eplabel.org/. I have been told that there is a level of accountability derived when the Minister from some department or other has to host their colleagues in the building and it is plainly evident if the building is underperforming.

What if we developed some system for accountability as well? We give green building tours as part of the Education and Outreach credit in LEED, what if we had to show tour guests our actual energy bills and occupant survey results? What if we had to report building performance back to the USGBC every year in order to maintain certification - and it was posted on their website?

I am really fascinated by the idea of accountability - in taking it beyond green design and construction. I would love to hear thoughts on what this might look like.

Thanks!

My number one super-enviro soap box!

I think it should be illegal to flush toilets and urinals with potable water (for all new construction).

We have already seen conflict between states on water rights issues and if you think energy is a nasty environmental crisis, chew on this: we can live with less energy – or none if we have to – but we are going to be in really bad shape if we have to start fighting over drinking water.

As more jurisdictions start to struggle with water issues, projects design teams and owners are looking into water saving fixtures which is a really economical way to achieve big environmental impact. Yes, there are bigger water guzzlers out there than buildings, but you don’t have to be one of them.

Everybody should be doing it:

A good first start is to use a lot less water in your building, ultra low flush urinals (.125 gallon per flush) and water-free urinals may require minor renovation, but any project can switch out the flush valves on their wall mounted WCs for dual flush valves. These cost about $15-20 each, take only a few minutes to install and will pay for themselves in less than a year through water and sewage savings. If you have never used one before, these are a great alternative to low flush toilets because you still get a full flush when you push the lever down (solid flush), and only a half flush when you push the lever up (liquid flush). The full-flush capability helps allay maintenance worries and it provides building occupants an opportunity to participate in the ‘greening’ process of the building.

Faucets are another great opportunity as aerators are pretty inexpensive. If you have the means, sensors and timers can also reduce consumption. There are some really stellar showerheads on the market these days that aerate the water so that you get a full pressure shower experience with flow rates in the 1.5 and 1.75 range.

Through smart selection of fixtures, building can save over 50% of their potable water use for sewage conveyance. Look at your water and sewer bill and do the math.

The next step:

So maybe you don’t think you could treat your own sewage on site but more and more projects are investing in this effort, such as the Solaire, a 293-unit residential building in New York City. The entire water treatment system, designed by American Water’s Applied Water Management Group, has a footprint of just over 2,000 sf and treats 25,000 gallons per day. Proof that projects can address sewage treatment even in dense urban environments (NYC).

One particularly beautiful way to treat sewage is through Eco-Machines – organic landscape elements that serve as on-site water treatment systems. Recently featured at Greenbuild, John Todd Ecological Design is able to restore natural environments as well as treat effluence (http://www.toddecological.com/). They have also incorporated an agricultural element into some projects – very interesting.

Also check out Pliny Fisk’s Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (http://www.cmpbs.org/) – they have a beautiful living machine that treats sewage on site.

Natural Systems International worked with the Sidwell Friends School to create a constructed wetland that treats all their sewage on site and reduces potable water use by 90%. It also incorporates stormwater retention (with beautiful rain chains to channel water down the side of the building) and a biology pond for student learning. The Sidwell Friends School offers more proof that you can treat sewage on site in a dense urban environment (Washington DC): http://www.sidwell.edu/about_sfs/greenbuilding.asp.

There are beautiful examples of beautiful, natural water treatment systems that enhance the aesthetic and functional appeal of building projects. I would love to hear about others if anyone can refer me to them.

Thanks

Drought Kills Trees

Tim's post made me think of a letter I received in the mail yesterday from my arborist. Yes, I am a nerd and have an arborist, but only because I love the tree that blocks the southern exposure to my house (and masks my bedroom from the neighbors) and was seriously concerned that it would fall over.

Past my nerdiness/love of my tree: The arborist's letter reminded me that the drought isn't affecting just people and oysters in Georgia, it's affecting the trees all over the U.S. So, for all of you business (and home) owners, be sure to invest some extra TLC in your trees so that they continue to provide carbon sequestering and natural cooling powers!

Here are some tips:

• Watering. 1-2 inches per week in the root zone. It's better to water more at one time than for short periods daily.


• Soil care. Fertilizer is our friend. My husband found a fun organic fertilizer made of worm poo at Target.


• Integrated Pest Management. Using horticultural oils to suffiate pests is much more environmentally friendly than crop dusting (or letting your trees die).


• Pruning. If you haven't already done so, pruning will help reduce the impacts of snow, ice, and wind damage during the winter months.
  

Happy tree caring!

Save Water By Turning Off The Lights?

I know it sounds funny, but it’s true. I didn’t realize how critical water was in the energy cycle until I was talking to a friend of mine from Atlanta a few weeks ago. I was stating that I thought it was ironic that the oyster farmers on the Florida and Alabama coast were so adamant about maintaining the water flow from Lake Lanier while 5 million people at the top of the mountain could be without water in just a few months. Living in Washington, that’s what was on the news. However the root of the issue is not the oyster farmers, it’s the power plants between Atlanta and the coast that need the water for cooling. These are fossil fuel plants, that need a relatively small amount of water for steam, but a tremendous amount for cooling.

So what’s my point? The following graph is one we are familiar with, only about 3.5% of the water on the earth is potable. This next one is the kicker though….

….while the design community is pushing waterless urinals and low flow faucets, almost half of the water used in this country is going up in smoke, or steam as the case may be.

I always thought the water in a power plant was for steam and that they were essentially recycling that steam all the time. I never realized how cavaleir power providers were with water. So using less electricity can save water too.

For lots of graphs about water use go to, http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/11916858.
The second graph I found at, http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blog/archive/2007/05.
…and this is what the government says about our water use too, http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2004/circ1268/pdf/circular1268.pdf. Check out the graph on page 11. It is the same information in the graph above, but with pictures...