Sustainable Schmidt

Roof Gardens

schmidt — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:10:50 +0000

In dense cities such as San Francisco, roof gardens are becoming an increasing popular way to go green. In fact, we are exploring options for some roof spaces available on apartment buildings in the Tenderloin & Mission districts and plan to publish our preliminary research soon.

Design Ecology offers a variety of gardening services and water saving devices. Live Roof is a more sophisticated and popular roof option using engineering techniques to use a minimum amount of soil, save the most amount water, and be readily available to most buildings (even those on slopes). Furthermore, the plants come pre-grown so once installed, it’s ready to go.

In addition to the live gardens available for roof space, native gardens are also available. Native gardens are unique because they promote natural wildlife including insects and birds (10 – 50 times as many compared to non-native). Most likely, this is the type of garden that will be on the roof of our buildings. A few companies that offer quality native plants and trees are the Buckeye Nursery and Central Coast Wilds.

In South Boston, one of the first all green structures made was the Macallen building. You can check out a review here of the building, and make sure to look out for the amazing rooftop garden!

So if you are looking to use that empty space on the roof of your house, know that you have the option to build an eco-friendly garden!

Health club rooftop garden - San Francisco, California

Sustainable Flooring Options

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:08:17 +0000

There are many options for sustainable flooring on the market right now. All these locations provide “reclaimed wood” meaning that they do not cut down trees but rather purchase or take used wood and refurbish it. Earth Source offers a wide variety of woods and is based in the Bay Area. Green Waste Recycle Yard is also a Bay Area company which allows you to recycle your own tree and shrub and use credit to buy their recycled products such as lumber or mulch. One main attraction of the reclaimed wood is its age and durability. Other companies such as Restoration Timber, North Cal. Wood Products, and Wood Anchor, offer a variety of woods some of which are restored in an exotic way for various purposes. One company, Timber Tech, not only reclaims the wood, but also transports it and restores it through environmentally friendly methods. Some companies such as East Teak Fine Hardwoods and The Reclaimer focus on specific woods such as teak wood and Douglas fir, respectively. Because of its old age and slow growth the wood gains different colors and better stability.

Other products for sustainable flooring indoors include Showercork, which is made from 100% renewable raw materials, and organic carpet made by Corniche Carpet Mills by only using jute and latex.

If outdoors, products such as Airostone Corp, GraniteCrete, and TerraPave, each offer different types of sustainable pathways for small or large scale purposes. Each have different designs and are compressed to last a long time.

Underwater video of the Gulf Disaster

schmidt — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:16:56 +0000

The gulf is fucked…

Live Streaming Video of the Gulf Oil Leak

schmidt — Fri, 21 May 2010 23:31:57 +0000

Oil is used to build our homes, take construction material to and from, heat, cool, power… if you do not think this has to do with building homes, your wrong.

Free TV : Ustream

Ever wonder how solar panels are made?

schmidt — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:17:03 +0000

World’s Toilet Crisis

schmidt — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:54:24 +0000

What we in the west take for granted every day, people in the developing world have to struggle with. What are the long term effects so many thousands of millions of people living with out toilets?

In an exclusive sneak peek from this coming season of Vanguard, correspondent Adam Yamaguchi investigates one of the world’s biggest public health crises: the 2.6 billion people living without toilets. The episode premieres on Current TV on June 9.

Green Building 101

schmidt — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:10:07 +0000

Happy Earth Day

schmidt — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:38:57 +0000

bottled water blows

schmidt — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:21:56 +0000

Another great piece from the Story of Stuff Project and Annie Leonard. Props to my friend Carlo who sent me this a bit ago.

2010 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners

schmidt — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:30:47 +0000

It is time again for the Goldman Environmental Awards – honoring global grassroots activists. North America winner Lynn Henning is profiled below. She is a leader in the movement to hold factory farms accountable for the environmental damage they do, and she follows in the proud tradition of last years winner, Maria Gunnoe, whose crusade to end mountaintop removal for coal mining continues. Great article in today’s Chronicle.