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Guest Speaker: Natalie Gass, Sustainability Program Manager of Dunedin, Fl. Q&A.

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Guest Speaker: Natalie Gass, Sustainability Program Manager of Dunedin, Fl. Q&A.

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Here are the answers Ms. Gass provided to the questions we sent her.

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Sustainable City Project - Mount Vernon School GA - questions answered

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Extension Info About Mass Timber Buildings (Connection to Lindsey Sinisi's Zoom)

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Extension Info About Mass Timber Buildings (Connection to Lindsey Sinisi's Zoom)

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Here is Ms. Sinisi's presentation from the Zoom call. Some of her ideas were about Urban Design Concepts like Mixed use buildings and areas, being mindful of the height of buildings so that they do not cast big shadows on streets, allowing for sunlight, using green and blue spaces.

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We love solar, but our development has a deed restriction prohibiting solar panels on roofs. We can't wait to do a solar driveway instead and help the planet while saving us money!

We are so excited to run our home on a driveway that will light the way to family game night and save the planet! We cannot even imagine the joy our Christmas decorations will bring.

Roads cover a big chunk of the land on Earth. Generating power from them is ingenious! Look forward to Solar Roadways' production for commercial use.

Solar power has intrigued me since I was a kid when I helped my baby sister race a mini solar powered car. The fact that we have energy being wasted on asphalt and concrete hurts the "efficient-side" of my mind and I wonder just how much the world could change with this amazing technology!

Will be very beneficial for first responders. Help to redirect traffic or even alert drivers that we are coming out of the station, not to mention not worrying about when the plow guy will come.

The idea of protecting the earth by using solar power instead of coal and fossil fuels is something I have wanted to do for some time. I was researching solar panels for my roof and found Solar Roadways. I immediately thought of their technology for my driveway. A perfect solution for the needs of my house and the neighborhood. I am very excited for the prospect of having Solar Roadways develop a plan and implement their technology to help me reduce my carbon footprint.

This is a great opportunity for each parking lot, side walk, or playground to make the buildings they are next to a source of clean energy. An amazing invention to set the future of the world on a path to such great eco-friendly promise.

We at the self-build in St. Werburghs Bristol UK would love to improve our community further by installing Solar Roadways to our cul-de-sac so the kids can play in a safer environment and we can generate power. At the same time, we can show how we all can do small things that make a big difference whilst at the same time we can save money! Win Win.

Excited about having a negative carbon footprint!

It's time for every citizen to be accountable and be responsible to save the environment. (Actions speak Louder than words!!)

Solar panels that allow people to walk on are a perfect fit for our Marina Pod solutions. We are eagerly waiting for the first available solutions.

The panels will generate power to light the accessible parking area and pathways of our Nature Center. The ability to have blue lights in the panel will enable us to identify these spaces for our users who need fully accessible parking, improving safety and efficiency!

Exciting product which we hope can become the standard everywhere and save energy!

I have been following your progress for a while now, ever since I was shown your viral video. This may be one of the best ideas to take better advantage of the wasted space on our roadways, not to mention reduce wasted spending and resources on road salt that hurts the environment, time spent putting up unnecessary power poles and hiding utilities in the road and away from animals and the elements, and reduce or eliminate construction zones and protect lengths. In Wisconsin we joke that we have two seasons: Winter and Construction. How nice would it be to return to our regular 4 seasons and get rid of construction season.

Your viral video showed all the fancastic applications and improvements your product would make, and I got excited about every one of them. In my personal and family quest to take our house off the grid, either through solar shingles, house batteries, and electric vehicles, I think a Solar Freakin' Driveway would be a great addition that would add value and be fun to have, all while reducing our carbon footprint. Thank you!

Given the steep incline of our Homeowners Associating roads, we have not been able to get year-round access to all lots due to snow removal issues. We are looking forward to bringing Solar Roadways to our HOA and our member's driveways.

I think solar roads would greatly offset the much-needed supply gap in Nigeria.

I believe your solar roads will help add to what my business is trying to achieve as well! We believe that there are better ways to be able to eat healthier, and also to be able to be conscious of the way we get power to be able to help reduce the environmental impact on the earth.

We are always looking for ways to reduce costs in our subdivision and are at the place where the road needs to be replaced soon. This would be an excellent choice for us.

We at Yoga Nature love the idea of welcoming clients to our yoga retreat sanctuary with a softly lit (customizable!) driveway and parking lot and encouraging them to explore the grounds at night without the need for harsh traditional outdoor lighting. Never having to plow and shovel snow again means we can spend more time focusing on our business and clients!

I want to use SR panels on my driveway, which is very steep, and we get a lot of snow. It would make it much easier in the winter if we could melt ice on the driveway with solar panels. I am so excited and think you guys have a brilliant product which is going to help us save the world as well as save me from breaking bones when I slip and slide on my driveway.

As we at Snedicor's Green Earth Cleaners continue to move our 101-year-old dry cleaning business away from the use of petrochemicals and into eco-friendly cleaning processes, we are excited about the prospect of building ecofriendly, energy-positive parking lots and sidewalks at our new cleaning facility!

Due to the amount of crime that has taken place in our back alleys, we have worked hard with the City of Phoenix in developing a pilot program called Gated Alley Program (GAP). GAP will remove trash service from the alley and move it to the front of the house leaving a big piece of land behind our properties with gates at both access points restricting access to unwanted foot, bike, and vehicle traffic. What better use of this land then to install Solar Roadways® that produces clean energy while providing an aesthetically pleasing surface for neighbors to enjoy! Arizona has plenty of sun to take advantage of and we hope revolutionize the use of alleys across the Country!

Our driveway has a ton of sun, and our electric bills in FL are out of control. We'd love to replace our driveway pavers with something to help us lower those bills AND our carbon footprint.

Solar Roadways brings innovation that is the perfect fit for BlackSheep Development's sustainability goals for their buildings and village development.

I like Solar Roadways panels because I want to help this planet and reduce waste of energy. I am also intrigued by the idea of being able to plug my electric car into the driveway 🙂

My roof is too weak for solar panels; my driveway needs to be redone and it gets beat up by the sun all day; I have a garden next to my driveway and I don't like that every time we use a blower or it's windy, all the asphalt dust flies on my edibles and on my soil; my one year old keeps on trying to eat pieces of asphalt. I want to support Solar Roadways®!

Driveways are large surfaces, which if harnessed by products like Solar Roadways panels could likely produce a considerable amount of a home's energy needs, while also providing high quality, long lasting surface.

I love the idea of never having to shovel my driveway again and the fact that the panels would power my home

Anything we can do to work with our planet instead of against it... just imagine if we all had solar Roadways! The difference it would make in the health of our planet.

I believe in better ways of doing things. SRPs represent just some of the ways we can do things better. Safer roads while generating more sustainable, cost effective electricity that, I hope will benefit all someday. Keep it up, we are rooting for you. Hopefully Trump and the DOT will start using this to make our roads safer.

We love solar, but our development has a deed restriction prohibiting solar panels on roofs. We can't wait to do a solar driveway instead and help the planet while saving us money!

Solar Roadways is leading us into the energy future with new solar technology. I am inspired by Solar Roadways commitment to revisioning roads to build a sustainable, and secure energy future.

For greener energy, fun designs for kids, and NEVER SHOVELING SNOW AGAIN!

We were early contributors to Solar Roadways Crowd funding site with a tote bag to prove it! We want to install this product so mo re people will see it and demand it. We want to be one of the agents of change! Decentralize power production - Power to the People!!

Long Iowa winters, restrictive covenants on rooftop solar, a geothermal heat pump and an electric car sitting in the garage with a plenty large driveway with the typical suburban basketball hoop make your Solar Roadways the perfect solution.

We would like to be a renewable energy house. Solar shingles, solar panels and driveway in the near future.

I am very interested in how the Solar Road Panels can be used for lighted walkways and driveways. I think that they can be used in a creative landscaping scheme. I'm also curious about how viable the generation of energy is in the Pacific Northwest considering how often it rains in this part of the country. And I love the creative innovation they represent. Take me into the future!

I so look forward to saving money on electricity AND not having to shovel snow in the winter! Plus, the lighting will make my patio look spectacular. All without putting holes in my roof.

Solar Independence for the future of our planet and survival

Solar Roadways is the most exciting product to fight climate change and save money that I have seen! It's versatile applications and technological possibilities are truly remarkable and offer an inspiring peak at a possibly bright future!

We want to be as self-sufficient as possible and keep this planet GREEN!

We want to use these panels to lower our bills, get rid of the need for shoveling ever again, add value and fun to our home, and make it possible for us to live without energy bills and to live without using more fossil fuels!

To help power our home and being in Canada having a heated driveway to reduce or get rid of the need to shovel HUGE BONUS!!!

I would like to maximize my solar capacity.

My driveway would be an ideal application and I very much look forward to this technology!

Hoping to help the environment by using alternative to fossil fuels.

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Welcome to Solar Roadways® This video, Solar Freakin Roadways, was created in 2014 by a wonderful volunteer. It's had over [...]

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Why turning cities into 'sponges' could help fight flooding | CNN

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For over a decade, Kongjian Yu has designed nature-based "sponge cities" intended to soak up and retain stormwater before releasing it back into the environment.

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Why turning cities into 'sponges' could help fight flooding | CNN

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For over a decade, Kongjian Yu has designed nature-based "sponge cities" intended to soak up and retain stormwater before releasing it back into the environment.

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Log in to EdPuzzle to watch this video. (Also in Greenspaces)

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Edpuzzle video lesson. Make any video your lesson. Take a video and crop it, add your voice or embed questions at any point.

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Eva Pacheco - Eva Pacheco, a local crochet teacher in the town of Alhaurin de la Torre in Malaga, Spain, used her and her students’ skills to make colorful…

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Log in to EdPuzzle for this one. Learn how greenspaces are being used to help control flooding.

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Edpuzzle video lesson. Make any video your lesson. Take a video and crop it, add your voice or embed questions at any point.

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An overview of Watersheds

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8 Sustainable Transport Solutions to Improve Mobility in the US

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The transport sector is responsible for releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, greatly contributing to global warming. For this reason, it has become imperative and as urgent as ever before to find more sustainable transport solutions to ensure a greener future.

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These animations are designed to be a basic introduction to sustainable design concepts, created for the general public and students of all ages.

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Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes

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These animations are designed to be a basic introduction to sustainable design concepts, created for the general public and students of all ages.

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Check out this city designed from the "underground" up. They have an interesting way of managing trash (rubbish) that does not involve garbage trucks.

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Built with smart technologies very much a part of its DNA, it sits adjacent to Seoul, already regarded as one of the hi-tech capitals of the world. So has the experimental city, dubbed by some as a "city-in-a-box" because of its reliance on technology, been a success?

Building a city from scratch offers challenges as well as opportunities.

In South Korea, part of that challenge is to deliver a markedly smarter city than Koreans are used to.

Seoul's underground railway already offers high-speed wi-fi; it is easy to send emails or watch videos while walking along the high street; there are electronic panels at the exits of railway stations, revealing the waiting times for connecting buses; and companies like Samsung are already working on linking household devices to your mobile phone.

So what else can a city like Songdo offer?

Clever rubbish

On the technological front, a brand new city offers the chance to build some futuristic hardware.

Songdo has been designed with sensors to monitor temperature, energy use and traffic flow. These sensors can - in theory - alert you, personally, when your bus is due. Or let the local authority know about any problems.

A lot of these innovations are designed with the environment in mind - charging stations for electric cars, for example, or a water-recycling system that prevents clean drinking water being used to flush office toilets.

The waste disposal system is also impressive - or it would be if you could see it. Because there are no rubbish trucks trawling the streets or vast bins dotted around blocks of flats. Instead, all household waste is sucked directly from individual kitchens through a vast underground network of tunnels, to waste processing centres, where it's automatically sorted, deodorised and treated to be kinder to the environment.

In future, some of this household waste will be used to produce renewable energy, but - like many of Songdo's technical innovations - it isn't fully operational yet.

And that's because the city is currently less than half full; less than 20% of the commercial office space is occupied, and the streets, cafes and shopping centres still feel largely empty. Cue challenge number two.

Despite being next to South Korea's main international airport, transport links into the capital itself are rudimentary, and the incentives for companies moving to a new smart city don't always outweigh the costs.

Park life

Songdo is nonetheless attracting families and young couples away from Seoul, though not necessarily for the futuristic technology or commercial district.

The city has been planned around a central park, and designed so that every resident can walk to work in the business district. Mrs Kwon moved here from Seoul three years ago and says her daily commute is a 15-minute walk across the park to her job as a translator.

"After lunch I walk with my co-workers in the park - it's an important element in my life now," she told me. "When I lived in Seoul, I had to drive to see my friends, or my son's friends; living here in Songdo, my son can ride his bike to his friends' houses and I can walk to hang out with mine. It's brought me closer to my neighbours."

While the flats are selling well and there is even construction work on new housing areas, Songdo seems to be far less appealing to the corporate market.

One or two pop-up businesses are starting to emerge spontaneously from the empty boulevards and model shop fronts. And that's the third challenge when building a city from scratch: how to create that indefinable buzz - the creative anarchy - of a big bad urban centre?

As Jonathan Thorpe, CIO for the American developer Gale International, which built Songdo, says: "It's the occupants who make a city."

"You're trying to create a diversity and a vitality that organic development creates, in and of itself," he explained, "so it's a challenge to try and replicate that in a masterplan setting. At the same time, with a masterplan you have the ability to size the infrastructure to make sure the city works - now and in 50 years' time."

But fifty years is a long time in South Korea. This is a country that seems to fuel itself on the speed of change. And who knows what Songdo will look or feel like by then.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Tomorrow's cities: Just how smart is Songdo?

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Songdo, built from scratch on reclaimed land near Seoul, is often described as the world's first smart city but has it been a success?

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Developed on a former military base, Vauban is recognized as a model for sustainable urban living. The district emphasizes energy-efficient housing, with many buildings constructed to Passivhaus standards. It promotes car-free living, extensive use of solar energy, and community participation in planning processes. The "Solar Settlement" within Vauban comprises homes that produce more energy than they consume.

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Vauban, Germany, a city district in , is the most sustainable town in Europe. The "Sun Ship" is in the Solar Settlement in Vauban ; part of why Freiburg is known as Europe's "solar city". The Solar Settlement is known internationally as the pioneering first community in the world in which all the buildings produce a positive energy balance. Buildings that generate more renewable energy than the building's occupants consume are known as plus-energy buildings. Residents in plus-energy buildings in Vauban simply sell excess energy generated by the property's solar photovoltaic (PV) panels back to the municipality (for use in other homes in the community), resulting in lower electricity bills. Rooftop solar panels provide a large share of energy for Vauban's buildings. Augmenting solar energy to provide energy to the town is a high-efficiency municipal biomass and gas cogeneration plant. Vauban's local cogeneration power plant (also known as a combined heat and power- CHP plant), in addition to Vauban's large supply of solar PV energy for Vauban, provides electricity for buildings in the town. District heating to Vauban is also supplied by the local high-efficiency Vauban CHP plant.
Residences in Vauban are either passive solar energy buildings ( that consume as much energy as they produce), or the aforementioned plus-energy buildings (producing even more energy than they consume). Homes in the Sun Ship (Das Sonnenschiff) are entirely plus-energy buildings.

Residents in Vauban primarily live in co-ops, including many plus-energy buildings. Plus-energy co-op residences are not only found in the Sun Ship, but are also found throughout Vauban.

The plus-energy home category is the highest level of energy efficient building development in the field of passive home construction. Passive home construction refers to cutting-edge green building construction practices that produce buildings with minimal energy needs.

Passive homes and buildings are almost entirely heated by passive-solar gains and technically simple heat recuperation systems. Passive buildings are popular in European cities (featured cities in Green City Times' articles - like Vauban, Germany, Vaxjo, Sweden , ), as well as many other cities that are known for cutting-edge energy efficient building construction throughout Europe.
Typical features of most passive buildings include:

well-insulated with high-quality, super-efficient insulation materials

use timber construction for the framing

are sealed airtight to keep out external weather completely, and to keep heat inside

often use renewable energy (rooftop solar PV panels and/ or geothermal heat pumps ), for heat and electricity, or use electric heat pumps and rooftop PV

have double or triple-pane windows

For a more detailed guide on passive home, as well as plus-energy building construction, please see Green City Times' article on cutting-edge energy-efficient construction practices in the Swedish city of Vaxjo.

The town of Vauban is virtually absent of all GHG emission-producing sources. Vauban is a "zero-emission" district in Freiburg, Germany.

However, Vauban is not completely emissions-free, as cars are actually allowed. Residents of Vauban can own cars and park them in town (but not necessarily in front of their homes). This is only possible if they pay quite a bit (comparable to at least $23,000 USD), for a parking spot on the outskirts of town.

Thus, the majority of residents in Vauban don't own a car, choosing instead to use the tram, cycle, or simply walk. In Vauban, roads designated for cars are very narrow. Most streets don't even have parking spaces. Plenty of space on Vauban's streets is given to bicycles, and pedestrians, as well as designated lanes for electric trams.

The urban planning techniques of "filtered permeability" and "fused grid" were implemented in the design of the municipality of Vauban. These urban planning terms refer to a town design of connected streets throughout the town, as well as plenty of pedestrian and bike paths. Ultimately, urban planning efforts in Vauban have led to cycling as the primary mode of transit.

Vauban's unique history

Vauban is a town with a radically dramatic history. A military town through WWII and into the early '90s, when the military left, Vauban's vacant buildings were inhabited by squatters. These vagabonds were the people who organized Forum Vauban, creating a revolutionary eco-community. Modern Vauban today represents the very cutting edge of sustainable living.

The following quotes from use.metropolis.org and smartcitiesdive.com nicely highlight the ecologically-focused development of Vauban:

"The district Vauban is known as a model for a sustainable ecological collectively planned urban district...On the area of an old military base a whole new district with a lot of housing spaces was be built with the participation of the citizens. The City of Freiburg responsible for the planning and development of the district-project cooperated with an extended citizen participation organized by an association called Forum Vauban.

Under guiding principles concerning different high ecological standards different environmental projects such as a co-building group and a car reducing traffic system began in 1996. The city simply gave away land at the start of the building phase. Nowadays nearly 5000 people live in Vauban - a nearly car-free, low-energy, social integrating, and sustainable [town] full of playgrounds, and its own kindergarten. All houses were built with improved low energy standard...[many homes in Vauban, as well as commercial buildings, co-op buildings are] "passive house" or "plus energy house" standard, producing more energy than they use.

A highly efficient co-generation plant (CHP) operating with wood-chips [and natural gas] is connected to the district's heating grid. Good insulation and efficient heat supply creates CO²-savings. A large number of solar collectors and photovoltaic modules were installed. The electricity needed in Vauban is produced on-site through CHP and photovoltaic [solar PV].

The ecological traffic concept reduced the number of private cars, provided good public transportation, and a car sharing system. Streets and other public spaces became playgrounds for children or other public uses." FROM - use.metropolis.org/sustainable-urban-district-vauban

The district was planned around green transportation (as with another city known as a global beacon of green urban planning, Curitiba in southern Brazil), because, besides consumption, transportation is the hardest ecological impact of development to reduce. While the district includes streets, cars hardly ever pass through, and car parking is not catered for. Residents who do own vehicles can park in a community lot on the edge of the district, unsubsidized by the car-free households.

Pedestrian and bicycle paths form a highly-connected, efficient, green transportation network with every home within walking distance of a tram stop, and all schools, businesses, and shopping centers located within walking distance. When moving into Vauban, 57% of the households that previously owned a car decided to let their car go. All in all, 70% of the inhabitants live without a car in Vauban. FROM - smartcitiesdive.com/words-most-successful-model-sustainable-urban-development

Like Vauban, Germany (but in a variety of unique ways), these world cities below are also taking the lead on climate action through novel urban planning strategies -
Paris - Curbing Auto Emissions for Cleaner Air

Olso - Climate Goals: Is Oslo Leading the Way?

San Diego - Profiles in Sustainable Cities
(and please also see the Green City Times article on Desalination for information about the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere; in Carlsbad, San Diego)

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The Most Sustainable City in Europe | Green City Times

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Vauban, Germany, a city district in , is the most sustainable town in Europe. The "Sun Ship" is in the Solar Settlement in Vauban ; part of why Freiburg is known as Europe's "solar city". The Solar Settlement is known internationally as the pioneering first community in the world in which all the buildings produce a positive energy balance.

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May give you some ideas about how to manage water in a master plan. While Chicago has a Great Lake, and you just have a river, the ideas here may give you something to consider.

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Growing Water — UrbanLab Architects blend design and research to produce progressive, site-specific buildings, spaces and places. Our projects set in motion new lifestyles, vibrant spatial experiences, and more sustainable environments.

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Freshwater has always been essential to Chicago’s health and wealth. UrbanLab’s Growing Water project envisions Chicago evolving into a model city for recycling, or “growing” 100% its rainwater by creating a series of “eco-boulevards” spread equally throughout the city. Eco-boulevards are envisioned

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Take a look at their vision. Keep in mind that this project is costing WAY more than projected, and they have not actually developed much of their plan. Some people say that this project - which is in the desert - is not really sustainable because of its location, but you may be able to learn something about sustainable design and get some ideas that you could adopt and adapt to your city's location (Metro Atlanta).

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Masdar City's vision for cities of the future is rooted in the legacy of the United Arab Emirates' esteemed leaders, who have always valued sustainability.

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100% renewable energy - Look more closely at this planned city to learn how they are implementing sustainable plans.

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Bo01, Malmö, Sweden | Urban Green-blue Grids

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Malmö is the third-largest city in Sweden, with a population of 280,000. It is perfectly situated along the straights separating Sweden from Denmark and linkin…

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Open this presentation in Kami so that you can annotate.

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Kami needs full permissions to allow a seamless integration with Google Drive and the learning management system in use

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solar-powered 'supertrees' at singapore's gardens by the bay - cnn

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Solar-powered 'supertrees' at Singapore's Gardens by the Bay - CNN

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Singapore's latest development opens this month, with imposing 50-meter-tall artificial trees towering over botanical gardens.

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This is what the future's sustainable cities could look like

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A next-generation metropolis will need to serve people and nature, while letting ecology guide its development.

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The MV Expert from Curiosity Lab who spoke about Waste Management sent this image of the MRF (Material Recovery Facility).

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It's about golf courses, but you may find some ideas for how to set up rainwater harvesting in this article.

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Your golf course could be putting rainwater to better use — here’s how

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What should your golf course be doing when it rains, and why should you care? Because getting creative could determine golf’s future.

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7 ways to power your home with renewable energy | E.ON

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Choosing renewable energy sources for your electricity and heating can make your home more sustainable. So we’ve explored the different ways you can power your home with renewable energy.

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Now updated for 2019!

Want to hear some good news? According to the World Green Building Trends 2018 report from Dodge Data and Analytics, green building is officially a "global trend" and energy conservation is a top priority for people all over the planet. In the U.S., the shift is being driven by consumer demands, followed by environmental regulations, and healthier buildings. Even better - the trend is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. In fact, the percentage of firms expecting to have more than 60% of their projects certified green has grown from 16% in 2016 to 32% in 2018. Building pros report that they expect that percentage to grow to 45% by 2021. With more people building green, more people are also developing innovative, new, green materials to take advantage of this growing marketplace opportunity.

A Renaissance of Natural Materials

Fine homes have always made use of natural materials. But these days you can find many products and techniques incorporating tried and true materials in surprising ways. Many of these techniques were used historically and are making a come back.

Rammed Earth

Earth construction is one of the oldest durable techniques for building structures. Think Great Wall of China! These days, it can be seen in luxury homes creating dramatic and durable walls which resemble sedimentary rock.

Rammed earth walls (or even floors) can be used as thermal storage, allowing the sun to warm them in the day and then slowly release the warmth in the cool evenings.

This low-carbon technique uses forms in which soil and binder is placed in layers and then pressure is applied to create a hard and durable surface. And now, Watershed Materials have put this technique into their Watershed Block, which is a replacement for conventional concrete masonry. These blocks use waste materials from quarries to create a low or even zero cement blocks which can be installed by any mason.

Straw Bale

Everything old is new again! The pioneers used straw bale construction for their homes in the Great Plains. Now this technique has been updated for the 21st century.

Straw bales are made from the waste of the agricultural industry. It is a substitute for lumber and still sequesters carbon. Just be aware that the walls will be thicker than a conventional stick frame home. These thick well insulated walls offer a very high R Value. Contrary to what you might believe, straw bale homes are resistant to fire and can match your favorite aesthetic.

David Arkin, director of the nonprofit California Straw Building Association (CASBA), sums it up "People will be impressed with how comfortable these homes are. The buildings keep warmer in winter and cooler in summer."

It's not just the speedy growth rate that makes bamboo sustainable. For construction purposes, bamboo can be harvested up to every 3 years; in contrast, trees can only be harvested every 25-50 years (depending on the tree species). The rise in popularity of bamboo has helped allow forests to regenerate, and will continue to do so.

Bamboo is a sustainable alternative in many different applications, such as tiles, trim & flooring, lumber, countertops, decking.

Wool Insulation

There are a number of different companies now offering sheep wool insulation. At Black Mountain USA, insulation can be purchased in rolls and batts, much like fiberglass insulation. Yet wool has a 10% greater insulating factor and is able to absorb, retain and release moisture and still keep its thermal properties. You will be warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

Caragreen explains how wool can improve your indoor air quality by pulling harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide out of the air. They carry Havelock Wool insulation in batt and also loose fill. Wool is also naturally flame resistant, sound deadening, non-toxic, and biodegradable at end of life.

The manufacturing process for wool insulation, is sustainable in production, safer in installation (no "space suits" needed), superior in its useful life. And when it reaches end of life, wool insulation is compostable.

Solar Is Gorgeous Green

Tesla Solar Tiles

Renewable Clean Energy with Curb Appeal

Gone are the days of bolting dinner-table-sized panels to your roof in order to experience the benefits of solar energy. Solar roof shingles are small, custom shingles designed to blend in almost seamlessly with traditional roof tiles. Not only are these shingles aesthetically appealing, but they function both as solar panels and as durable roof tiles - so your roof will still be protected from the elements as it absorbs sunlight for energy use.

You may have heard of Tesla Solar Tiles, although these are not the only options in the market. As you can see from the photo below, they certainly make for an attractive roof, and especially when paired with a battery, such as the Tesla Powerwall, providing your energy needs.

Solar Shingle Benefits

Relatively easy installation - These shingles are easier to install than traditional solar panels. The shingles are installed over new or existing roof sheathing, and an electrician or roofer wires the units together and into the home's electrical system.

can cut installation costs in half in some areas. 27 states and many cities offer more incentives that can further lower solar installation costs. Check out the Tax-subsidized - 350 solar singles, the average amount for residential applications, could decrease the home's electricity bill by 40-60 percent. In addition, federal, state, and local incentives Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE) , a free online resource funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, for more information and area-specific incentives.

Perfect for roofs already under maintenance - Eco-conscious homeowners that plan to re-shingle their roofs anyway are likely to find solar shingles especially appealing. Not only do solar shingles provide a source of renewable energy and energy bill cost cuts, but they also provide weatherproof protection for the roof.

oing solar doesn't have to mean cutting ties to your local electricity supply grid. Most solar shingle systems are connected to existing power supplies, which kick back into action after sundown and on particularly cloudy days. And, if your solar shingle system Potentially profitable - Since you don't need to pay for both a roof and solar panels. Pricing should come in comparable to other high-end roofing solutions. With solar shingles, ggenerates more power than is needed for the home (particularly common in sunny states), nearly 40 states will allow you to sell the unused power back to the power supply for credit.

Prefab Techniques Go Mainstream

Structural Insulation Panels (SIPs)

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are one of the most airtight, well-insulated building systems on the market today. Because of the tight seal, SIPs are great for eco-friendly building. An airtight home requires less energy for heating and cooling and allows for better control over air quality. Some SIPs are FSC-Certified, ensuring that the wood used for the panels comes from sustainably-managed forests. There are many advantages to building your home with SIPs. Here are a few.

SIPs Save Energy

Up to 40% of a home's heat loss is due to air leakage. SIPs solve this problem by creating a superior building envelope with minimal air exchange and high thermal resistance.

SIPs Save Resources

Foam and oriented strand board (OSB), the two main components of SIPs, require less energy and raw materials to produce than other building structures. SIPs have the power to reduce the waste generated during home construction to ensure the most efficient use of material.

SIPs Improve Air Quality

A home built with SIPs provides better control over indoor air quality, since the airtight building envelope minimizes or eliminates incoming unfiltered air. As for the fresh air that does enter the home - controlled ventilation filters out contaminants, toxins, and allergens while dehumidifying the air to reduce mold growth potential. In addition, SIPs do not contain VOCs or other harmful chemicals, another potential air quality risk of non-SIP builds.

SIPs Save Time

With each wall coming as a complete unit, there is no need for time consuming stick framing, insulation, etc. A complete house envelope can be built in a matter of days instead of weeks.

Grow Your Materials

Biocomposites

There was a time when it was hard to imagine new buildings utilizing weeds, mutant fruits, or invasive alien plant species as building materials. But the use of these materials, generally known as "bioplastics" or "biocomposites," is on the rise. Bioplastics are products that are derived from plant, animal, fungal, and bacterial sources - and some of these materials can now be used for construction applications. Development of new technologies means these biocomposites are becoming easier and easier to produce, and at a higher quality. When it comes to sustainable building, plant-based building materials are an incredibly exciting prospect!

Ecovative, one of the first companies in the world founded with the purpose of growing mycelium for building applications, has a few products already in the works. One of the most notable: an eco-friendly insulation material, injected between an interior and exterior wall. Get this - the material silently grows and becomes so strong, the walls need no other supporting structure! What's more, the insulation factor is better than that of fiberglass.

Another incredible product is called Myco Board, which looks and behaves like particle board but contains no wood. Not only are these boards cheaper, stronger, and lighter than traditional particleboard, they're also completely compostable - and they can be modified to repel invasive pests and molds. But perhaps the most impressive feature of Myco Boards is that they contain no harmful chemicals. Formaldehyde is all-too-common in pressed wood products - but Ecovative's mushroom-based panels are completely free of toxins.

Wood As You've Never Seen It Before

Wait! Wood isn't a new material. It's true that wood is an old standard, but it is appearing in building materials in innovative new ways. There are new ways to make use of scrap material or process the wood for longevity and strength.

The wood itself is sequestering carbon in your building, and when coupled with sustainable forestry practices can be a great choice for the planet.

Bark Siding: Durable, Natural Beautiful

You may not have heard of bark siding or bark shingles, but bark is actually a highly durable, attractive, economical, and sustainable option for siding and shingling. Bark used for building Sustainable forestry practices are reaching new heights by making use of tree bark as a building material. comes from trees that are already cut. You see, traditionally the bark is discarded as debris, burned, or in some cases used to make mulch. Using bark as a building material rescues it from this fate and provides a highly sustainable alternative to traditional siding and shingling materials.

Bark siding can last 75 to 100 years without any painting, sealant, or regular maintenance. (Unbelievable, right?) The absence of paint or stain means there's never any chemical runoff. After it's removed from the already-felled trees, bark is kiln-dried to sterilize against fungus and pests; this sterilization process involves no pesticides or other harmful chemicals. In addition, bark that is kiln-dried will never warp or shrink upon installation.

Acetylated Wood Products

Accoya offers an eco-friendly alternative to the use of toxic pressure-treated wood. Wood is modified via acetylation to create a product resistant to rot, improved in thermal insulation with better dimensional stability, and a longer lifespan.

And yet the product is gorgeous and certified non-toxic.

Mass Timber

Cross-laminated-timber (CLT) and Glue-laminated timber (glulam) are increasing being used in place of steel or concrete. With CLT, many smaller pieces of wood are glued together in layers which are perpendicular to each other. Glulam positions the grain parallel with length. These mass timber techniques (and others) result in a wood-based material with many compelling attributes.

Sustainable

Steel and concrete manufacturing are both high in carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison, sustainably sourced timber is low net carbon. Also, cross-laminated-timber makes use of smaller pieces of wood which allows for efficient usage of timber.

Strong

Mass timber has very high strength to weight ratio. This allows mass timber to perform well in seismic activity. There are even skyscrapers being built with mass timber.

Fire Resistant

When exposed to fire, the char on the outside of mass timber forms an insulating layer which protects the interior wood from damage. This allows it to retain support even in a fire.

Cost effective

Mass timber buildings are faster to construct than concrete buildings due to prefabrication of the elements offsite.

Your Home Cleans Its Own Air

Air-Purifying Wall Coverings

You're probably well aware that air filters and specific plants can help improve the quality of your home's air, but did you know how you dress your walls can have a very important impact, too? In addition to helping clear the air of contaminants, these products also help reduce your energy use since you likely won't need to run an electric air-filtering device. Eager to learn how these products work? Here are just a few examples.

AirRenew Drywall by CertainTeed

Almost all homes in the U.S. use drywall. But now, with AirRenew Essential and AirRenew M2TECH by CertainTeed, formaldehyde can pass through your paint and be converted into an inert compound by the drywall itself. The product is suitable for new construction, and for renovations, and has no reportable VOC's itself while also neutralizing formaldehyde for better indoor air quality.

Atmosphere Purifying Paint by ECOS

ECOS Paints are not only no-VOC paints, free of that "new paint" odor (polyurethane) that can cause headaches, nausea, and respiratory issues, their Atmosphere Purifying Paint has advanced VOC-filtering technology which absorbs and neutralizes chemicals, pollutants, solvents, and VOCs for improved indoor air quality. How does it work? This amazing paint contains a molecular sieve, designed to adsorb a targeted range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the atmosphere. The sieve (a non-toxic, crystalline tube) is sized to allow small molecules such as nitrogen, or oxygen to pass unimpeded, while larger molecules (organic compounds) become trapped.

Shirasu Kabe by Habitus

Shirasu Kabe is a unique plaster wall finish produced from volcanic soil in Japan, with special properties found in no other similar material. It's proven to purify the air in the room where it is applied, due to the all natural organic ceramic magma it contains. It also controls humidity; extracting indoor humidity when levels are high and releasing the same when the air is dry and humidity is low. How cool is that?

Grow Your Roof

Living Roofs

Living roofs, or green roofs, are defined by the General Services Administration (GSA) as vegetated roofs consisting of "a waterproofing membrane, growing medium (soil) and vegetation (plants) overlying a traditional roof." It's a bit of a stiff definition, but these are anything but boring.

Whether you hire a pro like LiveRoof or go for DIY, they're beautiful! The image below shows the green roof on The Goodson House (a living green demonstration building).

"Green Roof", Photo courtesy Ryan Somma, Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Benefits of Green Living Roofs

DURABILITY - Properly installed green roofs more than double the number of years typically needed before a roof must be replaced when compared to traditionally-installed roofs. A conservative analysis by the GSA puts the average life expectancy of a living roof at about 40 years, as compared to an average expectancy of 17 for a conventional roof.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY - A study published by the National Research Council of Canada showed that in the summer months, a green roof will reduce cool air loss by 70-90%, greatly reducing the demand for air conditioning. The GSA found similar efficiency figures, stating that green roofs can act as an insulating layer and reduce heat flux (transfer of heat through a building's roof) by up to 72%. Using the Green Roof Energy Calculator, co-developed by GRHC with the University of Toronto and Portland State University with funding from the US Green Building Council, you can compare the yearly energy performance of your home as is to your home's potential performance with a green roof installation.

IMPROVED AIR QUALITY - The plants living on green roofs, especially leafy plants and flowers, can capture air pollution and filter toxic gases from the air. The energy efficiency factor of green roofs also reduces demand for power, thereby decreasing the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.

NOISE REDUCTION - Peck & Associates analysis of green roof benefits showed that green living roofs have superb noise insulation, especially for low frequencies. Green roofs can reduce outside sound penetration by 40-60 decibels.

INCREASED HOME VALUE - Increased efficiency means an increase in property value. In addition, green roofs are a marker of the popular green building movement. For this reason, a living roof can help with home sales, lease-outs, and lower tenant turnover.

WATER RETENTION - On a green roof, rainwater is retained in order to sustain the plants rather than flowing to storm sewers. Living roofs can retain 70-90% of precipitation in the summer and 24-40% in the winter.

LEED - According to Green Roof Technology, installing a green roof can add as much as 15 LEED credits to your home, adding resale value in the future.

CURB APPEAL - A green roof means added biodiversity, aesthetic appeal, and more green space for relaxing, stress relief, and even gardening (if your roof slant allows it).

Choose When to See and Be Seen

Smart Glass

In the winter months, bright sunlight streaming through the windows can be the best thing in the world. But in the summer, that same sunlight streaming in can be invasive, harsh, and uncomfortable - not to mention the increase in electricity bills from a heavy dependence on air conditioning.

Smart Glass windows offer a solution to this problem. Smart glass (or smart windows) refers to glass or glazing whose light transmission properties change depending on how light or heat is applied. In general, the glass becomes translucent in the summer months to block certain wavelengths of the sun, and transparent in the winter to let in the warming rays. This translates to yearly cost savings in terms of both heating and cooling, as well as avoiding the cost and hassle of installing light screens or blinds. Smart glass can even reduce fabric fading, as it blocks up to 99% of harmful UV light.

Halio

Enjoy the view, but not the glare, or the heat. Now you can dispense with blinds and shades and still control how much light enters your home. This could save you up to 20% on your energy bills.

Halio begins to tint in just 15 seconds and reaches maximum tint within 3 minutes with uniform tinting. And you can choose almost unlimited tint level options as well as control of individual panels of glass.

They offer two products, Halio and Halio Black. Halio Black can block up to 99.9% of visible light for enhanced privacy and light reduction. Halio passes more light in the "clear" setting and is ideal when you want to maximize natural light coming in to a space.

Upcycle at End of Life

Shipping Containers

Shipping containers are a great example of some truly high-quality waste in our society. There are millions of containers around the world, and they're typically only used for shipping for about 20 years; at that point they're often retired and disposed of, even though they're still in great condition. Not only are the containers plentiful - they're inherently durable, relatively inexpensive, and eco-friendly (since they're reclaimed material). It comes as no surprise that these highly durable containers are making their way into the green building scene. Containers have been used to build houses, stores, artist studios, emergency shelters, school, hotels, labs, apartment buildings, and just about anything else you can imagine.

Shipping containers made of aluminum or steel are inexpensive, and stronger than average, building blocks - like giant, super-strength Legos. They can be modified and re-arranged to accommodate endless design possibilities. Due to their durability and resistance to natural forces, containers are naturally suited for post-disaster housing and community centers. But the design versatility and sustainable nature of containers have captured the imagination of architects, designers, and homeowners worldwide.

The Future of Sustainable Building Materials

Clearly, there are eco friendly building materials becoming available at an amazing rate. Here at Elemental Green, we look forward to keeping you informed on all of the latest sustainable building products. With the increasing availability and affordability of these sustainable building materials, we do know is this: the future looks green!

Our team researches products, companies, studies, and techniques to bring the best of green building to you. Elemental Green does not independently verify the accuracy of all claims regarding featured products or manufacturers. Additionally, product and brand mentions on Elemental Green do not imply endorsement or sponsorship unless specified otherwise.

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10 Eco Building Materials Revolutionizing Home Construction

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Now updated for 2019! Want to hear some good news? According to the World Green Building Trends 2018 report from Dodge Data and Analytics, green building is officially a "global trend" and energy conservation is a top priority for people all over the planet.

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What Is The Living Building Challenge? - International Living Future Institute

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What is the living building challenge? The Living Building Challenge focuses on the relationship between impact and effort. While LBC 4.0 continues the standard’s mission of visionary, but attainable building goals, it also recognizes that not all projects face the same challenges or share in the sa…

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18 Eco-Friendly Building Materials That Help You Save Energy And The Earth

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Building a green home reduces carbon emissions significantly and saves energy, which results in saving money on energy bills.

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Peachtree Corners - the nation's first smart city environment powered by real-world infrastructure and next-generation connectivity - recently unveiled the city's new solar roadway system which produces energy for a solar-powered EV charging station located at city hall. The installation also marked the first road surface-powered solar panels to be activated in a United States city.

The solar roadway is located in a section of Technology Parkway's autonomous vehicle test lane and was provided to the city through a partnership with , a nonprofit living laboratory and proving ground located along an 18-mile stretch of Interstate 85 spanning between LaGrange and the Georgia/Alabama state line.

The new system at Peachtree Corners will produce more than 1,300 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually for a Level 2 EV charger at city hall at no cost to EV motorists. The charger is also equipped with an energy storage system for nighttime charging.

The Wattway solar roadway panels, manufactured by French transportation innovator Colas Group in partnership with the French National Solar Energy Institute, were engineered to be more durable and efficient - resulting in a 21 percent performance increase over previously deployed panels.

"As further reinforcement of Peachtree Corners' leadership in introducing and developing the latest technologies in a real-world environment, we're excited to have been working with The Ray to install the country's first road surface solar panels manufactured by Wattway, within our one-of-a-kind autonomous vehicle lane," said Brandon Branham, chief technology officer and assistant city manager of Peachtree Corners. "While this new form of 100-percent green, renewable energy will begin with supplying power to an EV charging station, our vision is to begin to power more existing infrastructure across the city, off-grid. We look forward to installing more panels throughout, which may include sidewalks, bike lanes and many more surfaces."

"We are thrilled to be installing a solar road for the first time in an American city," said Harriet Anderson Langford, founder and president of The Ray. "Our entire organization, with the help of key corporate partners, is dedicated to advancing the future of transportation infrastructure around the world. We have had lots of success using roadways, as well as unused interstate right-of-way, to generate massive amounts of electricity for EVs. Proving this technology in an environment like Peachtree Corners helps us further demonstrate its effectiveness while moving us toward implementation on a larger scale."

The Ray was a 2018 Finalist for the Fast Company "World Changing Ideas Award," and was featured on The Weather Channel as one of "Ten Best Ways to Save the Planet!"

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Smart City Installs USA's First Road Surface Solar Panels on Autonomous Vehicle Lane - AllOnGeorgia

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Peachtree Corners - the nation's first smart city environment powered by real-world infrastructure and next-generation connectivity - recently unveiled the city's new solar roadway system which produces energy for a solar-powered EV charging station located at city hall. The installation also marked the first road surface-powered solar panels to be activated in a United States city.

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Energy / Transportation: Harvesting Kinetic Energy

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Energy / Transportation: Harvesting Kinetic Energy

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Rutgers researchers detail a potential system to generate sustainable electricity from roads and bridges by harvesting the kinetic energy of vehicles using piezoelectric materials in pavement.

U.S. roads already do triple duty: as arteries that carry the lifeblood of our economy, as conduits for many emergency services, and as links that connect Americans to each other and the vast opportunities and beauty of our country.

Now, Dr. Hao Wang (Rutgers, Civil and Environmental Engineering) and his collaborator, Dr. Ahmed Safari (Rutgers, Materials Science and Engineering) have found a way that roads can serve yet another purpose: as a sustainable source of energy by using piezoelectric transducers in the pavement.

Using piezoelectric materials that generate electric charges when they are subjected to mechanical stresses, Wang and his team have developed a system that can capture the kinetic energy from traffic loading and convert it to electrical power.

Early research on energy harvesting from road and airport pavements was supported by CAIT using a portion of its USDOT University Transportation Center grant. Wang also collaborated with two university partners in Brazil and China under the support of Rutgers Global Grants.

"We have developed an innovative energy harvesting module using an integrated approach of multiphysics modeling and experiments in the lab. The new design of piezoelectric transducers can produce much greater energy output than previous designs we found in our literature review," says Wang.

Wang points out several energy harvesting technologies that can potentially be incorporated into roadways.

"Mechanical energy exerted by traffic, especially heavy trucks, can be converted into electricity in several ways. The mechanical stress from traffic can be captured by piezoelectric material, or causes relative movement in electromagnetic generator. Also, significant solar energy absorbed by pavement can be harvested using photovoltaic cells, heat flux, or thermoelectric material. Even geothermal energy can be collected with a heat pump and underground thermal energy storage," Wang explains.

Technologies that can turn roads and bridges into "power plants"

Wang presented on this topic as the keynote speaker at the International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure and Materials (ICTIM) held in Tianjin, China, in June 2018.

The prestigious journal in the energy field, Applied Energy, published two related papers by Wang and several coauthors.

The first paper presented a comprehensive review of available energy-harvesting techniques that can be applied to roadways and bridges ( volume 212, pp 1083-1094), making them a source of renewable energy and improving overall sustainability of infrastructure. The paper compared technologies in terms of power output, cost-effectiveness, technology readiness level, advantages and disadvantages, support from government and industry. It posited that the energy harvested can be used to produce electricity, melt ice and snow, or power wireless sensors, lighting and signals, and devices to monitor structural conditions. Coauthors for the study were Abbas Jasim (who received his Ph.D. from Rutgers in May 2018 and is now a faculty member at Al-Mustansiriya Universitya in Iraq), and Xiaodan Chen (a current doctoral candidate at Rutgers).

The second paper ( volume 224, pp 438-447), covered a piezoelectric energy harvesting module developed at Rutgers. Performance of the module was evaluated in relation to its 1) output and mechanical failure; 2) if predicted voltage and power from numerical simulation matched with experimental measurements; and 3) if output increased proportionally to increases in loading frequency and magnitude.

The new design employs the parallel piezoelectric coefficient under the applied stress, which results in the greater energy output than the conventional design with poling along the thickness of PZT strip.

In addition to Wang, team members for this project were Abbas Jasim, Greg Yesner, Ahmad Safari, Ali Maher, and Basily Basily from Rutgers School of Engineering.

Wang and his team are starting a new project on energy harvesting for New Jersey roadways sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Transportation with total funding of $350,000.

February 2019

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Generating power every time you hit the road - Rutgers CAIT

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U.S. roads already do triple duty: as arteries that carry the lifeblood of our economy, as conduits for many emergency services, and as links that connect Americans to each other and the vast opportunities and beauty of our country.

# data[].attributes.headline
Energy / Transportation: Harvesting Kinetic Energy

# data[].attributes.subject
Energy / Transportation: Harvesting Kinetic Energy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Rutgers researchers detail a potential system to generate sustainable electricity from roads and bridges by harvesting the kinetic energy of vehicles using piezoelectric materials in pavement.

U.S. roads already do triple duty: as arteries that carry the lifeblood of our economy, as conduits for many emergency services, and as links that connect Americans to each other and the vast opportunities and beauty of our country.

Now, Dr. Hao Wang (Rutgers, Civil and Environmental Engineering) and his collaborator, Dr. Ahmed Safari (Rutgers, Materials Science and Engineering) have found a way that roads can serve yet another purpose: as a sustainable source of energy by using piezoelectric transducers in the pavement.

Using piezoelectric materials that generate electric charges when they are subjected to mechanical stresses, Wang and his team have developed a system that can capture the kinetic energy from traffic loading and convert it to electrical power.

Early research on energy harvesting from road and airport pavements was supported by CAIT using a portion of its USDOT University Transportation Center grant. Wang also collaborated with two university partners in Brazil and China under the support of Rutgers Global Grants.

"We have developed an innovative energy harvesting module using an integrated approach of multiphysics modeling and experiments in the lab. The new design of piezoelectric transducers can produce much greater energy output than previous designs we found in our literature review," says Wang.

Wang points out several energy harvesting technologies that can potentially be incorporated into roadways.

"Mechanical energy exerted by traffic, especially heavy trucks, can be converted into electricity in several ways. The mechanical stress from traffic can be captured by piezoelectric material, or causes relative movement in electromagnetic generator. Also, significant solar energy absorbed by pavement can be harvested using photovoltaic cells, heat flux, or thermoelectric material. Even geothermal energy can be collected with a heat pump and underground thermal energy storage," Wang explains.

Technologies that can turn roads and bridges into "power plants"

Wang presented on this topic as the keynote speaker at the International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure and Materials (ICTIM) held in Tianjin, China, in June 2018.

The prestigious journal in the energy field, Applied Energy, published two related papers by Wang and several coauthors.

The first paper presented a comprehensive review of available energy-harvesting techniques that can be applied to roadways and bridges ( volume 212, pp 1083-1094), making them a source of renewable energy and improving overall sustainability of infrastructure. The paper compared technologies in terms of power output, cost-effectiveness, technology readiness level, advantages and disadvantages, support from government and industry. It posited that the energy harvested can be used to produce electricity, melt ice and snow, or power wireless sensors, lighting and signals, and devices to monitor structural conditions. Coauthors for the study were Abbas Jasim (who received his Ph.D. from Rutgers in May 2018 and is now a faculty member at Al-Mustansiriya Universitya in Iraq), and Xiaodan Chen (a current doctoral candidate at Rutgers).

The second paper ( volume 224, pp 438-447), covered a piezoelectric energy harvesting module developed at Rutgers. Performance of the module was evaluated in relation to its 1) output and mechanical failure; 2) if predicted voltage and power from numerical simulation matched with experimental measurements; and 3) if output increased proportionally to increases in loading frequency and magnitude.

The new design employs the parallel piezoelectric coefficient under the applied stress, which results in the greater energy output than the conventional design with poling along the thickness of PZT strip.

In addition to Wang, team members for this project were Abbas Jasim, Greg Yesner, Ahmad Safari, Ali Maher, and Basily Basily from Rutgers School of Engineering.

Wang and his team are starting a new project on energy harvesting for New Jersey roadways sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Transportation with total funding of $350,000.

February 2019

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Generating power every time you hit the road - Rutgers CAIT

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U.S. roads already do triple duty: as arteries that carry the lifeblood of our economy, as conduits for many emergency services, and as links that connect Americans to each other and the vast opportunities and beauty of our country.

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By 2050, metro Atlanta is projected to swell by nearly 3 more million people, boosting the 21-county region’s population to 8.6 million, according to forecasts recently published by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

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Forecasters say we ain't full. Not even close.

By 2050, metro Atlanta is projected to swell by nearly 3 more million people, boosting the 21-county region's population to 8.6 million, according to forecasts recently published by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

For context, that additional population in the next 30 years is roughly equivalent (gulp) to today's metro Denver, or a little more than metro Charlotte.

Additionally, the research shows, the metro area is on track to become "much more racially and ethnically diverse," per an ARC analysis.

The region's white population is anticipated to drop from 47.5 percent in 2015 to just 31 percent in 2050.

"The share of Hispanic residents will reach 21 percent in 2050, up from 12 percent in 2015, while the share of black residents will remain steady at about 33 percent," the report says. "The share of Asians and residents of other race and ethnic backgrounds is forecast to increase to 14 percent, compared to 8 percent in 2015."

The biggest population booms are expected to occur around intown Atlanta, the northern suburbs along Interstate 75, 85, and Ga. Highway 400 corridors, and near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

In a surprising shift, Gwinnett County is expected to become the most populous county with 1.48 million people, stealing the title from Fulton County, which had about 1.05 million as of 2018 estimates.

Forecasters believe Forsyth County, though, will grow the fastest by 2050, more than doubling in headcount. Henry County is expected to follow with a growth rate of 70 percent.

It also looks like the elderly population is due for an upswing; the share of residents age 75 and older could triple over the next three decades, to 12 percent-about a million people.

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Population projections: Metro Atlanta to swell to 8.6M, become more diverse by 2050

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Forecasters say we ain't full. Not even close. By 2050, metro Atlanta is projected to swell by nearly 3 more million people, boosting the 21-county region's population to 8.6 million, according to forecasts recently published by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

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Dubai’s Sustainable City and Sustainable Human project

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The first city in Dubai designed to become operational Net Zero Energy has inspired residents to live more sustainably.

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There are more than 2.5 billion cars, which generate wind turbulence. The same wind turbine which is responsible for huge windmill rotation can be replaced by small efficient traffic wind turbines.

Top Article from 2019 - Traffic Powered Wind Turbines

Len Calderone for | AltEnergyMag
We have seen energy produced by windmills, which depend on the wind blowing. Now, we can get energy from wind turbines placed on the side of a roadway or in the center of a divided highway. This system of electrical power generation utilizes wind draft force from vehicles traveling on roadways. Moving at high speed, vehicles push away air as they travel, producing a lot of energy. By placing wind turbines on the side of a road or in the center of a road, energy can be captured.

There are more than 2.5 billion cars, which generate wind turbulence. The same wind turbine which is responsible for huge windmill rotation can be replaced by small efficient traffic wind turbines, which rotate with the help of moving air from passing cars on the highway.

Natural wind speed normally does not exceed several miles an hour. To commercially adopt a wind powered electricity generator, it requires a large-scale wind impeller. Using small roadside wind turbines, energy can be captured by wind draft generated by high speed moving vehicles.

A center of the road wind turbine is able to capture wind draft in opposite directions from each side of the road. The road center wind turbine has two air flow conduits, one for each side of road. Each conduit has an inlet opening, an outlet opening and a middle opening. The inlet opening faces toward the opposite direction of roadway traffic. The outlet opening faces toward the direction of roadway traffic on its side. The middle opening allows wind turbine blades to work with air flow traveling through this conduit.

A road side wind turbine is similar to the road center apparatus, except that it only faces one side of traffic, therefore it only has one air flow conduit and only one set of inlet and outlet openings.

TAK Studio designed overhead highway lights, which are powered by wind turbines. The turbines are spun by the air turbulence generated as cars and trucks travel past at high speed.

This concept uses all that wasted wind to do useful work, such as generating electricity to power highway lights at night, while feeding back into the grid during daylight hours.

Young entrepreneur, Sanwal Muneer, invented a wind turbine for use on the side of the road. His company, Capture Mobility, moved to Scotland from Pakistan under the global entrepreneur program of the government body, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). The Scottish government is investing in cleaner-energy technologies; and since the wind is strong and plentiful all year round, this made Scotland a good location for Muneer's company.

Muneer's turbine stands 8' tall and is made of recyclable carbon fiber. The turbine weighs just 20 pounds, which makes it easy to transport and install. The fully-charged battery can hold a kilowatt of electricity, which is enough power to run two lamps and a fan for around 40 hours. The idea is that this turbine could supply electricity for rural communities in developing countries, or could be used to power traffic lights or road signs in urban areas.

Vehicles driving on the highway offer an intermittent and uncontrolled source of wind power. The design of a wind turbine must include the storage of energy and a system to distribute the generated power effectively. Wind turbines are customarily used in remote locations, which adds the challenge of having to transport the power generated to the location wherein it will be utilized.

Since the wind turbines are so close to traffic, the design must consider safety. The safety measures should include stationary highway guards surrounding the rotating turbine blades and warning signs. A survey of traffic flow also needs to be performed to establish boundary limits for the wind turbine design. There will be times when traffic will be bumper to bumper or stop and go. During these times, the wind turbine must be able to store energy.

Although most wind turbines are employed in rural areas, there needs to be a turbine designed for use in the cities to counteract the amount of pollution created by burning fossil fuels while introducing a potential source of clean energy.

China designed gear turbines, which were very inexpensive and the modular sections could easily be snapped together to form a larger system. That design was not as environmentally friendly as the designs with larger propellers. Other designs include turbines built into highway dividers or on overhead poles as seen in the design by an Arizona State Student. He calculated that with cars moving at 70 mph, 9,600 kilowatts of electricity could be produced per year using this design.

The wind turbines shown are quiet running. In many developed areas, there is sufficient traffic volume to maintain a steady airflow through much of the day.

One of the best designs is a vertical axis wind turbine placed along roadways that have a high volume of fast-moving traffic. The electricity generated will then be the stored in batteries; and since the electricity produced will be direct current it must be converted into alternating current so that it can be used for lighting the street lamps or sold to the grid. The DC current must pass through an inverter before it can be used.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine by VWT Power Ltd
A vertical wind turbine design is suitable because vertical turbines are proficient in capturing wind in any direction, while horizontal turbines need to be pointed in the direction of the wind. In addition, heavy parts such as the generator and battery can be easily stored at the base of the turbine.

To sum up, extensive data needs to be collected on wind patterns produced by vehicles on both sides of a highway. Using the collected data, a wind turbine needs to be designed to be located on the medians of the highway. One turbine may not provide sufficient power generation, but a group of turbines on a long stretch of highway has the potential to generate a large amount of energy that can be used to power streetlights, other public services or even produce profits by selling the power back to the grid.

This design concept is workable and environmentally friendly. A wind turbine powered by artificial wind has many applications. Hypothetically, any moving vehicle can power a wind turbine such as an amusement park ride. A highway wind turbine can be utilized to deliver power in any city around the world where there is high vehicle traffic.

The content & opinions in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag

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Top Article from 2019 - Traffic Powered Wind Turbines | AltEnergyMag

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There are more than 2.5 billion cars, which generate wind turbulence. The same wind turbine which is responsible for huge windmill rotation can be replaced by small efficient traffic wind turbines. Len Calderone for | AltEnergyMag We have seen energy produced by windmills, which depend on the wind blowing.

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Rooftop Wind Power Might Take Off by Using Key Principle of Flight

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A new device could open more areas to wind production by using stationary airfoils instead of twirling turbines

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As the use of solar power increases and the price falls, it becomes increasingly clear that sunshine is a powerful, popular and practical renewable energy source. Potable water is a universal right and basic need, to which millions of people lack access. A wife and husband duo in India are harvesting both solar energy and drinking water with one unique device called "Ulta Chaata," which means "inverted umbrella," in Hindi. As you can see below, this is an apt name for the attractive canopies that open to the sky like blossoms.

https://makeasmartcity.com/2016/07/07/mumbaiower-couple-found-a-way-generate-solar-power-and-harvest-rainwater-from-an-ulta-chaata/

Ulta Chaata is the first project released by Think Phi, a startup focusing on green technology formed by Samit Choksi and his wife Priya Vakil Choksi in 2015. Ulta Chaata harvests rainwater during monsoons, solar energy during dry seasons and provides shade as well. Priya, who has a Masters in sustainable design as well as a degree in architecture and Samit, who specializes in software in the development industry, came up with the idea for Ulta Chaata after studying and working around the world in locations including Singapore, London and Atlanta.

"After moving back [to India], we saw that the pollution and the increasing climate change are major reasons for concern in India. The one thing that struck us was that we get heavy rains here and yet all this water is getting wasted,"

Samit told Better India. He also explained that they wanted to collect this rainwater before it hit the ground, when it was the purest.

Ulta Chaata has two levels of filters. The first uses carbon filtration, in which active carbon removes impurities. The filter lowers the water's turbidity or relative clarity to within a World Health Organization potable water limit.

Ulta Chaatas are generally installed in clusters, ideally of 10 or more. Typically, 15 Ulta Chaatas connect to one intelligent "Phi box," which contains a second fine filtration layer that removes bacteria. After passing through both levels of filtration, drinkable water is produced. One Ulta Chaata can collect and prepare as much as 100,000 liters of potable water during each rainy season.

http://indiaengineers.org/ulta-chaata-thinkphi-startup-idea/

Solar panels installed on the canopies collect solar energy into the device's batteries. The energy is used to power the Ulta Chaata as well as their individual lights. The battery can also be used as backup energy for nearby structures. Forbes India reported that Ulta Chaatas have "a maximum solar capacity of 1.5KW," and that the "lighting system which provides various levels of programmable lighting options and a mobile charge unit, thereby making it a completely self-sustaining installation for the outdoors."

The Ulta Chaatas' ability to provide shade is valuable as well. Members of Think Phi's team, which has now grown to include 12 people, were invited to speak to representatives of the Indian Railways to explore the benefits of Ulta Chaata use. Samit said their unique, upside-down-umbrella-shaped devices can provide "environmentally friendly shading at a lower cost," when compared to the current railway platform roofs.

An Ulta Chaata comes with a 10-year warranty and costs between Rs. 4.5 and 5 lakh (one lakh equals about $1500, so they cost about $7,000 in total). Because users can quickly make back their initial investment in energy savings, Think Phi brands this device as "the world's first integrated system for clean water, energy, shade and delivering returns in less than one year."

Priya explained to Better India that human-driven climate change was a big inspiration for them in developing well-designed and efficient sustainable energy systems;

"The world has always gone through periods of global warming and cooling which is an effect of natural causes. However, in this century we have gone through the biggest shift in the last 400,000 years and this time it is driven solely by man-made causes, us."

As well as containing the secondary water filtration level, the Ulta Chaatas' Phi box serves several other purposes. It detects filter clogs and sends messages back to Think Phi if the unit needs cleaning or servicing. It also measures and displays the water and energy being harvested to passersby. Other sensors monitor water purity and the functioning of the lights. Ulta Chaatas users are empowered with an app to directly communicate questions or issues to the company. Ulta Chaatas are currently used in over 50 locations throughout India.

Think Phi's mission is, "to be earth's most sustainable company. We hope to get there by building products that accelerate the advent of utilizing and managing sustainable resources." Follow their innovative work toward this goal on Twitter.

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This "Inverted Umbrella" Harvests Drinking Water and Solar Energy

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As the use of solar power increases and the price falls, it becomes increasingly clear that sunshine is a powerful, popular and practical renewable energy source. Potable water is a universal right and basic need, to which millions of people lack access.

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The future of employment in Georgia may be greener

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Georgia could create 50,000 “green” jobs by 2016 and ride an environmentally friendly wave to a cleaner, more prosperous future, according to a thought-provoking report by the Georgia Department of Labor.

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How to Manage Water in a Sustainable Way

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How to Manage Water in a Sustainable Way

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From highways to bridges to airports, America's infrastructure is in dire need of a face-lift. The critical systems we rely on nationwide endure chronic overuse and underinvestment, including our stormwater management systems. An estimated 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater runoff, containing everything from raw sewage to trash to toxins, enters U.S. waterways from city sewer systems every year, polluting the environment and drinking water supplies. In many urban and suburban areas, this runoff causes significant flooding as well. Not surprisingly, in 2017 the American Society of Civil Engineers bestowed a lowly D+ grade on U.S. stormwater and sewage systems. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that upgrading our stormwater and other public wastewater systems will require at least $271 billion in investments over the next two decades, with about one-quarter of this total specifically for stormwater management.

The country's urgent infrastructure needs also present a major opportunity. As an alternative to traditional water management systems, green infrastructure offers a cost-effective solution to many of our water woes, including how to handle flooding and stormwater pollution. Here's a look at what green infrastructure is, what it does, and why we should invest so much green paper in it.

What Is Green Infrastructure?

Green infrastructure encompasses a variety of water management practices, such as vegetated rooftops, roadside plantings, absorbent gardens, and other measures that capture, filter, and reduce stormwater. In doing so, it cuts down on the amount of flooding and reduces the polluted runoff that reaches sewers, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Green infrastructure captures the rain where it falls. It mimics natural hydrological processes and uses natural elements such as soil and plants to turn rainfall into a resource instead of a waste. It also increases the quality and quantity of local water supplies and provides myriad other environmental, economic, and health benefits-often in nature-starved urban areas.

What Is Gray Infrastructure?

Gray infrastructure is the more traditional (and often more expensive) water management systems that green infrastructure often complements and can sometimes replace. It relies on hard infrastructure-such as storm drains, concrete, and pipes-to collect and channel stormwater (sometimes treated, oftentimes not) into waterways. It does not provide the same range of benefits as green infrastructure, since it neither reduces the amount of stormwater that reaches waterways nor, for the most part, improves the quality of that runoff. Gray infrastructure also does not provide the same community benefits mentioned above.

Why Is Green Infrastructure Important?

Green infrastructure reins in stormwater runoff, which the EPA describes as "one of the fastest-growing sources of pollution" in the United States. Here's what happens.

Stormwater Runoff

Runoff, the product of rainstorms or snowstorms, flows over the ground and into drains, sewers, or waterways. The more permeable (or absorbent) the surface, the less runoff there will be. Porous natural landscapes, such as meadows and forests, will readily soak up as much as 90 percent of the rain or snowmelt they receive. In contrast, streets, parking lots, rooftops, and other hard, impervious (nonabsorbent) surfaces essentially repel stormwater, preventing it from soaking into the land and forcing it to flow whichever way gravity takes it. The average city block can generate more than five times as much runoff as a forested area of equal size.

Stormwater Pollution

When rainfall hits an impervious surface, it meets whatever pollutants reside on that surface. That could include road salt, sediment, or trash; oil, heavy metals, or toxic chemicals from cars and trucks; pesticides or fertilizers from lawns and gardens; and even viruses or bacteria from animal waste. These contaminants turn pristine rainfall into dirty runoff, an estimated 10 trillion gallons of which enter U.S. waters from cities, untreated, each year. How exactly does that happen? Point the blame at our stormwater management systems and impervious surfaces.

Impaired water quality
According to the EPA, urban stormwater is a " major" reason why nearly half of all U.S. rivers and streams-as well as a good chunk of our lakes and coastal waters-fail to meet national water quality standards. Impaired waters wreak havoc on ecosystems and vegetation, imperil drinking water supplies and public health, and ruin recreational areas.

Erosion
Just an inch of rainfall on one mile of a narrow, two-lane road can produce 55,000 gallons of stormwater runoff. When funneled through a storm drain, the sudden entry of so much rainfall can damage and erode delicate banks of waterways, resulting in land and habitat loss and changing a waterway's basic morphology.

Sewage overflows
Instead of separate storm drains, nearly 860 municipalities across the United States use combined sewer systems, which dump stormwater runoff into the same pipes that are used for domestic sewage and industrial wastewater. These sewer systems are designed to overflow when stormwater exceeds their capacity. A big storm, in other words, can cause an excess mess of both runoff and raw sewage to be released into waterways. In New York City alone, about 20 billion gallons of this noxious mixture pour from nearly 450 outfalls every year.

Economic toll
Stormwater runoff contributes to the frequency and severity of small-scale urban floods. Although localized flood events are not as damaging as catastrophic ones, they can create a greater overall economic burden because of their repetitive nature. In the United States, more than 30,000 properties have been flooded an average of five times each (with some homes getting inundated 30-plus times). And those figures will likely rise as climate change takes its toll. The EPA estimates that annual flood damages, due in part to runoff, will increase by $750 million by century's end. And stormwater comes with other costs, too. When water quality deteriorates, fish and shellfish populations-along with the economies that rely on them-decline as well. There can be a public health cost, too. One study estimated that in Los Angeles alone, stormwater runoff causes $119 million to $278 million in health costs annually just from people who contract gastroenteritis after swimming in contaminated water. (Numbers are in year-2000 dollars.)

Health toll
Stormwater runoff impacts the water we drink, the seafood we eat, and the recreational areas we visit. It introduces disease-causing pathogens into water supply sources that treatment facilities can't always filter out. And it can contaminate fish and shellfish, which in turn can sicken us. Rainfall runoff also inundates beach water with bacteria at levels that violate public health standards and sicken an estimated 3.5 million people a year nationwide, causing rashes, hepatitis, and gastrointestinal illness.

Stormwater Management

Green infrastructure keeps waterways clean and healthy in two primary ways:

Water retention
Green infrastructure prevents runoff by capturing rain where it falls, allowing it to filter into the earth (where it can replenish groundwater supplies), return to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration (when water evaporates directly from the land or plants), or be reused for another purpose, such as landscaping.

Water quality
Green infrastructure improves water quality by decreasing the amount of stormwater that reaches waterways and by removing contaminants from the water that does. Soil and plants help capture and remove pollutants from stormwater in a variety of ways, including adsorption (when pollutants stick to soil or plants), filtration (when particulate matter gets trapped), plant uptake (when vegetation absorbs nutrients from the ground), and the decomposition of organic matter. These processes break down or capture many of the common pollutants found in runoff, from heavy metals to oil to bacteria.

What Are Other Benefits of Green Infrastructure?

In addition to influencing the quantity and quality of runoff that reaches waterways, green infrastructure provides the following benefits.

Reduced flooding

Increased water supply

Smog and heat mitigation

A city's many miles of hot, dark pavement absorb and radiate heat into the surrounding atmosphere at far a greater rate than a natural landscape would. Known as the urban heat island effect, this phenomenon can significantly increase ambient air temperatures. The EPA estimates that the average air temperature of a city with one million people or more can be 1.8 °F to 5.4 °F (1 to 3 °C) warmer than surrounding areas. Higher temperatures reduce air quality by increasing ground-level ozone (also known as smog). In Los Angeles, for example, a 1 degree temperature increase alone makes the air roughly 3 percent smoggier. Green roofs, green streets, and other forms of green infrastructure help improve air quality and reduce smog through their use of vegetation. Plants not only provide shade but also absorb pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO ₂)-delivering valuable carbon sequestration -and help reduce air temperatures through evaporation and evapotranspiration.

Health benefits

By reducing air temperatures and pollution, improving water quality, and creating more natural spaces, green infrastructure provides myriad public health benefits. Cooler and cleaner air can reduce heat-related illnesses-vital when you consider that 210 million Americans currently live in places where high summer temperatures put them at risk for heat-related problems such as exhaustion and heatstroke. Risks for respiratory issues, such as asthma, can also be reduced. Healthier waterways means less illness due to exposure to polluted water and fewer contaminants in drinking water and seafood. Greener areas also promote physical activity and can boost mental health while improving neighborhood livability.

Reduced costs

Green infrastructure saves money in other ways as well. Whereas water from municipal drinking water systems is typically treated and then transported to homes (this alone accounts for 4 percent of total U.S. electricity use), green infrastructure provides a source of water on the cheap for many nonpotable uses that the EPA says present "little human health risk." That's significant, given that only an estimated 20 percent of household water needs require purified water, and commercial users require even less. In other words, there is no reason to use expensive drinking water to flush the toilet or wash your car when rainwater works just as well.

Green infrastructure also improves the quality of water drawn from rivers and lakes for drinking, which reduces the costs associated with purification and treatment-in some cases by more than 25 percent. And green roofs can cut heating and cooling costs, leading to energy savings of as much as 15 percent.

Quality-of-life improvements

Types of Green Infrastructure

From flowering rooftop gardens to absorbent pavement to tree-lined streets, green infrastructure comes in many forms and can often hide in plain sight. Here are some common examples.

Green roofs

A living landscape of vegetation (think hardy grasses, succulents, and wildflowers), green roofs provide a verdant oasis for birds, butterflies, and the people who have access to them. By providing an extra layer of insulation to a home or building, green roofs slash cooling- and heating-related energy usage and costs. Whereas a conventionally dark roof basically bakes on a hot summer day (transmitting the heat it absorbs to the building below), a green roof can remain cooler than the ambient air temperature around it. For a one-story building, this can lead to a reduction in average daily cooling costs of more than 75 percent. Keeping cool generates other pluses, too: According to one study, blanketing half of Toronto's available roof space in green roofs would lower ambient air temperatures citywide by as much as 3.8 °F.

Green roofs sequester rain and carbon pollution as well. Somewhere between 40 and 80 percent of the total volume of rain that falls on green roofs can be retained. Moreover, the water that is released from a green roof is released slowly, reducing the amount of runoff that rushes into a watershed all at once, which curbs flooding and erosion. The vegetation found on green roofs also captures CO ₂, which gets stored in plants and soil. One study found that if the Detroit area greened all of its commercial and industrial rooftops, the carbon sequestered over two years would be equal to taking more than 10,000 midsize SUVs or trucks off the road for a year.

Blue roofs

Although not technically green infrastructure, blue roofs collect and store rainfall to reduce the influx of runoff into municipal sewer systems. They use detention ponds, basins, or trays to collect stormwater before draining it at a controlled rate into sewers or waterways. In addition to stormwater management, blue roofs can reduce the urban heat island effect when coupled with light-colored or reflective roof material, as well as provide energy savings in the form of reduced cooling expenses. The water from a blue roof can be reused, too.

Downspout disconnection

Rainwater harvesting

Beyond helping to rein in runoff, the capture, storage, and usage of rainfall (a practice known as rainwater harvesting) has the potential to meet 21 percent to 75 percent of a city's annual water needs, effectively supplying enough water for up to hundreds of thousands of residents, particularly for nonpotable use. What's more, rainwater harvesting (which typically uses cisterns or rain barrels to collect runoff from impervious surfaces like rooftops) provides a practical way to meet municipal water needs as climate change, population growth, and increased demand from industries such as agriculture and energy strain the water supplies of many regions.

Rain gardens

Planter boxes, a type of rain garden, are often used in the space between a sidewalk and street. They feature elevated sides and small openings that allow runoff to enter and be absorbed by vegetation and soil.

Bioswales

Long, relatively deep channels of native plants, grasses, flowers, and customized soils that run parallel to parking lots or roads, bioswales can handle large quantities of runoff from large impervious surfaces. Not only do they absorb and retain runoff from small storms, but they also filter and slow the release of water from heavier rains to sewers or surface waters, limiting floods and providing a first flush of pollutants. It is estimated that effective bioswales can capture and filter out as much as 90 percent of trace metals, oil, and grease; 70 percent of sediment; and about 30 percent of phosphorus from the runoff they collect.

Urban tree canopy

In addition to cleaning and cooling the air, trees provide a natural stormwater management system. Tree canopies intercept rainfall before it hits the ground. By providing surface area-branches and leaves-for raindrops to land on and evaporate from, a mature deciduous tree can capture as much as 700 gallons of rain a year, while a mature evergreen can absorb up to 4,000 gallons annually. The root system of a tree plays a large role in the management of runoff as well. In addition to drinking up water, which is then released via transpiration, roots create channels and open space in soil, which enhances the ground's ability to soak up water.

Permeable pavement

A pavement system often used for sidewalks, parking lots, or driveways, permeable pavement (also known as porous pavement) allows rainfall to seep through to underlying layers of pollutant-filtering soil before making its way to groundwater aquifers. Once installation costs are factored in, it can cost as much as 50 percent less up front than conventional pavement systems, and it can be cheaper in the long run to maintain.

Green parking lots

Designed to curb rainfall runoff, green parking lots often feature permeable pavement, vegetated areas around or within their perimeter, and shade trees that can help reduce the urban heat island effect.

Green streets

A form of sustainable road design, green streets combine various green infrastructure practices to more effectively manage stormwater. Whereas typical roads direct runoff into storm drains, green streets use permeable pavement, bioswales, planter boxes, and other stormwater management techniques to capture, absorb, and filter rainfall where it lands, slashing the amount of runoff that reaches waterways and improving the quality of what does. In fact, green streets can remove as much as 90 percent of stormwater pollutants. In the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, a green streets project is expected to eliminate a portion of the billions of gallons of the city's stormwater runoff that reaches local rivers and beaches each year.

Green streets offer many other benefits as well. In addition to providing an economical alternative to costly new investments in sewer system infrastructure, they can improve air quality, provide shade, enhance the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists, and beautify neighborhoods. When green streets incorporate additional elements such as energy-efficient lighting, recycled or locally sourced materials, and improved space for walking, running, biking, or public transportation, they are referred to as complete streets.

History of Green Infrastructure

As described in the National Research Council's definitive report on urban stormwater management, most urban drainage systems evolved in the United States after World War II. These complex structures are based on simple technology: catch basins and pipes that capture water and convey it elsewhere in order to reduce and avoid flooding. Unfortunately, many growing American cities soon discovered a major problem: These systems moved high volumes of stormwater so quickly that floods weren't being mitigated so much as moved. To make matters worse, the increasingly nonporous city surfaces were leading to drops in groundwater levels and impacting nearby waterbodies.

The thinking about urban stormwater management started to evolve in the 1970s as landscape architects began placing more emphasis on low-impact development. This entailed greater efforts to develop areas around their natural hydrology, using practices like infiltration via vegetative channels and swales. Architects and engineers were beginning to see a flood-prone area's natural hydrology not as an impediment but as part of the solution to its flooding problems.

Around the same time, scientists and public health officials began raising the alarm about stormwater's other hazard: pollution. Studies like the Nationwide Urban Runoff Program, completed in the 1980s, showed that urban runoff carried contaminants like heavy metals, sediment, and even pathogens-all of which water can pick up as it flows across impervious surfaces looking for the lowest ground.

At the start of the 21st century, stormwater infrastructure strategically built to allow runoff to infiltrate close to the source became an increasingly popular answer for reducing this pollution. This is when the term green infrastructure was likely coined.

New York's Staten Island Bluebelt was one of the first and largest precursors to modern-day green infrastructure initiatives. Although it was designed in the 1990s, the Bluebelt's story began in 1964 with the completion of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge linking Staten Island to Brooklyn. While better access to the borough sparked a two-decade boom in residential development, the corresponding infrastructure to handle the increase in sanitary waste and stormwater failed to keep up, resulting in chronic flooding, polluted waterways, and the regular smell of sewage. The Bluebelt project helped solve these issues by preserving streams, wetland areas, and other drainage corridors (bluebelts) that use natural mechanisms to capture, store, and filter stormwater-and quite effectively. Nearly three decades later, the award-winning Bluebelt comprises more than 14,000 acres, can temporarily hold and filter as much as 350,000 gallons of rainfall, and has saved tens of millions of dollars that would have been spent on conventional storm sewers.

Building a Greener Future

Although it wasn't described as green infrastructure at the time of its creation, the Staten Island Bluebelt demonstrates the sustainable and cost-effective potential of green infrastructure and underscores the significant opportunities that come with investing in similarly innovative projects both big and small.

Municipal and community leaders are beginning to understand that green infrastructure can deliver numerous economic and environmental benefits-as well as helping to correct age-old planning policies that create social divisions. That means more parks, open space, and other amenities, for instance, can be built in formerly neglected neighborhoods, boosting the health and well-being of everyone.

Indeed, cities across the country are undertaking major green infrastructure initiatives. Take Philadelphia, home to one of America's oldest sewer systems. The city is investing $2.4 billion to retrofit nearly 10,000 acres of impervious surface (at least one-third of the city's total that is served by a combined sewer system) to manage stormwater runoff. Perhaps the most groundbreaking aspect of the program is its competitive grant program to spur the voluntary development of green infrastructure retrofits on private property. The city recently celebrated the greening of its first thousand acres.

Federal and local funds available for water infrastructure continue to decline. The United States maintains its embarrassing D+ grade in wastewater management from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Climate change increasingly rears its ugly head. Altogether, there is simply no better time to look to more effective, sustainable alternatives to the antiquated and faltering systems that we rely on today.

Modernizing regulations at the national, state, and local levels is a crucial step for driving the use of green infrastructure. In recent years, NRDC has been part of successful efforts to strengthen stormwater permits and regulations in places including Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and California. Further legislation, incentives, and enforcement across the country -from the EPA, the Department of Transportation, and state and city governments-will be essential for combating stormwater runoff going forward.

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Green Infrastructure: How to Manage Water in a Sustainable Way

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Jump to Section From highways to bridges to airports, America's infrastructure is in dire need of a face-lift. The critical systems we rely on nationwide endure chronic overuse and underinvestment, including our stormwater management systems. An estimated 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater runoff, containing everything from raw sewage to trash to toxins, enters U.S.

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Meredith Leahy, Circular Economy Senior Manager

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What Is a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)? | Rubicon

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Like any industry, the world of waste and recycling has its own key terminology and acronyms, and a “murf” is one of those.

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Solar technology's recent prevalence has seen both large organizations and individual consumers choose to integrate solar power into commercial facilities and homes nearly everywhere. Solar power's renewable, eco-friendly supply of energy isn't the only factor to consider when deciding to transition your household to a solar system, though. While the best solar companies simplify the solar panel installation process, it is still a lengthy, complex process with many factors and variables to consider.

If you're thinking about offsetting both your environmental impact and power bill by adding solar power to your home or business, our guide on solar energy's pros and con can help you decide if it'll be a sustainable option for you.

Power Your Home With Solar

Find a network of trusted installers for your solar system, solar panels and electricity needs. Find a solar panel installer today!

What Is Solar Energy?

Solar energy is electrical or thermal energy harvested from sunlight. Solar panels contain photovoltaic (PV) cells made up of semiconductor materials (such as silicon) to absorb elemental particles from the sun called photons. When absorbed by the panel, the photons release electrons from the atoms of the semiconductor material and the flow of these electrons within the cell creates an electric current we can direct to our circuits.

Solar panels can be placed anywhere with an abundance of sunlight, such as open fields or rooftops. The more light the panels sit exposed to, the more electricity production potential.

The sun's constant barrage of energy in the form of photons can be collected, transformed and used to power our world-but for you, the question may be more about cost-effectiveness. Is solar efficient enough to power your home or business? Below are the pros and cons of this process and what solar's availability and cost mean for consumers.

Pros and Cons of Solar Energy

Advantages of Solar Energy

Renewable Energy Source

Fossil fuel remains a resource in declining supply that, when burned to create energy, releases harmful byproducts into our atmosphere. Solar power has the potential to help us minimize our use of fossil fuels and the impact we have on the environment.

Reduces Electric Bill

Solar energy can help most consumers power their homes as an alternative or supplement to purchasing electricity from a grid. With power prices on the rise, consumers stand to save a considerable amount on monthly power bills by switching to solar.

Energy Independence

A home reliant entirely on solar power features the capacity to function entirely off-grid, especially when supplemented with a solar battery system to maintain power during non-daylight hours. These battery systems can also turn solar systems into emergency backups during power outages.

Solar Panels Increase Home Values

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory , every dollar a solar panel saves you on your electrical bills increases the value of your home by $20. Also , homes with solar panels sell for four percent higher than those without them. If a home has solar panels, its owners will be saving money in the long run, increasing its appeal and value.

Long-Term Savings

The start-up costs for a solar system represent a significant expense, but the costs are usually mitigated by savings on the electric bill. Consumers can often break even on the investment-usually within six to 10 years-and then start reaping the benefits well before the system needs replacement or considerable maintenance.

Low-Maintenance Costs

Once installed, a solar system requires little maintenance as long as it remains unaffected by environmental factors. If panels are kept clean and free of debris, they should continue to function without any additional action by the consumer for many years.

Regarding maintenance, professional service for your panels can cost between $140 to $180, while an annual inspection or cleaning can cost about $150. However, solar panel warranties typically cover them with performance guarantees.

Benefits the Community

A process known as net metering allows consumers to sell excess electricity their panels produce back to the utility company, further reducing utility bills. This often reduces a community's reliance on fossil fuels, as well.

Diverse Uses

Solar energy is extremely versatile, and can provide power not only to our homes and appliances but to places where channeling power from a grid is impractical or impossible, such as remote, off-grid regions, satellites and boats.

Rising Power Prices

The price of electricity has been on the rise for the past ten years and remains unlikely to decrease in the near future. Solar power can help the consumer keep bills low and with net metering, many consumers can even sell extra energy back to the utility company to turn rising electricity prices to their advantage.

Technology Is Improving and Prices Are Decreasing

Technology has improved tremendously since the early days of solar power and advancements continue to be made every day. Better yet, despite these advancements, solar's ubiquity appears to have driven its cost down, making solar more accessible to more consumers. Many state incentive programs and a federal tax credit can also help consumers minimize the out-of-pocket amount they spend on a new solar system.

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Disadvantages of Solar Energy

High Cost of Solar Panels

Despite decreases in the cost of solar panels over the past ten years, a complete solar installation still requires significant investment. On average, a consumer can expect to pay around $18,000 on a complete solar setup for a home before accounting for any incentives and the federal solar tax credit.

Sunlight Dependent

Without sunlight, a system reliant on solar energy cannot produce power. This can pose a problem for consumers in areas with less-than-ideal levels of sun exposure or poor weather. Solar batteries to store excess energy can help mitigate this issue and even under constant-clouds the best solar panels will still remain cost and energy efficient enough to be worth the installation.

Installation Can Be Difficult

Although most of the components in installing solar panels are relatively simple, if you're not a fan of being on a roof or not comfortable working with electricity, solar panel installation can be complicated. For instance, tying the panel wiring into the home can be complex for the average DIYer and should be left to the professionals.

Space Constraints

Solar panels and the associated wiring take up space. Depending on the number of solar panels needed, finding enough space with adequate exposure can be difficult, especially in less-spacious residential areas.

Solar Energy Storage Is Expensive

Since solar batteries store the excess energy generated by your solar panels, they are essential to your solar panel system. However, they can be costly depending on the type and size of the battery. For instance, a single lead-acid battery can cost between , while a residential lithium-ion solar system can cost $7,000 to $14,000 .

Environmental Impact of Manufacturing

The production of solar technology has its environmental downsides, as the mining of materials and manufacturing of solar panels creates a considerable amount of greenhouse gas. The Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy issued a report revealing that solar panels pay for themselves in terms of greenhouse gas emissions within one to four years of use, so while certainly still a downside, much of the issue can be mitigated.

Difficulty With Relocation

Uninstalling a solar system and moving it can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive, so the semi-permanence of the structures means panels are not often something you'll take with you from house to house. They're often best considered an investment in the structure or property they're added to.

Scarcity of Materials

Sunlight may be unlimited, but the materials required to manufacture solar technology are not. The availability of the raw materials required to produce solar products may not be sufficient to meet future demand and the options for mining these materials can have a significant environmental impact.

Disposal or Recycling Options

Solar technology contains some of the same environmentally-harmful substances in many consumer and industrial electronics, so proper disposal is critical. At present, recycling options for solar panels remain limited.

How Sustainable Is Solar Energy?

Solar energy certainly remains more sustainable than fossil fuels, which are limited in supply and release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere when burned. The limiting factor in the sustainability of solar energy overall primarily comes from a scarcity in the raw materials required to produce solar technology, the greenhouse gasses emitted during manufacturing, and the impact of panel disposal on the environment.

The use of solar power in lieu of grid power, however, offsets the emissions and carbon footprint of production within four years of use. Additionally, solar panels are ultimately recyclable, as they're made from glass, metal and silicon. At present, we lack adequate infrastructure to collect and facilitate the recycling process on a large scale.

Who Should Use Solar Energy?

Solar energy is now accessible to both large-scale industry and individual consumers. Any consumer with the substantial means to invest in a solar system installation can benefit from the pros and long-term savings mentioned above. Solar loans also may offer solutions to those without the hefty capital required.

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Is Solar Energy Worth the Cost?

Typically, yes, solar energy is worth the cost. But whether or not it's right for you depends on many variables you'll need to investigate for yourself, including your location, tax rebates and incentives and net metering availability among others. While pros significantly outweigh cons, the feasibility of a solar venture will vary based on the consumer's financial means, living situation and space constraints.

Bottom Line

The pros of solar energy considerably outweigh the cons. It may take several years, but purchasing and installing a solar system can eventually result in major savings on electricity for the consumer in addition to benefits for our environment.

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Future Outlook for Solar Energy

The sun is a powerful force, one of Earth's most reliable and plentiful energy sources. As a result, solar energy is experiencing a remarkable surge in growth, and it is expected to remain a prominent player in the energy landscape for the foreseeable future.

In the past few years, solar power has been steadily increasing in popularity, which is expected to continue. This exponential growth is driven by several key factors, including the reduction in the cost of solar panels, which has made harnessing the sun's power more affordable than ever. Additionally, advancements in solar technology have increased its efficiency, making solar energy systems even more attractive to both residential and commercial owners. This combination of cost-effectiveness and efficiency will certainly drive the continued adoption of solar energy across the United States.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the advantages of solar panels?

Aside from significantly reducing your electricity bill, there are certainly a few advantages to installing solar panels, such as reducing your carbon footprint, preparing your home for grid outages and improving the value of your home.

How long do solar panels last?

The average solar panel should maintain peak performance for about 25-30 years. After this time a solar panel can still produce electricity but may experience a decline in efficiency and energy production.

Do solar panels work in the rain?

Yes, solar panels will continue to work in the rain, but production may not be as high as on sunny days. Solar panels can still produce at least 30 to 50% of maximum output during cloudy weather and about 10-20% of maximum output if it's raining heavily. The use of solar batteries can provide backup power during rainy days for those relying completely on solar.

Do solar panels work in the winter?

Yes, solar panels will continue to work in the winter. Cold weather itself will not impact the efficiency of solar panels, but other factors such as accumulated snowfall and shorter days can decrease the amount of energy produced by the panels throughout the day.

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Solar Energy Pros And Cons: What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages?

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Earth Science, Climatology

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Photograph by inga spence / Alamy Stock Photo

Anything that moves has kinetic energy, and scientists and engineers are using the wind's kinetic energy to generate electricity. Wind energy, or wind power, is created using a wind turbine, a device that channels the power of the wind to generate electricity.

The wind blows the blades of the turbine, which are attached to a rotor. The rotor then spins a generator to create electricity. There are two types of wind turbines: the horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) and vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs). HAWTs are the most common type of wind turbine. They usually have two or three long, thin blades that look like an airplane propeller. The blades are positioned so that they face directly into the wind. VAWTs have shorter, wider curved blades that resemble the beaters used in an electric mixer.

Small, individual wind turbines can produce 100 kilowatts of power, enough to power a home. Small wind turbines are also used for places like water pumping stations. Slightly larger wind turbines sit on towers that are as tall as 80 meters (260 feet) and have rotor blades that extend approximately 40 meters (130 feet) long. These turbines can generate 1.8 megawatts of power. Even larger wind turbines can be found perched on towers that stand 240 meters (787 feet) tall have rotor blades more than 162 meters (531 feet) long. These large turbines can generate anywhere from 4.8 to 9.5 megawatts of power.

Once the electricity is generated, it can be used, connected to the electrical grid, or stored for future use. The United States Department of Energy is working with the National Laboratories to develop and improve technologies, such as batteries and pumped-storage hydropower so that they can be used to store excess wind energy. Companies like General Electric install batteries along with their wind turbines so that as the electricity is generated from wind energy, it can be stored right away.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 57,000 wind turbines in the United States, both on land and offshore. Wind turbines can be standalone structures, or they can be clustered together in what is known as a wind farm. While one turbine can generate enough electricity to support the energy needs of a single home, a wind farm can generate far more electricity, enough to power thousands of homes. Wind farms are usually located on top of a mountain or in an otherwise windy place in order to take advantage of natural winds.

The largest offshore wind farm in the world is called the Walney Extension. This wind farm is located in the Irish Sea approximately 19 kilometers (11 miles) west of the northwest coast of England. The Walney Extension covers a massive area of 149 square kilometers (56 square miles), which makes the wind farm bigger than the city of San Francisco, California, or the island of Manhattan in New York. The grid of 87 wind turbines stands 195 meters (640 feet) tall, making these offshore wind turbines some of the largest wind turbines in the world. The Walney Extension has the potential to generate 659 megawatts of power, which is enough to supply 600,000 homes in the United Kingdom with electricity.

National Geographic Society

October 19, 2023

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Scientists and engineers are using energy from the wind to generate electricity. Wind energy, or wind power, is created using a wind turbine.

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With the majority of the world's population now living in cities, solving water problems specific to metropolitan areas is crucial. Whether there's too much water or not enough, whether it's too polluted or too salty, these issues can be solved with thought, ingenuity, money and organisation. Here are some innovative ways cities are managing, protecting and conserving water supplies.

Bangalore, India
Protecting lakes from land grabbers
The capital of Karnataka State is the third most populous city in India and home to nearly 10 million people. In 2010, the city's 450 lakes were under threat of privatisation, leading to concerns that the water would not be used sustainably.

Water from the lakes percolates down into underground aquifers, which supply neighbourhood wells across the region. If lake levels drop, the aquifers may not refill effectively and people's wells would begin to dry up.

Workshops mobilised by the Environment Support Group (ESG) were held to build awareness about the importance of protecting the lakes for present and future generations. Local people quickly decided that privatisation was a bad idea and began to organise against it.

The ESG took the matter to Karnataka's high court and filed a public interest writ which resulted in the prohibition of the ongoing privatisation of lakes. A committee of government agencies was also set up to protect and conserve Bangalore's lakes for posterity.

When the 450 remaining lakes are rehabilitated, it is expected that underground aquifers will be recharged. For urban communities, this will have significant benefits: greater quantities of quality water means that surrounding communities - mostly subsistence farmers - will have better crop growth and yields. As such, the initiative won an UN award in 2012 for best water management practices.

Cape Town, South Africa
Saving water on a massive scale

Cape Town has been internationally recognised for its efforts in water management. Over the past 15 years the city has managed to reduce water use by 30%, despite a population increase of 30% over the same period.

The city's water conservation programme has a two-pronged approach: persuading people to use less water, and deploying the latest technology to use water efficiently.

The city has adjusted the water pressure to reduce wastage, replaced old pipes, improved leak detection, carried out extensive repairs and improved the management of water meters. In 2011, Cape Town replaced 20,574 faulty water meters and trained 100 school caretakers in 60 schools about water conservation. It also persuaded 95 parks and golf courses to irrigate with treated effluent rather than potable water, saving millions of gallons a year. The project has even enabled the city to put plans for a new dam on hold.

Sorocaba, Brazil
Cleaning up polluted rivers

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City workers regularly remove 10 tonnes of dirt, leaves, branches, rubbish and recyclables from the Sorocaba river in a month. Photograph: Alamy

The people of Sorocaba are working hard to clean up the city's rivers which have been badly polluted by industry, mining and sewage. In a single day in June 2015, residents removed 228kg of rubbish from the Sorocaba river. City workers regularly remove 10 tonnes of dirt, leaves, branches, rubbish and recyclables in a month. Attempts are also being made to change the riverside into a place of beauty rather than a place to tip rubbish. Linear parks are being created along the river banks to provide space for leisure and recreation when the river is flowing normally, and to hold the extra water in times of high flows. Trees are also being planted to provide a habitat for wildlife.

Beira, Mozambique
A big team with a grand vision

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Money from the Beira 2035 plan will be used to dredge the derelict harbour and regenerate the area. Photograph: Alamy

Mozambique's second-largest city, Beira, is a port town on the Pungue River, at the spot where the river meets the Indian Ocean. With help from the Dutch, including the NGO Alterra, the city has created Beira 2035, a master plan to tackle the urgent problem of urban storm water which has repeatedly caused flooding and soil erosion, and posed a threat to infrastructure and human health in the city.

In a smart move, Beira 2035 also takes the opportunity to plan for urban expansion. The city is bursting at the seams and its growing population urgently needs more housing, so the city is funding its flood protection by attracting 300 investors who are interested in developing the port area.

Money will be used to dredge the harbour, build low-cost housing, develop local industry, improve transport links and drainage and extend the provision of water services.

Lima, Peru
Putting out a strong message

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Lima, the capital of Peru, has 8 million residents yet receives only 1cm of rain every year. Photograph: Mariana Bazo/Reuters

Lima is a desert city with very little rainfall. Just over 1cm falls every year, which is a tiny amount considering that the Peruvian capital has 8 million residents. Worse still, Limeños depend on glacial meltwater from the Peruvian Andes where glaciers are shrinking year on year- some reports have estimated that they will be gone altogether in the next 40 years.

In 2007, Lima's public officials wisely decided that to cope with severe water shortages, they needed the urban population to be tuned into those issues. The Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation together with the World Bank's water and sanitation programme aims to promote water saving, cultivate willingness to pay proper water tariffs and make people more environmentally aware.

The initiative targeted 12 to 30-year-olds after a study of the age group showed that awareness of the problem was very low. A national writing competition for school children was held and the 50 best stories about water were published on World Water Day in 2014, in a book called Mitos y leyendas del agua en el Peru which translates as "Myths and legends of water in Peru". A full time schools officer is now employed to help schools throughout Lima provide good quality education about water issues.

Which other cities in the developing world are making great strides towards a water secure future? Share your thought in the comments below. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter, and have your say on issues around water in development using #H2Oideas.
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Five of the best water-smart cities in the developing world

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With the majority of the world's population now living in cities, solving water problems specific to metropolitan areas is crucial. Whether there's too much water or not enough, whether it's too polluted or too salty, these issues can be solved with thought, ingenuity, money and organisation.

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Green sidewalk makes electricity -- one footstep at a time | CNN Business

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Figure 1. As development density increases, less water is absorbed into the ground and more runs off.
From Stormwater Management: A Guide for Floridians

Stormwater is defined as precipitation that does not soak into the ground or evaporate, but flows along the surface of the ground as runoff. As land is developed, stormwater becomes a bigger and bigger concern.

A number of aspects of development contribute to the increase in stormwater: destruction of natural vegetation, land clearing, filling of natural wetlands, changing surface topography of land, and building impervious surfaces such as rooftops, driveways, and roads.

This article introduces the issue of stormwater management and presents strategies for reducing the quantity of runoff and for dealing with runoff in a manner that minimizes environmental impact. Even though many building projects do not come under strict stormwater regulations, the information in this article applies to virtually all new construction: small projects as well as large. Stormwater management provides an excellent example of how, by making the most environmentally responsible choices, you can often save money as well.

Problems Caused by Stormwater

Without proper management, stormwater can cause erosion, flooding, and pollution of surface waters. As development increases, both the quantity of precipitation that runs off the land and the rate of discharge increase. These two principles are illustrated in Figure 2, below. Flooding in the Midwest in 1993 was exacerbated by development (see

EBN ). Quantities of sediment removed from disturbed land by storms can be staggering. A single one-inch storm event in Tennessee's Reelfoot Lake Watershed deposits more than 100,000 tons of sediment in the lake, according to a recent publication from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This sediment is often fertile topsoil-a critical and, unfortunately, threatened agricultural resource.

Along with sediment, pollutants carried by stormwater include road salts, fertilizers and pesticides from lawns and agricultural lands, nutrients and bacteria from pet and livestock wastes, and a wide range of pollutants from automobiles (heavy metals, particulates, fuels, and lubricating oils). These are considered "non-point-source" pollutants because they are delivered to a body of water from dispersed and uncontrolled sites instead of from a specific entry point, such as a pipe ("point-source" pollution). How we reduce and manage stormwater runoff has a tremendous effect on pollutant loading of streams, rivers, and lakes.

Another very important issue is that stormwater runoff reduces groundwater recharge. Throughout much of the United States, underground aquifers are being depleted more quickly than they are being recharged. Delivering as much rainfall as possible directly to these aquifers should be an important land management goal.

Stormwater Management Practices

Many states and municipalities have stormwater management regulations to limit peak discharge rates, erosion, sedimentation, and pollutant loading from stormwater runoff. These regulations vary widely in the types of projects they apply to and in their specific requirements. Builders and developers should check with state environmental protection agencies and applicable local commissions to find out exactly what laws and regulations apply to their projects. But do not stop there. Remember, those laws and regulations are minimums. Even if specialized stormwater management practices are not required as part of the permitting process (with small residential building projects, for example), it still makes a great deal of sense from an environmental standpoint to manage stormwater properly.

As defined by the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, a good stormwater management practice should "mimic, as closely as possible, the runoff process of the site in its natural state." This entails preserving natural storage, infiltration, and filtering functions, and it leads to the following primary objectives of stormwater management:

*To minimize water quality degradation;

*To minimize downstream erosion, flooding, and habitat loss;

*To maintain natural river and stream flows;

*To maintain natural groundwater and aquifer levels;

*To provide opportunities for multiple use of drainage and storage facilities; and

*To provide for economical, safe, aesthetic, and socially acceptable drainage in new developments.

Somewhat surprisingly, environmentally responsible management of stormwater does not have to cost a lot. In fact, the recommendations included in this article are often much less expensive than conventional modern stormwater management practices. Conventional practice has typically been to get rainfall off the land as quickly and efficiently as possible-using, for example, culverts, rip-rap-lined channels, and stormwater sewers. Large detention ponds are often required to store runoff on-site and slowly release it so as not to increase surface water peak flows downstream. If, instead, we design our projects to minimize the quantity of runoff and then provide for natural infiltration into the ground, tremendous savings can be achieved.

In a planned Hartford, Connecticut shopping mall expansion, for example, by specifying pervious grass paving in an overflow parking area at a cost of $500,000, the developer will completely avoid having to build a detention pond that was projected to cost more than $1,000,000. Because conventional asphalt paving would cost almost as much as the grass paving, the total savings are nearly a million dollars-plus, there were savings in the permitting process because the grass paving was more acceptable to neighbors and environmental officials.

In the 240-unit Village Homes project in Davis, California, built in 1981, developer Michael Corbett saved an estimated $800 per lot by substituting a surface drainage and infiltration system for a conventional storm sewer system. Corbett had difficulty convincing the public works department that the innovative approach would work, and had to post a ten-year performance bond to ensure that the system would work as designed. A few years after completion of the project, a 50-year storm hit the Davis area. Storm drainage systems throughout the area failed, and stormwater from some neighboring subdivisions even overflowed onto the Village Homes development, which handled all the extra water just fine. "Not only did it work," said Corbett, "it worked better than the city system." After the storm, the city gave Corbett his money back.

In large development projects, the savings that can be achieved by appropriate stormwater management can be used to offset the extra costs of other environmental building practices that are more expensive than conventional practice. Thus, environmentally sensitive stormwater management can, in effect, subsidize other environmental measures, keeping the whole project budget within the range of conventional construction.

Specific Recommendations

Although stormwater management is usually considered a specialized civil engineering field, strategies to deal with stormwater runoff are really interdisciplinary. They should be incorporated into decision making at many steps along the design process and should be considered by almost all architects, designers, designer-builders, and landscapers. For any large development project, appropriate professionals should be hired to come up with a comprehensive and appropriate stormwater management plan. The developer, builder, or project architect can play a vital role in determining what type of stormwater management plan is developed in two ways: first by careful selection of the team to develop such a plan; and second, by carefully directing that team's work. Look for a landscape architectural and/or engineering firm that understands and appreciates the environmental benefits of reducing and properly managing stormwater. Ask to see examples of past work and look specifically for practices described below.

The following recommendations for environmentally responsible stormwater management are a starting point only. For more in-depth information and recommendations on stormwater management, consult one of the publications listed at the end of this article.

The best way to deal with stormwater runoff is to reduce the amount you have to deal with. This may seem pretty obvious but, remarkably, it is often overlooked by builders and developers who opt instead for complex engineering solutions. Reducing the volume of stormwater runoff can significantly reduce the costs of measures for managing it.

1.Minimize impact area in a development. Many aspects of development-paving, building structures, and compacting soil, for example-reduce the permeability of the ground. Try to minimize the creation of impervious surfaces and leave as much land on a site undisturbed, preserving existing landforms, topography, and vegetation (i.e., design with nature). The acceptable density of development should be limited by the ability of the land to absorb the rainwater that falls on it. .

2.Minimize directly connected impervious areas. Avoid situations in which one impervious surface drains onto another impervious surface, as these magnify stormwater runoff problems. A paved sidewalk, for example, should not drain onto a paved street. Try to separate impervious surfaces with areas of turf, other vegetation, or gravel. .
3.Do not install gutters unless rainwater is collected for use.

If gutters are installed without a water catchment system, provide multiple downspouts.
Adapted from Stormwater Management: A Guide for Floridians

Gutters on roofs concentrate rainwater and often make special measures for its management necessary.

As an alternative, consider no gutters with gravel-filled "Dutch drains" at the base of the wall, or special gutters that disperse the water outward away from the building. Eliminating gutters is only realistic for one-story or at most two-story buildings. If gutters are installed and the downspouts drain onto vegetated ground or into infiltration trenches, install as many downspouts as possible to distribute flow.

4.Reduce paved area through cluster development and narrower streets. By clustering buildings and preserving larger areas of open space, the surface area of roads and sidewalks can be significantly reduced. Narrower streets will generate less stormwater runoff. In a development, it often makes sense to keep streets narrow and provide off-street parking on pervious surfaces.

5.Install porous paving where appropriate. Conventional asphalt or concrete pavement is fairly impervious to moisture. Even unpaved gravel roads and parking areas have low permeability. Porous asphalt and concrete paving systems are available that permit rainwater to percolate through into a gravel drainage layer. These systems are relatively uncommon and work best in low-traffic parking lots and driveways. Most existing applications are in non-freezing climates. The biggest problem with porous pavement is clogging from sediment and dirt that can accumulate on the surface. Regular vacuum sweeping and special measures to keep mud off are required.

In addition to continuous porous paving materials, a number of different

modular concrete or plastic grid pavers are on the market. The grids are filled with gravel or with soil and grass. The pavers prevent the gravel or soil from being compressed so that the permeability is maintained and grass roots are not damaged. Porous grid pavers planted with grass are only suitable for low-traffic areas. GrassPave™, a modular porous grid paver made of recycled HDPE plastic, was reviewed in EBN

7.Plant trees, shrubs, and groundcovers to encourage infiltration. Vegetation enhances the ability of soil to absorb rainfall. Existing vegetation should be protected and, where necessary, new vegetation planted. In general, woodlands with dense underbrush provide higher permeability than turf, but there are many variables involved, including soil characteristics, the roughness of the ground surface, and the specific plant species.

Keep Pollutants Out of Stormwater.

Many of the environmental impacts from stormwater runoff come from pollutants being carried into surface waters. An important strategy for reducing the environmental impact of stormwater runoff, therefore, is to keep pollutants out of the stormwater. Most strategies for pollution source control, such as minimizing road salt, sweeping streets regularly, and implementing animal waste ordinances, relate more to management practices than design and construction. But a few pollution-avoidance strategies can be influenced through building design, siting, and construction.

8.Design and lay out communities to reduce reliance on cars. Many pollutants that are carried into surface waters by stormwater come from automobiles: particulates from exhaust, dripping oil pans, leaking radiators, zinc oxide from tires, heavy metals in lubricating oils and brake linings, etc. Any strategies that reduce dependence on automobiles, therefore, can have a major impact on reducing pollutant runoff. Provide access to public transit. Design communities to provide pedestrian access to basic services (corner store, restaurants, etc.). Incorporate walkways and bicycle paths into master plans. Design houses to facilitate home office use (telecommuting).

9.Provide greens where people can exercise pets. Pet excrement is often the largest single source of bacteria and nutrient pollution in urban stormwater runoff. In high-density developments, provide plenty of green areas where people can walk their dogs to keep pet excrement away from sidewalks and other impervious surfaces. In high-density developments, institute ordinances requiring owners to collect their pets' excrement.

10.Incorporate low-maintenance landscaping. Avoid landscaping strategies that rely on frequent fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide applications (see EBN

11.Design and lay out streets to facilitate easy cleaning. Studies show that regular street cleaning can be moderately successful at keeping certain pollutants, such as heavy metals, out of stormwater. To facilitate regular cleaning, provide for off-street parking in new developments (this complements recommendation 4, above).

12.Control high-pollution commercial and industrial sites. Gas stations, railroad yards, freight-loading areas, and high-use parking lots can be very significant sources of pollution runoff. Specialized measures for runoff collection and pretreatment may be required or desirable in these situations, particularly if fuel or chemical spills are likely. Oil/water separators, for example, may be appropriate in some situations.

Managing Stormwater Runoff at Construction Sites

Because of disruption to vegetation and the ground surface, construction sites require special practices to minimize stormwater runoff, erosion, and pollutant discharge into streams and rivers.

14.Work only with reputable excavation contractors. It is not unusual for heavy equipment (bulldozers, excavators, backhoes), to leak hydraulic fluid, engine oil, and fuel, particularly if that equipment is not properly maintained. A gallon of leaked hydraulic fluid or diesel fuel will contaminate a large volume of soil and result in polluted runoff for a long period of time. Avoid the temptation simply to choose the low bidder for excavation work. Try to establish a long-term working relationship with one or more excavation contractors who have proved to be responsible.

15.Minimize the impact area during construction. With large projects, try to work in phases, disturbing only those sites where building is occurring. This may increase excavation costs somewhat by requiring that equipment be brought in more times, but it can significantly reduce erosion.

16.Avoid soil compaction. Compacted soils are less able to absorb water and thus lead to increased stormwater runoff. On the job site, limit all vehicular traffic to designated areas, restrict parking of construction vehicles on-site, and try to work out arrangements for particularly heavy vehicles (concrete trucks, cranes, etc.) to back in or out of the job site so that space for turning around is not required. If porous pavement is planned for the driveway, that area should be left undisturbed during construction so that the subsoil is not compressed, and an alternate access road should be used for construction vehicles.

17.Stabilize disturbed areas as soon as possible. Try to regrade and plant disturbed areas as soon as possible after excavation work to reduce erosion. When finish grading cannot be done quickly, piled soil and disturbed areas should be protected with straw, filter fabric, or temporary seeding.

18.Minimize slope modifications. Carry out site design and landscaping to keep slope gradient and length to a minimum. Try to leave steeper slopes undisturbed. If significant grading is required on steep slopes, consider terracing to minimize erosion.

19.Construct temporary erosion barriers. Check dams, straw bale barriers, filter fences, swales, and other measures should be used to capture sediment in the runoff from construction sites. See resources for design specifics.

All too often, stormwater systems are designed only to collect and move stormwater off-site via municipal stormwater sewers. Whenever possible, stormwater should be stored and/or absorbed

on-site. This will keep it from adding to erosion and flooding problems downstream and provide for careful treatment of the water. In large development projects, specific measures for stormwater collection, storage, and treatment are generally required as part of the permitting process. In most cases, it makes sense to incorporate several of these permanent stormwater management features, which are usually called best management practices (BMPs). Not all BMPs are suitable to all sites. To ensure proper functioning of BMPs, careful construction and maintenance are required. The lack of good maintenance has been a widespread problem with stormwater management practices.

20.Rooftop water catchment systems A rooftop rainwater catchment system can significantly reduce stormwater runoff. Collected rainwater can be used for landscape irrigation, thus reducing the use of potable water. Depending on design storm calculations and usage of collected water, overflow will be required for the storage reservoir. Measures may be required to keep mosquitoes and other insects out. See EBN

for a construction detail of a rooftop water catchment system.

21.Vegetated filter strips Vegetated strips along impervious paved surfaces provide for some infiltration of runoff, sediment filtering, and some pollutant removal. Curbs should be avoided, and the paved surface should be even with the vegetated filter strip. The filter strips should slope downhill away from the paved surface. Grass should be planted if these strips are to be used as part of the stormwater conveyance system. If not, any groundcover can be used, although the groundcover should be dense enough to keep overland flow from channelizing and eroding rivulets in the soil.

22.Vegetated swales for stormwater conveyance Where possible, use open vegetated "biofiltration" swales to carry stormwater rather than channeling stormwater into pipes or culverts. The use of these swales (planted with grass) provides some infiltration, slows the flow of water, and removes pollutants to some extent. Along roads and other paved surfaces, vegetated filter strips should separate the paved surface from the swale to filter out sediment. Because swales are open, they permit easy tracking of pollutant discharged upstream, should pollutants appear.

23.Check dams in vegetated swales 24.Infiltration basins Infiltration basins are broad, flat, vegetated depressions where stormwater can infiltrate into the ground and recharge the groundwater. As the water percolates through the soil, soil bacteria and the soil itself remove pollutants. A well-designed infiltration basin can serve other uses, but uses that would result in significant soil compaction should be avoided.

26.Dry detention ponds Dry detention ponds are a common feature of stormwater management systems. They temporarily hold stormwater during periods of heavy rainfall to prevent flooding downstream. Stormwater is channeled into the pond, and an outlet structure provides for gradual release of the water during and after the storm event. Most detention ponds are designed to dry out completely between storm events. Because of the short water-retention time, dry detention ponds are not very effective at removing pollutants. Extended detention ponds that hold water for longer periods of time are generally better because more sediment can settle out and because downstream flooding will be reduced during and right after storms.

28.Constructed wetlands Like the shallow edges of retention ponds, constructed wetlands function extremely well at nutrient and other pollutant removal, and they can be an excellent stormwater BMP in wetter parts of the country. In fact, they work so well that they are increasingly used for sewage treatment (see EBN

29.Filtration systems Filtration systems are sometimes used in stormwater management. The primary function is to remove sediment, but they also remove some pollutants that adhere to sediment particles. Sand filters are most common. Sand filters used for stormwater filtration must be carefully built and properly maintained to continue functioning properly. Some promising research is currently being done on organic material filters, such as composted and screened leaves collected through municipal leaf collection programs. Pollutant removal is likely to be much greater from such systems. A compost stormwater filter (CSF™) developed by CSF Treatment Systems, Inc. of Portland, Oregon has been shown to remove over 85% of oil and grease, 82% of heavy metals, and 40-77% of phosphorus, according to the company.

Summing Up

Stormwater management is one of those specialty fields that tend to intimidate builders, developers, and architects. Indeed, stormwater engineering requires complex soil and topography mapping, analysis of storm intensity, and calculations of stormwater runoff in various situations. But while the details of stormwater management are complex, the general concepts are relatively simple.

A common misconception about stormwater management is that it's only a concern with large developments. It is true that complex detention pond systems only come into play with large developments, but many aspects of responsible stormwater management apply to any new construction project. In fact, it is the small projects that do not require stormwater management plans as part of the permitting process where your own decision to address the issue is often most important from an environmental standpoint-because otherwise nothing would be done.

This article should be considered a starting point only. If possible, get hold of one of the publications listed below and delve further into this important issue. Doing so will not only be good for the environment, it can be good for your bottom line.
For more information:
Stormwater Management: A Guide for Floridians. Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, (72 pages). Available from Stormwater/Nonpoint Source Management, 2600 Blair Stone Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400

Design and Construction of Urban Stormwater Management Systems (Manual of Practice No. 77) jointly published by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Water Environment Federation, 1992 (724 pages). Available from ASCE, 345 East 74th Street, New York, NY 10017, or from the Water Environment Federation, 601 Wythe St., Alexandria, VA 22314; 703/684-2400. Pricing: $45 for members; $60 nonmembers. Quite technical manual with primary focus on more conventional engineering practices. Chapter 12, "Stormwater Management Practices for Water Quality Enhancement," is particularly good.

Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook, Third Edition, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 1992 (783 pages). Available from Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Soil and Water Conservation, 203 Governor Street, Suite 206, Richmond, VA 23219; 804/786-2064; $23 postpaid. The most thorough manual we've seen on job-site erosion control, including excellent information on erosion-control plantings. Less emphasis on pollutant removal from stormwater.

Water Resources Protection Technology: A Handbook of Measures to Protect Water Resources in Land Management, by J. Toby Tourbier and Richard Westmacott, Urban Land Institute, 1981 (178 pages). Available from ULI, 625 Indiana Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004; 202/624-7000; $39.95 postpaid (nonmember price). Somewhat dated, but very useful publication. Presented as a series of practical fact sheets, each one covering a specific measure (or measures) to protect water resources when carrying out development projects. For example, porous asphalt paving is one measure described under the category "Delay or Infiltration of Runoff at Source."

Best Management Practice Guidebook for Urban Development, Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, July 1992 (60 pages). Available from Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, 222 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1800, Chicago, IL 60606; 312/454-0400; 312/454-0411 (fax). Cost: $6. Excellent non-technical introduction to stormwater management, erosion control, and other issues relating to urban development. Emphasis on environmentally responsible practices as opposed to more conventional engineering solutions.

Stormwater Management Manual for the Puget Sound Basin, Washington State Department of Ecology, 1992 (approx. 800 pages). Available from the Washington State Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504; 206/407-6400. Cost: approx. $30 plus UPS shipping (recipient invoiced). The most complete and useful publication on stormwater management we reviewed. Excellent coverage of environmentally responsible practices to remove pollutants through biofiltration. If you purchase only one manual on stormwater management, this should be it.

Stormwater Management: A Guide for Floridians, Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, undated (72 pages). Available from Stormwater/Nonpoint Source Management, Florida D.E.R., 2600 Stone Road, Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400. Non-technical overview of stormwater management. Clearly illustrated.

Information on compost stormwater filters: CSF Treatment Systems, Inc., P.O. Box 19390, Portland, OR 97280; 503/644-8220; 503/526-0775 (fax)

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Stormwater is defined as precipitation that does not soak into the ground or evaporate, but flows along the surface of the ground as runoff. As land is developed, stormwater becomes a bigger and bigger concern.

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Sustainable water means a nation that can be water self-sufficient: ensuring there is enough water to meet multiple needs, from agriculture to municipal and industrial. It also means water supply will remain consistent, despite climate change impacts, such as a lack of rainfall and drought, or too much rain and being flood resilient. Sustainable water also means that the economics stack up in matching supply and demand and the water delivery process is as efficient as possible. Water sustainability, meanwhile, can also mean energy neutrality by coupling traditional water treatment technologies with renewable energies. The following article is designed to provide everything you need to know about sustainable water.

What is water sustainability?

Image credit: the United

Sustainable water management means the ability to meet the water needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. Achieving sustainable water management requires a multidisciplinary and holistic approach in which technical, environmental, economic, landscape aesthetic, societal and cultural issues are addressed.

On a global scale, having sustainable water means to provide each person on the planet with affordable access to the minimum 20 to 50 litres of daily water required to sustain life. This follows the United Nations General Assembly recognition of "the right to safe and cleaning drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights".

Water sustainability also means effective and holistic management of water resources. There are now multiple demands on water resources, which drive the need for sustainable, integrated and holistic water management.

UK regulator Ofwat describes 'Sustainable water' as: "A sustainable water cycle in which we are able to meet our needs for water and sewerage services while enabling future generations to meet their own needs."

For water utilities, this can mean effective planning for water and wastewater systems to manage their operations and infrastructure and ensure the sustainability of the communities they serve, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US. The Agency said the benefits of considering sustainability during infrastructure planning include:

Optimising environmental, economic, and social benefits by setting goals and selecting projects through a transparent and inclusive process with the community

Realising consistency across a range of alternatives that address both utility and community goals and

Enhancing the long-term technical, financial, and managerial capacity of the utility.

Typically, water utilities have a long-term planning horizon and long-term infrastructure operation and maintenance commitments. The costs and potential benefits of investment decisions are realised over a long period of time. Accordingly, EPA's Sustainability Policy calls on drinking water and wastewater systems to undertake "robust and comprehensive" planning to ensure that water infrastructure investments are cost-effective over their lifecycle, resource efficient, and consistent with other relevant community goals.

Levels of water sustainability will also differ between utilities. Some utilities and communities have been incorporating sustainability considerations into their planning processes but are looking for ways to improve and refine their current efforts. Others may choose to focus on how such considerations can help to cost-effectively meet existing regulatory or service requirements.

Sustainable water solutions: the basics

Sustainable water systems should provide adequate water quantity and appropriate water quality for a given need, without compromising the future ability to provide this capacity and quality, according to the IWA.

The association states: "Water systems in the realm of sustainable development may not literally include the use of water, but include systems where the use of water has traditionally been required. Examples include waterless toilets and waterless car washes, whose use helps to alleviate water stress and secure sustainable water supply."
Image credit: U.S Geological Survey
The following list from the IWA addresses how different water sources can be used sustainably:

Surface water

Surface water is limited as is unequally distributed around the world and pollution from various activities means that surface water without treatment is not suitable for drinking. If properly constructed, dams can provide a sustainable water supply as the structures can be used for power generation, irrigation, flood prevention, water diversion and navigation. However, large-scale dam projects may present challenges to sustainability: negative environmental impacts on wildlife habitats, fish migration, water flow and quality and socioeconomic impacts. Therefore, a sustainability impact assessment should be performed.

Groundwater

Groundwater accounts for more than 50 per cent of global freshwater and is critical for potable water. Groundwater can be a sustainable supply of water only if the amount of water entering, leaving and being stored in the system is conserved. The IWA says unsustainable groundwater use results in water-level decline, reduce streamflow and low quality water, directly impacting local communities.

Desalination
Image credit: Elemental Water Makers
In some nations lacking freshwater, desalination has provided an adequate water supply for many years. However, higher energy demands from both thermal and membrane-based compared to groundwater and surface water treatment have challenged the adaption of desalination as a sustainable one. However, the IWA said that sustainability of desalination could be improved if it is coupled with renewable energy. Decentralised, solar power desalination has been recommended as a way to provide more sustainable water for Greece's 6000 islands.

Reclaimed water

Image credit: Tata & Howard

Reclaimed water, or water reuse as it's known, can also be a sustainable source for water supply and can alleviate stress on primary water resources, such as surface and groundwater. Depending on the given application, reclaimed water must be treated to provide an appropriate quality, for example for irrigation or industry use. The level of water reuse varies globally. Countries such as Spain and China continue to lead the way in water reuse, with the later accounting for 49 percent of capacity contracted between 2010 and 2017.

Sustainable water resources management

Sustainable water supply is a component of integrated water resource management, according to the IWA. The association identifies it as the "practice of bringing together multiple stakeholders with various viewpoints to determine how water should best be managed". To decide if a water system is sustainable, various economic, social and ecological considerations must be considered.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) has outlined the following areas where sustainable water resources management will need to take place, which ties in with its overarching goal of "Securing Sustainable Water for All".

Agriculture

Agriculture is by far the thirstiest consumer of water globally, accounting for 70 per cent of water withdrawals worldwide, although this figure varies considerably across countries. Rainfed agriculture is the predominant agricultural production system around the world, and its current productivity is, on average, little more than half the potential obtainable under optimal agricultural management. By 2050, world agriculture will need to produce 60% more food globally, and 100 per cent more in developing countries.

Industry and energy

Together, industry and energy account for 20 per cent of water demand. More-developed countries have a much larger proportion of freshwater withdrawals for industry than less-developed countries, where agriculture dominates. Balancing the requirements of sustainability against the conventional view of industrial mass production creates several conundrums for industries. One of the biggest is globalisation and how to spread the benefits of industrialisation worldwide and without unsustainable impacts on water and other natural resources.

Domestic sector

Municipal water use accounts for 10 per cent of total water use. And yet, worldwide, an estimated 748 million people remain without access to an improved source of water, and 2.5 billion remain without access to improved sanitation.

Cities
Image credit: Chicago Council on Global Affairs
More than half the world already lives in urban areas, and by 2050, it is expected that more than two-thirds of the global population of nine billion will be living in cities. Furthermore, most of this growth will happen in developing countries, which have limited capacity to deal with this rapid change, and the growth will also lead to increase in the number of people living in slums, which often have very poor living conditions, including inadequate water and sanitation facilities. Therefore, the development of water resources for economic growth, social equity and environmental sustainability will be closely linked with the sustainable development of cities.

Ecosystems

Perhaps the most important challenge to sustainable development to have arisen in the last decades is the unfolding global ecological crisis that is becoming a barrier to further human development. From an ecological perspective, sustainable development efforts have not been successful. Global environmental degradation has reached a critical level with major ecosystems approaching thresholds that could trigger massive collapse. The growing understanding of global planetary boundaries, which must be respected to protect Earth's life support systems, needs to be the very basis of the future sustainable development framework.

Sustainable water management strategies: three examples

Sustainable water strategies will be devised by the regional and national governments and will vary depending on a variety of factors: maturity of water infrastructure, impact and risks from climate change, level of governmental ambition, regulation and access to finance, among others.

According to the IWA, sustainability is as much an outcome as a goal. The conceptual framework for Sustainable Water Resources Management considers water as a renewable, but finite resource with global and regional constraints. This should integrate ecological, economic, and social considerations through institutional and legal/regulatory constructs to move toward sustainable water resources.

There are multiple case studies where government-led sustainable water management strategies have been developed, taking into account national regulations. Below we have listed three very different examples, from city to state and country wide in scope:

Country-wide sustainable water: A long-term water strategy for Northern Ireland

This wide-ranging strategy focuses on the sustainable management of water in rivers, lakes, loughs and aquifers used for domestic, agricultural and industrial cases. The document proposes how excess rainwater can be managed sustainably locally to reduce the impact of flooding on communities. It also examines how we can reduce the amount of energy needed to move and treat drinking water and wastewater.

State-wide: sustainable water strategies for Victoria, Australia

In a statuary process for state-wide water resource planning in the Australian state of Australia, there are four regional water strategies. Driven by The Water Act 1989, these sustainable water strategies have to be reviewed at least every 10 years. The review of the Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy started in 2016 and is now complete. The five-year assessments of the Western Region and Gippsland Region sustainable water strategies began in 2017 and are also complete. The review of the Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy is expected to start in late 2019.

City-wide: Rotterdam - leading the way in urban resilience

The Dutch city of Rotterdam topped the Arcadis' Sustainable Cities Water Index list. The city has been innovative and proactive in its approach to water management, including heavy investment into its reservoir catchment system. Rotterdam has become a showcase in urban resilience that directly leads to sustainable water supply: the city is among the highest in the world in terms of water reserves.

Water sustainability projects: Three examples

There are three examples of water sustainability projects:

Huaifang Underground Water Reclamation Plant (HWRP)
Image credit: China Daily
This project was awarded Gold in the 12th IWA project innovation awards as 'Beijing's sustainable solution for ecological water reuse'. The 31 hectare wastewater recycling plant was designed to ease sewage treatment pressure being experienced in the south of Beijing and to improve the water quality of the Liangshui River. The underground wastewater recycling facility will house four 160 square metre bioreactors, producing recycled water to level four (IV) of Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water. As an underground treatment plant, the aim is for the facility to reduce land occupancy as well as containing any noise and foul odours emanating from the plant. Grey water will be used for industrial and municipal purposes while sludge will be treated and reused as landfill as well as forest soil enrichment.

Omdurman Water Supply Optimisation Scheme, Sudan

One of the most significant steps towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, the Omdurman Water Supply and Optimisation Scheme was designed to alleviate critical drinking water shortage in and around the capital of Khartoum, Sudan. Biwater was contracted to finance and build a large-scale water treatment plant, primary distribution and storage, with an intake on the Nile, downstream of the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The innovative intake structure was built to reliably manage challenging river level fluctuations, strong flows and large amounts of silt carried by the river during the rainy season each year. Interestingly, the innovative intake structure was designed by Biwater to rise and fall over two levels, coping with up to eight metre variances in the river level, as well as the sheer weight and intensity of the sediment carried in the water.

Improving conditions in the Andean communities
Image credit: Andres Times
A project known as AICCA is being rolled out in the Andean regions of Peru, Bolivia and Columbia that will focus on clean water and climate change. The Bank of Latin American Development and the Global Environment Facility have supported the project with a total of $10 million. The project aims to address the challenges of climate change with a focus on ensuring water sustainability in the Andean populations.

Sustainable water management: wedding renewables & water together

One development that physically embodies sustainable water management is renewable powered water systems, specifically solar powered desalination. It ties in with a goal set for 20 percent of new desalination plants to be powered by renewables between 2020-2025, by the International Desalination Association's (IDA) Global Clean Water Desalination Association.

By bringing together renewable and desalination technologies, it is being seen as a vital combination to reduce the desalination carbon footprint in the short term.

To date, there have been several small-scale trials across the Middle East, Spain and India, bringing together concentrated solar power (CSP) and seawater desalination. The challenge has been to scale up the size of the operation and make it fully independent, without access to grid power as a back up when the sun isn't shining. For example, currently, many developments revert to grid power during the night time to ensure continuous operation.

There is a notable case study in development in Saudi Arabia worth mentioning. February engineering firm Metito announced it had secured a contract with the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) to construct a "seawater desalination plant powered by solar energy".

Valued at SAR220,404,144 (US$58.7 million), the desalination plant will start with a capacity to produce 30,000 m3/day of drinking water, expandable to 60,000 m3/day. The project is expected to be in development for 24 months, with production slated to start in the first quarter of 2020.

The work includes a 2 megawatt (MW) solar plant that will be fully designed, procured, installed, commissioned and integrated with the RO system.

Other developments in this space include much smaller, off-grid solar powered desalination solutions. French engineering company Mascara Renewable Water has developed such a system that has been trialled in Abu Dhabi. It used a beach well to obtain seawater from a borehole near the sea. The natural sand filtration of the beach well eliminated the need for a dedicated pre-treatment system, according to the company.

Battery storage has also been touted as one way to have an independent solar and photovoltaic desalination plant. However, concerns remain about high investment costs needed, coupled with a long delivery time.

Related content

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Sustainable water: our essential guide to sustainable water resource management solutions & strategies

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Sustainable water means a nation that can be water self-sufficient: ensuring there is enough water to meet multiple needs, from agriculture to municipal and industrial. It also means water supply will remain consistent, despite climate change impacts, such as a lack of rainfall and drought, or too much rain and being flood resilient.

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During the capital expansion, urban development devoured farmland as industrial agriculture continued to expand. Small-scale and subsistence farming declined globally. Environmental elements might potentially speed up this process. For instance, sea level rise and climate change may result in less human habitation. More rural land may become useless as a result of severe climatic events and industrial farm contamination of the soil and water. As food production is separated from human habitat, the divide between urban and rural regions will expand if current trends continue. By the end of the twenty-first century, all people may reside in urban areas, turning rural areas into even more isolated places.

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in urban agriculture, which can be attributed in part to making the food production system more sustainable, resilient, and socially just . Urban agriculture is the process of "producing, processing, and distributing food and other goods in and around cities through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry." Although the term "urban agriculture" is relatively new, urban food production systems have a long history in the United States and abroad, providing communities with fresh food, jobs, and green space. Many cities, such as Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia, have adopted policies to assist local agriculture, which support local farming and offer inhabitants an increasing supply of fresh fruit. Further, older industrial cities like have numerous ambitious ideas for large-scale manufacturing on the vacant land left over from decades of housing abandonment.

Because urban agriculture affects the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and the environment, it has a wide variety of potential advantages. Economic and food security have historically been two of the most prominent motives for engagement in urban agriculture. Urban agriculture provides a supply of nutritious food that might otherwise be unavailable; for example, a diverse selection of local fresh fruits, vegetables, and other items are available to urban customers. Furthermore, when consumers perceive that local food is fresher, of higher quality, and tastes better, their preferences are more likely to lead to healthier eating alternatives and lifestyles . Furthermore, it may supplement a household's income, reduce food expenses, and create jobs .

Urban agriculture is practiced for social reasons as well, like caring for disadvantaged communities and promoting social inclusion . Urban farming is a crucial tool for the integration of underprivileged individuals or vulnerable social groups (such as immigrants, abandoned women, jobless people, elderly people, and persons with disabilities, etc.), because it gives them better living conditions. A garden or rooftop farm, for instance, is a location where people congregate for mutual benefit, frequently boosting the shared social and cultural identity of city dwellers. Larger urban farms also take part in initiatives that aid underprivileged communities by providing job training and other educational opportunities.

Finally, urban agriculture may contribute significantly to a city's environmental sustainability. As a form of green space, urban farms and community food gardens within cities benefit the environment by preserving biodiversity , lowering the effects of urban heat islands , and minimizing the consequences of urban stormwater runoff . Additionally, since the producing regions are near the ultimate customers, urban farming helps to lessen the ecological effect of cities by recycling trash and lowering emissions for transit, packing, and storage.

In addition to the many advantages it offers, urban agriculture also faces certain difficulties, with soil pollution possibly being the most significant. Leaded gasoline emissions, trash disposal, and several other effluents in the toxic urban environment have produced potential soil pollutants like lead and other heavy metals for almost a century. The average lead content in the soil in Chicago, Illinois is 20 times higher than that in nearby rural soils, according to a random sample of 57 locations. In another research of 54 community gardens in New York City, it was discovered that of the samples at least occasionally exceeded recommended health values.

For children in particular, vegetables cultivated in this soil may absorb heavy metals and pose health problems. However, the health concerns they pose to consumers are difficult to identify. The main reason is that most plant species have a low propensity for absorbing lead, and different plants absorb different levels of heavy metals. This does not necessarily imply that urban farming is riskier than it is advantageous. It is hard to say if these health concerns are any bigger than those brought on by industrial food contamination or pesticide residues on shop items in the absence of studies.

Urban farmers have two main options for handling polluted soil: repair the land or import healthy soil for use in raised beds . Since soil restoration is prohibitively expensive, importing dirt has been the most popular option by far. For instance, an urban farm was successfully established in Red Hook (Brooklyn) using imported soil on a sizable expanse of asphalt in a local park. Additionally, given the dearth of accessible, unpolluted, farmable land in metropolitan settings, more effort should be done to increase the productivity and profitability of the land.

A variety of urban agriculture applications continue to improve the sustainability, livability, and equity of metropolitan areas. However, there are still many unanswered problems about the interactions between urban food production systems and the intricate urban environment. With a future threatened by climate change, food instability, and resource scarcity, these problems take on much greater interest and significance.

Yeque is a current MPH student with a certificate in Applied Biostatistics and a BS in Clinical/Medical Technology. Environmental health and safety, data analysis, cancer research, epidemiological studies, health promotion/ illness prevention, and health policy are some of my key interests.

During the capital expansion, urban development devoured farmland as industrial agriculture continued to expand. Small-scale and subsistence farming declined globally. Environmental elements might potentially speed up this process. For instance, sea level rise and climate change may result in less human habitation. More rural land may become useless as a result of severe climatic events and industrial farm contamination of the soil and water. As food production is separated from human habitat, the divide between urban and rural regions will expand if current trends continue. By the end of the twenty-first century, all people may reside in urban areas, turning rural areas into even more isolated places.

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in urban agriculture, which can be attributed in part to making the food production system more sustainable, resilient, and socially just . Urban agriculture is the process of "producing, processing, and distributing food and other goods in and around cities through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry." Although the term "urban agriculture" is relatively new, urban food production systems have a long history in the United States and abroad, providing communities with fresh food, jobs, and green space. Many cities, such as Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia, have adopted policies to assist local agriculture, which support local farming and offer inhabitants an increasing supply of fresh fruit. Further, older industrial cities like have numerous ambitious ideas for large-scale manufacturing on the vacant land left over from decades of housing abandonment.

Because urban agriculture affects the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and the environment, it has a wide variety of potential advantages. Economic and food security have historically been two of the most prominent motives for engagement in urban agriculture. Urban agriculture provides a supply of nutritious food that might otherwise be unavailable; for example, a diverse selection of local fresh fruits, vegetables, and other items are available to urban customers. Furthermore, when consumers perceive that local food is fresher, of higher quality, and tastes better, their preferences are more likely to lead to healthier eating alternatives and lifestyles . Furthermore, it may supplement a household's income, reduce food expenses, and create jobs .

Urban agriculture is practiced for social reasons as well, like caring for disadvantaged communities and promoting social inclusion . Urban farming is a crucial tool for the integration of underprivileged individuals or vulnerable social groups (such as immigrants, abandoned women, jobless people, elderly people, and persons with disabilities, etc.), because it gives them better living conditions. A garden or rooftop farm, for instance, is a location where people congregate for mutual benefit, frequently boosting the shared social and cultural identity of city dwellers. Larger urban farms also take part in initiatives that aid underprivileged communities by providing job training and other educational opportunities.

Finally, urban agriculture may contribute significantly to a city's environmental sustainability. As a form of green space, urban farms and community food gardens within cities benefit the environment by preserving biodiversity , lowering the effects of urban heat islands , and minimizing the consequences of urban stormwater runoff . Additionally, since the producing regions are near the ultimate customers, urban farming helps to lessen the ecological effect of cities by recycling trash and lowering emissions for transit, packing, and storage.

In addition to the many advantages it offers, urban agriculture also faces certain difficulties, with soil pollution possibly being the most significant. Leaded gasoline emissions, trash disposal, and several other effluents in the toxic urban environment have produced potential soil pollutants like lead and other heavy metals for almost a century. The average lead content in the soil in Chicago, Illinois is 20 times higher than that in nearby rural soils, according to a random sample of 57 locations. In another research of 54 community gardens in New York City, it was discovered that of the samples at least occasionally exceeded recommended health values.

For children in particular, vegetables cultivated in this soil may absorb heavy metals and pose health problems. However, the health concerns they pose to consumers are difficult to identify. The main reason is that most plant species have a low propensity for absorbing lead, and different plants absorb different levels of heavy metals. This does not necessarily imply that urban farming is riskier than it is advantageous. It is hard to say if these health concerns are any bigger than those brought on by industrial food contamination or pesticide residues on shop items in the absence of studies.

Urban farmers have two main options for handling polluted soil: repair the land or import healthy soil for use in raised beds . Since soil restoration is prohibitively expensive, importing dirt has been the most popular option by far. For instance, an urban farm was successfully established in Red Hook (Brooklyn) using imported soil on a sizable expanse of asphalt in a local park. Additionally, given the dearth of accessible, unpolluted, farmable land in metropolitan settings, more effort should be done to increase the productivity and profitability of the land.

A variety of urban agriculture applications continue to improve the sustainability, livability, and equity of metropolitan areas. However, there are still many unanswered problems about the interactions between urban food production systems and the intricate urban environment. With a future threatened by climate change, food instability, and resource scarcity, these problems take on much greater interest and significance.

Yeque is a current MPH student with a certificate in Applied Biostatistics and a BS in Clinical/Medical Technology. Environmental health and safety, data analysis, cancer research, epidemiological studies, health promotion/ illness prevention, and health policy are some of my key interests.

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Urban Agriculture for Sustainable City Development - The Climate Club

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Urban agriculture is the process of "producing, processing, and distributing food and other goods in and around cities through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry." Although the term "urban agriculture" is relatively new, urban food production systems have a long his

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If you're looking for a way to produce food while working with nature instead of against it, permaculture is your answer.

What is permaculture farming? Permaculture gives farmers a way to achieve high yields and productivity while doing it in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way than conventional farming methods. It applies a more holistic approach to farming crops or livestock.

In this article, you'll learn what permaculture is, the 12 principles of permaculture, its benefits, and several real-world permaculture practices.

What Is Permaculture?

Permaculture is an approach to agricultural design that focuses on whole systems thinking, as well as using or simulating patterns from nature.

The term originated from David Holmgren in 1978, but the practices of permaculture date back much further.

Permaculture has 3 core tenants:

Care for the earth. In other words, help all life systems continue to exist and multiply. Because if we don't have a healthy planet, humans can't exist at all.

Care for the people. Allow people to access resources they need to survive.

Fair share. You should only take what you need, and reinvest any surplus. Any extra can go forward to helping fulfill the two other core tenants. This includes returning waste products back into the system so it can be made useful again.

Conventional agriculture tends to work against nature, instead of with it.

We tear up whatever natural ecosystem was on the land before, and turn it into a blank slate that we can plant crops or raise livestock on. But there's another way.

By using principles of permaculture, you're working with nature, instead of against it. That means that you can let nature do most of the work for you.

The 12 Principles of Permaculture

David Holmgren's original ideas regarding permaculture can be broken down into twelve design principles.

1. Observe and Interact

Take time to observe nature before making any decisions or changes. Often just by observing, we can get a lot of insight into how to design our farm or garden to suit what's already there.

2. Catch and Store Energy

In nature, resources tend to come in peak periods. We get a lot of sunlight in the summer, but much less in the winter. In some places there are rainy seasons some of the time, and droughts other parts of the time.

Permaculture is big on capturing resources like rainwater or solar electricity so they can be used later as needed.

3. Obtain a Yield

Make sure you're being rewarded for the work that you're putting in. After all, you probably aren't farming just for a hobby. You want to get food, an income, or something else in return. You can't work on an empty stomach.

4. Apply Self-regulation and Accept Feedback

Hold yourself accountable, and also be open to suggestions and critiques from others. If there is something you're doing that's inappropriate for your situation, you want to know about it, so your systems can function well.

5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services

Nature has an abundance of renewable resources that we can make use of. We should prioritize those, and try to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources.

6. Produce No Waste

Being "zero waste" is a big trend right now, but really it all started with permaculture. If we value all of the resources that we have available and use a bit of ingenuity, we can make sure that nothing goes to waste.

7. Design From Patterns to Details

Take a look at nature and society. You can usually observe patterns in things like how beehives are organized, the design on a snail shell, or other things to give inspiration for your designs.

You can borrow from these designs and add some details and flair of your own.

8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate

Permaculture is all about having things support each other and work together, instead of having everything exist as an island unto itself.

By pairing different plants, livestock, and other objects together correctly, we can take advantage of relationships they can have with each other.

9. Use Small and Slow Solutions

Permaculture isn't about making big changes overnight. Making gradual changes and working with slow systems makes them much easier to maintain.

Plus they tend to have a more sustainable outcome. When it comes to permaculture, slow and steady wins the race.

10. Use and Value Diversity

Where conventional farming is all about monoculture and many farmers traditionally only grow one or two crops, permaculture is big on diversity.

A diverse system is much less vulnerable to threats like pests, diseases, and other problems than a homogeneous one. Don't put your eggs all in one basket.

11. Use Edges and Value The Marginal

Where two different things meet is usually where the most interesting stuff happens. It's usually the most productive and diverse part of the whole system.

12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

Change is inevitable. By making careful observations and then stepping in at the right time, we can make a positive outcome based on changes instead of negative ones.

The Benefits of Permaculture

Permaculture has a bunch of benefits that make it an attractive choice for anyone who has land and is looking to grow food, from farmers all the way down to backyard gardeners. Some of the benefits include:

Reduced water usage

You can save on water bills by making use of wastewater and rainwater. Even for homeowners this is worthwhile, but for larger farms it really becomes a more cost effective and efficient way of watering your crops.

It costs less

Permaculture is more cost-effective than growing plants conventionally. You don't have to spend money on things like pesticides or fertilizers.

Since permaculture systems require less maintenance, usually all you need to do is water crops and occasionally mulch, they also save money in terms of labor.

Reduced waste

If you're using a permaculture system, nothing goes to waste. Garden waste, leaves, table scraps, and other waste products get turned into fertilizer or food for livestock.

Some permaculture enthusiasts take this further and even make use of things like compost toilets to truly live a zero waste lifestyle. Making use of byproducts is what really makes permaculture sustainable.

Nature does most of the work

Once everything is correctly set up in your permaculture garden, it will take care of itself much more than a conventional one. (For more information on selecting the best plants for your garden, check out our article on permaculture plants.)

Water can be stored in human-made water features to attract birds, frogs, and other beneficial wildlife that will help remove pests as well. Companion planting similarly helps to keep insect problems to a minimum.

Permaculture gardens require a lot less maintenance overall.

Less pollution

Permaculture is a more natural way of growing food and the use of any motorized farm equipment like tractors is rare.

Less toxins

Permaculture uses natural fertilizers and pest control methods and is usually considered organic, so you're not getting exposed to all of the chemicals you might be if you're using pesticides and other artificial products on your crops.

Improved values

By practicing permaculture, you'll naturally develop more ethical and positive values like wasting less, only using as much as you need, reducing pollution, and helping others.

You'll promote green living through use of only natural fertilizers and pesticides.

More self-sufficiency

Permaculture allows a farmer or gardener to have a wider array of crops on their land. It gives you the self-reliance of being able to grow whatever you want or need to eat.

If there's extras leftover, you can always learn how to preserve it for later use.

Applicable to existing systems

Existing agricultural systems and land can be transitioned over to the principles of permaculture. Anywhere that you can typically grow food can be used for permaculture on a large or small scale.

Common Permaculture Practices

In the decades since Holmgren first wrote about permaculture, a wide variety of new techniques and practices that fall under the general umbrella of permaculture have sprung up and become included under the topic.

Here are some of the more common subcategories of permaculture.

1) Agroforestry

Agroforestry is an approach to permaculture that combines trees or shrubs along with livestock or crops. The name comes from the combination of agriculture and forestry.

These two seemingly separate fields work together to create more sustainable, healthy, profitable, and productive systems.

Under the heading of agroforestry, you have forest farming, which is really an entire permaculture topic unto itself. But the basic idea is to use a seven-layered system to create your food forest.

This includes a canopy layer, low tree layer, shrub layer, herbaceous layer, rhizosphere, ground cover layer, and vertical layer.

It's designed to mimic naturally-occurring forests, but using nut and fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and other plants that are useful for humans.

Other agroforestry systems include silvopastoral and silvoarable. Silvopastoral systems combine trees with foraging livestock, while silvoarable combines trees with companion crops.

Alley cropping is another agroforestry technique that involves cultivating food, specialty crops, or forage in between wide rows of trees.

As you might imagine, there is a lot of overlap between these different types of agroforestry and they have a lot in common, so the lines aren't always perfectly clear.

For example, alley cropping can be used as part of a silvoarable system.

What all types of agroforestry have in common is that they can help to improve crop production, diversify farm income, and provide protection and other benefits to crops.

Having nut trees alongside foraging livestock means that you get the benefits of additional income from the nuts that you gather.

The trees provide protection from the wind, rain and other elements for livestock and reduce the risk of mortality. And animals produce waste as they forge which in turn fertilizes the trees and boosts their production capacity.

Examples of cultures around the world combining agriculture with forestry are surprisingly common. They stretch back hundreds of years or more, from Southeast Asia to North America.

2) Hügelkultur

Hügelkultur is German meaning "hill culture." It's a technique whereby large amounts of wood are buried to improve the water retention abilities of the soil.

This decaying wood acts like a sponge to hold onto water that seeps into the ground. Often compostable plant materials are planted on top of the mound and eventually composted into the soil as well.

A Hügelkultur is a great way to follow the permaculture principle of catching and storing energy.

Water during rainy times of year gets trapped in the underground wood, which can often hold enough volume to help keep plants alive even through an extended dry season.

This practice is a great alternative to burning wooden debris and other unwanted wood. Instead of releasing carbon into the atmosphere when it's burned, the wood's carbon gets sequestered back into the ground.

A Hügelkultur mound usually has a lifespan of 5 or 6 years before the wood fully rots and the process needs to be repeated again.

3) Harvesting Rainwater and Greywater

Instead of just letting rainwater run off your land, you can accumulate and store it to use later on. This is embodying the permaculture principle of "catch and store energy."

Most rainwater is collected from roofs. Homes, barns, and other structures on your farm likely already have eavestroughs that collect and move water away from the buildings.

To harvest rainwater, all you need to do is hook up a large tank to your downspout collect this water, instead of simply letting it soak into the ground and go to waste.

Another water catchment method is stormwater harvesting. It differs from rainwater harvesting in that it deals with the collection of stormwater from creeks, drains, and other waterways instead of from roofs.

One way farmers can create a stormwater harvesting system is by making a cistern or water reservoir at the base of a hill. This will catch most of the water which flows down the hillside.

The advantage to stormwater harvesting over rainwater harvesting is that a much larger volume of water than rainwater harvesting can. The downside is that it collects a larger amount of pollutants.

To mitigate this, normally rocks and silt are incorporated into the hill to partially filter the water before it arrives at the cistern.

Both rainwater and stormwater can be used for a variety of applications, including water for irrigation and livestock, as well as even drinking water if properly treated first.

What the water will be used for determines the extent to which it needs to be treated. The water would need to be screened, disinfected, and filtered before it's potable for humans.

One final source of reusable water on the farm is greywater. This is water that comes from activities in the home or around the farm like taking a bath, washing dishes, or doing the laundry.

This water is different and kept separate from the blackwater of toilets or septic systems, which is difficult to reuse.

Greywater can't be reused for drinking water since it contains soaps and detergents, but can be used for landscape irrigation and other purposes.

Human waste can be repurposed, although the process is harder and less practical. The two most common approaches are composting or using the material to create biogas.

Biogas is methane from human waste which can be used as a fuel for cooking or heating.

Even after composting, it's not recommended to use human manure on crops because of the high risk of pathogens and bacterial contamination, although they can be used on trees and shrubs.

Getting composting toilets approved by your local sanitation authorities can be a difficult ordeal, so they're less commonly used.

4) Cell Grazing

Grazing is usually seen as a negative activity that has the ability to destroy the environment if not practiced responsibly. And it's true that allowing livestock to overgraze an area can have negative consequences.

Under permaculture, cell grazing (also called rotational grazing) is the preferred method. This involves moving groups of livestock regularly between different fields, pastures, or forests.

Either ruminant animals (like cows, goats, and sheep) or non-ruminant animals (like pigs, rabbits, or flocks of geese) can be used effectively for cell grazing.

When done responsibly, the disturbances caused by grazing animals can actually prompt a better ecology and allow plants to regrow more quickly.

Cell grazing involves closely monitoring and monitoring livestock and how they're interacting with the land.

Plants need adequate rest between grazings, so it's important that an area gets a rest period to regrow after it has been grazed.

However, you also don't want to over rest an area or plants can go through lignification (become woody), resulting in lower productivity. So it's a delicate balancing act.

Even vegans and others opposed to using animals for meat, milk, or fiber can still keep livestock for grazing by using what's called conservation grazing.

This is the practice of using animals like sheep and goats to eat invasive plants, or allowing them to replace your lawnmower to keep grass short. Animal welfare is maximized, as they're closely monitored.

Farmers can ensure their livestock are getting sufficient quality and quantity of water, and their nutrition can be managed and supplementation provided as needed.

Conservation farming provides a low-stress environment for domestic animals while also allowing them to contribute productively to the farm and earn their keep.

5) Sheet Mulching

Many farmers and gardeners already make use of mulching, which is just any kind of protective cover placed on top of the soil to retain water and prevent weed growth.

Wood chips, cardboard, plastic, stones, and other materials are all commonly used.

Sheet mulching is an organic no-dig technique that tries to mimic the soil buildup that happens naturally in forests, namely how leaves cover the ground.

The practice of sheet mulching is also sometimes referred to as "lasagna gardening" since it uses many alternating layers of materials. In a cross-section, land that has had sheet mulching applied to it would look like a slice of lasagna.

Most commonly, sheet mulching uses alternating layers of "green" and "brown" materials. Brown materials include fallen leaves, shredded paper and cardboard, pine needles, wood chips, and straw.

Green materials include manure, grass clippings, worm casings, vegetable scraps, hay, coffee grounds, and compost.

Anywhere from 5 to 10 layers of materials may be used. Your sheet mulching should always be topped with straw or wood chips.

Sheet mulching helps add nutrients and organic matter to the soil, suppress weed growth, moderate temperatures and protect against frost, reduce erosion and evaporation, and absorbs rainfall.

6) Natural Building

Natural building is a more sustainable approach to construction than going down to your local hardware store or lumber yard for materials.

In a permaculture system, you should strive to use as many recycled or salvaged materials as is practical.

There are plenty of renewable resources on the land that you might be able to make use of in your next building project.

Clay, rocks, wood, reeds, straw, and sand are all readily available materials that most people overlook.

For example, subsoil, water, straw, and lime can be combined to create cob. This building material is very low cost, but it's also fireproof, resistant to seismic activities, and is strong enough to build entire houses out of.

Despite being made of natural materials, cob is very resistant to weathering. With proper maintenance, a cob structure will last a very long time.

In fact, the oldest cob house still standing is estimated to be 10,000 years old. Not bad, considering the cost to build a small cob house is only about $5,000 to $10,000.

Cob also allows for some very unique architecture that isn't possible with bricks or other traditional building materials, since you can mold it like clay into any shape that you want.

Adobe is another material similar to cob which is used all over the world, from Mexico to the Middle East.

Less natural materials like tires can also be used for construction. Earthship homes are a type of passive solar earth shelter that are constructed by stacking tires filled with earth to form walls, and then covering them.

This can be a great way to repurpose used tires that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerated. Discarded glass windows are also often similarly used instead of buying new.

7) No-Till or Minimum-Till Farming

Minimum-till or no-till farming aims to leave soil undisturbed. Instead of breaking up the soil before planting, it's simply left undisturbed.

This helps retain water, prevents carbon from leaving the soil, improves soil quality, and reduces the amount of weed seeds being brought closer to the surface to germinate.

Conventional farming disturbs the soil. This lets carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and overly oxygenizes the soil.

Loosening the soil like this can also lead to erosion and nutrient runoff, as well as destroying beneficial fungi networks in the land.

With the proper techniques, tilling is something that can be minimized, or potentially even eliminated entirely for some systems.

8) Intercropping and Companion Planting

Intercropping is the combining of two or more plant species into an area which have beneficial effects on one another.

One example is companion planting, where strong-smelling plants and herbs like basil, oregano, chives, or garlic alongside main crops like tomatoes, carrots, or cabbage.

Pests hate the smell of many of these strong-smelling companion plants. Not only that, but some of them actually improve the growth and flavor of the plants they're paired with as well.

Others loosen the soil or give other benefits.

You will need to look up different plant companions and carefully plan your garden accordingly.

While many plants work well if combined with other plants, there are other plants that don't get along because they require the same nutrients, or for other reasons.

For example, carrots don't like to be planted near dill, sage attracts pests that feed on cucumbers, and most plants dislike being planted near fennel.

9) Market Gardening

Market gardening is an interesting move away from traditional agriculture, which is done on large tracts of land far out in the country, to smaller plots of land that are sometimes even located in urban environments.

Like the name suggests, market gardeners often sell their produce at farmer's markets, although some may supply restaurants and grocery stores directly as well.

In market gardening, cash crops are intensively grown on a small scale (usually less than an acre of land.)

A market gardener can earn as much as $100,000 per year while growing on as little as a quarter acre of land. Permaculture and other sustainable practices are a big part of what makes this possible.

The Importance of Permaculture Farm Design

Permaculture is crucial, because right now, it's the only food production system we have that's beyond sustainable.

Conventional agriculture tends not to be sustainable at all, so it's not really something to measure against. Really we should set the bar at sustainability because that's what's necessary for humanity to survive in the long term.

But really we strive for food production systems that will give a net positive result. Otherwise, the human population won't be able to grow and still have all of its food needs met.

So the goal of permaculture is to design a system where more energy gets extracted from the system over its lifetime than what you have to put in.

Usually, this involves working with a closed-loop system that incorporates waste products back into the system.

Permaculture is adaptable. It's constantly under development and permaculture farmers are constantly trying to find better and more efficient ways of doing things, and to have a better understanding of nature.

Biodiversity thrives under permaculture. We don't have to make the tradeoff of destroying forests and other habitats for wild plants and animals, just to produce our food or earn an income.

It's a way of people living more symbiotically and sustainably, and being better stewards of the environment while still getting our own needs met.

The History of Permaculture

Permaculture as we know it today was originally developed by David Holmgren and Bill Mollinson of Australia in the 1970s.

It came about a decade after the world began to learn about the dangers of pesticides like DDT and the threat they posed to humans and the environment.

The term was made from a combination of the words "permanent" and "agriculture" since it was designed for the creation of sustainable (in other words, permanent) systems.

It was one of the first agricultural systems devised where we began to understand that local actions could have global impacts.

Although Holmgren is credited with popularizing permaculture, it's worth noting that several works on topics like agroforestry and forest farming had existed since the 1930s or earlier, and unwritten records of similar techniques most likely date back much farther than that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between permaculture and organic farming?

A: Organic farming means not using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or genetically modified organisms.

Permaculture includes organic farming practices, but goes beyond that and lays out larger systems about how a farm should be structured, how to reduce waste, and other important considerations as well.

Q: What is the difference between horticulture and permaculture?

A: Horticulture simply refers to the growing of plants for commercial consumption, usually vegetables. There is some overlap, and parts of permaculture can be classified as horticulture.

But horticulture also applies to other farming techniques like monoculture, and permaculture includes things like raising livestock that aren't part of horticulture.

Q: Where can I find permaculture farms near me?

A: Many permaculture farms are eager to show the great work they're doing to the public and allow visitors. But there isn't necessarily one directory where you can look to find permaculture farms in your area.

I recommend doing a Google search for "permaculture farm + (your city)" to find farms in your area. Many of them will have websites or social media pages where you can contact them to learn more.

Final Thoughts

Permaculture is a great way to continue generating high yields and maintain your current level of productivity, even if you're switching away from a more conventional farming model or system.

It gives a more environmentally-friendly and sustainable system for agriculture by taking a more holistic approach to managing livestock and crops.

Not only can permaculture be just as profitable as conventional farming, it's often easier and less labor-intensive as well.

This is because using the 12 principles of permaculture, you allow nature to work for you, instead of trying to work against it.

Ready to learn more about permaculture? Check out our list of the best permaculture books to read.

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Permaculture Farming: The Ultimate Guide and Examples | GroCycle

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If you're looking for a way to produce food while working with nature instead of against it, permaculture is your answer. What is permaculture farming? Permaculture gives farmers a way to achieve high yields and productivity while doing it in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way than conventional farming methods.

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Welcome to AgLanta, your digital food hub for all things urban agriculture from the Office of Resilience, city of Atlanta. AgLanta serves as a portal to learn, share, and celebrate ways Atlanta is are cultivating a resilient, equitable, and accessible food system. Keep going and growing! #AgLanta!

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AgLanta AgLanta - Urban Agriculture Atlanta

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Welcome to AgLanta! The digital food hub for all things urban ag in the city of Atlanta. Here you will find news on policy, master plans, programs, and permits relating to growing the local food economy in our great city. Keep going and growing, y'all! #AgLanta

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It's no secret that bees are vital to the environment, and helping to protect them is one way we can mitigate a climate change disaster. If you'd like to do your part, give the Bee Brick a try. Created by Cornwall, UK-based company Green&Blue, this innovative housing unit is intended for solitary bees. As the name suggests, the product is a brick that can be used as a decorative part of a garden or in place of a standard brick in construction. The bricks have small holes drilled into them for nesting, which is vital as bee numbers dwindle.

We often think of bees as part of a hive, but there is a significant part of the population that does not live in colonies. In the UK alone, there are 267 species of bees, and over 90% are considered solitary bees. These special creatures are great pollinators, which helps improve biodiversity. Plus, they aren't aggressive and don't swarm because they aren't protecting a queen. This means they are safe around kids and pets.

The Bee Brick supports the solitary bee population in an eco-friendly way. Green&Blue uses 75% recycled material in its shop that's also powered by green energy and harvested rainwater. "Wherever we can, we look to tread lightly and we look to raise awareness of our brilliant wildlife species," the company tells My Modern Met. "Bee Bricks aren't the answer to everything but they are an important part of an overall consideration for biodiversity, alongside bee-friendly planting, more wild spaces, and more trees."

Bee Bricks are now available, in multiple colors, through the Green&Blue website.

The innovative Bee Brick is a brick with holes drilled into it that acts as housing for solitary bees.

The bricks can be used in construction or as a decorative element for your garden.

Learn more about the Bee Brick in this video:
Green&Blue: Website | Instagram | Facebook
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Green&Blue.

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Artist Offers Her Work to Bees for an Unlikely Creative Collaboration With the Insects Cheerios is Giving Away 100 Million Wildflower Seeds to Help Save the Bees Close-Up Portraits of Bees Capture Each of Their Unique Characteristics

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Innovative 'Bee Bricks' Are Drilled With Tiny Holes To Offer Homes for Solitary Bees

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's no secret that bees are vital to the environment, and helping to protect them is one way we can mitigate a climate change disaster. If you'd like to do your part, give the Bee Brick a try. Created by Cornwall, UK-based company Green&Blue, this innovative housing unit is intended for solitary bees.

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When you take a walk through the authentic Romanian countryside, you will see people working on their fields from the early morning until the evening. You will see them manually weeding rows of corn and beans, you will see them carefully planting potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, or beets on some plots, while sowing clover and alfalfa over other parts as animal fodder. Every inch of their land is utilized for producing food for their families and their animals.

These are subsistence farmers. Their land is their biggest treasure and they care for it more than they care for their own health, often working outside under the scorching summer sun to ensure the best harvest, to stack up hay rich in meadow flowers from their high-value grasslands, or spending all day in the rain preparing the soil for the next season.

These people have unique relationship with the land. Their families have been farming the same land for generations and the first lesson they have learnt was to do it sustainably. Otherwise, their harvest would fail. They would end up hungry in the winter. They would have to watch their kids and animals suffer.

While it is clear that not everyone can become a subsistence farmer and agriculture needs to supply increasing amounts of food to growing populations at low prices, it is also clear that it cannot be achieved in the highly industrial and damaging manner it has been doing in the last few decades. We have increasing evidence that in many places this has led to soil degradation and environmental pollution which impairs health of many people even far away from the affected areas.

This time, when we are challenged by the changing climate, calls for a smarter approach to farming. An approach for the long-term sustainability of our food production systems.

What is meant by sustainable agriculture?

A sustainable food system is one that does not require chemicals, conserves energy and water, emphasizes local production, decreases inputs and utilizes resources more efficiently on site, values biodiversity and ecology, and works within our global natural resource limitations.

In order for agriculture to be truly sustainable, it must incorporate following principles:

The needs of people: provide nutrient rich food for farmers, farm families, communities, help to maintain good public health, but also improving the quality of life in rural areas.

Profit: a farming operation must be profitable, or it will go out of business quickly.

The planet and the environment: farming practices must be ecologically sound, promoting healthy biodiversity and sensible management of natural resources.

Benefits of sustainable agriculture for the environment and our wellbeing

Unlike intensive agriculture, sustainable farming has a great potential for benefiting the environment and preserving natural resources. It does so by following natural cycles, recycling nutrients and water, while omitting excessive use of agricultural chemicals.

Sustainable agriculture strives to help the environment by:

Reducing agricultural runoff;

Preventing pollution of lakes and rivers;

Saving water;

Naturally maintaining soil fertility by recycling nutrients on farm;

Enhancing carbon sequestration by soils and perennial vegetation;

Promoting energy efficiency of farming operations;

Decreasing emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases;

Creating habitats for pollinators and beneficial insects;

Ensuring welfare of farm animals but also providing space for the respectful coexistence with native wildlife [1].

Our wellbeing is closely linked to the health of the environment where we live. Since sustainable farming methods affect the environment in a positive way, they also contribute to our quality of life.

Firstly, and most importantly, sustainable agriculture produces safe food with high nutritional value. The quality of food is now more important than ever before. Numerous studies found out that the nutritional content of grains and fruits with vegetables keeps decreasing. Scientists believe that popular high yielding varieties of crops often have poorer capacity of absorbing nutrients from the soil due to their weaker root systems, which can result in the lower nutritional content of the final produce [2].

And negative effects of increased pesticide levels in foods produced from intensively farmed lands do not even have to be mentioned. Everyone probably agrees that less pesticides and other chemicals used to grow food is only better for us.

Food diversity is also much greater from sustainable farms, as they are not solely focused on producing cash crops like corn or wheat. Instead, they often cultivate local varieties in highly diversified farming systems.

But that's not all. There are more advantages to sustainable farming in terms of providing economic opportunities to rural communities, such as giving jobs to young people and supporting socio-economic development of rural areas. At the same time, sustainable food production is better adaptable to climate change and helps to strengthen ecosystem resilience [3]. Both of these characteristics are extremely important for building a successful food production system that will withstand future challenges.

10 Sustainable farming methods and practices

Sustainable farming system doesn't have to be only organic agriculture. There are more methods that overlap in many principles that are sustainable in the long-run and may be 100 percent organic or at least from the biggest part.

The following ten sustainable farming methods and practices are just a few examples of the many ways that we can achieve a much more sustainable agriculture.

#1 Permaculture

Permaculture is a design system that applies principles that are found in nature to the development of human settlements, allowing humanity to live in harmony with the natural world. Permaculture principles and ethics can be applied to almost any area of living, including local economies, energy systems, water supplies, housing systems, and food production.

Foundational to producing food through permaculture is intention, design, and "working smarter not harder" to banish waste and to create efficient systems.

There is a particular emphasis on the use of perennial crops such as fruit trees, nut trees, and shrubs that all function together in a designed system that mimics how plants in a natural ecosystem would function.

Permaculture design techniques include herb spirals, hugelkultur garden beds, keyhole and mandala gardens, sheet mulching, growing grain without tillage, each plant serving multiple purposes, and creating swales on contour to hold water high on the landscape.

#2 Biodynamic farming

Biodynamics incorporates ecological and holistic growing practices that are based upon the philosophy of " anthroposophy." Farmers are encouraged to manage their farm as one living organism where cultivated species intertwine and support each other's health.

This includes raising animals on a farm in a way that they help replenish soil fertility and enhance plant growth. One of the building pillars of biodynamics is high biodiversity of plants, animals and beneficial insects. The goal is the creation of a resilient ecosystem that benefits us and other living organisms.

Biodynamics emphasizes the importance of reducing the use of off-site inputs (such as importing soil fertility) by generating the necessary health and soil fertility for food production onsite. This is achieved through the implementation of practices such as composting, application of animal manure from farmed animals, cover cropping or rotating complementary crops.

It also places great importance on working with the natural phenomenon of the cosmos and its influences upon the heath of the soil, plants, and animals during different moon and sun cycles.

Biodynamic practices can be applied to farms that grow variety of produce, gardens, vineyards, and other forms of agriculture.

#3 Hydroponics and aquaponics

These innovative farming techniques involve the growing of plants without soil, nourishing the plants through specialized nutrients that are added to water.

In hydroponic systems, crops are grown with the roots directly in a mineral solution or with the roots in an inert medium like gravel or perlite.

Aquaponics combines the raising of aquatic animals (such as fish) with the growing of hydroponic crops. In aquaponic systems, the water containing the waste material from the aquaculture fish is used to nourish the hydroponic plants. After the water is used by the plants, the water is then recirculated back into the system to be reused by the fish.

Both hydroponic and aquaponic systems are available in a variety of scales, from small home-scale systems to commercial-scale systems.

#4 Urban agriculture

The need to localize our food system requires that we grow food much closer to home, including in cities. Since most of the global population is predicted to live in cities in the future, there is a tremendous opportunity for urban agriculture to make a significant positive impact moving forward when it comes to how we produce our food around the world.

Today, many innovative and sustainable growing techniques are already being used in cities, including backyard farms and gardens, community gardens, rooftop farms, growing crops in urban greenhouses, indoor hydroponic farms, and perhaps even growing food inside urban farm towers someday.

#5 Agroforestry and food forests

Agroforestry involves the growth of trees and shrubs amongst crops or grazing land. Agroforestry systems can combine both agriculture and forestry practices for long-lasting, productive, and diverse land use when approached sustainably.

In agroforestry systems, trees create a favorable microclimate that maintains favorable temperature and soil humidity, while protecting crops from wind or heavy rain. Trees have another important role. They stabilize soils, minimize nutrient runoff and improve soil structure. This is the reason why agroforestry has become one of the powerful tools of farmers in dry regions with soils susceptible to desertification.

Besides promoting healthy growth of food crops and maintaining soil fertility, trees in this farming system provide wood and fruits as an additional source of income for farmers. In these systems, possibilities for product diversification are many. Farmers can go even as far as growing a whole edible forest.

Patterned after natural forest ecosystems, food forests (also known as "forest gardens") are designed permaculture systems that consist of a multilayered edible "forest." Such a "forest" is composed almost entirely of perennial food plants, including a canopy of tall and dwarf fruit and nut trees, a fruit shrub layer, layers of perennial herbs, mushrooms and vegetables at the ground level, climbing plants, and root vegetables underground.

Food forest systems are very productive, due to both the diversity of plants that are growing there, and all of the plants within the system that are taking advantage of each existing niche within the system.

#6 Polycultures and crop rotation

Both of these techniques are trying to mimic natural principles to achieve the best yields.

Polyculture farming involves growing multiple crop species in one area. These species are often complementary to each other and aim at producing greater diversity of products from one plot while fully utilizing available resources. High biodiversity makes the system more resilient to weather fluctuations, promotes balanced diet and applies natural mechanisms to preserve soil fertility.

Crop rotation is based on growing a series of different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons. The planned rotation may vary from a growing season to a few years or even longer periods. It is one of the most effective agricultural control strategies that is used in preventing the loss of soil fertility.

By diversifying the crops that are grown on an area of land in polycultures and through the rotation of crops that are grown, farmers can greatly reduce the opportunity for disease and pests to take hold. It is because their development cycles get interrupted by changing crops. These practices also lead to reductions in the need to apply fertilizers and pesticides.

#7 Growth of heirloom and older varieties

Today, due to the industrialization of the global food system, only a few varieties of our food plants are grown commercially. This situation evolved in order to meet market demand for the viability of produce to travel long distances and to be stored for long periods of time.

Over the last 100 years, the world has lost almost 90 percent of the fruit and vegetable seed varieties that were once available [4].

This reduced genetic variety in our food crop species reduces those species' opportunity to adapt to changes in climate, diseases, and pest conditions in the environment [4].

There is currently a great need to grow heirloom and older varieties of crops in order to preserve the biodiversity of seeds. If gardeners and farmers do not continue to grow heirloom and other older varieties of plants and save their seeds, many of the remaining varieties of our food plants could be lost to the world forever.

Losing traditional varieties could be compared to losing an important source of genetic information and part of our ancestral heritage, as these plants have adapted precisely to make the most out of local conditions. Generations of our ancestors have spent decades of selecting only the best seeds that have provided the most nutritious and flavored food. Their quality is often supreme, and it is rather wasteful to let them disappear.

It was these varieties that have nourished our ancestors, and therefore, contributed to who we are today. They deserve to be preserved because their unique traits may help us in establishing future climate-resistant varieties that will nourish our children.

#8 Natural animal raising

Sustainable animal farming is possible and is better for everyone. Not only that it is good for the environment and our nutritional needs, it is also good for the animals. Animals that are raised on the pasture or in their preferred environment live under less stress, closer to their natural way of living. They can have fulfilling social interactions with other animals and behave in a way that is natural to them (roll in the mud, pick plants they want to eat, rest side by side, play).

Allowing animals to graze and live in pasture is much healthier for animals than confined animal feeding operations are. You will even notice that these animals are cleaner, smell better and have that curious spark in their eyes. Their health and happiness reflect in the quality of products we get from them. Tastier meat, yellower eggs, milk richer in the mineral and vitamin content.

Since animals and grasslands have evolved in a mutually beneficial relationship, livestock grazing and other pastoral systems enrich the land in multiple ways. Manure returns nutrients back into the soil, completing the natural nutrient cycle. Soils get aerated by the animal hoof action and greater diversity of plants flourishes because animals suppress dominant species, providing opportunity for a variety of rarer plants.

Grasses also grow stronger root systems and abundant tufts after being grazed and trampled under the hooves. This helps to prevent erosion, build soil through the rich growth of diverse pasture grasses, sequester carbon emissions in the soil from the atmosphere, and conserve grassland habitats that can host many other species of wildlife and insects [5].

#9 Natural pest management

One of the main aims of sustainable agricultural practices is the prevention of the use of synthetic pesticides and other chemicals that should suppress pest infestations and pathogens. Applying increasing amounts of chemicals to grow food is not part of the long-term solution and doesn't help our health either. Farmers from sustainable farms, therefore, look for solutions in nature and try to recreate conditions that do not favor pests.

They achieve this through the set of practices that strengthen natural resilience of crops and practices that interrupt pest cycles.

Greater diversity of crops, intercropping and crop rotations are among the methods that have proven successful. The key to their success lies in dispersing preferred food sources of pests by blending in crops they do not favor. Additionally, diverse crops attract diverse insects and some of them are natural predators of pests, helping to keep their populations within limits, thus mimicking how the real ecosystem balances itself out.

Farmers can also release or provide habitat for populations of beneficial insects (such as ladybugs, lacewings, and fly parasites), as well as encourage other organisms (such as birds and bats) that will serve as predators of crop-eating pest insects.

#10 Mulching, groundcovers, and manual weed control

Farmers and other growers can dramatically reduce the growth of weeds and conserve soil moisture by covering the soil around their plants through the use of mulching and ground covers.

By naturally suppressing weed growth, these practices greatly reduce, or in some cases even eliminate, the need to apply herbicides to kill weeds. And the most stubborn weeds that appear from time to time can be easily controlled by hand because their numbers are minimized.

We can see this practice widely applied on strawberry fields where plants need to have larger spacing between them, which would give the opportunity for weeds to take over. A layer of protective material on top of the soil even keeps strawberries from rotting too fast, as they do not lay directly on the hard soil while ripening. Afterall, as their name suggests "straw-berries," people have known about the benefits of growing these yummy fruits surrounded by the straw ground cover for many generations.

Organic mulch material like, for example, wood chips, straw or grass clippings also improves nutrient retention in soils and encourages activity of soil microorganisms that help create healthy aerated soil structure. This reduces the need for tillage as soils are less compacted [6].

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10 Sustainable Farming Methods and Practices | Greentumble

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The following 10 sustainable farming methods and agricultural practices are just a few ways we can achieve a much more sustainable food system.

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Ecovillages are communities of people drawn together by the common goal of living more sustainably. Their commitment and practices vary from ecovillage to ecovillage but all share the bond of not being satisfied with the status quo. Ecovillagers seek to live in harmony with the environment and develop their land with an eye on protecting vital natural systems and on fostering good relations with neighbors, both of the human and animal variety. They farm and garden, pool their buying power to save money, and may share other community resources like cars and tools. Does every house on the block really need to have its own lawn mower?

The modern-day ecovillage has its roots in the communes that first popped up in the '60s and '70s. As the environmental movement was born and matured, more eco-centered communities started forming. In 1991, sustainability experts Robert and Diane Gilman wrote "Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities," a study on ecovillages undertaken on behalf of Gaia Trust that helped lead to the formation, four years later, of the first ecovillage conference that took place in Findhorn, Scotland. That event led to the founding of the Global Ecovillage Network and to countless ecovillages all around the world.

We scoured the web in search of five American ecovillages that have taken root and thrived. Whether you're reading because you're just curious about ecovillages or are looking for a new place to call your eco-home, these five make for a good read.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

The Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage was started in 1997 with the purchase of 280 acres of land in northeastern Missouri and has grown into a group of neighbors dedicated to building a place where people respect the environment and work to make their community a better place. They grow a lot of their own food and often prepare big meals together. Homes built at Dancing Rabbit must follow sustainability guidelines concerning the house design, building materials and techniques used, while residents get around off the farm using one of the cars from their private car share service, all of which are powered by biodiesel.

EcoVillage at Loudoun County

EcoVillage at Loudoun County sits on 180 acres of land in Loudoun County, Va., over half of which is set aside as conservation land. Residents enjoy trails and shared space and facilities like their planned Common House, which will provide space for community meals and events. All the homes are built according to green standards and guidelines and are much more environmentally sound than your conventional home. Their website has a great selection of photographs and more information on buying one of the few lots still available.

Sawyer Hill EcoVillage

The Sawyer Hill EcoVillage in Berlin, Mass., is the merged community of two cohousing groups, Camelot Cohousing and Mosaic Commons. Sawyer Hill is set on 65 acres of land near Worcester, Mass., and has shared facilities owned by residents like a dining hall, workshops, workout facilities, and play space for kids. Twenty-five of the 65 acres have been set aside in a conservation easement, and there are trails throughout the land.

EcoVillage at Ithaca

EcoVillage at Ithaca is one of the older eco-villages in the U.S. and was started in 1992 after the founding residents purchased 175 acres of land in Ithaca, N.Y. Today there are two 30-home cohousing units with a third in the planning stages. Residents have built organic CSA vegetable and berry farms and community gardens, and set aside 55 acres of land in a conservation easement. They organize weekly community dinners and share in the maintenance work required for their common space.

Villages at Crest Mountain

The Villages at Crest Mountain is located near one of my favorite cities, the progressive bastion of Asheville, N.C. They are a newer ecovillage and have just eight homes built but have sold twice that number of lots. The homes are built around a central courtyard of gardens and open space. Phase two of the development will add 22 acres of homes.

Click for Photo Credits

Photo credits:

Dancing Rabbit: The Year of Mud/Flickr

Ithaca: arimoore/Flickr

Loudoun County, Crest Mountain, Sawyer Hill: Provided by respective websites

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Ecovillages are communities of people drawn together by the common goal of living more sustainably. Their commitment and practices vary from ecovillage to ecovillage but all share the bond of not being satisfied with the status quo.

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Fuel-efficient vehicles require less fuel to operate compared with older vehicles. They save fuel costs and emit fewer greenhouse gases. Save money on gas with Energy Saver tips to improve gas mileage and reduce fuel use, and use comparison tools on FuelEconomy.gov to find a fuel-efficient vehicle.

Hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and all-electric vehicles use electricity to improve vehicle efficiency. Visit the Alternative Fuels Data Center to learn more about the different types of vehicles.

Millions of Americans rely on public transportation. Watch the video below to learn more about the basics of sustainable public transport:

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Fuel-efficient vehicles require less fuel to operate compared with older vehicles. They save fuel costs and emit fewer greenhouse gases. Save money on gas with Energy Saver tips to improve gas mileage and reduce fuel use, and use comparison tools on FuelEconomy.gov to find a fuel-efficient vehicle.

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The world's steady population growth and migration to urban areas eat into global limited resources (Mostafavi, 2010). According to the UN, more than half of the world's population lives in cities and, by the year 2050, it is expected that 6.5 billion people could live in cities (an additional two-thirds of the population today).

As more people move into urban areas and environmental issues become more pressing, cities will have to rethink their systems and their environmental impacts. Many cities around the world have already begun to adopt more eco-friendly practices, and some trends are starting to emerge. The sustainable cities of the future will build on these, taking today's environmental practices a step further (Tsui 1).

The sustainable development of cities and the development of urban spaces are of great importance, not only for the natural environment, but also as an urgent need to improve the lifestyle of urban dwellers. The quality of life in cities is influenced positively by a range of significant roles that urban green spaces play. Green spaces in the city's context contribute to a larger extent to a sustainable city and the improvement of its environment. On a global level, the UN promotes Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a universal call for action to end poverty, protect the planet, and to improve the lives and prospects of everyone. In 2015, all the member states adopted the SDGs and highlighted the importance of achieving the outlined SDGs with 2030 and 2050 as the target years. The importance of urban sustainability is articulated in the UN sustainability goal number 11: Sustainable cities and communities. A part of this goal stresses the "creating of green public spaces" which cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces (UN, 2015).

As cities worldwide are increasingly growing in population and built environment, the question arises: how do we become sustainable and provide more areas for green public spaces? This paper investigates the issue of sustainable European cities through the lens of politically driven aims and strategies to become green. With the cases of two capital cities, Copenhagen and London, the paper examines two municipal visions and strategies for reaching similar green city goals. This research is supported by examples of concrete "green public space"-projects in each city.
Urban green spaces
In the nineteenth century, urbanists created large landscaped parks in inner city spaces as "lungs for the city" (Spirn 60). These green pockets of land enhanced city life and dealt with improving urban environments. Today, the pace at which current urbanization processes are taking place, poses urban challenges and enforces enormous pressure on the city, its environment and resources for making it a better habitat. Cities need to "include environmental and ecological concepts and to expand traditional disciplinary and professional frameworks for describing those urban conditions" (Waldheim 10).

Urban green spaces play an important role in the sustainable development of cities. Green space interventions nourish the city's existing character, improve environmental conditions, promote outdoor recreational spaces and active lifestyles, and protect biodiversity by creating wildlife habitats. On a larger scale, they also reduce heat island effects and reduce surface runoff. In recent years, emphasis is also given on their roles played to reduce carbon emissions and to improve the health of citizens. According to Haq (2011), benefits of urban green spaces are multiple and can be divided into three major categories: environmental benefits; economic and aesthetic benefits and social and psychological benefits (see Box 1.1 for a brief summary).

In recent years, many cities have recognized the importance of green spaces and developed goals for being green cities by the year 2050. Some of the initiatives taken include strategies to increase urban nature, protect existing parks and to promote green roofs.
Two cases of urban green spaces Case of Copenhagen, Denmark
Urban nature is an important resource for Copenhagen and Copenhageners. The city's parks, nature areas and trees help make our city a great place to live (City of Copenhagen 3).

In 2015, the City of Copenhagen adopted an ambitious, though not fully funded, policy: "urban nature in Copenhagen 2015-2025," defining specific effects, goals, efforts and conditions to reach their visions concerning urban nature. The city's vision is twofold and combines quantitative and qualitative measures to (1) create more and to (2) improve the quality of urban nature in Copenhagen.

With a somewhat human-centred focus, the city has been working tremendously on the city's climate adaptation strategy and on addressing both the climate and biodiversity crises with the help of urban nature:

We aim to use urban nature as an active means of adapting the city to future climate conditions, enhancing biodiversity and creating optimal settings for an active urban life - to the benefit of current and future generations (City of Copenhagen 5).

As the city is expanding, it is challenged to find space for new green areas, incorporating nature into the fabric of the city every time new plans are made. The city's ambition is to see more trees along the streets, more green courtyards, and urban nature on roof tops, facades, municipal and non-municipal lands to transform the city. (See figure 1)

In this regard, "the green planning tool" and "the tree policy" are two major political initiatives taken by the Municipality. The first is a tool that calculates a "green factor" for all publicly driven projects including construction sites and local development plans. The factor includes both quantitative and qualitative values of urban nature for each site. The second comes with a goal to plant 100,000 new trees within a decade (City of Copenhagen, n.d.).
Figure 1: Illustration of potential sites for creating more urban nature for Copenhageners (Source: City of Copenhagen 2015, p. 17. © City of Copenhagen)
In Copenhagen, the recently completed project, Bryggervangen and Sankt Kjeld's Square (2016-2019), is an example of an urban space that creates a connection between nature-based climate adaptation and recreational meeting places for the residents (see figure 2). The project defines a special urban nature that learns from characteristic Copenhagen biotopes and uses their processes rationally and aesthetically in the city centre. According to the landscape architects behind the project:

The result is an urban nature that is aesthetic and functional, biodiverse and sustainable, green and blue, climate adaptable, and creates a sense of community. An urban nature, which gives the Copenhageners a strong aesthetic feeling of nature right on their doorstep. (SLA 2)
Figure 2: Project Bryggervangen and Sankt Kjeld's Square (© SLA. Photographer Mikkel Eye) Case of London, UK
Creating a greener city is good for everyone - it will improve people's health and quality of life, support the success of businesses and attract more visitors to London. (Greater London Authority 18).

In further concretizing actions to deliver, the policy presents four strategic approaches: (1) low carbon circular economy, (2) smart digital city; (3) green infrastructure and natural capital accounting and (4) the Healthy Streets Approach, followed by seven chapters, each describing an area of concern for London's environment through detailed aims, objectives, policies and proposals.

Recognizing that the environment has a big influence on people's quality of life, one goal is to make new connections between the environment and the city. The strategic approach of developing the city's green infrastructures, meaning "the network of parks, green spaces, gardens, woodlands, rivers and wetlands (as well as features such as street trees and green roofs)" (ibid 135) include objectives to: "make more than half of London's area green by 2050" (ibid 156) by protecting and enhancing green areas in the city; "conserving and enhancing wildlife and natural habitats" (173) by protection of core network sites and biodiversity net gain; and "value London's natural capital as an economic asset and support greater investment in green infrastructure" (ibid 190) by improving managements and new business models.
Figure 3: Illustration of potential sites for making London greener and a national park city (Source: Greater London Authority, 2018, p. 155. © Greater London Authority)
Central London is known for its dense development, which has led to an increasingly fragmented and sparse natural landscape over time. In response to this, the West Ends' largest property owners are working together in a partnership on the project "Wild West End." as "an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the positive impact of urban green infrastructure" (Wild West End 2017, para. 2), "with a key aim to create new green corridors to connect existing green spaces, which allow wildlife to better move between them and to provide people increased access to nature (see figure 4).

According to a survey from 2018, the project has "delivered an additional 2,500m2 of green space since 2016, equivalent to almost ten tennis courts. This includes more than sixty green roofs, fourteen green walls, ten garden squares, two pocket parks and one allotment" (IEMA, 2019, para. 9). In addition, monitoring results from the biennial bird survey have indicated the use of new green spaces by a range of urban-adapted bird species (Ibid).
Figure 4: Project Wild West End (Source: Wild West End, 2021. © Wild Wes End) Green cities as projects of placemaking
Many cities today have already begun incorporating nature into their landscapes, serving to improve the life of their citizens. It is evident that developed cities face great challenges to find space for green infrastructure and have met this challenge through innovative, integrated and technically-advanced solutions.

By investigating the cases of Copenhagen and London, we see how both are incorporating environmental strategies that contribute significantly to the UN's global sustainability goals. The authorities are adopting green infrastructural strategies of becoming green cities, with more and qualitatively better urban nature. Both cities have adopted similar objective strategies of promoting their green spaces and nature, but they vary in policies and implementation strategies aligned with the most pressing environmental problems of each location. In Copenhagen, the focus is set on climate adaptation, especially in terms of rainwater management, whereas London is mostly concerned with bettering its air quality.

Analysing municipal strategies, it is evident that both have citizen-oriented starting points. The municipal strategies are not only set out to solve the cities' environmental issues, but they are also used politically in order to brand these urban environments as attractive places to live and visit. In that sense, the sustainability projects can be perceived as projects of placemaking: to improve quality of life for residents through sustainability measures. As such, the green city initiatives appear to be incorporated as the cities' self-branding of being green and sustainable by 2050. Although the promotion and conservation of green space is partly meant to benefit the climate and biodiversity, it is clear that the prime target are (human) inhabitants, businesses and visitors. In seeking to help the survival of endangered species, for instance, the overall concern for the mayor of London is the health and wellbeing of Londoners, and for the city of London to prosper through positive branding, such as becoming the world's first National Park City; zero carbon city, zero waste city and greenest city in the world. Similarly, urban nature in Copenhagen is described as a resource for "the good life" of Copenhageners, to benefit current and future generations.

As the policies are not fully funded, it remains to be seen whether these visions are unrealistic to achieve in terms of timeframe and economy. However, even if not entirely successful, the awareness of the issues and established initiatives serve as important first steps:

Preserving natural areas within city limits will slow habitat destruction, conserving the ecosystem as cities expand. Increasing the green space in an area will help improve air quality through respiration in plants. With more birds and insects, it will be easier for cities to maintain urban gardens, providing an eco-friendly food source. (Tsui 2).

Being somewhat well-reputed European Capitals, we believe that the strategies and projects of Copenhagen and London serve as important and inspiring examples for other cities to follow.

Urban green spaces benefit people's quality of urban life and they effectively tackle larger city problems. Therefore, many city authorities emphasize the importance and value of green spaces while moving towards future development of sustainable green cities in 2050.

Urban green spaces can be implemented into the developed city contexts, but they require careful planning and sound knowledge on how nature and biodiversity can be integrated in a city's limited space. The case studies in two capital cities with a dense built environment how how space can be altered and optimized.

Based on our findings, bringing green space to urban landscapes can promote and inspire better relationships with the environment while supporting important services. The approach of adopting policies of strategies and actions for implementation constitutes as an important step to fulfilling long-term identified visions.

The comparative evaluation of the cases shows an interesting contribution of the contextual, regional and geographic characteristics that promote positive development. Coastal cities inherit more of natural conditions than cities surrounded by land. In order to improve urban quality of life, it is of strategic importance to evaluate and compare existing green space policies in developed cities, which can lead to identifying the best practices for providing relevant recommendations and guidance to the planning authorities. Such studies will contribute to increasing knowledge about current methods and approaches initiated by different cities. In general, all developed cities face major challenges when it comes to availability of space, but observations of various cities in different contexts will provide a glance at how strategies are being employed into design options, given the contextual challenges. These observations can inspire and be adapted by others, working towards contributing to global goals and reaching these goals faster.

Further future research should therefore examine a wider sample of urban green spaces in developed and dense cities, in relation to the size and scale of green spaces and qualitative assessment of such urban nature. To reach the goals set forth by the UN, more research should be done on how to develop highly functional green spaces in developed urban contexts with scarce availability of space, thereby identifying and creating best practice solutions.
Ida Sofie Gøtzsche Lange Chrisann Neysa Rodrigues is a final year Master's degree Student in Urban Design at AAU, Denmark. Her academic interests include working with the built environment and its effects on people's lives, creating environments which are sustainable and socially responsive. is an Assistant Professor in Urban Design and Mobilities, AAU, Denmark. Her research revolves around place management and site-specific qualities, problems and potentials. She holds a particular interest in the particularities of port cities, in particular how they tend to struggle with local identity, environmental issues and placemaking.
References

Greater London Authority, 2018. London Environment strategy. [PDF] London: Greater London Authority. Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/london_environment_strategy_0.pdf [Accessed 31 March 2021].

Haq, S. M. A., 2011. Urban Green Spaces and an Integrative Approach to Sustainable Environment. Journal of Environmental Protection, Issue 2, pp. 601-608.

IEMA, 2019. Wild West End. [Online] Available at: https://transform.iema.net/article/wild-west-end [Accessed 7 April 2021]

City of Copenhagen, 2015. Urban Nature in Copenhagen - Strategy 2015-2025. [PDF] Copenhagen: City of Copenhagen - The Technical and Environmental Administration. Available at: https://kk.sites.itera.dk/apps/kk_pub2/pdf/1653_EyzOS8ePZx.pdf [Accessed 31 March 2021].

City of Copenhagen, n.d. Urban Nature. [Online] Available at: https://urbandevelopmentcph.kk.dk/artikel/urban-nature[Accessed 31 March 2021].

Mostafavi, M., 2010. Why Ecological Urbanism? Why Now?. Harvard Design Magazine, 1(32) [online] Available at: http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/32/why-ecological-urbanism-why-now [Accessed 4 April 2021].

SLA, 2021. Bryggervangen and Sankt Kjeld's Square. [Online] Available at: https://www.sla.dk/en/projects/bryggervangen-sankt-kjelds-plads [Accessed 31 March 2021].

Spirn, A. W., 1984. The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. New York: Basic Books.

Waldheim, C., 2011. On Landscape, Ecology, and Other Modifiers to Urbanism. Scenario Journal, [online] Available at: https://scenariojournal.com/article/on-landscape-ecology-and-other-modifiers/ [Accessed 4 April 2021].

Wild West End, 2021. Vision: Wild West End. [Online] Available at: http://www.wildwestend.london/vision [Accessed 31 March 2021].

Tsui, J. 2020. What Will the Future of Sustainable Cities Look Like. Environmental Protection, [online] Available at: https://eponline.com/articles/2020/08/12/what-will-the-future-of-sustainable-cities-look-like.aspx [Accessed: 31 March 2021].

UN (2015) Sustainable Development Goals. [Online] Available at: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html [Accessed 31 March 2021].

Published on May 11, 2021.

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Urban Green Spaces: Combining Goals for Sustainability and Placemaking

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The world's steady population growth and migration to urban areas eat into global limited resources (Mostafavi, 2010). According to the UN, more than half of the world's population lives in cities and, by the year 2050, it is expected that 6.5 billion people could live in cities (an additional two-thirds of the population today).

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Greenhouse Living is an interdisciplinary team of consultants with a view towards a truly sustainable, human and eco-friendly built environment. We develop and build NATURHUS, facilities for URBAN FOODPRODUCTION and urban scale solutions for ECO-CYCLE CITIES of tomorrow.

We offer CONSULTING SERVICES in greenhouse-architecture, sustainable urban planning, eco-cycle technology, sustainable construction methods, greenhouse technology, sustainable energy systems, life cycle analysis and innovative solutions for urban foodproduction.

We also provide support in the IMPLEMENTATION PHASE in the form of construction project management, quotes and construction cost calculations, procurement support and supplier contacts. Our strength is the close integration of innovative environmental technology, architecture, and implementation.

We can help you with the process from the first sketch to a complete building. We offer built sustainability without compromising on spatial qualities.

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Greenhouse Living is an interdisciplinary team of consultants with a view towards a truly sustainable, human and eco-friendly built environment. We develop and build NATURHUS, facilities for URBAN FOODPRODUCTION and urban scale solutions for ECO-CYCLE CITIES of tomorrow.

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MV Expert Notes: Waste Management, Kathy Reed

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MV Expert Notes: Waste Management, Kathy Reed

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Emerging waste management trends meet the industry's growing demand for autonomous operations, digitalization, and sustainability. The industry is increasingly automating processes like waste sorting, collection, and disposal. To aid this, startups develop robotic recyclers that sort waste using artificial intelligence (AI)-backed algorithms. On the other hand, drones monitor landfills to measure air quality and detect radiation. Other waste management trends include innovative composting and advanced recycling. Further, businesses are exploring ways to incorporate sustainable materials, circular product design, biodegradable packaging, and more to enable a closed-loop supply chain. Blockchain-powered solutions track material lifecycle to improve recycling efficiency and divert waste away from landfills. The focus is to not only improve the overall efficiency of waste management operations but also to reach the ultimate goal of sustainability with minimum pollution.

Innovation Map outlines the Top 8 Waste Management Trends & 16 Promising Startups

For this in-depth research on the Top Waste Management Trends & Startups, we analyzed a sample of 2 927 global startups and scaleups. The result of this research is data-driven innovation intelligence that improves strategic decision-making by giving you an overview of emerging technologies & startups in the waste management industry. These insights are derived by working with our Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2 500 000+ startups & scaleups globally. As the world's largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant startups, emerging technologies & future industry trends quickly & exhaustively.

In the Innovation Map below, you get an overview of the Top 8 Waste Management Trends & Innovations that impact 2 927 companies worldwide. Moreover, the Waste Management Innovation Map reveals 16 hand-picked startups, all working on emerging technologies that advance their field.

Top 8 Waste Management Trends

Tree Map reveals the Impact of the Top Waste Management Trends

Based on the Waste Management Innovation Map, the Tree Map below illustrates the impact of the Top 8 Waste Management Trends. Startups and scaleups are automating waste sorting using AI-based algorithms and robotics while advanced recycling plants are increasing material recovery. Apart from chemical plastic recycling, startups develop plastic-eating microbes that decompose plastic waste. IoT-enabled smart waste bins incorporate sensors that monitor dumpster fill levels and notify waste collectors at the right time. Further, the use of blockchain ensures the traceability of materials whereas big data improves waste data analysis. Lastly, sustainable packaging materials and waste-to-energy (W2E) solutions, among others, facilitate the transition to a circular economy.

Global Startup Heat Map covers 2 927 Waste Management Startups & Scaleups

The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the global distribution of the 2 927 exemplary startups & scaleups that we analyzed for this research. Created through the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, the Heat Map reveals that Europe and the US see the most startup activity.

Below, you get to meet 16 out of these 2 927 promising startups & scaleups as well as the solutions they develop. These waste management startups are hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.

Top 8 Waste Management Innovation Trends for 2023

1. Artificial Intelligence

Managing waste is a multi-step process that involves scheduling pickup, trucking, and sorting. Dealing with enormous quantities of waste makes the process cumbersome. Integrating AI into workflows automates waste management and improves operational efficiency. For example, startups offer AI-based solutions that determine the optimal route for garbage trucks, saving fuel costs and traffic delays. Additionally, AI-driven autonomous garbage trucks reduce the risk of occupational injuries to drivers. Computer vision and machine learning (ML) algorithms also facilitate smart sorting by distinguishing between different types and sizes of waste materials. This increases the accuracy and speed of sorting, especially for plastic recycling companies. Lastly, AI-based platforms maintain safe operations by constantly monitoring operating conditions in hazardous waste facilities.

FloVision Solutions aids Food Waste Reduction

US-based startup FloVision Solutions incorporates machine vision in waste bins to capture food waste. The type and price of food wasted are identified using machine learning algorithms. This data is then analyzed on the proprietary dashboard, FloVision Analytics, to provide customized recommendations to users. It also forecasts the demand to prevent the overproduction of items. This way, the startup allows cafeterias and restaurants to reduce their food waste and costs.

Arcubed makes an Automated Recycling Bin

New Zealand-based startup Arcubed develops OneBin, an automated recycling bin. When it detects an item, the bin automatically segregates the waste into the aforementioned categories using AI and machine vision. This ensures the recycling of all eligible items, with less waste ending in landfills. Moreover, the two-compartment bins incorporate fill-level sensors to view their current capacity status and ensure on-time waste collection.

2. Robotics

Manual waste sorting is a time-consuming process and human inefficiencies increase the amount of trash ending up in landfills. That is why waste management facilities are using robotics to overcome this challenge. Industrial robots, along with sensors, computer vision, and AI, are automating waste segregation practices, ensuring material-specific disposal. Robotic arms work faster and lift heavier objects as compared to human counterparts as well as pick plastics from beaches and oceans. Further, drones monitor the landfills to detect any toxin or radiation leakage. They also monitor carbon emissions and pollution levels around landfills to enable proactive litter management.

Angsa Robotics develops an Autonomous Trash Picking Robot

German startup Angsa Robotics makes an autonomous trash-picking robot. Using AI and machine vision, the robot identifies and automatically picks up trash like cigarette butts, bottle caps, or plastic scraps in parks. It also utilizes sensors to avoid collisions during autonomous navigation. Further, analysis of the field data allows users to identify an optimum location for placing trash cans. The robot also reduces the time spent by cleaning personnel so that they focus on other demanding tasks.

Clearbot drives Ocean Waste Collection

Chinese startup Clearbot builds robots for ocean waste collection. The startup's robots use AI and machine vision to identify plastics in the water. Backed by solar power, they navigate autonomously and collect waste on identification. To strengthen their AI, the robots collect images of trash on the beach for more accurate identification. This allows governments and companies to minimize manual intervention in plastic waste removal from water bodies.

3. Internet of Things

Conventional waste collection methods have predefined routes and schedules. As a result, garbage collecting trucks often empty the waste bins either when they are still empty or start overflowing before they are emptied. IoT-based waste management facilitates waste bin tracking in real-time. This facilitates timely waste collection and disposal without overflowing dumpsters. IoT-based temperature sensors monitor the temperatures of dumpsters to prevent explosions and fire. Moreover, RFID tags used in garbage trucks allow tracking of the location of these vehicles. This provides companies with highly relevant data that enables better decision-making and plan optimization.

Sensorita advances Data-Driven Waste Management

Norwegian startup Sensorita develops IoT-enabled sensors for waste containers. The sensors use machine learning to provide users with data-driven insights into their container fleet. This allows waste management companies to cut costs and ensure efficient asset utilization. The sensors also enable them to reduce carbon emissions for sustainable waste management.

IoTank facilitates Wastewater Maintenance

US-based startup IoTank provides a septic monitoring solution for wastewater maintenance. The startup's sensors measure levels of sludge, scum, effluents, and solids in wastewater. They also indicate real-time wastewater levels in onsite tanks. The startup's cloud-based platform analyzes the data to showcase tank risks and prevent wastewater treatment failures. This way, it enables predictive maintenance of wastewater tanks and prevents the spread of diseases.

4. Circular Economy

The circular economy ensures minimum waste by reusing and repurposing existing products into new raw materials or products. This allows optimal utilization of materials instead of discarding them before end-of-life. Now companies design products that have multiple lifecycles instead of the take-make-dispose approach. They reuse their production waste to create new products. Further, waste-to-energy plants process solid waste to produce steam for electricity generation. Brands also implement sustainable packaging by sourcing eco-friendly materials for a minimal environmental impact.

Vytal offers Packaging-as-a-Service

German startup Vytal offers reusable packaging containers. Users borrow their packaging containers when required and return them after use. The startup then cleans them and puts them into use again, thereby preventing the accumulation of disposable waste.

switcH2 aids Wastewater to Hydrogen Conversion

Australian startup switcH2 develops a waste-to-energy electrolysis technology. The startup's electrolyzer consists of catalysts that break down organic waste from breweries to generate hydrogen. Hydrogen provides a clean fuel to generate electricity or power trucks and machines. This way, the startup ensures circularity in the organic waste supply chain.

5. Advanced Recycling

Waste management facilities are integrating advanced recycling solutions like material scanners, autonomous waste picking systems, and more to improve operational efficiency. Such solutions increase waste stream quality and allow recyclers to recover more materials through mechanical recycling. Further, innovations in chemical recycling enable them to recycle materials without losing quality. This eliminates the need for virgin materials, advances the circular economy, and offers higher economic value to recovered materials. Lastly, many waste management companies use end-to-end automation process automation to streamline waste processing, increasing profits.

Urbeno advances Electronic Waste Recycling

Indian startup Urbeno recycles electronic waste. The startup develops a shredding system that processes e-scarp to make it easier for recycling. It repurposes electronic equipment to prevent environmental pollution caused by e-waste. Besides offering insights on cost optimization, the startup also allows companies to control their reverse electronic supply chain for better e-waste management.

Blue Green Vision creates Optical Waste Sorters

UK-based startup Blue Green Vision makes optical sorters for plastic recycling. Its optical sorter features a hyperspectral camera that uses infrared light to differentiate between different plastic types like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and more. It separates the different types for efficient recycling. Being automatic, the camera enables the sorting of large volumes of waste in less time. This way, the startup addresses plastic recycling challenges that arise due to the difficulty in categorizing plastic waste.

6. Big Data & Analytics

Waste management is a multifarious process where the implementation of big data and analytics advances operational efficiencies. The data from the smart bin sensors provides insights into the frequency of bin emptying based on the location. This allows waste collecting companies to identify the type of waste based on specific locations and ensure timely waste collection. Further, big data allows companies to calculate and manage their carbon emissions from their existing waste management practices.

GEPP provides a Waste Management Information Platform

Thai startup GEPP makes a cloud-based digital waste management information platform. It analyzes waste data of companies to track if materials are recycled or not. The platform calculates greenhouse gas emissions to enable a data-driven reduction approach. It also offers training on how to properly dispose of internal waste or waste due to organizational events. This way, the startup ensures proper waste disposal and recycling, diverting garbage away from landfills.

Wastelink aids Food Waste Upcycling

Indian startup Wastelink converts food waste from manufacturers and retailers into animal feed. The startup purchases food surplus and rejects from harvest, sales returns, pre-production, baking, and more. This waste is then converted into feed ingredients for animals and livestock. Its food waste management platform also offers end-to-end tracking of food waste processing to improve transparency. The startup's upcycling solution thus eliminates food waste and reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturers and retailers.

7. Decomposition Technologies

Decomposition technologies utilize natural mechanisms to break down organic materials into useful products. Controlled decomposition or composting breaks down organic waste into simpler forms using bacteria or fungi. The resulting compost enriches the soil with beneficial nutrients and prevents soil erosion. Startups deploy composting to reduce the amount of food being thrown away. There is also a shift to compostable bio-based plastics to reduce plastic pollution. Additionally, several innovative compostable materials have come up that lead to zero waste. This ensures organic matter reuse, thereby reducing the amount of solid waste ending up in landfills.

Envirobe advances PET Recycling

US-based startup Envirobe creates plastic-degrading microorganisms. They break down PET plastic commonly found in packaging, water bottles, and other waste. The PET waste decomposes into constituent monomers, ethylene glycol, and terephthalic acid that find use in plastic remanufacturing. This way, the startup ensures circularity in plastic production and consumption.

Monty Compost enables Compost Monitoring

Australian startup Monty Compost develops Monty Monitor, a compost monitoring device. It features environmental sensors that continuously trace the decomposition data like soil temperature, humidity, and volatile organic compounds. This startup's mobile app then analyses this data to track compost health and offer insights on how to improve the decomposing process.

8. Blockchain

Blockchain enables responsible waste management by bringing transparency and traceability to the value chain. Waste tracking also enables compatibility with environmental regulations. This allows waste management facilities to divert more waste away from landfills. Moreover, blockchain verifies waste management information at each step. For example, a company delivering waste to a carrier puts all the information in a digital document validated by the carrier. It makes it easier for the final waste recipient to confirm they have received the waste and ensures the security of transactions.

Greenback Recycling Technologies provides Plastics Traceability

UK-based startup Greenback Recycling Technologies recycles post-consumer plastic waste into food-grade packaging. Its platform, eco2Veritas, uses blockchain to trace the origin of plastic packaging waste. The platform looks for evidence in the form of camera images, waste analysis, smart contracts, and more to certify the composition of the plastic. It then deploys microwave-based chemical recycling to produce feedstock that converts qualified plastic waste into new food-grade packaging. Besides circularity, the startup ensures transparency and quality in plastic waste treatment.

Recereum offers Recycling Incentives

UK-based startup Recereum develops a blockchain-based platform that converts waste into real value via discount coins. Users earn Recereum coins for disposing of glass, plastic, aluminum bottles, or old batteries and for waste sorting. Using these coins, users avail of discounts on electricity bills, gas, and consumer goods, among others. This encourages users to sort waste properly, ensuring more waste is recycled.

Discover all Waste Management Trends, Technologies & Startups

Waste management is significant for curbing climate change as it reduces greenhouse emissions from landfills. Automation and circular economy represent the future of waste management. Robotic sorting, AI, ML, and IoT-powered waste collection or disposal are gaining prominence due to speed and efficiency. With progressing monitoring systems, more and more waste data is available for analysis. Further, businesses are inclined toward turning waste into energy and other usable products or raw materials to ensure circularity and sustainability.

The Waste Management Trends & Startups outlined in this report only scratch the surface of trends that we identified during our data-driven innovation and startup scouting process. Among others, landfill monitoring, compostable packaging, and the internet of waste will transform the sector as we know it today. Identifying new opportunities and emerging technologies to implement into your business goes a long way in gaining a competitive advantage. Get in touch to easily and exhaustively scout startups, technologies & trends that matter to you!

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Top 8 Waste Management Trends in 2023 | StartUs Insights

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Emerging waste management trends meet the industry's growing demand for autonomous operations, digitalization, and sustainability. The industry is increasingly automating processes like waste sorting, collection, and disposal. To aid this, startups develop robotic recyclers that sort waste using artificial intelligence (AI)-backed algorithms. On the other hand, drones monitor landfills to measure air quality and detect radiation.

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What Can We Do About the Growing E-waste Problem?

When China banned 24 kinds of solid waste last September, countries such as the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan realized they had a big problem. Until last year, China accepted 70 percent of the world's electronic waste-discarded computers, cell phones, printers, televisions, microwaves, smoke alarms, and other electronic equipment and parts. After China stopped accepting this e-waste out of concern for its environment, Europe and North America began shipping more of it to Southeast Asia-but now Vietnam and Thailand, whose ports have been overwhelmed, are curbing imported e-waste as well.

In 2016, the world's population discarded 49 million tons of e-waste (equivalent to about 4,500 Eiffel Towers). It's estimated that by 2021, that number will grow to more than 57 million tons.
Why the upsurge in e-waste?
Technology is becoming more and more integrated into every aspect of our lives. Semiconductors and sensors are being added to products that never before had them, creating wearable monitors, smart homes, TVs that can stream programming from the internet, and much more.

Meanwhile, the life span of devices is getting shorter-many products will be thrown away once their batteries die, to be replaced with new devices. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that now it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one. Meanwhile, the companies continue to profit from steady sales.

And because prices are dropping, electronic devices are in demand around the world as a growing middle class goes digital. Globally, half of all households now have internet access, and 7.7 billion people have cell phones.
What's in e-waste?
Electronic devices are made of a complex mix of materials that include gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium, lithium, cobalt and other valuable elements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says, "One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the amount of gold and 30 to 40 times the amount of copper mined from one metric ton of ore in the United States." These precious materials can be reclaimed through recycling.

But electronic devices also comprise toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium, polluting PVC plastic, and hazardous chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, which can harm human health and the environment.

In 2016, the estimated value of recoverable materials in global e-waste was $64.6 billion, but only 20 percent of it was properly recycled to enable recovery of the valuable materials. Much of the rest is dumped in landfills where toxic chemicals can leach from the e-waste and end up contaminating the water supply.

As more people buy electronic equipment, manufacturers are beginning to face shortages of the raw materials needed to make their products, so reclaiming and reusing the materials from discarded products and waste-a process called urban mining-makes economic and environmental sense. A recent study in China found that mining copper, gold and aluminum from ore costs 13 times more than recovering the metals through the urban mining of e-waste.
The state of e-waste recycling
Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally.

Proper or formal e-waste recycling usually involves disassembling the electronics, separating and categorizing the contents by material and cleaning them.

Items are then shredded mechanically for further sorting with advanced separation technologies. Companies must adhere to health and safety rules and use pollution-control technologies that reduce the health and environmental hazards of handling e-waste. All this makes formal recycling expensive. As a result, many companies and countries illegally export their e-waste to developing countries where recycling is cheap.

The U.S., the second largest producer of e-waste after China, produced 10 million tons of e-waste in 2012, over 64 pounds per person. In 2012 (EPA data for more recent years are not yet available), only 29 percent of this was recycled-the rest is usually landfilled, incinerated or stuck in a closet. A study done by the watchdog group Basel Action Network using trackers, however, found that 40 percent of the e-waste supposedly recycled in the U.S. was actually exported. Most of it ended up in developing countries-usually in Asia-where informal recycling is typically unlicensed and unregulated.

At these informal recycling workshops, men, women and children recover valuable materials by burning devices to melt away non-valuable materials, using mercury and acids to recover gold, and dismantling devices by hand to reclaim other materials of value.

Usually they do not wear protective equipment and lack any awareness that they are handling dangerous materials. Research has found that inhaling toxic chemicals and direct contact with hazardous e-waste materials (even in some formal e-waste recycling settings) result in increases in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, premature births, reduced birth weights, mutations, congenital malformations, abnormal thyroid function, increased lead levels in blood, decreased lung function, and neurobehavioral disturbances. Moreover, e-waste toxins contaminate the air, soil and groundwater.

In the face of these health and environmental hazards, however, many people in developing countries earn a living by dismantling, refurbishing, repairing and reselling used electronic devices. Guiyu, China is often considered the e-waste capital of the world, with 75 percent of households involved in the recycling business. Informal recycling is also practiced in India, Nigeria, Ghana and the Philippines.

In addition to its health hazards, informal recycling can pose security risks, because while formal recyclers in the U.S. usually require wiping devices clean of data, informal recycling does not.

Criminals search e-waste for credit card numbers and other financial information. For example, government contracts and lucrative agreements with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security have been found on hard drives in Agbogbloshie, an e-waste center in Ghana.

Wealthy countries send about 23 percent of their e-waste to developing countries each year. This is ongoing despite the fact that the European Union and 186 states have ratified the Basel Convention, which works to minimize the transfer of hazardous waste from developed countries to developing countries. The U.S, the only developed country that has not ratified the Basel Convention, has agreements that allow it to ship hazardous waste to developing countries.
What U.S. laws govern e-waste?
There is no federal law in the U.S. that mandates the recycling of e-waste or forbids e-waste from being exported to developing countries. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have their own electronic recycling laws, which vary in approach. Some states subcontract with companies to operate a statewide collection system; others require manufacturers to meet minimum recycling targets based on their sales.

The problem with a patchwork of laws is that no one state has enough market share to compel manufacturers to design greener or more durable products. By contrast, the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive represents the entire EU market and thus has the clout to set higher standards for all electronic products sold in the EU. Its laws requiring manufacturers to help pay for recycling have resulted in an e-waste recycling rate of 35 percent, higher than that of the U.S.

A federal law in the U.S. could help develop a more robust e-waste recycling infrastructure through setting targets and establishing financing schemes for collection systems and recycling plants. It could also offer a tax break or rebate to companies that process their used devices, and help prevent the export of e-waste to developing countries. However, a federal law is not likely to happen under this administration.
A problem requiring multiple solutions
With the flood of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough. Here are some other ideas and solutions that are being researched, considered or practiced around the world. Hopefully, they will inspire more adoption of best practices.
Designing better products
In order to reduce e-waste, manufacturers need to design electronics that are safer, and more durable, repairable and recyclable. Most importantly, this means using less toxic materials. Chemical engineers at Stanford University are developing the first fully biodegradable electronic circuit using natural dyes that dissolve in acid with a pH 100 times weaker than vinegar. One group of scientists is pulverizing e-waste into nanodust by cooling the various materials, then grinding them up into homogenous powders that are "easy to reuse." Canada-based Ronin8 has developed a technology that uses minimal water and energy as it separates metals from non-metals through sonic vibrations in recycled water.

Today, it's not a priority to design goods that can be reused or remanufactured, though for a few years, companies experimented with modular phones that enabled consumers to upgrade parts of their phones instead of having to entirely replace them. Google, LG and Motorola all released modular models, but they ultimately failed because they were clumsier and more costly, and because consumers expected their devices to come with every feature as standard. Perhaps as consumers become more aware of the e-waste problem, companies will be able to design a modular phone with more market appeal.
The right to repair
In addition to recycling, it's also important to be able to repair and reuse the devices we have. But even if you know how to and want to repair your electronic device, you might be stymied because your product's software is subject to copyright. The copyright often forbids consumers by law to tinker with or reverse-engineer the device or use an unauthorized repairer. Ifixit.org demands the right to repair devices and teaches people how to do it.
Extended Producer Responsibility
Extended producer responsibility requires companies that make products to be responsible for the management and disposal of them at the end of their lives. The idea is to turn waste materials into a resource for producing new products. The New York State Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act requires manufacturers to provide consumers with free and convenient e-waste recycling.

Hong Kong, a prime dumping ground for U.S. e-waste and a huge producer of e-waste itself, deals with 77,000 tons of e-waste yearly (80 percent of which is sent to Africa and Southeast Asia for recycling). It has just instituted a producer responsibility system that will require suppliers and sellers of electronic products to pay for the free removal, collection, handling and proper disposal of items.
More convenient recycling
EcoATM provides a convenient and safe way to recycle and sell old cell phones, MP3 players and tablets. Consumers can bring their devices to one of 2,700 kiosks in the U.S. The EcoATM will evaluate it based on the model and condition, and pay you right there. The items are then either reused or responsibly recycled.

China's largest internet company, Baidu, and the United Nations Development Programme developed a smartphone app called Baidu Recycle. Chinese users can indicate the item they want to recycle, enter its size, the date it's to be picked up along with their name and address, then submit a photo of it. Within 24 hours, an accredited recycler comes to pick it up. In two months, 11,000 devices were recycled.
Better recycling
Nickolas Themelis, professor emeritus of earth and environmental engineering and director of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University, said that the best and only economical large-scale recycling being done in North America today uses a copper smelter in Canada. He explained that when e-waste is fed into the copper smelter, precious metals like silver, gold, platinum, palladium, selenium, and others dissolve in molten copper, which acts like a solvent at high temperatures. The impure copper (because it comprises other metals) that results is then sent to a refinery where pure copper is separated out and the other valuable metals can be collected. This integrated smelting process combined with refining, though it recovers only metals that dissolve in copper, is a relatively inexpensive method of reclaiming e-waste metals. The smelter, in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, receives about 50,000 tons of e-waste each year. "The model of Noranda with a small [e-waste] collection company in the U.S. and a larger one in Canada and a big smelter, could be done in other countries," said Themelis. "It could be done in China which already has copper smelters, as well as in America."

To reduce health and environmental hazards while maintaining the informal recycling system that supports so many people, India and China are looking at ways to integrate the informal and formal recycling systems. One strategy would give informal recyclers financial incentives to divert e-waste to formal collection or recycling centers. For example, they could be paid more to deliver cathode ray tube screens to a formal collection center than they would get for dismantling it by hand themselves.
The goal of a circular economy
A circular economy is one that aims to keep products and all their materials in circulation at their highest value at all times or for as long as possible. Stephanie Kersten-Johnston, an adjunct professor in the Sustainability Management program at Columbia University and director of sustainable business at Heineken USA, explained that "highest value" means what's closest to the original product, in order to get the most out of the embedded value in the material and the labor that went into creating the product. Europe has made the circular economy a goal for the whole continent.

Using the example of cell phones, Kersten-Johnston explained how the electronics industry could move towards a circular economy. "Right now, over the length of the contract, you gradually buy outright the phone so the provider can recoup the cost of manufacturing that phone in the first place," she said. "But at the end of the contract, you're left with a phone that's worth basically nothing, that you've had to pay for all that time and you can't do anything with it. That's a flawed model. But imagine a system where the provider or manufacturer retained ownership of the device through the contract so customers would pay a lower monthly fee and be expected to return the device for an upgrade. The value could be recaptured in the form of parts for remanufacture or materials for recycling, and customers would still get their upgrades."

Kersten-Johnston believes it's only a matter of time before this type of business model happens across the board because millennials and the younger generation don't value ownership in the same way as previous generations, and they expect this type of responsible behavior from industry.
What you can do about e-waste
The best thing you can do is to resist buying a new device until you really need it. Try to get your old product repaired if possible and if it can't be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly.

Before you recycle your device, seal up any broken parts in separate containers so that hazardous chemicals don't leak. Wear latex gloves and a mask if you're handling something that's broken.

Find a responsible recycler. Recyclers with the E-Steward label on their websites have been certified to meet the cleanest and most responsible standards for e-waste recycling. E-Steward recyclers also clear your data in their recycling process.
Resources 60 Minutes: The Wasteland (e-waste in China)
Find places to recycle near you through Consumer Resources, Recycle Electronics

All about e-waste in New York City

New York State e-waste collection sites

Best Buy and Staples recycle e-waste, as do Goodwill and the Salvation Army.

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What Can We Do About the Growing E-waste Problem?

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When China banned 24 kinds of solid waste last September, countries such as the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan realized they had a big problem. Until last year, China accepted 70 percent of the world's electronic waste-discarded computers, cell phones, printers, televisions, microwaves, smoke alarms, and other electronic equipment and parts.

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T.R. Goldman is a writer in Washington. His last piece in Politico Magazine dug deep into advances in tunneling technology.

When a hard rain falls on a city, it can turn quickly into an ecological disaster. That's because in 775 mostly older cities where sanitary and storm water sewers are combined underground, the rushing stormwater often overwhelms treatment plants, forcing a stew of oil, brake dust, heavy metals, pet and human feces into nearby waterways. The resulting pollution can shut down beaches, enter the food chain and contaminate drinking supplies.

The traditional and costly remedy for the problem of "combined sewer overflow" has been to build underground tunnels or sinks to capture the excess. In large cities, such as St. Louis, such projects can total close to $5 billion. But engineers are discovering greener and often cheaper ways to prevent water flowing into storm drains by recreating (and in some cases improving upon) the earth's natural filtering system.

Basically, these cities are becoming better sponges.

"We appeal for guidance to the ecosystems that are being taken away," explains North Carolina State University professor Bill Hunt, a stormwater expert. "We build a constructed stormwater wetland that's modeled on a naturally occurring wetland. It's not a perfect cognate," he says. "But it's close."

That's a big change from the past. "The old approach was to get stormwater into the pipe and into the ground as fast as possible," explains Jennifer Drake, who teaches at the University of Toronto's Department of Civil Engineering: "But in nature, it's a much slower process and the path is quite long, the water meanders so it doesn't end up overwhelming a downstream river or flooding the banks. So we want to create porous places within a city to act like a sponge."

These places include vegetated swales and bio-retention cells, fancy names for low tracts of land that collect and filter water, green streets and green roofs, rain gardens and rain barrels, bump-outs, infiltration galleries and pervious pavement. They are all designed to capture water and hold it until it until the water has either naturally percolated through the soil and been absorbed by plant roots or released into the atmosphere through the plants' leaves, a process known as evapotranspiration.

The beauty of an intensive investment in green infrastructure is that the impact goes well beyond curbing stormwater flow. Green roofs, road gullies, curbside bio-retention plots and swales planted with trees and flowers and designed to hold water while it seeps into the ground, not only clean the water, but provide carbon sequestration, which helps slow global warming and combat urban heat islands, where temperatures can be as much as 5 degrees higher than the surrounding countryside.

"You're creating urban habitats," says Drake, "so you're also making pollinating spaces for bees, and public spaces that are beneficial for mental health."

Here are five cities using innovative green technology to manage stormwater runoff before it ever hits the drain:

Chicago - A 55-gallon rain barrel might not solve the world's stormwater runoff problems, since a 1,000-square-foot roof delivers more than 10 times that much water from a 1-inch rain. But rain barrels are still a vital tool, which is why the city spent $6 million over two years to give away 123,000 rain barrels to its customers. "It's the gateway drug into storm water management because it gets people thinking about water and thinking about managing water," says Hunt at North Carolina State University.

The key, notes David St. Pierre, executive director of Chicago's Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, is to encourage people to "disconnect" by removing their downspout from that direct connection to a main sewer line. "If you can take these direct stormwater connections out of system, that's your highest return on investment," he says. And while "it might be a rain barrel today, tomorrow it could be a 500-gallon cistern included underneath every new home, so that people could reuse their stormwater runoff in a very significant way."

Fayetteville, N.C. - This eastern North Carolina city, home of Fort Bragg, took a dilapidated, two-block slice of downtown already slated for revitalization and turned it into the state's first fully developed green street. A "road diet" eliminated three superfluous lanes, allowing a wider sidewalk and the creation of 13 sunken "landscape islands," where water enters through a break in the curbing. The islands are filled with 3 feet of "expensive dirt mixed with sand and organic topsoil," explains city engineer Giselle Rodriguez, who shepherded the project last year. Interlocking concrete pavers were put down in some parking areas, which also allow water to drain into the ground.

The goal of the $1.3 million project: to permit 85 percent of rainwater to drain into the ground instead of nearby Blounts Creek, where it would normally run. And it seems to work. Rodriguez says the green street was "able to tolerate Hurricane Matthew's 15 inches of rain without a problem."

Philadelphia - The nation's fifth-largest city announced plans to spend $2.5 billion from 2011 to 2036 to turn 10,000 acres into green spaces. That includes one-third of the impervious areas in the older, urban core, which has a combined sewer and stormwater system. By doing so, the city hopes eventually to cut stormwater pollution in local rivers and waterways by 85 percent.

But that's not all. As part of its stormwater management program, the city helps subsidize residents who want to replace their water-shedding driveways and concrete patios, with porous pavers. Philadelphia is also one of the few municipalities with a separate stormwater fee based on the percentage of a property's impervious surface. New developments the size of three townhouse lots or bigger are required to put systems in place that will guarantee the capture of the first inch of any stormwater runoff.

Oak Creek, Wis. - You've heard of highly efficient homes with net-zero energy use. Why not highly efficient developments with net-zero stormwater use? The town of Oak Creek, a few miles south of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, did just that with its 2016 Drexel Town Square development. The 85-acre site, a former Delphi Automotive plant, already had a large wetlands area, although it was dominated by cattails and red canary grass, an invasive species. So Sue Winnen, an environmental engineer for the town, decided to turn it into a "fully functioning wetland, with flowers and pollinators and birds, something that would soak up the water and hold it, while slowly releasing it into the ground."

Old parking lots were replaced with pervious pavers set on top of stone. After a rain, says Winnen, you can feel the water under the pavers as you walk on them. And a sloped parking lot sends that runoff into three bioswales on the opposite corner from the wetlands. The result: Despite a very wet spring, says Winnen, the amount of water flowing out of the entire development's sole drainage pipe is the equivalent of a few garden hoses of water.

Toronto - North America's first green roof bylaw took effect in Toronto in 2010 for commercial and residential buildings that had more than 20,000 square feet of floor space. Depending on the size of the building, anywhere from 20 to 60 percent of the available roof space must become a green roof, outfitted with a waterproof membrane, a growing medium, and plants. By the end of 2016, some 400 green roofs had either been built or were in the permitting process, covering the equivalent of about 60 NFL football fields.

"There's not a sea of green roofs yet, just a patch here and a patch there," says Jane Welsh, the team lead for environmental policy in the Toronto planning department, looking out over Canada's largest city from her office on the 22nd floor. "But we get excited, of course. And there's a very strong perceptual flavor that you're starting to feel that Toronto is a green city."

This article tagged under:

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Why Smart Cities Are Turning Themselves Into Sponges

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T.R. Goldman is a writer in Washington. His last piece in Politico Magazine dug deep into advances in tunneling technology. When a hard rain falls on a city, it can turn quickly into an ecological disaster.

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Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District

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Home - North Georgia Water Planning District - Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District

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The Metro Water District includes 15 counties and 92 cities. It is the only major metropolitan area in the country with more than 100 jurisdictions implementing a long-term comprehensive water management program that is required and enforced.

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A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rain water from a roof, driveway or street and allows it to soak into the ground. Planted with grasses and flowering perennials, rain gardens can be a cost effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from your property. Rain gardens can also help filter out pollutants in runoff and provide food and shelter for butterflies, song birds and other wildlife.

More complex rain gardens with drainage systems and amended soils are often referred to as bioretention.

Note: Refer to the links in this section for important tips on how to locate your rain garden. These include areas to avoid and the need for accurate information about underground utilities before you begin to dig.

Information About Rain Gardens
Rain Gardens, Green Infrastructure, U.S. EPA
(95 pp, 7.8 MB, Bioretention Illustrated: A Visual Guide for Constructing, Inspecting, Maintaining and Verifying the Bioretention Practice, 2013, Chesapeake Stormwater Network (PDF) About PDF) Exit

Water-Smart Landscape Design Tips, Water Sense
Information about plant selection, soils, and maintenance.

(56 pp, 33.2 MB, Woody Shrubs for Stormwater Retention Practices, Cornell University, 2014 (PDF) About PDF) Exit

(20 pp, 2.4 MB, Rain Garden Outreach and Communication How-to-Guide, Resource Media (PDF) about PDF) Exit

Local resources

Connecticut

Native Plants for Landscape Use in Connecticut, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation Exit

Maine

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

SOAK stories about rain gardens around the state, Soak Up the Rain New Hampshire, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Exit

Rhode Island

Rain Gardens and Bioretention around Rhode Island, LID Inventory, University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Stormwater Solutions Exit

(6 pp, 1 MB, Rain Gardens: A Design Guide for Homeowners in Rhode Island, University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension (PDF) about PDF) Exit

Vermont

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A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rain water from a roof, driveway or street and allows it to soak into the ground. Planted with grasses and flowering perennials, rain gardens can be a cost effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from your property.

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Complete Streets is a process and approach
Not just a product or single type of street.
Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing and building streets that enables safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. This approach also emphasizes the needs of those who have experienced systemic underinvestment, or those whose needs have not been met through a traditional transportation approach, such as older adults, people living with disabilities, people who don't have access to vehicles, and Black, Native, and Hispanic or Latino/a/x communities.

What are Complete Streets aiming to fix?

Incomplete streets are the result of a process that fails to consider the needs of all people and outdated measures of what makes a street successful. The end product is a street that spans a spectrum from uncomfortable to downright deadly for those not using a car.

What does a Complete Street look like?

While Complete Streets are a process and approach to street design, there is no singular design prescription for Complete Streets. Each one is unique and responds to its community context. A complete street may include: sidewalks, bike lanes (or wide paved shoulders), special bus lanes, comfortable and accessible public transportation stops, frequent and safe crosswalks, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, roundabouts, and more.

The context and needs of users are different in rural, suburban, and urban communities, and streets will look different as a result, even when using a Complete Streets approach.

Photos: Michigan Municipal League (top left), San Francisco Bike Coalition, Graham Coreil-Allen in Baltimore, MD (bottom left), and the City of Erwin, TN
See a few examples of Complete Streets projects

Why do we need Complete Streets?

For one, we are in the midst of a historic, alarming increase in the numbers of people struck and killed while walking, which has been on a steady rise since 2009, reaching levels not seen in more than 30 years.

In addition to the size of vehicles, Speed is the number one culprit in these fatalities. Speed is also the best predictor of whether or not a collision will result in an injury or a death. ( but that's another conversation.) which are rapidly increasing,

One of the best ways to reduce speeds and speeding is through a different approach to street design that prioritizes safety above all else, but especially over vehicle speed.

Most people don't realize that speed and avoiding delay for vehicles is the primary consideration for most transportation agencies-thanks to entrenched practices left over from the interstate construction era and political pressures to avoid congestion, especially at the state level. Safety is important, but the default approach to street design places vehicle speed and throughput at the top of the pyramid of priorities.

Why can only speed or safety be prioritized first?

Watch this video we produced about these two competing priorities, and how speed most often wins out when it comes to street design:

From Dangerous by Design 2022, here are some specific examples of how design decisions prioritize speed at the expense of safety, using a dangerous arterial road in Memphis, TN as an example. Read a more detailed explainer of this idea here >>

Here's a brief real world example of a specific intervention to help make an unsafe, wide street a little bit safer, and help it better serve the needs of everyone who needs to use it:

Where are Complete Streets?

Over 1,600 Complete Streets policies have been passed in the United States, including those adopted by 35 state governments, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.

But not all Complete Streets policies are created equally. The National Complete Streets Coalition also regularly tracks and scores state and local Complete Streets policies based on a clear but comprehensive framework that requires accountability from jurisdictions and prioritizes the needs of the most vulnerable users.

Where are Complete Streets policies? What makes a strong Complete Streets policy?

The best Complete streets policies Adopting and putting a policy into practice

What's the effect of a strong Complete Streets policy?

Complete Streets policies can help states, metro areas, counties, cities, and towns transform how they make decisions about their streets.

But a strong policy is just the first step in a much longer to shape practices for street design. Changing those practices is a key step in making a Complete Streets approach the default approach. Those practices determine the projects that get built and how, which are the building blocks of creating a complete network to serve everyone and connect more people to destinations safely and efficiently. So what does that look like in practice?
Consider the story of Tucson:

"My vision for the next 10, 20, 30 years for Tucson is definitely to institutionalize the concept of Complete Streets and mobility. It's where we have to go."

- Regina Romero, Mayor of Tucson, Arizona

About 4,000 Tucsonans are injured and more than 50 people lose their lives on Tucson streets each year. Sidewalks are missing, bike lanes are unfinished, and streets have been designed for years to encourage speed over safety in the city. The Tucson Mayor and Council unanimously adopted a strong Complete Streets policy in 2019, and it's already having an effect on their practices, shaping future projects, and helping to "institutionalize" a new approach, as the Mayor says.

( Tip: Watch two other similar videos about Complete Streets stories in Louisville and Pittsburgh.)

Tell me more about Complete Streets: Go deeper

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Complete Streets are streets for everyone. Complete Streets is an approach to planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. Scroll through the content below to learn the Basics of Complete Streets, ...

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Gwinnett is a Certified Platinum Green Community

Gwinnett County is the first county to achieve the Platinum level in the Atlanta Regional Commission's Green Communities program.

Since 2009, 20 jurisdictions in the 10-county region have been certified as Green Communities. Cities and counties earn certification by implementing practices and policies in 10 categories ranging from energy efficiency and green building to transportation and water efficiency.

The ARC program was the first in the U.S. to transform a region by promoting sustainability through green certification. For more, please visit the ARC Green Communities Program website.

Gwinnett Environmental Sustainability: Living, Working, Growing Green

Efficiency. Reduced impact on our water, air, and Earth. Better buildings and transportation systems. Less waste of energy and precious natural resources.

That's what "environmental sustainability" is all about - and this website is the central online clearinghouse for information about what Gwinnett County is doing - both the government and the community.

When this site is fully developed, you'll find sections on green buildings, land use and greenspace, energy efficiency, water conservation, recycling and waste reduction, and transportation and air quality.

Here you'll learn what you can do - and what your County government is already doing - to set a good example. Living green. Working green. Growing green. Gwinnett County is pulling together to build a more sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

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Gwinnett is a Certified Platinum Green Community Gwinnett County is the first county to achieve the Platinum level in the Atlanta Regional Commission's Green Communities program. Since 2009, 20 jurisdictions in the 10-county region have been certified as Green Communities.

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Discover Serenbe

Imagine a place where you know your neighbors-and they know you. A place where you can connect with the world just outside your front door, and immerse yourself into nature through your back door. Experience everything from gallery exhibits and artist lectures to world-class dinners and outdoor concerts. Come for a visit or stay for a lifetime.

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Imagine a place where you know your neighbors-and they know you. A place where you can connect with the world just outside your front door, and immerse yourself into nature through your back door. Experience everything from gallery exhibits and artist lectures to world-class dinners and outdoor concerts.

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Babcock Ranch | The Hometown of Tomorrow

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Babcock Ranch is the first solar powered town in America. It is underway in South Florida. Model homes are available now. Learn more today.

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Renewable materials embedded with smart technology will bring roadbuilding to a new standard. - ASME

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The basic method of building roads has not changed much since the Romans used stone, aggregate and cement. Renewable materials embedded with smart technology will bring roadbuilding to a new standard.

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The benefits of trees are many. Trees provide critical public services and goods that are often overlooked (or perceived as a limitless resource); however, in the absence of trees, these services would cost us billions of dollars to replace with manufactured solutions. Most importantly, trees imp…

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Designing Our Future: Sustainable Landscapes

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DESIGNING OUR FUTURE: SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES

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We take a look at some of the most sustainable buildings across the globe

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Accessible Playgrounds | The Home for Accessible and Inclusive Playgrounds

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Parents tend to use the terms " Playgrounds for all Abilities" or " Playgrounds for children with disabilities "

Handicapped Playgrounds, Handicapped-Accessible Playgrounds, Wheelchair Playgrounds are outdated terms that most people do not use.

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Parents tend to use the terms " Playgrounds for all Abilities" or " Playgrounds for children with disabilities " Handicapped Playgrounds, Handicapped-Accessible Playgrounds, Wheelchair Playgrounds are outdated terms that most people do not use.

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Greener Roads (Podcast) created with AI from the "Sustainable Road Construction" article. 

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Greener Roads (Podcast) created with AI from the "Sustainable Road Construction" article. 

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IF YOU CANNOT ACCESS THE ARTICLE TO THE LEFT "SUSTAINABLE ROAD CONSTRUCTION," LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST.

Greetings! Some students are having trouble accessing the article "Sustainable Road Construction," so I used AI to create a podcast about the information in the article. Give it a listen!

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Smarter and Greener Roads_ The Future of Highway Construction.wav