Posts Tagged ‘Environment’
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Plastiki arrival in Sydney
It seemed like just a short while ago that David De Rothschild set sail from San Francisco aboard his boat made of 12,500 plastic PET bottles, the Plastiki touched base in the planned destination of Sydney the other day.
De Rothschild and his crew completed the historic expedition in four legs: San Francisco – Kiribati – Western Samoa – New Caledonia before reaching the Australian Coast (Mooloolaba) on Monday 19 July and continuing on to Sydney. The innovative catamaran carrying a crew of six made its trip without major incident.
De Rothschild’s inspiration for this journey came after reading the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report ‘Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas’. His journey included sailing through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
While most cruise ships maintain poor to awful records of creating pollution the Plastiki set out to educate people about the use and misuse of plastic bottles. The Plastiki which uses core principles of “cradle-to-cradle” design and biomimicry receives 68% of her buoyancy from 12,500 reclaimed plastic soft drink bottles and the super structure is made of a unique recyclable plastic material made from a self-reinforcing PET called Seretex.
Hopefully more people will put down their two liter plastic soda bottles to realize how much plastic we overuse in our throwaway society and how we can move toward inspired ideas as a sustainable alternative.
Tags: David, David de Rothschild, Environment, Plastic, Plastiki, San Francisco, sustainability
Posted in Environment, Interesting ideas, Plastic, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Live from Outside Lands day two (Green posse in tow), today we focus on some of the artists. After all, for most people Outside Lands remains about the music. But unlike many festivals or shows Outside Lands offers a significant numbers of bands and singers who either have some direct social justice, environmental or artistic causes that they support or create.
Pearljam, who rocked us (despite poor Eddie Veder’s scratchy throat) last night has been offsetting their tours since 2006. The social and environmentally minded rockers fight corporate monopolies, create and cover songs with social and environmental angles (no surprise that they they covered Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” among other tunes last night), and donate even donate their bank to alt energy projects.
Tonight, another powerhouse in the sustainable movement the Dave Matthews Band hits the main stage. These band helped start a project called the Bama Green Project which maintains a partnership between Reverb and IZSTYLE, and encompasses various environmental efforts that the band commits to while on the road, in the studio and at home. The DMB and the Bama Green Project works on educating DMB fans around the world about how to take simple and positive environmental actions. It’s good to know that we have some help in this educational environmental thing.
It’s not all about the big bands, smaller bands such as Blind Pilot, who toured the West Coast twice now on their bicycles, Lila Downs (who unfortunately canceled at the last minute) creates education funds for women down in Oaxaca Mexico), and West Indian Girl did their last tour with a bio diesel RV.
Hopefully, Outside Lands and other festivals will invite more bands with a social and environmental conscience. Sure the music is important but it doesn’t mean that the bands can’t do something good for someone or something else as well.
Back to work as the music continues…..
Tags: Bama Green Project, Blind Pilot, Dave Mathews Band, Eddie Veder, Environment, Lila Downs, Neil Young, Outside Lands, Pearljam, Reverb, social justice, west indian girl
Posted in Events, Lifestyle, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
You might say that San Francisco Green thinking still has a way to go after we spotted a un-Green SUV (Range Rover) in the garage of an already well publicized Noe Valley Green house.
After speaking with the one of the owners they admit that it’s hardly Green to drive the gas guzzler but they say that it’s leased. And they have a hybrid SUV on their radar for their next purchase. As for how they’re adapting to and how they like some of the interior green attributes inside the house well that’s for a future entry.
Tags: Eco Homes, Environment, Green Building, Green Real Estate, Noe Valley, Real Estate, San Francisco
Posted in Green Building, San Francisco, Transportation | No Comments »
Thursday, October 5th, 2006
The Orchard Garden Hotel continues to experience a delayed opening. Yes, the soon to be LEED certified hotel originally scheduled to open in September now has a realistic November on its sights.
The delays didn’t detract from the evening where Mayor Gavin Newsom joked that instead of a ribbon cutting ceremony the evening offered more of a preview. Even, the General Manager Stefan Mühle joked that the crowd should grab paint brushes. Instead they grabbed champagne flutes, wine glasses, and appetizers (especially the sweet gazpacho) and got a mini tour of the five completed rooms.
While most people admired the coziness and sightlines of the rooms and suites, a couple of us focused on the green aspects such as the FSC certified maple wood furniture, low flow water fixtures, Luna Textiles and key card energy system. The rooms offer a clean, spartan yet cozy look. We weren’t exactly thrilled to see Chinese granite bathroom countertops but you can’t have everything green.
Tags: Environment, FSC, Gavin Newsome, Gazpacho, Green Building, Green Hotels, LEED-NC, Luna Textiles, Orchard Garden Hotel
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Environment, Green Building, Materials, Programs and Standards, San Francisco | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
We actually feel sorry for the owner for the owner of the Green house in Bernal Heights. That same property (338 Holladay Ave.) has been languishing on the market for almost three months. That’s the same residence where the house’s owner wrote a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle several weeks back, which practically exclaimed a rebuttal to the paper’s articles saying that Green houses are all the rage and will sell like hotcakes.
The owner can’t be a happy camper as he and his agent continually drop the asking price from $1,279,000 to $1,195,000 to $1,049,000 to $994,000. The owner claims that location sells houses, as evidenced by the Green house in Noe Valley. True the Noe Valley Green house location represents a superior addy to the one in Bernal Heights. Also, that Noe Green house sale occurred in a slightly warmer market.
There may be a degree of truth in the owner’s statement but instead of location, location, location the seller and his agent should be more concerned with marketing, marketing, marketing. And education. (more…)
Tags: Bernal Heights, Eco Homes, Environment, Green Building, Green Real Estate, health, money, Noe Valley, Real Estate, San Francisco
Posted in Green Building, Materials, San Francisco, money | No Comments »
Thursday, September 21st, 2006
With the Arterra, San Francisco’s first LEED certified San Francisco condos, just about ready to go into pre-sales it’s no surprise that some visitors in the sales office appear from curious to confused.
Some prospective buyers who drifted around the sales office came for the Green factor but others don’t know green from pink. The salesroom doesn’t exactly push the green aspect. Those who don’t have an attention to detail could easily miss the bamboo kitchen floors, and the dual flush toilets. Even so, one green product continually baffles potential buyers – the Trespa rainscreen system. It more than baffles, it disturbs some.
We’re not exactly fans of bedding down in high-end coffins, except maybe during Halloween, so people here should get over their fears of something new. The rainscreen system isn’t exactly the new green kid on the block. Builders have been using this overcladding technology since the 1940’s in Scandinavia. (more…)
Tags: Arterra, Bamboo, Eco Homes, Environment, Gore-tex, Green Building, Green Condos, Green Real Estate, health, LEED-NC, Mold, Mother Nature, Overcladding, Rainscreen, Real Estate, San Francisco, Scandinavia, Trespa
Posted in Green Building, Materials, Products, San Francisco, Technology, Water | No Comments »
Saturday, September 16th, 2006
Normally the thought of ash brings to mind volcano eruptions, funerals, and maybe religious holidays but for us and green builders it’s about flyash and foundations. So, when discussing the topic with one of San Francisco’s up and coming LEED-AP architects (Melanie Jacobson) she mentioned that the CHPS school they are building in the Sacramento area will have a fifteen percent flyash concrete foundation we looked quizzically at her. Why only fifteen percent? She mentioned that that percentage was about as high as their structural engineers deemed to be sound.
We’ve heard other local green buildings contain as high as thirty percent flyash. So, why the discrepancy? It depends on the configuration of the building, the weight on the structure and most importantly what the structural engineer says. (more…)
Tags: CHPS, Coal, Environment, Flyash, Foundations, Green Building, Green Real Estate, health, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, LEED-AP, Portland Cement, Real Estate, Structural Engineer
Posted in Green Building, Materials | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
We can’t check in yet but we’re already giddy to sleep in one of the 86 rooms in the USA’s first LEED-NC certified hotel. San Francisco’s own Orchard Garden Hotel which represents the first in what will hopefully be a long line of green hotels will open in October. Green Roof Inns anyone?
Originally scheduled to open in July, then September, and now finally October, the hotel construction crew found itself at the mercy of two things that it couldn’t control.
1- The weather. The seemingly endless rain during in March and April caused numerous construction delays. Looks like they should have installed that rooftop garden sooner.
2- Ironically the second delay was due to PG&E permit issues. Funny how a Green Hotel can be delayed by a mega power company. That will teach you to stay attached to the grid. The hotel staff decided not to go with solar panels due to:
a) No space on the roof top to accommodate the panels
b) ROI not worth it – would take close to 30 years!
Fine reasons indeed but watch your PG&E bill.
One final note – The delayed Orchard Garden opening will cause West Coast Green guest speakers to bunk down at a backup option for the end of September conference. A tent in Golden Gate Park anyone?
Tags: Eco Hotels, Environment, Golden Gate Park, Green Building, Green Hotels, LEED-NC, Orchard Garden Hotel, Photovoltaic Panels, San Francisco, Solar panels, West Coast Green
Posted in Business, Green Building, Materials, Programs and Standards, San Francisco | No Comments »
Monday, September 11th, 2006
Finally there’s the green that can save green. Did all you capitalists just get excited? It’s not just about photovoltaic panels, although if you’re not a fan of PG&E or the equivalent megalopolis energy supplier then the fact that an energy company can actually send you a check each month may excite your bank account in the long run.Green savings isn’t just about sticking it to the big bad energy companies but adding value to your house. When you add those photovoltaic panels, that high percentage fly ash foundation, or water recapture system then you automatically add value to your home. (more…)
Tags: Capitalists, Eco Homes, Environment, Fly Ash Foundation, Green Building, Green Real Estate, Marathon, money, No VOC Paint, Photovoltaic Panels, Real Estate, Water Recapture System
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Materials, money | No Comments »
Thursday, September 7th, 2006
Who cares about the
environment (besides Gore)?Even if you haven’t seen
Al Gore’s docu pic “
An Inconvenient Truth” it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or in this case a
meteorologist to know that something’s screwy with the environment and the weather. Anyone who spent any time in
San Francisco this past summer can tell you why. We actually had warm (sometimes in the 90s), sunny days during July and August. This isn’t
LA or
NYC. Normally the only ones wearing shorts during the summer are tourists. And you feel bad watching them shiver as they wait for the
cable cars. Even the
Sunset District, known for anything but sun, had less than its normal share of fog. We just can’t have this much heat and sun in San Fran. It just ain’t right.
What would we do with the wonderfully droll quote wrongly attributed to Mark Twain, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”?
Anyone out there care that Homes account for about 18% of the greenhouse gases emitted here in the USA? It’s going to get worse unless we make it better. Or as Sarah Connor put it in Terminator 2: Judgment Day: “Anyone not wearing two million SPF sunblock is gonna have a really bad day!”
Tags: Environment, Greenhouse Gases, los angeles, Movies, New York City, San Francisco
Posted in Films and Documentaries, San Francisco | No Comments »
