Build your own Moss Wall

Yes, green walls have hit the big time. Here's an article in Vogue (!) about how to build your own moss wall. 

First international conference on Africa's Great Green Wall

 There are still a few more days left in this week's first Great Green Wall conference. Representatives from 20 countries are meeting. As one official said this conference is about more than just greenery, land degradation, which effects as much as 65% of Africa, leads to other destabilizing forces like "climate change, illegal migration (particularly youth), declining agricultural productivity and insufficient job creation for our rural community."And of course experts speaking to Reuters point out, it leads to extremism as well.

It was hard for me to wrap my head around what's at stake, until I read this quote from the UN: "Some 60 million Africans could be forced to leave their homes within five years as their land turns to desert, while two thirds of the continent’s arable land could be lost by 2025 due to growing desertification".

Seoul City Hall

If you haven't seen Seoul City Hall, a magnificent building shrouded in verdant green walls, you should...

-An interesting article posits if recent disasters and new trade deals, could be the death knell for farming in Japan. What do you think?

-How do production rates for those shipping container gardens compare to traditional horizontal farms? One company was kind enough to share some data and an interesting discussion opened up in the comment section.

Old school green roof recipe

Here's an old school formula for making a green roof. I can't vouch for this as I haven't seen one done, nor watched how it performs over the years, but if you're up for an experiment on the cheap, please let me know how it works out.

-While not exactly living architecture, these new mechanical trees are supposed to replicate the real thing, while generating wind power.

-It's wonderful to see more hospitals embracing horticultural therapy and all its benefits, in Philadelphia Magee Rehab Center plans to open a $4 million dollar creative therapy center and healing gardens.

Although this is outside my normal purview, it is too cool not to pass on. Norway hopes to spend $1 billion dollars on bike infrastructure!

Pakistan grows its own great green wall

Perfect timing, huh? Last week we covered China's attempts at growing its own Great Green Wall, now Pakistan attempts to plant 100 million trees over the next five years.

The Great Green Wall gets creative

 

Africa's Great Green Wall has thankfully received more attention as of late. Branding is always helpful for selling products and programs, it's wonderful to see what these students created, like the poster above, to publicize the campaign.

-As many of you know, China is attempting their own green wall, affectionately called "the Green Wall of China", to hold back desertification. And they've done a lot, 66 billion trees planted since 1978. The problem? Fast-growing and thirsty, non-native species were planted making things worse! And they were all cuttings, meaning they are all dying at the same time. Encroaching deserts threaten 400 million people in total with poor agricultural land, water shortages and air pollution from giant sandstorms. Officials are even worried about civil unrest. If you have a chance, read the story.

-Aquaponics and marijuana are two of the hottest trends in agriculture. What happens when you combine the two? I'm predicting really big things for this Hamilton, Ontario outfit.

-Building owners in Geelong, an hour long drive south from Melbourne, Australia, have a chance to win $10,000 for their green roof. If you live there, throw your hat in the ring!

-A design competition in Italy has yielded some fantastic renderings and further interest from local cities to make a combination pre-school/urban farm.

-Two weeks ago France banned supermarket waste, this means companies must find other ways to dispose of their food. Hopefully they won't dispose of it, but it becomes another revenue stream if they sell it to supermarkets, which exist in Denmark, which only sell second hand food.

Goodbye to a living wall in British Colombia

Thomson Rivers University in British Columbia have a lovely 760 square foot living wall. Well, they had one. It was installed in 2011 sadly, it seems, it's location (near the library and the humidity jeopardizing the books), maintenance cost ($20,000-$30,000/year, which breaks down to $26-$39/square foot per year!!!), and general disinterest (70% of those surveyed wanted it gone) combined to mean it's all over.

Here's the wall in better times...

The Great Green Wall starts to grow

After historic climate change talks people are encouraged good things, actionable steps, will actually be taken by governments around the world. One such vital initiative is the Great Green Wall.

Ten countries are offering more degraded and deforested land and France has offered over 5 billion dollars to help its former colonies with environmentally friendly projects, including the Wall. That's a huge deal! The project has languished due to lack of investment and under the threat of extremism. Experts worry if real economic opportunities aren't created, in addition to the Wall, the trees will end up being used by those living near it.

-Speaking of desertification in Africa, there's a new greenhouse which just hit the market which uses could be a boon for dry lands. Work is being done in the USA as well, California in particular, in an attempt to solve a problem which knows no bounds. The City of Los Angeles has partnered with private industry and several non-profits to craft design solutions and a digital tool which helps cities in dry climates become self-sufficient in terms of water while delivering additional benefits, including improving performance in energy, the environment, and public health. The initiative is called the Drylands Resilience Initiative.

-Outside Atlanta a partnership with Georgia Tech university is developing the highway of the future. Some features? Use the right-of-way along the roadside to farm biofuel plants like sunflowers, corn and canola, combining sound barriers with solar panels, incorporating hog manure as a binding agent in lieu of asphalt, and creating living billboards made of plant material.

GILA word of the week: Food Swamp

I have a bunch of things to mention which have slipped under the radar recently, for instance your GILA word of the week: Food Swamp. We've all heard the term food desert, well a food swamp has lots of food available and most of it is unhealthy.

-It's important that everyone is aware of the benefits of green infrastructure, especially green roofs. In Victoria, Australia, a local university, the city council and state government are trying to put a dollar figure on greening utilizing their own research and the country's Economic Framework for Green Infrastructure. Similarly, Mauritius is attempting to quantify how much green roofs would mean to them.

-The Dutch have taken urban agricultural to new heights, by creating a floating dairy platform making it one of the first urban aquatic agricultural operations.

-Follow a Kenyan family on the front line of climate change in the first episode of Al Jazeera's "The Climate Diaries".

-Speaking of pioneers, urban agricultural guru Will Allen may be in a jam of a different kind as an investor has sued him (and his partner) over the disputed mismanagement of their investment.

-Last week it was announced India is slated to get it's first horticultural therapy garden in 2016. While a new program is opening in India, sadly a popular one is being shut down in the UK.

-Let's end on a positive note, shall we? How about focusing on Detroit's intention to plant tens of thousands of trees on 1/2 square miles of vacant city space. Note, this is only a demonstration. There are over 20 miles of vacant land in the city...right now! Other lots will be filled eventually, whether it's with wildflowers or urban farms.

Indonesia shows us how to save urban trees

Nigeria's fight against desertification, the Great Green Wall Project, is looking for international support to help move things along. Let's see if an NGO steps up to help out.

-Indonesia's "One Soul One Tree" has been a smashing success as city dwellers have found new ways to preserve their urban trees for the benefit of all.

-Virginia State University pioneering aquaponics work got a huge vote of confidence, last week, in the form of a $900,000 check to support the construction of an aquaponics production center. Well done, VSU!

Are green walls bad for human health?

A new study from England seems to say so, when the temperatures are very warm plants emitted volatile organic compands. The industry will definitely be paying close attention to these findings and, if I can predict anything, others will try to replicate or debunk these findings!
Stay tuned!!!

Check out this city hall in Belgium! Very, very nice...

GILA words of the week: Pizza farm + mobile green wall filter

Before getting to the word of the week, here's the new title holder for the largest green wall.

A Taiwan based company built this nearly 2,600 square meter green wall, it beats the previous biggest in Singapore by more than 300 square meters.
An even bigger development may be the invention of a mobile green wall filter. Keep an eye on this company!

-On to the pizza farm! In Minnesota and Wisconsin agritourism is taking off and some farmers have cut out the middle man. Why not grow (or source locally) all of ingredients for a pizza, bake it and serve it up on a farm? You can't get much fresher!

Vertical farming in Japan

You may remember my pronouncement a while back how I wouldn't comment on concepts because they are simply artwork until someone puts numbers behind how to make it reality.
Covering Toronto's Gardiner Expressway with a green roof to resemble New York's Highline, was one of those fanciful ideas which got people talking, but seemed far from realistic. And it still is. Especially when you consider the first part of the equation, fixing the Gardiner has gone from $500 million to $950 million in four years.
Now a top bureaucrat is agreeing with some people who think the Gardiner should be torn down. If nothing else, I think we can all agree the Gardiner will never be topped with a green roof.

-Next door the City of Mississauga will add a storm water discharge fee to the bills of building owners to help rebuild their infrastructure.

-Back to Toronto, for a second, how cool would it be if they had a provision, like they do in Seoul, that if you get rebates, public funds to subsidize your green roof or wall, that it must be publicly accessible? Seoul has spent over $57 million in public funds greening their city and has a really big project up their sleeves, look out for their Seoul Skygarden in 2017. It's supposed to be like...wait for it...the Highline!

-In terms of ideas, here are a couple I really like. A team of Chicago entrepreneurs are hoping to lease rooftops to grow veggies. Let's see if they are able to do it, because no one has done it successfully yet. Of greater promise, I think, is leasing parking lot space for these pop-up farms. Maybe even stacking them a several stories high to maximize the space.

-In Japan this semi-conductor company has entered the vertical farming race and found a niche market for their lettuces, growing low potassium lettuces for those with kidney problems. That's a smaller version of their system up above.

-I'll round out with the best news of the week. France now has a ban on supermarket food waste. All surplus food must be donated to charities or used for animal feed!

Self-guided living architecture tour of Toronto

A green minded philosopher in Toronto has compiled a list of living architecture in Toronto and mapped it so that you can give yourself a self-guided tour of the publicly accessible green beauty.

$46 million for 1,800 urban farms in Seoul

Lots to talk about over the last week, municipalities across the world are doing some incredible things revolving around urban agriculture and green roofs:

-The government of the city of Seoul will inject about $46 million dollars into urban agriculture to hopefully build 1,800 gardens in parks, schools and rooftops, all of which will be within a ten-minute walk!

-Staying abroad, a small aquaponics project has been funded in Trinidad, it's great another island nation is jumping on board. But I wanted to discuss semantics. What do you think looks better, $.5 million or $500,000? Intuitively I know it's the same, but there's something about seeing the decimal which makes me think it's smaller than if we saw all those zeros.

Stateside the biggest news of the last week comes from Houston...let me repeat, Houston!...has given the go ahead and favorable terms, for an aquaponics operation in an abandoned building. The company agrees to apply almost $5 million dollars into the project.

-Living architecture has reached new heights when towns like Traverse, the tart cherry capital of the world with 15,000 people, is considering green roof credits!

-In California's Napa Valley one of the country's most eco-friendly developments just got the green light.  They are calling it a "housing experiment", Napa Creek Village promises greener design (LEED platinum complete with green walls) and a path to home ownership via a rent-to-own mechanism!
 
-Oregon's state legislature is considering property tax credits for those who start urban agriculture operations.

-Up the coast a bit Vancouver will convert some of the caretaker houses for their parks system into food hubs, to plant gardens, share ideas on producing, preserving and preparing food and more. It seems they have been also used for art over the years, hopefully that continues as well.

-And this last story comes from a college. Cornell University now has a college level course, from which you get credits AND a permaculture certificate once you are done!

Patrick Blanc's green wall palace

Apparently this has been online for a while! Check out Patrick Blancs' place, or better yet palace, green walls galore!

What does California's drought mean for the green roof industry?

Some would argue it's long overdue, others think it doesn't go far enough, but the fact that California has it's first water restrictions ever is a game changer. The state has entered a different era and with a mega-drought possible for the state and multiple regions, what California does now may end up being a template for many parts of the American Southwest and Plains.

The living architecture industry is still burgeoning in North America. In a sense, that's great. The industry still has room for growth and innovation. I predict a few things will happen:

-In the green roof industry we'll see more options developed as system providers and developers react appropriately to a new normal. We will probably see more research into drought tolerant plants and maybe even development of "green roofs which aren't green", beige roofs, if you will. I'm thinking xeriscaping on rooftops, with sand being the medium of choice, for the semi-arid regions especially.

-The green wall industry will go through some changes as well. Plants from tropical regions are favored in the industry. With water becoming a more valued resource, I think we'll see green walls featuring a wider array of plants and maybe even more green walls incorporating preserved plants and bryophytes.

The next few years will definitely be interesting!

Ambitious aquaponics operations

There seems to be some political momentum for putting an aquaponics operation in an empty, east end Toronto convenience store. I hope that they have an owner/operator in mind, it's wonderful a politician is so enthusiastic about creating a food hub!
It makes me think of those fellows who headed to the suburbs just a few months ago, if they only knew this store front would be available, maybe they would've chosen it?

-New York City doesn't have an commercial aquaponics operation yet...or didn't until earlier this year. With the price of real estate there, perhaps the suburbs would make more sense than setting up in Brooklyn.

-One more aquaponics story. Here's a team of folks trying to make "the largest aquaponics farm in the US" via strictly crowdfunding. That means they need millions of dollars. Ambitious! I hate to be that guy, but if I'm going to give $251 dollars to a venture, I would probably want more than a coffee mug.

-I had no idea that Calgary's first living roof was in 1875. Someone (maybe you, faithful reader) should do an inventory of all the green roofs (and walls!) in North America's major cities.

-Foraging in Singapore! This is definitely a first for me.

-Coca-cola has converted its concentrated beverage drums and donated dozens to community gardens in Toronto. This is a great upcycling idea!

GILA word of the week: Edible Riparian Buffer

I haven't encountered this phrase before: Edible Riparian Buffer. It's a kind of green infrastructure,
meant to combat climate change and boost community resilience. If you're going to put a vegetated buffer around a river, why not focus on having edible plants? Kudos Iowa City!
This edible riparian buffer may not be everyone's cup of tea and that's why it's important to have, argues this landscape architect, small, incremental actions which result in an immediate, local effect.

-Forceful words from the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), calling on developers 'to stop downplaying green infrastructure as "a fluffy optional extra".

-A massive luxury Cairo green infrastructure project, complete with green roofs, green walls and gardens now has over half a billion dollars in investment! Construction is expected to be completed in 2018. Talk about over the top, it has limo services as well.

-A government minister praised the Nigerian section of the green wall being built to combat desertification. Not a few hours later planting was stopped due to insurgent forces. I had never thought about the role insurgents could play in environmental degradation and climate change.

-And lastly for today, he's a nifty five acre farm in Australia, which includes an outdoor aquaponics system as part of it's permaculture orientation.