The NYCMEDP runs a number of ongoing service, outreach, and research programs.  The NYC Waste Match, for example, is [...]]]>

Eco Brooklyn has partnered up with the NYC Materials Exchange Development Program, a great non-profit that keeps reusable materials out of the trash by connecting people with unwanted materials to others who can reuse them.

The NYCMEDP runs a number of ongoing service, outreach, and research programs.  The NYC Waste Match, for example, is a free service that can help green builders salvage materials efficiently by connecting us directly with businesses and individuals doing demolition and construction.  Waste Match also helps these people save money on disposal costs while building an environmentally friendly image.  Salvage is a win-win situation, and we hope that more people will choose to reuse materials now that the NYCMEDP is providing an easy way to do it.

Check out our member page on their site!

Whether you like to practice your dolphin dives or lounge away the day on a raft, swimming is one of summer’s perfect pleasures. With a minimum of materials (and without [...]]]>

Eco Brooklyn is building a natural swimming pool in its show house. Below is a good article that explains how to build one.

Whether you like to practice your dolphin dives or lounge away the day on a raft, swimming is one of summer’s perfect pleasures. With a minimum of materials (and without an arsenal of chemicals), you can build an idyllic water oasis right in your own back yard and thwart summertime’s sultry dog days.

By Douglas Buege and Vicky Uhland

While fairly common in Europe, natural swimming pools (like the one pictured above in an Austrian family’s back yard), are in their infancy in the United States. Ask an American swimming pool contractor to build a backyard pool and chances are they’ll roll out a long list of goods, including rebar, gunnite, fiberglass, chlorine and an energy-sapping filtration system. But in recent years, a few builders and a growing number of homeowners have learned how to build pools without relying on a mass of manufactured materials and chemical additives. They’ve found it’s possible to construct pools are more about learning from nature than selling supplies.

Natural swimming pools use gravel, stone and clay in place of concrete or fiberglass, and aquatic plants instead of harmful chemicals and complicated mechanical filtering systems. The plants enrich the pool with oxygen, support beneficial bacteria that consume debris and potentially harmful organisms, and give habitat to frogs, dragonflies and other water life. You only fill the pool once, and the result is a beautiful, ecologically diverse system that is relatively inexpensive to construct. (A natural pool can be constructed for as little as $2,000 if you do it yourself, while conventional pools can cost tens of thousands of dollars.) Natural swimming pools require no harmful chemicals, are fairly low-tech, and, once established, call for only a modicum of management.

DIG IT

The cheapest and most ecologically sound way to build a swimming pool is simply to hollow a hole in the ground. You can make your pool as shallow or as deep as you want, but the key is to make sure the sides slope, otherwise the soil will cave in. The ratio should be a 1-foot vertical drop for every 3 horizontal feet. “It’s not a bathtub effect, but more like a soup bowl,” says Tom Zingaro, partner with Denver-based Blue Lotus Designs, a pool and pond architecture company. One of the main reasons traditional swimming pools are constructed with a steel framework is to ensure the walls stay vertical and perpendicular to the bottom surface of the pool. Construct a pool with sloping sides and you’ll eliminate the need for any steel reinforcement.

ZONING

Reserving at least 50 percent of your pool’s surface area for shallow plants, either at one end or in a ring around the sides, eliminates the need for chlorine and expensive filters and pumps.

 You’ll want to separate the swimming area of your pool and the filtration area, or plant zone (see the illustration on Page 31). A rim within an inch of the water’s surface keeps plants in their place but allows water from the swimming area to move to the plant zone for filtering. As water passes through the fibrous root structure of the plants, bacteria concentrated on the plants’ roots act as a biological filter, removing contaminants and excess nutrients in the water. In concert, decomposer organisms, also found in the plants’ root zones, consume the bacteria, effectively eliminating waste buildup underwater.

Inside the plant zone, the water should get steadily deeper, reaching a maximum depth of 18 inches near the swimming zone. The outermost 6 inches of the plant zone will be 2 to 3 inches deep, providing a home for taller aquatic plants. Submergent and floating vegetation occupy the deeper area.

Besides cleaning the water and making your pool beautiful to behold, the shallow plant zone warms the water quickly and provides habitat for frogs and many invertebrates. They‘ll appreciate the shallow waters for breeding grounds and repay the favor by eating mosquito larvae.

NATURAL FILTRATION

For the plants’ roots to cleanse the water, the water needs to circulate continuously. You may also need to aerate your pool’s water so that gaseous oxygen meets water organisms’ biological oxygen demand (BOD). (Without adequate oxygen, your pool could become stagnant, harboring odoriferous anaerobic bacteria.)

Water can be channeled from your pump into your plant zone through the use of PVC tubes. Zingaro recommends using flexible PVC in cold climates. In any climate, bury the tubing in the soil about 18 inches. Underwater aeration, which uses less energy than constructed waterfalls and circulates water more effectively, involves diffusing air at the pool’s bottom. You can build your own aerator, using an air compressor (1/4 horsepower for a pool smaller than an acre) and high-strength tubing that connects to a diffuser. The diffuser (see Sources, Page xx), which bubbles air through the water, rests in the deepest part of the pool where swimmers are not likely to damage it. Connect a brass manifold to the compressor to regulate the air pumped into the pool. Don Schooner at Inspired By Nature, an Ohio-based pond and lake restoration company, suggests aerating the pool four to eight hours a day: in the morning, when oxygen demand is greatest, and again in the evening. Place your aerator, pump and skimmer in a plastic container such as a bucket or large plant container and put a steel mesh filter mat over the top to keep debris out of your equipment. Expect to pay around $1000 to $1200 for a high quality underwater aeration system.

Some folks employ skimmers in their pools, hooked up to an additional small pump, to suck off floating undesirables. While these devices are not essential, you might want to consider purchasing one if leaves or seeds from nearby trees and shrubs often litter your pool. The skimmer removes detritus that would otherwise sink and contribute to algae growth.

Installing pumps and compressors can be a tricky business because you’re running electrical devices near or in water. You’ll want to connect electrical hardware to your home power supply through buried conduit. Do not run your power through an extension cord. Hire a skilled electrician who will ensure the safety of the system.

SEALING THE POOL

Once you’ve dug the hole for the swimming pool and the plant zone, you have a couple of options, depending on your soil conditions, to ensure the pool holds water: You can apply a layer of bentonite clay to seal the soil, or lay a synthetic liner. Bentonite is usually the cheaper option, averaging 35 cents per square foot. Liners can cost 25 cents to $1 per square foot, depending on their composition and weight.

Bentonite works as a glue, bonding with the soil particles and preventing pool water from seeping into the ground. Some soils may contain enough clay that simply compacting the pond bottom will enable it to hold water. Talk to local pond builders to find out for sure. But beware: bentonite doesn’t bond well with sandy soil. Particularly sandy soil can require up to 12 pounds of bentonite per square foot, as opposed to 6 pounds in clay-rich soil. Bentonite can also be troublesome when the surrounding soil is very dry. In arid climates, Zingaro recommends that bentonite be applied beneath a plastic liner that has a woven material next to the pool sides. This liner assures that the bentonite doesn’t shift. In more humid climates, bentonite can be applied directly to the soil. Before treating your pool with bentonite or any other clay powder, thoroughly compact the soil. You can do this with a lawn roller or a plate compactor. Then, making sure you’re wearing a mask, spread a 2- to 3- inch layer of bentonite powder along the pool sides and bottom. Pack it down with a tractor or plate compactor. Then apply another foot of good-quality topsoil and compact that.

If you choose a liner, choose one made of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rather than polyvinyl chloride (PVC). EPDM is a synthetic rubber twice as expensive as PVC, but it’s worth it. It has ultraviolet-ray protection and unlike PVC, isn’t brittle in cold weather. If your soil has a lot of rocks or roots, select a 45- or 60-millimeter-thick liner. You can use a 30-mil liner if your soil is very sandy and smooth, and if you and your guests aren’t the type to tear holes in a liner while frolicking in the pool. Before laying your liner, compact the soil and cover it with a layer of sand or an absorbent material such as old carpeting or newspaper. Newspaper is a good option; when wet, it bonds to the liner, providing extra protection if the liner develops a small hole.

After bentonite clay or a liner is installed, cover the bottom of the pool with 4 to 5 inches of gravel. The gravel provides a substrate for beneficial bacteria, which help biodegrade leaves or other natural materials that sink to the bottom of your pool. Make sure that the gravel you use is clean. Fill a spigoted 5-gallon bucket with some of the gravel you intend to use. Open the spigot and run water through the gravel. If the water comes out dirty, you need to clean the gravel (a taxing, water-wasteful process) or find another source. Expanded shell aggregates and other manufactured gravels are likely to be clean enough to use in your natural pool. In addition to lining the pool with gravel, many people opt to build cobblestone steps for access into and out of the pool. A cantilevered dock built out over the water also provides an easy way to get in and out of the pool and helps protect the pool’s sides from damage.

To finish the edges of your pool, run a plate compactor around the perimeter. While this will help with soil erosion, it’s not enough to ensure that dirt won’t fall into your pool. One option is to edge the perimeter with rocks, flagstone or wood planking. Better still, says Martin Mosko, principal architect with Boulder, Colorado-based landscaping company Marpa and Associates, is to plant right next to the edge and let the plants stabilize the perimeter.

Plants not only work to stabilize the soil, but create a natural setting for an old-fashioned swimming hole effect. Mosko says if you choose to use plants, instead of stone, it’s best that the water level be at least a foot below the edge of the pool so the perimeter plants don’t become waterlogged or choose plants that thrive in wet soils.

CONCRETE OPTIONS

If you prefer a more conventional pool shape, consider construction with concrete or rastra block, a material manufactured from concrete and recycled Styrofoam. Less eco-friendly than using gravel and stone, these systems can still save on chemical and energy usage by using plant-based filtration systems, rather than mechanical filters and chlorine, to clarify the pool water.

Pouring a concrete pool can be tricky. You have to have the right mix and the right density to prevent cracking. Because of the intricacies involved in concrete pouring, Zingaro advises against do-it-yourself concrete pool construction. If you’re experienced in concrete work, he offers the following tips: Use an 80/20 mix of Portland cement and sand, and cover the compacted soil with fiber mesh, a rubber liner, old carpeting or newspaper to provide a stable surface concrete can adhere to. After the concrete is poured, trowel on an 1/8- inch-thick coat of stucco to waterproof the pool, since concrete is porous.

An alternative to concrete is rastra block. These blocks are 10 feet long, 15 or 30 inches high, and 10 or 14 inches thick. Made of recycled Styrofoam and concrete, they weigh a fraction of what concrete blocks weigh; two people can easily set 10-foot sections into place. Kenton Knowles of Global Homes in Baldwin City, Kansas, built a 16-foot by 32-foot pool out of rastra for about $1,600 in materials.

To build a rastra block pool, excavate a hole just larger than the pool’s dimensions to allow for ample workspace. Most people choose to construct a pool 5 feet deep. For the bottom, either pour a concrete slab or cover the bottom with a rubber liner. Then line the bottom with gravel. Make sure to install a drain and backflow preventer. Lay one section of rastra block along the edges of the slab, securing the rastra to the pad with rebar.

Fill the rastra blocks’ cavities with concrete. As the concrete flows from block to block, the structure is tied together. An expanding foam sealant is used between courses and at all joints to hold the blocks in place. Knowles recommends waterproofing the blocks by troweling on two coats of stucco. Backfill the space between the sides of the pool and the rastra block with soil. You can finish the perimeter with stones laid from the top of the blocks out into the surrounding area, or you can grow plants to the edge of the blocks.

PREPARE FOR PLANTING

Once your pool is constructed, you’ll need to prepare the plant zone with 3 to 6 inches of soil. Choose your soil with care as soil can carry various contaminants. Avoid harvesting soil from areas where animal excrement is prevalent, such as in dog runs or from grazing areas. Also, select soil that’s free of organic matter that would rot underwater. If you wish, you can have a lab test soil samples for potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Once soil, gravel and hardware are in place, you can fill the pool. Disturb the soil as little as possible and let the pool rest for a week before installing plants. During this time, you can test your hardware to make sure it works.

SELECTING PLANTS

Be sure to choose plants suited to your climate. Your best bet is to obtain your plants from a native plant supplier. Check the phonebook and Internet for local sources. Home and garden centers also carry more aquatic plants now that backyard ponds are growing in popularity. End-of-the-season sales can save you big money. Several mail order nurseries also specialize in water garden plants (see Sources, Page XX).

Sedges (Carex species) and rushes (Scirpus spp.), both aquatic plants, make great emergent vegetation for your pool’s perimeter. You can also consider aquatic irises and short cattails (Typha angustifolia), though be sure to find varieties that don’t overcrowd other plants. Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata), arrowroot (Sagittaria spp.) and water primroses (Ludwigia spp.) are all contenders for the shallowest areas of your pool. Be sure to include submergent plants such as Elodea and Ceratophyllum for their high oxygen output.

In water 6 to 18 inches deep, plant a mix of floating, submergent and emergent plants. Water lilies (Nymphaea spp.) adapt to any depth, so use them liberally. Floaters such as pondweeds (Potamegeton spp.) and duckweed (Lemna minor) drift freely on the surface, and quickly cover the surface of the plant zone.

Before you make plans to tromp off to the nearest country pond and gather up a truckload of greenery, wait! Before collecting a single plant from the wild, know the laws that protect wetlands and their plants. If you do collect, be careful to guarantee the health of the wetland by selecting only a few samples from larger populations. Consider rescuing plants from a threatened site. Perhaps a new corporate headquarter’s construction is going to destroy your favorite frog hollow. Contact the company to see if they’ll allow you to rescue the imperiled plants (and maybe an amphibian or two).

Once you’ve purchased your plants, you can plant them in the filled pool. Stick to a plan, grouping plants according to height and type. Place your plants into the soil, anchoring them with plenty of gravel.

ALGAE CONTROL

Pond owners have been battling algae– the mighty green menace — for eons. Algae compete with plants for nutrients and light, but spring algae blooms often decline as soon as water lilies and other plants emerge to shade the water. Maintaining a lower pH (5.5 to 6.5) by adding plants and eliminating phosphorous will promote plant growth and deter algae. The easiest remedy, and the least risky to your aquatic ecosystem, is to add more plants, which will outcompete the algae for nutrients. A second option is to monitor the pool for phosphorus. Fertilizers and urine are the two major sources of this nutrient, so make sure your pool is free of nutrient rich run-off and remind everyone to use the bathroom before swimming. You can also increase your aeration schedule to stimulate more biological activity.

If algae problems persist, adding small amounts of straw to the pool will help. For full details, visit the Institute of Arable Crops Research Web site atwww.iacr.bbsrc. ac.uk/pie. Go to the Center for Aquatic Plant Management link and download “Control of Algae Using Straw.” For barley straw sources, go to www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/wildlife/nf429.htm or www.naturalsolutionsetc.com.

Enzymes, bacteria, acids and other strange brews have been offered as magic bullets for obstinate algae. Introducing additives to your pool may be an interesting scientific experiment, but it won’t necessarily improve the pool you’ve invested plenty of time and money in. Beware of salesmen hawking their grand variety of miracle algae cure-alls. Remember: your pool is a dynamic, living ecosystem. Adding synthetic chemicals will probably not bring it back into balance.

MAINTENANCE

Removing plant litter in spring and fall will help maintain the long life of your natural pool. Keep your water level constant, and be prepared to add water as needed. Inexpensive test kits, available in garden centers, will allow you to monitor your pool’s nutrient levels, alerting you to problems.

In addition to maintaining the pool’s biological health, check the mechanical systems annually. Wipe diffusers with vinegar to remove deposits, check air hoses for cracks and obstructions, and examine all connections to the pumps. Given these precautions, your pool should provide you pleasure for years to come.

That’s why we listened when  Justin Hall-Tipping told us that in the future, all energy could be sustainable, green, and free.

Justin Hall-Tipping, CEO of Nanoholdings, gives a TED talk about the energy applications of carbon nanomaterials.  It’s worth a watch, [...]]]>

Being a green builder is a constant search for more ecological ways of doing things.

That’s why we listened when  Justin Hall-Tipping told us that in the future, all energy could be sustainable, green, and free.

Justin Hall-Tipping, CEO of Nanoholdings, gives a TED talk about the energy applications of carbon nanomaterials.  It’s worth a watch, if you have ten minutes.

A few key points:

• Carbon nanotubes are 100 times more conductive than copper wire.
• Transparent sheets of carbon nanomaterials, when paired with a polymer, can be applied to windows (or any surface, really) and convert light into energy.
• Collected energy can be fed into systems of batteries that store it for later–or be turned back into light and beamed to the next house over.

Widespread applications of this model has mind-boggling implications: free sustainable energy, for everyone, for as long as the sun shines.

The downside is that we couldn’t harness the collaborative powers of the network until the model goes mainstream.  And why would the model go mainstream, when just about every house in a developed nation is already hooked up to a grid and paying into the existing system?  We have the technology to do this.  We also have the technology to make hovercars.  We could be zooming everywhere, but we wouldn’t, because we already have roads and cars that get the job done.  The prohibitive cost and arguably unnecessary risk of replacing entire infrastructures holds us back.

Consumption is already ingrained in our lifestyle to the degree that stepping away from it would take a massive amount of willpower.  Ec0 Br00klyn’s Zero Building method minimizes consumption by using 100% salvaged materials in our projects.  We install green roofs, solar panels, and water recycling systems that help homeowners wean themselves off the official lines.  We help one determined homeowner at a time move beyond consumption, toward a future of free energy.

It’s not easy.  Pushing against “normal” ways of doing things is a daily struggle against our own habits and those of the structures around us, but we can’t NOT fight it, so we forge on.

Justin Hall-Tipping’s research and ideas are very inspiring. We are keeping a keen eye on his developments since it would be a huge leap forward for green building.

More and more, businesses eagerly attach themselves to buzzwords like these in order to present an environmentally-friendly face to today’s green-conscious market.

I learned a new one the other day: “carbon offset.”

What is it? 

Carbon offset providers, like carbonfund.org, offer companies and individuals the opportunity [...]]]>

Carbon footprint.  CO2 emissions.  Low carbon.  Carbon neutral.

More and more, businesses eagerly attach themselves to buzzwords like these in order to present an environmentally-friendly face to today’s green-conscious market.

I learned a new one the other day: “carbon offset.”

What is it? 

Carbon offset providers, like carbonfund.org, offer companies and individuals the opportunity to become carbon neutral by applying “carbon credits” against their carbon output for the year.  The process is simple: you donate money, which the service passes on to a certified project of your choice.

Carbon offset projects contribute positively to the environment through methods like generating renewable energy, increasing energy efficiency, or planting trees.  An example project might be a small hydroelectric plant in India that produces sustainable energy without the need for a dam.  The plant reduces local air pollution and creates job opportunities, producing more benefits than just carbon reduction.

Carbonfund has excellent resources for calculating exactly how much carbon you or your business generates.  You can input details down to how many reams of copy paper you use every year.

By many accounts, Carbonfund is a reputable middleman.  They’ve helped a lot of busy people do their part to save the world with just a credit card.  Their list of “partners” includes hundreds of companies, plus nonprofits, government institutions, and schools.  Their financial comportment is probably not sketchy, as they’ve uploaded tax information for public scrutiny.

How much does it cost?

If you’re in a hurry, Carbonfund will give you a rough estimate of how much you’d have to donate to be guilt-free for one year, based on head count: $240 for an “individual offset,” $360 for a small company of 1-5 employees, and so on.

You can also offset specific items: for example, paying $11.33 will absolve you of the crime of one flight up to 6,000 miles.  Gift certificates are also available, at a rate of $10 per ton of carbon offset.  Nothing says “Happy Birthday” like “I want to wipe your footprints off the face of the earth.”

Exactly how much would it cost us to offset Eco Brooklyn’s carbon footprint?  I inputted our company’s stats into Carbonfund’s nifty calculator.

Tiny home office, skeleton crew of managers, workers, and interns.  One old truck (no  option for “veggie oil,” alas).  No copy paper.  We make maybe $1oo worth of CO2 every year.  Mostly because we take up space and breathe.  We can’t really help that.

That calculation doesn’t take into account our commitment to green methods.  Our reliance on local sourcing methods, salvaged materials, passive house-style energy conservation, bicycles and public transportation already put our carbon output far below the average, and that’s without accounting for all the green roofs and sustainable landscaping projects we’ve installed.

So what’s in it for me?

You get a nifty logo to put on your website.

You also get a suite of other publicity and networking benefits, like being listed as a “partner” on Carbonfund’s site and being able to connect with other “partners.”

$360 and we could be officially carbon free.  Certified guilt free.  Is it so simple?  Should it be?

I’m not doubting the networking powers of gathering like-minded companies in a common cause, or the potential of providing an easy way for people to make a little bit of a difference, but there’s a striking disconnect between the difference you make and what you’re making up for.

Paying to “offset” your carbon doesn’t mean you’ve changed anything about how you run your business.  Making up for your carbon footprint isn’t a commitment to changing where those expenditures came from.  It’d be like hiring a maid to follow you and mop up your footprints, while continuing to stomp around in muddy boots.

Carbon offset is one more thing a forward-thinking company could look into in order to become truly carbon neutral, but it’s not a substitute for going green.  The Carbonfree badge does a pretty good job of making a company look green, but it’s not a substitute for a business philosophy that strives for lower carbon emissions.

Carbonfund encourages people to “reduce what you can” and “offset what you can’t,” but a modest one-time payment sounds a lot easier than making a dedicated effort to change how you live.  Why change, if you can just pay to have your mess cleaned up?  It’s even tax-deductible.

So for a couple hundred dollars, what you get is a small stake in saving the world.  And a “green” mask that lets you  milk today’s environmentally-conscious consumers.

You decide which is worth it.

More food for thought: a panel of experts, including Carbonfund.org president Eric Carlson, discuss whether carbon offset is a solution to climate change or a loophole that can subvert it.

Green builders understand this naturally. We build homes that may last hundreds of years, protecting families for many generations. Each nail, each brick is a respectful nod to our ancestors who taught us the wisdom of sustainable [...]]]>

The Native American concept that all our actions today will effect seven generations to come is profound.

Green builders understand this naturally. We build homes that may last hundreds of years, protecting families for many generations. Each nail, each brick is a respectful nod to our ancestors who taught us the wisdom of sustainable building and a gift to our children who will inherit whatever we build, for good or for bad.

Here is a beautiful song to wish upon our children and our children’s children. We build for them.

May god bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every run
May you stay, forever young

May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you

May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young

Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

BOB DYLAN – FOREVER YOUNG LYRICS

My response? Duh! We need to do BOTH. And even then we may not have [...]]]>

Here is a crap article by the New York Times arguing that in order to stop global warming we need to pick between either sacrificing (consuming less) OR picking greener options of consumption (so we can consume the same).

My response? Duh! We need to do BOTH. And even then we may not have a chance at saving most of ecology.

They point out accurately that if people have to pick between green and comfort they will always pick comfort.

Humans are about getting ahead. We have taken over the planet because of our ruthless survival skills. And we will continue to grow and plunder until the very last drop of resources are available. This I have come to accept, although very cynically, from my personal experience as a NY green contractor.

Even my most die hard green clients for green brownstone renovations in New York at the end of the day care more about comfort than anything, by far. They don’t like to admit it because it would rip into their green self image but the planet, the contractor, the neighbors, all of these things are WAY behind in importance to their own survival.

Obviously, you might say.

The problem with being a green contractor is that the fall from innocence is painful because we start with such high expectations. Normal contractors are already jaded. They know the ugly truth that the client wants as much as they can get for as little as they can pay, and the contractor in turn acts the same. It is brutal survival of the fittest but business is honest that way.

Nature is too I guess. Maybe humans, despite being the most brutal animal in the kingdom, is also the most delusionally idealistic.

Green contractors are the worst when it comes to this idealism.

We enter into a pact with green minded people to help save the world. There is an expectation of brotherly love and universal saving. But this feel good pact immediately shatters when the client comfort and safety is threatened (not enough money, DOB issues, deadline problems, and the million other things that can go wrong in a renovation).

On this the New York Times article and myself agree.

But they then try to make a case for the EITHER OR, juxtaposing two things that in my eyes BOTH should be done.

They say, instead of making people sacrifice and use less, lets just make their tools emit less CO2:

…switch to cleaner diesel engines and cookstoves, building more efficient kilns and coke ovens, capturing methane at landfills and oil wells, and reducing methane emissions from rice paddies by draining them more often.

This strikes me as even more delusional. Head in the sand delusional. Lets not worry about consumption. Lets just build more Hybrid cars.

Eco Brooklyn builds green homes–literally.  In addition to energy-efficient, eco-friendly building, Eco Brooklyn installs green roofs and sustainable landscaping.  We adapt greenery to the urban landscape by incorporating native plants, vertical gardens, [...]]]>

Here’s a cool event that we recently got wind of: A one-night sustainable landscaping forum, organized by the NY Urban Green Council.

Eco Brooklyn builds green homes–literally.  In addition to energy-efficient, eco-friendly building, Eco Brooklyn installs green roofs and sustainable landscaping.  We adapt greenery to the urban landscape by incorporating native plants, vertical gardens, green walls, living steps, water gardens, and ecological swimming pools.

There’s not much room for landscaping in Brooklyn and New York, but we put the greenery where we can fit it, like this water garden in the front courtyard of our show house in Carroll Gardens.

One of our goals for the future is to install a living wall, or living steps, in which we take a structure that’s otherwise integral to the building’s function and add our own green twist with living plants.  We like to keep landscaping projects local, sustainable, and green.

So that’s why we’re excited about the next installment in the Urban Green Council’s Emerging Professionals Educational Forum series:

The Urban Green Council’s Educational Forum for February will focus on sustainable landscaping trends, featuring Patricia Olmstead, founder of Urban Explorations Inc.

Event details:

February 7, 2012 (Tuesday)

6:30-8pm

Hosted at Skanska HQ, 32nd floor of the Empire State Building

Mandatory afterparty networking party at the Heartland Brewery afterward!

The event will be free to Urban Green Council members, with a $5 registration fee for non-members. This is a great chance to network with local like-minded professionals, and learn more about green building!

You must, however, register for this event.  Empire State Building security will not permit walk-ins.  Visit the event page for details on how to register.  Hope to see you there!

Click to go to the event page.

When it comes to walls, a couple of rammed-earth techniques are available as alternatives to your standard insulation-filled 2×4 frames:

The Earthship model [...]]]>

Part of being a green contractor means studying emerging technologies offering more eco-benefits than conventional construction.  In this case we’re looking at old technologies: the rammed earth wall, one of humanity’s oldest building techniques.

When it comes to walls, a couple of rammed-earth techniques are available as alternatives to your standard insulation-filled 2×4 frames:

The Earthship model uses old tires as receptacles for rammed earth, and then uses them as building blocks for durable, energy-efficient walls.  They use waste and locally available raw materials, so the largest investment is labor.

New company Earthco Megablock has developed an automated mechanical system to generate compressed earth blocks.  Their materials leave a minimal carbon footprint (but still more than using manpower and recycled tires) and require less manpower to get the job done.

To clarify, I’m only talking about walls here: Both companies use rammed earth to make walls, but Earthco Megablock uses their technology to build “normal” 4-walls-door-and-windows houses while Earthship encompasses a whole sustainable lifestyle.  You could, for example, build an Earthship using Earthco’s blocks.

Earthship saves money by relying on networks of volunteers, while Earthco  reduces labor costs and building time by streamlining and automating the construction process.  Earthship is good for when you have time and people, but no money.  Earthco doesn’t require time or people, but you do need money…and somewhere to put their machine.

So if you’re building in, say, Haiti, you’d go with Earthship because it’s easier to truck in volunteers or laborers instead of shipping in a huge honking machine from the U.S…and that’s exactly what happened in the latest Earthship project, which you can see on their website.  Meanwhile, in America, there might well be a market for the professional service Earthco has put together.

One of Earthco’s goals is to change green construction from an idealistic collaboration into a commercial presence.  To quote from their web site: “While some people are not yet convinced about the need for “green” construction, everyone is into superior quality and saving money.”  They have a point: the best way to make green building methods mainstream is to  beat the mainstream in price and quality.

The trick is to do this without incurring the hidden costs that typical construction has (one example, the cost of new 2×4 lumber is so cheap because nobody is paying up front for the environmental costs of clear cutting a forest).

We’ve discussed Earthship before, but Earthco is a new find, so here’s a quick summary of their method, followed by some pros and cons:

Giant Compressed Earth Blocks are made by transporting proprietary machinery to your location, where local dirt is squeezed into compressed earth building blocks that are immediately built into walls.

Benefits:

Production is sustainable and affordable.  Using local materials and manufacturing on site means almost no carbon footprint.  Mechanized placement means less labor.  In general, walls can be built at twice the speed and half the cost of conventional lumber construction.

The walls are thick and offer thermal mass that retains heat while blocking wind.  Simply replacing lumber/insulation walls with block walls nets you 50% in energy savings.  Building to passive house standards (ensuring airtightness) boosts savings to 90%.  (But you can achieve similar results with conventional materials, which we’ve done.)

The blocks are virtually indestructible.  They’re built to withstand F5 tornadoes, wildfire, and gunfire.  In impact testing, a relatively shoddy block wall took a brick traveling at something like 1000 miles an hour.  The bullet, of course, disintegrated.  The wall hardly took a dent.

Drawbacks:

Simple earth block walls are not suited for areas with high humidity levels, as the blocks are water-resistant but not waterproof.  They need to be enveloped in some kind of waterproof outer layer, such as insulation, adobe, or stucco.

You can’t run electricity or plumbing through block walls.  You’d have to cut grooves to accommodate wires or pipes, or run them in through the ceiling or floor.

Personally, we wouldn’t be able to make use of this technology because we couldn’t get the machines into a Brooklyn backyard, and we’d run out of local dirt fast.  Trucking in the dirt or the blocks would defeat the purpose to some extent.  Tire-based rammed earth walls, on the other hand, are feasible because we could work at a smaller scale.

Eco Brooklyn has a rammed-earth wall in the cellar of our green show house.  What we did was more like this, because we have people in New York, but we don’t have space, so giant compressed earth block technology wouldn’t be a feasible choice for what we do.  We do a lot of retrofits on existing New York brownstones.  There isn’t a lot of room for rammed earth construction in our neighborhood, though rammed earth walls can be an aesthetic option.

That said, the most practical green construction method is always the one that makes the most efficient use of resources available to the builder.  Other than their use of rammed earth, Earthship and Earthco’s earth block technology are very different  innovative green building techniques with the potential to bring green building to different markets.

Eco Brooklyn is a big fan of the Earthship building technique and lifestyle.  The Earthco find is a nice addition to our resource list, and a company to keep an eye on.

Here’s to every immigrant worker in the world. Did you ever think that countries were created to create cheap immigrant workers?

Here at Eco Brooklyn we love immigrant workers. Not because they are cheap labor. Eco Brooklyn pays based on talent alone, not nationality, race or sex. And if you have a family [...]]]>

Here’s to every immigrant worker in the world. Did you ever think that countries were created to create cheap immigrant workers?

Here at Eco Brooklyn we love immigrant workers. Not because they are cheap labor. Eco Brooklyn pays based on talent alone, not nationality, race or sex. And if you have a family to support we might even pay more, regardless of whether that family is in Brooklyn or Guatemala.

We welcome people who come to America and send their profits elsewhere. Heck, America has been doing that to other countries for ages. We are happy to balance the playing field however small the contribution.

For us immigrants bring great traditional green building skills to New York. and we eat that shit up.

Clay walls, earthen floors, brick work, stone work, wood work and countless other skills are all old world techniques that people have been doing for thousands of years.  These are valuable skills to a green contractor in New York. These techniques are sustainable earth based skills not dependent on high embodied energy but rather on base elements like earth, clay, stone and water.

Here’s to you Jesus!