Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on February 8th, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From “Forget eco-towns – real green house-building is already happening“, by Eifion Rees, 12th January, 2010:
Cambridge University’s expansion plans could change the face of sustainable building in the UK. In 2012, construction begins on the greenest development of its size and scope in the UK.
As far as trailblazing green building initiatives go, the development known as North West Cambridge (its official name as well as location) looks rather uninspiring at the moment, merely fields bounded by busy roads on the outskirts of an East Anglian university town. There aren’t many clues to suggest that, when construction begins here in 2012, it will change the face of sustainable building in the UK.
But that is what is scheduled to happen here with the creation of what will effectively be a new city quarter. The land is owned by Cambridge University, and the scheme is intended to accommodate the academic institution’s expansion over the next 25 years, when numbers of students and staff are expected to increase by 8,000. As a result 3,000 new homes will be built on this patch of the greenbelt, together with new faculty and research buildings, and a significant number of community facilities. This week, emulating universities in the US, Cambridge issued bonds for the first time with the aim of raising £400 million towards the cost of the £1 billion project.
From the North West Cambridge website:
The masterplanning proposals for the University of Cambridge’s North West Cambridge site are moving forward. To continue the success of this collaborative process we would like to obtain your views on the emerging masterplan. To this end, we have recently held a Public Exhibition as well as Public Workshops. These exhibitions and workshop form the next stage in the process of preparing the masterplan for the site – and provided an opportunity for stakeholders to contribute and comment on the proposals. The information that was on display includes:
* Introduction to the North West Cambridge project: The University’s need and vision – an introduction to what the project will offer local residents, students, faculty, staff and local businesses. This includes 3,000 new homes, 100,000 m2 of academic and commercial research space, accommodation for 2,000 students and local facilities and green spaces.
* Site: Context The site’s location and landscape features, and various site-specific opportunities that the masterplan should respond to.
The latest versions of the masterplan are available for public download, and are separated into four layers: Indicative Urban Structure, Indicative Landscape & Open Space, Indicative Land Use, and Indicative Access & Movement.
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on February 5th, 2010
In the days and weeks before 16th December Feeding the 5000 received tonnes of generously donated fresh produce from farms, packers and markets – from the tonnes of produce that are ‘outgraded’ for being cosmetically imperfect and which would have been wasted though they are still good to eat.
From the original press release:
The produce will be delivered to the food depot of our main partner, FareShare. From there it will be taken to the commercial kitchens which have been kindly given over to us for the event. Here it will be prepared into soup and other food for the day by an army of volunteers trained in food handling and preparation. The food will be delivered by FareShare to Trafalgar Square on the 16th December and prepared in time for the free lunch, starting at 12 noon. Meanwhile, smoothies from fresh surplus fruit will be made by a team of bicycle-powered smoothie makers and handed out to passers-by.
For an insight into how the event turned out on the day, watch the Guardian.UK’s video of the event.
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 24th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
Image: guardian.co.uk
From “Tokyo’s High Tech Bike Parking Revisited” by Sami Grover.
From solar-powered bike parking pods to the Indian-designed vertical bike tree, TreeHugger is not short on neat concepts for better bike storage. But it was Tokyo’s automated bike parking that really got us excited. Now the Guardian has created a short English-language video piece on how the system works. Essentially, bikes are fitted with a small sensor strip, and as the bike is rolled into the machine—it scans the identity and ensures you have a fully paid membership.
Membership, incidentally, costs the equivalent of about 15USD a month. And just check out the speed at which the bike is returned to the user—almost exactly 30 seconds from arrival at the unit and inputting your membership details, your bike is returned and you can pedal away. Impressive stuff.
Read the full article by Sami Grover.
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 22nd, 2010
Source: Japan for Sustainability via Food Climate Research Network
From “Company to Begin ‘Rental Goat’ Weeding Service“
Mikuni Construction Co. in Kitakyusyu City, southern Japan, announced in August 2009, that it would be launching a new service to rent goats for weeding grass starting in April 2010. This unique weeding method does not require any machinery, and is drawing attention as an environmentally friendly technique.
Having first heard about weeding with goats from his business associate, Katsuhiko Sera, the president of the company, has been investigating the approach for three years in an effort to devise a viable business model. He bought five goats in May 2009, and by tethering the goats with a cable, about 500 square meters of grass can be grazed over the course of a week. A trial “rent-a-goat” began in August 2009, but will be fully launched in March 2010.
Goats eat various types of weed. They eat all aboveground stems and leaves, and prefer to graze on slops, which people often find it difficult to weed. Furthermore, weeded material does not require disposal when using this method and the goat dung produced simply decomposes and is returned to the soil.
In addition to renting goats, the company plans to provide its own weeding service by increasing the number of goats, and to manufacture cheese and other products from goat milk. Mr. Sera hopes that his rental goat service will serve not only as a new tool to maintain urban green spaces, but will also assist the comfort of local residents.
From “Company to Begin ‘Rental Goat’ Weeding Service“
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on January 21st, 2010
Source: Food Climate Research Network
“Fair Miles: Recharting the food miles map“ by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) & Oxfam warns that Western concern over climate change can do more harm than good if it cuts demand for food produced in developing nations. The authors say locally produced food can actually cause greater emissions of greenhouse gases, and that consumers can harm the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing nations if they stop buying their produce.
“Climate change will hit poorer rural people in developing nations first, fastest and hardest,” says James MacGregor of IIED. “High-value trade with such nations is critical to build rural economies that are resilient to climate change. The trade in fresh produce is one part of a global solution to this challenge…When consumers focus on ‘food miles’ they are ignoring the other social and environmental issues embedded in their shopping decisions…More than one million livelihoods in rural Africa are supported in part by UK consumption of imported fresh produce. We urge consumers to avoid knee-jerk reactions and think instead of ‘fair miles’ and recognise that there are also social and ethical aspects to choices about where food comes from.”
The researchers are not saying locally grown food is a poor choice. “Eating local food when it is in season is a critical element of a balanced diet, and is complementary to eating development-friendly foods out-of-season,” says MacGregor. The book argues that as farmers in developing nations contribute so little to climate change, they shouldn’t be penalised because we emit more in the West. It says consumers serious about changing their behaviour in order to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions should be cycling or walking to their supermarket.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 20th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
From “New York Subway Train Filled With Apples Is Emptied Onto Platform, Illustrates Food Waste (Video)” by Jaymi Heimbuch.
Every day, New York City residents waste 270,000 pounds of food. Want to know what that looks like? Here’s an unforgettable way to imagine it – fill up a subway train with the equivalent amount of apples, and release it onto the people waiting on the platform. New York’s City Harvest food bank created this commercial to illustrate the point that as thousands of pounds of food is wasted daily, thousands of residents don’t have enough to eat. City Harvest works to change that on a local level.
This year alone, the group will “rescue” and deliver more than 25 million pounds of quality food that would otherwise go to waste. The group collects food from the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms, and delivers it for free to nearly 600 community food programs throughout New York City using a fleet of trucks and bikes as well as volunteers on foot.
And no, 270,000 pounds of apples weren’t used to make the point. Here’s a video on how they created the video.
Read the full article by Jaymi Heimbuch.
[See the 
website for a Melbourne example of food-rescue ]
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 19th, 2010
Source: Beauty & the Bike via Treehugger
Extract from Beauty and the Bike: Teenage Girls and Urban Mobility Culture:
“Beauty and the Bike aims to document the mobility culture, and particularly the bicycle culture, of an important, future oriented, target group. The project is focussed on girls and young women between 10 and 25 years old, and their attitude towards their travel choice, with the bicycle as the centre of interest.
The cultural dimension to European urban traffic planning has, until now, been regarded as at best marginal to planners’ concerns. With an education – and a contemporary practice – grounded in the practical solution to apparently technical problems, urban travel planners have historically had little to do with deeper socio-cultural trends. But now that urban travel has taken centre stage in a new and radically different kind of production – the battle against global warming – the urgent need to change CO2 emitting urban travel habits is requiring planners to take account of the cultural climate their apparently technical solutions have spawned. Beauty and the Bike is a cultural urban travel project that aims to help urban traffic planners, by looking at one such mobility culture – that of the teenage girl and young woman.
Central to this project are the ways teenage girls choose their travel modes in two European countries, the United Kingdom and Germany. The core production activity of the project is cultural, with a documentary film, portrait photography exhibition and catalogue as key outputs. But its work is also rooted in, and supported by, progressive urban travel planners in Darlington (UK) and Bremen (Germany). Teenage participants in the project live in these two urban areas.
Looking at their lives superficially, they seem similar – with internet and iPods, fashion, first loves, and the stresses of school. But when you look more closely you find an important difference: their choice of travel modes. And the ways and means teenagers are able to get around, shapes their identity and sense of independence. Especially for girls, these are of vital importance for their development. Whilst most of the Bremen girls use their bikes on a daily basis, the Darlingtonians mostly walk, take the bus, or hope for a lift from one of their parents.”
The project led to the launch of a bike hire group, Velodarlo, as well as a local campaign for cycle paths in Darlington. Velodarlo has recently been awarded funding to become DarLOVElo, which will inherit the Velodarlo Bike Pool and receive initial funding of over £30,000 to buy some 40 more bikes and set up a base near the centre of the town. The young women from the Beauty and the Bike project are committed to founding the Bike Club that will be the central feature of the new project, and they have been receiving skills training from members of Darlington Cycling Campaign in repairs and maintenance.
Posted in Models by Daria on January 18th, 2010
Image: Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan
Media Release, January 14:
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), Margaret MacDiarmid, MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, and Marvin Hunt, Surrey City Councillor and member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ National Board of Directors, today ‘flipped the switch’ on the City’s first renewable district heating system. The $30 million system, which uses energy created from wastewater, will heat the Olympic Village and keep 2,800 athletes and officials warm during the 2010 Winter Games.
The Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) will provide heat and hot water to all buildings in Southeast False Creek, including the Olympic Village. It marks the first time in North America that heat recovered from untreated wastewater is being used in an urban centre and as the primary source of energy. This green technology will be supplemented by solar hot water.
“Our Government is pleased to invest in green energy for the Olympic Village and surrounding area,” said Minister Lunn. “The reusable energy generated from the Neighbourhood Energy Utility will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately lead to cleaner air for local residents.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 18th, 2010
Source: Inhabitat
From “Construction Begins on Amazing Tunnel-Shaped Rotterdam Market Hall“, by Bridgette Meinhold.
Rotterdam’s new Market Hall creates a 100,000 sq meter public market space covered in an arch of ten floors of 228 apartments. Of those apartments, the majority will be for purchase, but 102 of them will be available as rental properties. The bottom two floors will house restaurants and shopping, while underground, there will be a supermarket as well as a parking garage with 1,200 spaces. The archway will be protected from the elements on the front and back by flexible suspended glass facades.
The design for the Market Hall is a result of new laws from the Netherlands that require public markets to be covered, and also that certain rooms for a residential dwelling must have natural daylight. Each apartment is situated so that rooms and living spaces are situated on the exterior of the archway with views out to the city, while the kitchen, dining and storage is on the interior, with lots of insulation to block the noise from the bustling market below. One hundred stalls will be available for the sale of fresh foods daily and the interior surface of the archway will feature changing pictures projected from LCD screens. This mixed-use development combining residences, shopping, restaurants and a public market will be a central hub of activity for citizens and tourists. The project is being developed by Provast and was designed by MVRDV.
Read the full article by Bridgette Meinhold.
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 15th, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
The Blue Sea Development Corporation has a reputation for integrating emerging environmental technologies into high quality, affordable housing developments across New York City. Their new state of the art affordable housing complex planned for the South Bronx, NY, will feature a 10,000 square feet (930 sq meters) fully integrated rooftop farm, designed by BrightFarm Systems.
The greenhouse will use left-over heat from the residential portion of the building and water harvested from the greenhouse roof. The farm will be used to provide fresh, perishable vegetables to a local non-profit food cooperative. The rooftop farm will be able to supply enough produce to meet the annual fresh vegetable needs of up to 450 people. Like many inner city, low income communities, the South Bronx suffers from food deserts, where residents lack access to fresh vegetables at affordable prices.
The rooftop farm will make a significant contribution to food access and public health in the neighborhood.
Source: SustainWeb
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