Posts Tagged ‘rooftop’
Rooftops in New York City: Climate change responses
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 20th, 2012
The Guardian site is hosting a series of videos from the Climate Desk about New York’s rooftop revolution. The three high quality videos – each with site visits and interviews - take the viewer through an overview of emerging projects in the area of green roofs, solar harvesting, and white roofs.
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2012/jun/07/climate-change-new-york
Urban Farming: Video showcase
Posted in Models, Movements by Kate Archdeacon on July 22nd, 2011
Source: Bright Farm Systems
Brightfarms was featured in the Wall Street Journal, in a video piece on the growing urban farming industry. Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms CEO, savors the taste of locally grown tomatoes at The Science Barge.
While up front capital costs are higher, the Journal reports, rooftop greenhouse farms pay off with lower operating costs, an improved environmental impact and tastier vegetables. The other enterprises featured in the 5-minute film are Brooklyn Granges and Gotham Greens.
Watch the video on the Brightfarms blog or over on WSJ.
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Retrofitting Solar Panels to Existing Structures: High Speed Rail
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 15th, 2011
Source: guardian.co.uk
From “High-speed Euro train gets green boost from two miles of solar panels” by Damian Carrington:
A two-mile-long Belgian rail tunnel, built to shelter trains from falling trees, will from Monday provide a double environmental benefit by hosting a unique solar power project. The high-speed line running from Paris to Amsterdam passes Antwerp and a nearby ancient forest. To avoid the need to fell protected trees, a long tunnel was built over the line which has now been topped with 16,000 solar panels. The electricity produced is equivalent to that needed to power all the trains in Belgium for one day per year, and will also help power Antwerp station.
“For train operators, it is the perfect way to cut their carbon footprints because you can use spaces that have no other economic value and the projects can be delivered within a year because they don’t attract the protests that wind power does,” said Bart Van Renterghem, UK head of Belgian renewable energy company Enfinity, which installed the panels. “We had a couple of projects lined up around London with train operators and water utilities, but they have been put on hold.” Van Renterghem said this was due to the UK government’s controversial review of subsidies for large-scale solar power projects, which will lower the returns available.
The UK government argues that solar technology is too expensive, but Van Renterghem said he had seen the cost of cells halve in the last two to three years thanks to economies of scale in Germany, France and Belgium. The new Blackfriars station in London, which will span the River Thames, will host the largest single collection of solar panels in the UK when it opens in spring 2012. The roof of the new station will have 4,400 panels and a capacity of 1MW, enough to provide 50% of the station’s electricity. However, the development is not dependent on the level of government subsidy for solar power as the £7.3m bill was paid by the transport department’s environment fund.
Read this article by Damian Carrington on The Guardian.
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Incremental Change: the Ginza Bee Project
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on November 20th, 2009
Source: Japan for Sustainability
Image via tokyo green space
From “The Ginza Honeybee Project — Urban Development Inspired by Beekeeping” by Yuriko Yoneda
Ginza is one of the world’s leading downtown districts, complete with high-class department stores and designer shops. Ginza honeybees are nicknamed “Ginpachi” (short for “Ginza bees” in Japanese), and recently they have become somewhat of a new mascot for the district. In March 2006, the Ginza Bee Project placed three hives on a rooftop 45 meters above the intersection at Ginza 4-chome, and bees began flying into the sky above Ginza. Parks such as the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, and Hama-rikyu Gardens are located within two kilometers, and many roadside trees are also good sources of nectar. The amount of honey collected has been increasing steadily, growing from 160 kilograms (kg) in 2006, to 290 kg in 2007, 440 kg in 2008, and over 700 kg in 2009. The beekeepers are using the honey to make Ginza-based products using local skills.
The honeybee is said to be an environmental indicator species because it is extremely susceptible to pesticides, which are used on vast areas of farmland in Japan, and are causing the survival rate of bees to drop. Meanwhile, in Ginza, which is in the central part of metropolitan Tokyo, the use of pesticides is avoided because of the growing number of people with allergies. So Ginza has ended up being a bee-friendly environment, and the high-quality honey-producing Ginza bees have made people aware that the district has a rich natural environment. Since the bees were brought to Ginza, cherry blossoms that had previously not been pollinated began to produce cherries. People began to see birds eating the cherries, and small insects began rejuvenating the environment around the area.
