I am pleased to officially announce that my first published book about Sherwood’s work, “Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design”, is being published by John Wiley and Sons and will be on store shelves this September! The book is a complete guide to integrating sustainable strategies into infrastructure planning and design, and it has been literally two years in the works. To give you a brief preview of what the book will contain, here is the table of contents:

Chapter 1: The Process of Applied Sustainable Engineering Design
Chapter 2: Sustainable Infrastructure Frameworks
Chapter 3: Water Conservation & Supply
Chapter 4: Integrated Water Management
Chapter 5: Energy and Greenhouse Gases
Chapter 6: Sustainable Site Planning, Built Systems and Material Flows
Chapter 7: City-Scale Approaches
Chapter 8: Applications for Sustainable Communities
Chapter 9: Building-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure

There will be two book launch parties, to be held at the AIA in San Francisco and New York City. For these events, which we are calling the Sustainable Infrastructure Summit, The Sherwood Institute and other sustainable infrastructure leaders will come together to host a forward thinking discussion. There will be a reception with a discussion and Q&A. We hope that you can save the date to attend these events and celebrate with us!

September 14, 2010:
AIA NY Panel Discussion + book signing reception
536 LaGuardia Place (in the Hines Gallery)
NY, NY 10012

September 22, 2010:
AIA SF Panel Discussion + book signing reception
130 Sutter Street (in the Gallery)
San Francisco, CA 94104

We hope you can make it, since in addition to these being fun events you won’t want to miss, you will also be the first on your block to see (and buy) the book in person. You can also pre-order the book on Amazon or direct from Wiley.

- Bry

The latest issue of The Architect’s Newspaper has an article on one of Sherwood’s projects, New York’s Olmstead Center. Click here to read the full article.

Sherwood Engineers in Architects Newspaper article on Olmstead Center

Green Inc, New York Times’s great blog about the economics of green industries, has very interesting piece on how PUR is achieving success through a new marketing campaign.  Known for their filters here in the US, they also market disinfectant powder that can be added to water.   They have been marketing it in developing countries as a way to provide clean water to underserved communities for 8 years, but started achiving great success last year when they changed their marketing strategy to a social marketing technique that stresses this as a public health need similar to handwashing or immunizations.

Water was also in the news yesterday when a coalition of bottled water companies filed a lawsuit against New York State to try and stop a new 5 cent deposit from being placed on bottled water.  The issue at hand? Water that adds sugar, such as Vitamin Water, is exempt from the deposit.  I’m all for a deposit tax on bottled water, but how the law was created that doesn’t cover all plastic drink bottles is beyond me, and seems to be suspicious as to which lobbyists were involved in the creation of this legislation.

Cargo being unloaded on 39th St

Growing up in New York City, I was always told that part of the reason New York City is considered to be dirtier than other cities is because there are no alleys, so the trash is never hidden.  But does the fact that there are no alleys mean that there isn’t a heirarchy established by City Planning amongst the minor streets?  Our New York office is located in a building that spans the block from 39th to 40th Street in Midtown, with the main entrance on 40th St.  The 39th St entrance is a cargo entrance, and while people can enter through this entrance, they need a swipe card so visitors must go through security on the 40th St side.  But our building isn’t the only one with cargo access on 39th.  So does the 99 cent store next door to us, as well as the public library, both of which span the block as well.  Was this a coincidence, or did City Planning purposely dictate the locations of the loading entrances to these buildings, creating a more presentable 40th St, versus a 39th St clogged with trucks and cargo trolleys throughout business hours.

Before and after a car-free Broadway

Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that starting Memorial Day, Broadway will turn car-free in two heavily congested sections of the avenue, through Times Square and Herald Square.  I will walk out of my way to avoid Times Square due to the pedestrian congestion on the sidewalks, so this measure might actually make me more willing to undertake that feat.

What amazes me the most is that all the reactions I’ve heard are positive, including numerous traffic specialists who say this is a win-win situation, since pedestrians will have more room on a safer road, and that cars will move more smoothly as well since Broadway cutting diagonally across major avenues causes lots of  accidents and slows traffic down significantly.

The car-free Broadway experiment will continue through the end of 2008, and if it runs positively, will be implemented permenantly at that time.

A high tech parking meter for the new parking scheme in downtown San Fransicso

• Drip irrigation may not save water overall, because almost all of the water that is withdrawn from a water source is taken up by the plants, leaving nothing for to replenish the aquifer. So less water may be withdrawn from a source, but since none of it is being returned, its a net loss for the aquifer, especially since subsidies promote the use of drip irrigation, leading to more planting.
• PacifiCorp is planning to endorse a plan to remove four aging hydroelectric dams from the Klamath River in Oregon.
• The Clean Water Act may be used to sue the EPA for not making stricter standards in light of climate change data.
• Pretty much every tree, or living object for that matter, that is over 54 years old will have a spike in carbon-14 levels due to the atomic bomb testing that was occurring.
• California is taking global warming and a rising sea level into account in all their long-term planning, especially when deciding to invest in infrastructure projects that may be under water in 20 years.
• Sustainably designed affordable housing is not expected to suffer significantly from the economic downturn, since there is always a market for affordable housing in NYC. The Tapestry, in Harlem, is one example, that just secured funding recently.
• The Take Back The Filter campaign against Brita has succeeded and Brita will now recycle their filters, via mail or at select Whole Foods locations starting early next year.
• San Francisco is going to go ahead with parking reforms that allow for the Municipal Transportation Agency to fluctuate rates between 25 cents and $6/hr in order to reach a target vacancy rate of curbside parking between 10% and 35%, reducing the need for circling to look for a parking space and increase incentive to not use your car.
• A federal appeals court has banned Royal Dutch Shell from drilling oil wells off the coast of Alaska.
• Can’t say it too many times, electric cars are only as good as their batteries.  And if we start building up electric cars, then we may trade our dependence on foreign oil with dependence on foreign car parts.
• The New York Times runs through a bunch of water saving design features that seem like they are all the rage these days.
• If the federal government agrees to bail out the big three automakers, they should put at least three preconditions the loan - stop resisting environmental regulations, allow for more competition, and make a greater commitment to hybrid cars.

Sept 20, 2008

Our first SF volunteer event at Fort Funston Nursery was a success!  Thank you to all Sherwooders and friends for dedicating their Saturday morning in helping with transplanting of coyote bush, and planting strawberries.  Coyote bush is a native plant in California.  It is used mainly for landscaping, as they are naturally very useful for hedges, fence lines, and ground cover.  Our nursery manager, Sharon, commented on how very careful and detailed we were.  We had 18 volunteers in all and we transplanted about 2000 coyote plants.  Check us out working hard in our cool SDE volunteer t-shirts!

October 18, 2008

NY’s second volunteer event was with the ASCE Metropolitan Section’s Young Members Forum for New York Cares Day on October 18th.  SDE NY joined thousands of other people in revitalizing more than 100 New York City public schools by painting classrooms, adding new line games to playgrounds, reorganizing libraries, and planting flowers.  Take a look at the great pieces of art that NY painted.  We are so talented!  There are more photos on the ASCE Met Section website as well.

November 17, 2008

SDE SF’s most recent volunteer event was at the Presidio Nursery for the first part of the Bioswale Construction.  Volunteers removed asphalt and began excavating out the swale trench.   We definitely had quite a physical work out, as we had use picks to remove asphalt and base rock, and wheel barrow them up or down the slope depending on where they needed to go.  This was not easy folks… we got blisters and sore bodies to prove it.

Shout outs to John D. working on the final design and Drew for helping with the construction details.  THANK YOU to everyone that participated in this volunteer event.  If you want to join in the excite, our PART II will be happening this weekend on Saturday November, 22nd from 9:00-12:00 pm.  Please come early for bagels and coffee.

Vaquita Mother and Child from vaquita.org

• A judge blocked New York City’s law to require all new cabs to have a fuel efficiency of 30 mph or greater, a fundamental part of the city’s PlaNYC 2030.
• Boeing is looking at using biofuels as jet fuel within 3 years, but they don’t address the issue of supply - a whole lot of land would be needed to supply that much biofuel.
• Google may make their money in internet ads, but they are investing heavily in renewable energy.
• The vaquita, a type of dolphin in the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, is severely endangered with probably no more than 150 left. The Mexican government has been paying fisherman to stop using gill nets or stop fishing all together in an attempt to save the species before its too late. The World Wildlife Fund has been developing alternative nets that are safe for vaquitas.
• Thoreau’s Walden offers a good glimpse as to what the habitat was like outside of Boston 150 years ago and how its changed since then.
• The weed killer atrazine may be responsible for the decline in frog populations across the US, but not for harming the reproduction system, as initially suspected but never proven definitively.  A new study shows it may be due to an increased number of flatworm parasites that infect the frogs, which are rising due to a complex reaction of atrazine killing off algae on the top of ponds, leading to an increase in algae on the bottom of ponds due to more sunlight.  This leads to higher more food for snails, so higher snail populations, which carry the flatworms.
• Solar panels may need more subsidies and government assistance regulations to be successful.

A vegetable oil powered car won the race from the Bay Area to Las Vegas. (New York Times)

• A race from San Francisco to Las Vegas has a twist - all cars start with just one gallon of a fuel of their choice and they must scavange for the rest of their fuel on their home made vehicles.  A vegetable oil fueled car won the race, where the only other finisher (only 5 vehicles started) was a wood burning car.
• The New York City Parks Department, which managed Shea Stadium, is removing bathroom and lighting fixtures for use at other Parks Department facilities, among other items, prior to demolition of the stadium. (via greenbuildingsNYC)
• Toyota won a fuel efficiency challenge last week in a race in the UK, with its Yaris 1.4D-4D (diesel) car achieving 70.49 MPG for the 400 mile race. The best gasoline car mileage was the Toyota Aygo with 68.6 MPG. Too bad neither of the vehicles are available here in the US.
• Global warming is creating a negative feedback loop by reducing the amount of water in peat bogs, leading them to dry out and decompose, which thereby releases more carbon to the air.
• Check out the solar potential for your home easily with this map (if you’re in North America that is…)
• After the energy crisis in the 1970s, a lot of money was invested finding new fossil fuel resources, but just a few million were granted to a research group in Berkeley to reduce energy demands. They realized widows were a big energy sink and basically created the market for low-emissivity windows, paving the way for the glass towers of today.
• The UK announced an employment program that will train workers to insulate attics, in a new program called the Conservation Corps.
• Michael Pollan writes an open letter to the next President about how to reform food laws so that Americans gain a healthier diet, reduced dependence on foreign oil, and greater national security.
• The Vietnamese catfish has been having a huge impact on the American catfish industry.  But are they on the same playing field from an environmental and food safety standpoint?
• A vast natural gas reserve is located below New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, but accessing it may cause contamination of the water supply.
• Traffic could be impacting our health in one way not many of us would suspect. A study done in San Francisco showed that 1 in 6 residents of San Francisco may be suffering from higher stress rates from the increased noise levels due to traffic, and that puts them at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and other stress-related illnesses.
• Gainsville, Florida, may adopt feed-in tariffs, which would guarantee to buy all power produced by solar PV systems at a set price for the next 20 years, creating a more stable market for solar power.  This program is an alternative to a net metering program, which is more expensive to administer.

California Academy of Sciences Green Roof via NPR

• Solar panels are turning into a burglary target.
• The Long Island Power Authority and Con Ed are looking into the economic feasibility of installing a wind farm 10 miles off the south shore of Queens.  A large wind farm has been approved by regulators 15-20 miles off the shore of New Jersey.  Now it needs to get approval from state and federal officials.
• A US-Canadian group involving many western US states has released their plans to curb emissions, and will likely involve a cap and trade system and the distribution of 90% of the allowances to industry, with only 10% being auctioned at the start of the program.  The Northeast Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative kicked off last week selling all of their 12.5 million allowances at an average price of $3.07/lb of C02 allowance, about 1/10 of the price allowances are trading for in Europe.
• Congress is in a deadlock on incentives for renewable energy. Current incentives for investing in renewable energy are set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress can come to a decision.
• The bailout plan has some green provisions written in though: tax credits for bike commuting and tax credits for plug-in hybrid cars.
• A new program may be able to work while your cell phone is turned on to calculate your carbon footprint by estimating your mode of transport via gps.
• Ben & Jerry’s is testing Greenpeace’s Greenfreeze technology, a refrigerant technology that doesn’t use hydroflurocarbons as a refrigerant, as part of a pilot testing program to get the technology allowed in the US.
• XEROX has been developing a new water treatment technology called “Spiral Water Filtration Technology” at its Palo Alto Research Center that treats water to close to drinkable levels on a very small footprint and much less capital and O&M costs.
• LA is starting a pilot program to collect food scraps separately from trash, with the goal of diverting 600 tons of wasted food from the landfill every day.
• A South African architecture firm has won the Curry Stone Design Prize for their design of a very cheap house using a timber frame and sandbags. This house is more energy efficient and safe than most of the houses used in the shantytowns around Cape Town, and is price competitive as well.
• The Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City has debuted new subway grate covers that also provide seating and a bike rack. These new grates are to address flooding in the subway that helped lead to the shutdowns in the subway service during some large storm events last year.
• Rather than looking to tear down and rebuild the slum of Dharavi outside of Mumbai, maybe it should be examined as the model of other slums. (via Archinect)
• Honda re-releases the hybrid Insight, which it expects to be competitive with the Toyota Prius, having similar gas mileage and a lower price.
• A new technology may be able to paint steel with a layer of electrodes and photovoltaic paint, essentially having the ability to turn buildings like those Frank Gehry creates into large power plants.
• An Italian company, Enel, is close to completion (it will all be online by the end of the year) on a 250 MW wind farm in Kansas, the largest of its kind in that state.
• The California Academy of Sciences, heralded as the greenest museum, opened last weekend in San Francisco. Among other green design features, there is a 100% native planted green roof, solar panels, insulation made from recycled denim, and daylighting. It hopes to achieve a LEED Platinum rating.