Making a Mountain Out of a Mole Hill

The California Academy of Sciences, has decided to redesign their museum after the quakes in 1999. They choose Renzo Piano to be the architect to carry out the new project that is being constructed in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Piano along with the California Academy of Sciences, had big goals for the new museum with two tasks in mind, keeping the historic (restoring old facades, pillars, and vaulted ceilings) while also being innovative and technological. The new museum houses some crazy, new elements including a brand new digital planetarium, a living penguin display in the African Hall, and even a mock rainforest. Unlike most museums, The new California Academy of Sciences uses glass to open up the spaces providing ambient lighting and even open courtyards.The new museum also is a leader in green technologies including photovoltaic systems that alone provide 5% of the building’s energy, Many of the building components coming from recycled materials (90% of all demolition materials were recycled, 50% of lumber was harvested from sustainable yield forests, 68% of insulation comes from recycled blue jeans), and finally the most important element is one of the largest living roofs. The roof covers over 2.5 acres, which houses 1.7 million native pant. The living roof provides insulation along
with absorbing over 3.6 million gallons of rainwater, which would typically just end up in storm drains. The roof within its self is an engineering phenomenon (322 engineers where on duty) due to its complex roof structure of suspended glass ceilings, and “hill” structures that house the planetarium and mock rainforest. The 488 million dollar museum opens its doors on september 22nd 2008, and it seems to be anything but extraordinary. The California Academy of Sciences took their once typical museum, and have really created an innovative establishment on the cutting edge of sustainable and green technologies.

Designer Bags for Your Groceries

Paper or Plastic? The question that everyone receives at the end of the check out line at your local grocery store. Many people have started to give a different answer. "I brought my own". The truth is plastic bags are one of the largest contributors to waste in our landfills, and there is anywhere between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags produced each year. Many think that the plastic bags are recycled, but the truth is only 1% actually make it through the process. So where do the bags go? Plastic bags end up in our land fills and pollute our planet. A study done in 1975 by the U.S. Academy of Natural Sciences verified that 8 million pounds of plastic has been dumped into our oceans, which has had a huge impact on wildlife and natural ecosystems. So many people have been taking action to eliminate their consumption of plastic bags. Their answer is canvas, or sustainable bags that are reusable. This new idea, has created a market for for reusable bags, in which some specialty brands have appeared. One company, Baggu, has created a line of nylon bags, which appear to be more stylish than your normal grocery bag. They target on foot shoppers in urban areas, along with suburban shoppers, with their universal light weight design. Each bag costs about 8 dollars, and they are offered in an array of vibrant colors. Now why spend 8 dollars on a colorful bag, if the boring ones are free? There are a couple reasons. First many retailers and grocery stores offer a 10 cent refunds for using your own bags, which will pay back for the bag in a couple months. Another reason is by not using plastic bags, the average person will save 6 bags a week. This number may not sound extreme, but if one out of every five Americans used a sustainable bag they would save 1,330,560,000,000 plastic bags in their lifetime. One person might not make a drastic impact, but together we can make our planet a cleaner, and more eco-friendly place, one bag at a time.

To learn more about Baggu
Vist at: http://baggubag.com/index.html

Green Tip of the Week

A normal tree could take 50 to 100 years to reach full adulthood, therefore we have been cutting down forests to reach the demand of our paper supplies, furniture, construction, and even our hard wood flooring. Although replanting the forests is one step, another green design technique would be to invest in bamboo wood flooring. Bamboo is a plant that is extremely abundant, and grows at incredible rates, taking only days to sprout 3 feet. With this in mind, many consider bamboo to be a renewable source for its ability to rapidly grow. Bamboo floors are just as strong as many hard wood floors, plus they add a unique element to your home that gives an older room a new look. If you are thinking about remodeling, or just changing your floors, look into the bamboo solution? This concludes my first Green Tip of the Week.