A mending wall (garden)
Think of it as 90-degree gardening: not the temperature but the angle. As more people move to cities, there is less horizontal space for gardening, but there are thousands of acres of prime vertical spaceon schools, homes, restaurants, even apartment buildingsthat are ripe for the planting. As with green roofs, building an extensive vertical garden…
Form a sun bloc at solar energy discussion
That mass of incandescent gas hovering 93 million miles away? Its energy is free and for the taking, if we could only tame it. The possibilities of solar energy and other renewables are the topic of a free public forum, “A Sustainable Energy FutureMapping the Way,” Friday, Jan. 15, from 5-9 p.m., at the Friday…
Ten eco-pledges for the New Year
1. Occasionally I break the law and toss a particularly disgusting cat food can in the trash. I won’t do it again, so, City of Durham, please don’t fine me. That goes for oily peanut butter jars, too. I will conquer my aversion to touching slime. 2. I will compost more: I’m a vegetarian, so…
The Farm springs a leak
More than 600 gallons of treated wastewater leaked from a 175,000-gallon storage pond last month at the UNC Research Resource Facility, also known as the Farm, in rural Orange County. Although the leak was detected Nov. 18, Orange County residents living near the Farm so called because it houses animals undergoing experiments at UNC’s main…
LEED not always an example
When the U.S. Green Building Council created its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) sustainability measuring stick in 1998, the overwhelming assumption was that obtaining LEED certification would ensure a building’s “greenness” and translate it to energy-cost savings. Did LEED keep its promise? A New York Times story published Aug. 31 exposed the fallacy…
You call this Progress?
When Progress Energy announced that it would shut down 11 coal-fired power plants at four North Carolina locations, including the Cape Fear plant in nearby Moncure, it was viewed as an environmental victory. “It’s good news for the environment of North Carolina and the world,” said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for…
Cary McDonald’s and Chicago roofs go green
When a Cary McDonald’s restaurant was torn down and replaced this past summer by a new “green” one, the chain received national attention for the effort. In addition to a green roof and PHEV charging station, the new McDonald’s incorporates many sustainable practices, such as low-water use faucets and toilets, and energy-efficient lighting and air…
More Living Green Coverage
Clean Energy Industry Growth Forum
And the green goes to … Ecovative Design (www.ecovativedesign.com), a Green Island, N.Y., ecostartup whose Ecocradle and Greensulate products just might change the way you package shipping items and insulate your home. Ecovative Design picked up a cool, green $10,000 for its efforts. Ecovative Design’s monetary prize was for “Best Venture” at the 22nd annual…
More bad flu news, this time in your pee
That Tamiflu you’re taking to ward off H1N1? After it runs through you, it could wind up in lakes and rivers. ScienceNews.org reported that in Japan, concentrations of Tamiflu’s “active form” are showing up in rivers downstream of wastewater treatment plants. The source: human urine. The active form of Tamiflu is the result of the…
Green your tailgate party
Just because the college football season is winding down doesn’t mean that it’s time to pack up your tailgating tools. Ice hockey is a tough sport, and its fans are tough lot, too. Don’t believe it? Slide on over to the RBC Arena on game day and follow your nose. You’ll likely find a grill…
Plug in, turn on, drive out
With the promise to be greener and cheaper to operate, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are creating quite a buzz in the auto world. PHEVs have been converted by installing an additional storage battery that allows the car to operate more in electric mode and less with the gasoline engine. Full-scale, commercial production could happen…
One more reason to hug a tree
For many years, an abandoned Coast Guard base along the Pasquotank River in northeast North Carolina leaked fuel into the soil and groundwater, an environmental legacy left over from when the military stored aircraft fuels there from 1942 to 1991. Now 3,000 hybrid poplar and willow trees planted on the five-acre site may be the…
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