Water Restrictions in So. Cal.

Not surprising, given that California has an ever-increasing population and most people continue to waste water, including government. How often do we see water on in the middle of the day with a broken sprinkler head and water gushing down the storm drain?

Finally, when pressed to take action, the San Diego Water Authority announces mandatory water conservation of up to 20%.

Toronto to mandate eco-friendly architecture

We were happy to read John Lorinc's (New York Times) “Green Inc” blog

that within a month, Toronto should be the first city in North America to mandate "green" architecture, including green roofs that save on energy cost, make 50% reduction of heating and air conditioning systems possible, reduce stormwater flows, improve stormwater runoff quality, absord greenhouse gases, reduce heat island effect and last up to 50 years.

Pesticides

On April 22, 2009 a ban on cosmetic pesticides to effect in Ontario which prohibits the use of Round-Up and Glyphosate.

So is it any big surprise that Dow Chemical Company is suing the Canadian ban on cosmetic pesticides? Cosmetic psticides are those that provide a pristine lawn and/or thwart weeds (amything besides your lawn), in other words chemicals that make gardens look pretty by poisoning plants and who knows what else (pets? people?). It is difficult to know as exposure to these chemicals is at low doses and over long periods of time. But just as Rachel Carson asked 50 years ago in "Silent Spring", is the potential cost worth it?

Additionally, the US EPA has just identified Endochrine Disruptors (click for PDF) that are responsible for lifelong health problems, especially for kids.
Check Mary Shomon's story. As Mary states, The term "endocrine disruptor" refers to a chemical that can interact with and potentially disrupt the human and/or animal hormones that regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction. Thyroid hormones are a potential target of endocrine disruptors.

Unfortunately, people are exposed to many of these chemicals through food, water, residential interiors and agricultural pesticides.

In your home and garden, pesticides (including pyrethroid chemicals) include Raid, Ortho Home Defense, Capture, Scourge, and Anvil.

NEW TRENDS: green roofs and living walls

A recent trend in building design and renovation actually goes back to a much older tradition: making houses and other structures blend in with the landscape , even going so far as to building WITH landscape. In the spirit of "everything old is new again", green roofs and living walls return to a way of design and construction as old as the ancient viking culture.

Besides providing insulation, they both clean air, sequester carbon, reduce stormwater flows to reduce risk of flooding and improve stormwater runoff quality that otherwise pollute our rivers, lakes and oceans.

Feds designate "Solar American Cities".

Over the past 2 years, the U.S. Dept of Energy has designated cities as "Solar American Cities". These cities recieve millions of dollars for solar initiatives.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s 25 “Solar America Cities” include:
Ann Arbor, Austin, Berkeley, Boston, Denver, Houston, Knoxville, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, NYC, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Calif., Seattle and Tucson.

We, everGREEN landscape architects, find it discouraging that Los Angeles and Phoenix - two of the lagging sustainable cities with enormous populations, forward-thinking universities (CalTech) and limitless sunny days are not included. Maybe the Obama Administration will remedy this gross oversight...

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