A glorious glut of green
By Sandy Bauers
Philly.com Green Space, August 18, 2010
Lately, there have been so many announcements about green buildings and projects that it's all but impossible to keep up with them.
Earlier this month, the Crayola crayon folks in Easton unveiled a 15-acre solar farm that is designed to generate enough electricity to produce a billion crayons annually. (The company makes three billion a year.) Officials also used the event to note that recycled plastic bottle caps are now being used to make more than 500 million Crayola markers. They said the switch was keeping hundreds of tons of plastic out of landfills and giving the markers a new look with black barrels.
Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown has a new pavilion with a vegetative roof. It is designed to capture 60 to 70 percent of a one-inch rain, significantly reducing the runoff that would otherwise flow into nearby Stony Creek.
As for rain gardens, is there an elementary school around that DOESN'T have one? A new one is going in at the John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in Mount Airy. Measuring 50 feet by 100 feet, it will cover portions of the playground and use native plants and other landscaping to soak up rain water and stormwater runoff,
Today, the Philadelphia Airport is unveiling eight new low-emission buses -- custom-wrapped to shout out their greenness -- that will shuttle passengers between Terminal F and Terminal A and then also from Terminal F to Terminal C.
And that's not all. Camden County officials announce they've just begun construction on a an environmental center that is a 3,800-square-foot addition to the Parks Department administration building on North Park Boulevard in Cherry Hill. Intended to be a showcase of sustainability, the building will have a natural gas-powered mechanical system. Rainwater collected from the existing roof and stored in a 1,000-gallon cistern will be used to flush toilets and for landscape watering. The new roof will be vegetated, making the building cooler. Solar panels will provide hot water.
In an attempt to encourage bicycling, the building won't just stop at having bicycle racks. It will also have showers so cyclists can freshen up.
The building will include administrative offices, but there also will be public spaces for master gardening classes, carious programs and more. Which means we can all stop in and take a gander.
Earlier this month, the Crayola crayon folks in Easton unveiled a 15-acre solar farm that is designed to generate enough electricity to produce a billion crayons annually. (The company makes three billion a year.) Officials also used the event to note that recycled plastic bottle caps are now being used to make more than 500 million Crayola markers. They said the switch was keeping hundreds of tons of plastic out of landfills and giving the markers a new look with black barrels.
Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown has a new pavilion with a vegetative roof. It is designed to capture 60 to 70 percent of a one-inch rain, significantly reducing the runoff that would otherwise flow into nearby Stony Creek.
As for rain gardens, is there an elementary school around that DOESN'T have one? A new one is going in at the John F. McCloskey Elementary School and the Dorothy Emanuel Recreation Center in Mount Airy. Measuring 50 feet by 100 feet, it will cover portions of the playground and use native plants and other landscaping to soak up rain water and stormwater runoff,
Today, the Philadelphia Airport is unveiling eight new low-emission buses -- custom-wrapped to shout out their greenness -- that will shuttle passengers between Terminal F and Terminal A and then also from Terminal F to Terminal C.
And that's not all. Camden County officials announce they've just begun construction on a an environmental center that is a 3,800-square-foot addition to the Parks Department administration building on North Park Boulevard in Cherry Hill. Intended to be a showcase of sustainability, the building will have a natural gas-powered mechanical system. Rainwater collected from the existing roof and stored in a 1,000-gallon cistern will be used to flush toilets and for landscape watering. The new roof will be vegetated, making the building cooler. Solar panels will provide hot water.
In an attempt to encourage bicycling, the building won't just stop at having bicycle racks. It will also have showers so cyclists can freshen up.
The building will include administrative offices, but there also will be public spaces for master gardening classes, carious programs and more. Which means we can all stop in and take a gander.