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Young Bloggers Become Guerrilla Gardening Gangsters

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Guerrilla Gardening : The act of impromptu gardening in public spaces for the purpose of beautifying our community. /ɡəˈrilə ˈɡärd(ə)niNG / In this video stars our two phenomenal Web Developers and Coders, Greg and Jordan. The Shady character is Marty, our Networking Specialist and behind the cameras are Germ, Marc and yours truly. This video has been sleeping in …

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Vertical Hydroponic Farms feeding urban communities.

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Dickson Despomier,

a proponent of urban vertical hydroponic gardens, poses the problem as such:

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). (1)

The current centralized system of agriculture creates a significant negative effect on worldwide carbon emissions. Urban cities with densely populated areas are a prime example, given their lack of land available conversely need for imported foods. According to John Hendrickson of the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, fresh produce in the United States traveled an estimated 1,500 miles (2). Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farms (VHF) can change that.

One of the challenges with urban farming is access to sufficient affordable land. In a growing number of urban centres (e.g. Vancouver), by transforming vacant commercial or industrial land into a farm the property owner receives a tax break on their property taxes of 40-60 percent (3). By employing VHF technology the farm can achieve yields of 3+ times that of traditional soil gardening (6).

We propose that communities across North America transform vacant land and existing gardens in their neighbourhoods to high density outdoor vertical hydroponic farms (VHF) by using a non profit association with the following goals:

  1. Provide a source of fresh local healthy food to their community
  2. Increase a community’s capacity to grow their own food
  3. Reduce a community’s carbon footprint
  4. Create jobs with living wages for marginalized people in communities

What actions do you propose?

Feasibility

It is estimated that for every kilogram of beef, 15.23 kg of CO2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced (4). A kg of produce transported in the current agricultural farm system produces approximately 2.6 CO2 kg GHG emissions. Those carbon emissions are produced during the transportation of foods from farms to tables assuming an average 2,500 km traveling distance (5). Urban VHFs have the potential of reducing those carbon emissions by: encouraging less meat consumption, recycling nutrient rich water using minimal electricity (a 290-396 GPH 28 watt pump using up to 90% less water than alternative farming) and decentralizing distribution from urban VHFs located on vacant land in high density population areas.

The pictures used in this proposal were taken over the course of three years, by a group called Green Guys on the Drive (6), located in Vancouver, British Columbia who currently operate East Vancouver’s only community supported hydroponic urban vegetable farm. They have 11 CSA members who each pay $200 at the start of the season to receive their share of the farm’s weekly harvest which is sufficient for 2 people. They currently have one farm tended to by three co-founders, Brandon, Win and Dan. The farm consists of three VHF units with a total capacity of 320 plants and a footprint of 34 ft2. This works out to a density of 9.4 plants/ft2 which is more than 3 times the density of traditional soil based planting for lettuce (a leafy green) (7). Green Guys on the Drive produce on average 15 lbs of produce every week beginning with the first harvest in May and the last at the end of October (seedlings are started in March and transplanted into the VHFs in early April and throughout the growing season) Some examples of variety include lettuce, spinach, kale, pac choi, basil, and mustard. Green Guys on the Drive is non profit and all labor is volunteered from the founders and the community. Membership fees are used to pay for the capital costs of each VHF and the operating costs (nutrients, electricity etc…).

The efficiency of being able to stack plants vertically per square foot of ground is multiplied 3-10 times – depending on how high one can safely farm in their backyard and the particular setup. This is a crucial advantage of vertical farming to conventional backyard gardens. Green Guys on the Drive has demonstrated that a single farm can have an impact on a local community’s carbon footprint by reducing meat intake (presumably since vegetables are readily available and pre’paid’) and carbon costs of food production and transportation. The problem then, is how to build, grow and maintain numerous communities, with farms as hubs, within a city that utilizes VHF’s to further reduce carbon emissions.

Vertical hydroponic farms are gaining interest around the globe as business models are being tested to prove profitability. However, research is primarily being done in large-scale indoor facilities that can operate year round, as is the case in one of the first industrial applications of vertical farming at the Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in the United Kingdom. Vertical farming in backyards has also been done on small scale hobby farms numerous websites and Youtube instructional videos creating a niche community.

Green Guys on the Drive hope to serve as a catalyst to help communities across North America to increase their capacity to grow their own food while reducing their carbon footprint by transforming vacant land in their communities into high density outdoor VHFs. Green Guys will accomplish this by establishing multiple successful urban farms within the Greater Vancouver area and then use the revenues to create an online knowledge centre (perhaps partnering with openAG) to help communities across North America to do the same.

Getting Started

In the first year Green Guys will establish a pilot urban farm within Vancouver employing similar technology to what they use now only at a larger scale. This will allow Green Guys to refine the process and business process for growing at scale and whose successful operation will help acquire additional funds through grants and land to then construct a full scale urban farm.

In the second and third years of operation Green Guys would establish multiple urban farms within the Vancouver area in high density population centres and/or high traffic locations. This would allow the Green Guys to sell directly to community members on their way to and from work. In subsequent years Green Guys will utilize the proceeds from their established urban farms to create an online knowledge centre whereby interested communities can learn how to grow their own fresh local food while reducing their community’s carbon footprint.

Gathering Interest

The target audience of this campaign will be people who understand the immediacy of global warming. We would contend that that audience consists of scientists, engineers, climatologists, and more generally, academics. If this project were presented to MIT faculty and students, hopefully they would be interested in sharing knowledge and participating in a a pilot urban farm in 2016; perhaps in association with MIT CityFARM and/or OpenAG. The Center for Sustainable Food Systems located at UBC Farm is another possible partner located close to the Green Guys’ existing garden. A larger variety of contributors would allow for greater open source knowledge available to volunteers. For example, an engineer might be able to maximize harvests by advising the front line volunteers/employees how to best grow their vegetables in their unique climate, situation, and backyard or rooftop.

Goal of First Year

The goal of this first year is to construct a pilot farm in the Vancouver area. More specifically the Green Guys will:

  1. Leverage results from current urban CSA farm to secure grants from the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Foundation to fund pilot farm and to build large scale urban farm during second year.
  2. Partner with the University of BC to have a masters student conduct a field study/research project on the farm (UBC gets research data, Green Guys gets someone to operate the farm for free.)
  3. Build relationships with interested organizations (Vancouver Urban Farming Society, Vancouver Farmer’s Markets, UBC Outdoor farms, City of Vancouver, etc).

September – December 2015

During these months the design for the pilot farm would be created that would incorporate as much as possible the current VHF CSA’s existing infrastructure. This would then be used to develop a detailed operating plan and budget. Given the pilot farm would produce enough produce on a weekly basis to feed more than 50 people the produce would be sold at local farmers markets. Any additional funds required to build or operate the farm would be acquired through applying for grants from the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Foundation.

A partnership would be established with the Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm through which Green Guys on the Drive would get access to free and/or subsidized labour to operate the pilot farm and UBC would get data on a sustainable food system.

January – February 2016

The focus of these months would be the construction of the pilot farm and establishing retail space at local farmers markets through which to sell the produce. Seedlings would be started in the green house mid February to be ready for harvest at the start of May.

Possibilities for Expansion

Thus far this proposal has focused on shifting the agricultural system of Vancouver, BC from imported to local neighborhood sources. The early years would focus on developing a VHF model for independent groups or organizations to emulate in other neighborhoods, cities, or countries on a small (as in the case of a backyard garden) or large (as in the case of an vacant gas station lot) scale urban farms. However, to enact the greatest impact possible we must draw on diverse resources and existing infrastructures that are unified by the same goal of decentralizing the agricultural system in urban areas.

Update: Since the creation of this proposal, the Green Guys on the Drive have begun discussions for the retrofitting of a rooftop garden at their local YWCA to incorporate a VHF unit. The goals would be to improve the community’s capacity to grow their own local vegetables, provide fresh greens and herbs to local families in need, and reduce the carbon footprint of the community.

The inclusion of an apartment building rooftop in the first year could serve many purposes. First, it is a space often used for aesthetic purposes and contains vegetation but rarely for the purpose of feeding residents and very rarely using such an efficient setup as VHFs. Second, by giving a VHF to an apartment building free or at cost as a test case, we can test the feasibility of this system to grow vegetables in the place that needs it most; densely populated city centers. In the case of the YWCA, fresh herbs and vegetables can be given to the needy at a minimal cost and impact to the environment.

If the end goal is to enact large scale change to the existing agricultural infrastructure, cooperating with other organizations with similar goals is crucial to having a focused, unified approach to improving climate change. As experience is gained in the early years creating efficient VHFs, the Green Guys hope to collaborate with many local gardens/farms to do the same upgrading their conventional soil based gardening.

A decentralized and diversely sourced agricultural system such as this proposal would require a robust web solution to connect farmers to consumers, potential farmers to resources (i.e. knowledge centre), and investors to farmers. Fostering an online, inclusive, community-driven culture could potentially be a large factor in expanding internationally. It would also allow consumers to find the closest farm, farm market, or community garden from which to participate or purchase fresh vegetables from. In association with programs like openAG, the Green Guys on the Drive will also contribute to learning materials, an open source urban farming knowledge centre, and simplifying construction/maintenance of VHFs in an attempt to lower the barriers to urban farming.

Who will take these actions?

Green Guys on the Drive will provide the experience and help plan, build, and farm.

Volunteers will help build, operate, and maintain the VHFs, and offer various skills

CSA members will support climate change by purchasing shares in each season’s harvest

Professors and graduate students will provide knowledge, input, and research

Where will these actions be taken?

Initially these actions will begin in local gardens located in Vancouver with enough volunteers to ensure farms can operate through the spring, summer, and fall. However, the scalability of this project lies in each community’s ability to operate independently of other communities once the basic knowledge for maintenance is met. This is an excellent opportunity for open source agricultural projects like OpenAG to serve as a knowledge base to amateur/novice volunteers. The goal is to sprout as many urban farms as possible, with basic infrastructure laid out to self sustain, in as many densely populated cities as possible across the world.

How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?

Impact of pilot farm = 740 kg CO2e/year (8)

Impact of urban farm (assuming 8000 square feet or size of vacant gas station) = 33,634 kg CO2e/year

4 urban farms established in Greater Vancouver by 2020 = 132,314 kg CO2e/year

30 urban farms established worldwide using a similar model by 2020 = 1 million+ kg CO2e/year

(8)

What are other key benefits?

Vegetables are relatively cheap for the consumers.

Readily available vegetables will hopefully reduce meat consumption, leading to additional carbon gains.

VHFs use water efficiently; a growing concern in areas faced with drought as a result of global warming.

Encourage community involvement.

Potential to feed homeless if there is excess.

Data can be gathered for future projects and OpenAG.

Knowledge base is established for community members to independently create their own urban VHF.

What are the proposal’s costs?

Construction Costs

The cost to construct the pilot farm that would produce enough produce for fifty people is estimated at $10,000.

Maintenance and Operation Costs

The maintenance and operation costs per season (7 months) plus assuming a labourer 24 hours per week at 20 dollar per hour $14,560.

Total Cost

The total cost for the year would be: $27,560.

Revenue

6 lbs per unit per week at 30 weeks per season and 8 units would produce 655 kg.

At price $30/kg

Revenue = $19,650

Total Funding needed for first year: $7910

Time line

Short Term

The first two years will include the construction of 1 large pilot backyard farm and 1 large-scale farm. 1st year will be run strictly by volunteers (including the Green Guys) for the purposes of market research, building of volunteer base, and recovering investment costs of construction through sold shares. Throughout all stages municipalities, non-profit organizations, universities, and possibly a crowdfunding round will be sought for grants and investments.

Medium Term

Processes will be streamlined and methods documented to assist with ‘opensourcing’ agriculture to urban communities. A web platform will be created to facilitate volunteers connecting and getting involved in other ways.

Long Term

A headquarters will be established at a building or warehouse near downtown Vancouver, to pursue long term growth and a large-scale urban farm in a city center, funded by profits, donations, and grants.

Related proposals

Resilient Agriculture with Hydroponic Carbon Capture (HCC) / gas2green

Suburbia as source of food and regenerator of resources / SU allotment gardens

References

  1. Dickson Despomier. The Problem. <http://www.verticalfarm.com/>
  2. John Hendrickson. 1996. Energy Use in the U.S. Food System: a summary of existing research and analysis. <http://www.cias.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/energyuse.pdf>
  3. City of Vancouver Business vs. Recreational/Non-profit Tax Rates. Retrieved on July 13, 2015 from: <http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/business-and-other.aspx><http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/recreational-and-non-profit.aspx>
  4. Environmental Working Group. 2011. Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health. <http://static.ewg.org/reports/2011/meateaters/pdf/methodology_ewg_meat_eaters_guide_to_health_and_climate_2011.pdf>
  5. Food Transportation Issues and Reducing Carbon Footprint. Wayne Wakeland, Susan Cholette, and Kumar Venkat. 2012.
  6. Green Guys on the Drive. Facebook group. <https://www.facebook.com/GreenGuysTheDrive?fref=ts>
  7. B. Rosie Lerner and Michael N. Dana. Apr 2009. Consumer horticulture, Leafy Greens for the Home Garden. <http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/ho-29.pdf >
  8. Green Guys on the Drive. Table for Carbon Savings of VHF Units. <http://imgur.com/0KztBBM>

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Amy’s Kitchen To Launch FIRST Organic Drive-Thru Restaurant

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The first all-vegetarian drive-thru plans to open later this month in California.

Fans of Amy’s Kitchen – a well-known vegetarian frozen food chain – will be pleased to know that the company is planning on opening the world’s first all-vegetarian drive-thru later this month.

“Everybody said we couldn’t do it,” said Andy Berliner, Amy’s Kitchen co-founder. “But we set up a test kitchen in our warehouse space and did it. We learned how to do it from scratch very quickly.”

Such is definitely a sign of the changing times. Although fast food companies and Pepsi can make fun of health-conscious eaters, the fact-of-the-matter is that making ‘food one’s medicine’ is a priority all people need to take more seriously.

The menu for the drive thru will include gluten and dairy-free meals like tortillas, pizzas (in a rice or wheat crust), and burgers, all vegetarian and all cooked to order with fresh ingredients. Their first

location – as one can only assume this will take off in be in high demand elsewhere – will be located in Rohnert Park, California near the company’s Petaluma headquarters.

Amys Kitchen organic drive thru

“The weather doesn’t always cooperate, so one of the most challenging parts of our business right now is the agricultural end,” disclosed Berliner, who has 50 people in the company working on finding just the right ingredients from farmers 18 months in advance.

“Consumers of all ages, but particularly millennials, are aware that what they eat affects their health, their wellbeing and how they feel,” he added. “We’ve just reached a tipping point in a whole new level of interest in eating better.”

The restaurant’s offerings will definitely be a welcome change from conventional fast-food options. For example, the fries, which come from a farm in California, will be fried in sunflower oil, according to Time.

And even though more work will be required to keep the food fresh, the price is competitive to other establishments. Burgers will cost $2.99 (doubles will be $4.29), cheese pizzas will cost $5.89, burritos $4.69 and salads will range from $3.99 to $7.99.

And if that’s not enough to make you wish every fast food establishment could be replaced with this healthier, more sustainable version, the structure of the drive thru is also more appealing.

Amys Kitchen organic drive thru

The healthy-oriented restaurant is built where an old barn stood, and all of its wood was shipped back to the Idaho where it will be reused at the company’s plant. Solar panels line its roof and the building will collect and re-use rainwater. Furthermore, scrap metal was collected for construction and the wood furniture was made mostly with unused and discarded lumber off-cuts (the few brand new pieces are Forest Stewardship certified). And finally, all the packaging is printed with non-GMO ink.

Would you eat at an Amy’s restaurant if one was located near you? Share your thoughts in the comment sections below.

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By Asking One Simple Question, This Teen Saved A Man’s Life

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Sometimes it’s the simplest and most humbling moments that matter most.

While it’s easy to get excited about innovative developments in technology, sometimes the simple things in life are what deserve applause and attention.

In the case of a teenager named Jamie Harrington, taking a moment to ask a man if he was okay was enough to prevent him from committing suicide.

As shared on the Humans of Dublin Facebook page, Harrington recalled his encounter one evening with a stranger who was sitting on a bridge:

“I was just on my way to the American sweet shop to buy some Gatorade, when I saw this guy in his 30s sitting on the ledge of the bridge,” Harrington says in his interview. “I stopped and asked him if he was okay … I pleaded with him for a while to come down and sit on the steps, and eventually he did.”

In a brilliant gesture of human kindness and empathy, Harrington talked to the man about his life and why he felt driven to commit suicide. The teen then insisted the man go to St. James Hospital, and called an ambulance. To ensure he could check up on the man later, Jamie also got the man’s number.

That’s not where the positive news ends, however.

“About three months ago, he texted me that his wife is pregnant, they’re having a boy, and they’re naming him after me,” Harrington said. “Can you believe that? They’re going to name their child after me … He said in that moment that I approached him, he was just about to jump, and those few words saved his life. That they’re still ringing in his head every day. ‘Are you okay?'”

This incredible news is hope for anyone in a down place, and inspiration for those seeking to make a difference in the world. Truly, all thoughts and actions matter.

Share this story and uplift someone else’s day. Comment your thoughts below.

BC Bud fruit picking

Canadian Fruit Pickers Are Living the Dream Summer of BC Bud, Parties, and Being Chill

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It was a swelteringly hot day along the sun-scorched banks of the Similkameen River in southern British Columbia. Forest fires burned to the north and south, creating a grungy orange haze over the entire valley. I sat on a log, stoned off my face, plucking a banjo and watching a pack of stray-looking dogs frolic in the water below. It was here at the ramshackle campsite of Dusty and Dusty (two BFFs, both named Dusty) that I’d posted up for the afternoon to drink warm beer and mingle with a community of transient fruit pickers in Keremeos, BC.

bc bud fruit picking

Patrick. All photos by the author

My dad escaped to Keremeos 15 years ago to become an amateur farmer and pursue his dream of living a neighbourless life. For as long as I can remember, my visits to the Ol’ Man’s place have consisted of crucial daily trips to the liquor store and participating in the weekly meat raffle at the Veteran’s Hall. On this particular trip however, during the first week of July, I thought I should break this thrilling routine and actually do something.

Elaine and Daphne.

Most commonly remembered as “that place we stopped for gas,” Keremeos is renowned for its lush orchards, sprawling vineyards and abundance of fruit stands. Each one painted and decorated more cartoonishly than the next, by what could have been the set designers from Sesame Street. More memorable than its colourful and fruity main drag are “The Pickers”; the dreadlocked, glazed-eyed, thumbs-out seasonal labourers that swarm the town in the summer. Mostly Québécois, these itinerant hippies hitch-hike from far and wide, looking to make some cash and score sweet BC bud.

Derek.

I set out on Tuesday morning, schlepping my camera gear and a case of Cariboo Lager with the goal of making some new friends. By noon it was 33 Celsius as haggard and exhausted pickers were making their return to the riverside campground following their 4-11AM shifts in the orchards. The first couple I met introduced themselves as “Lux” and “Bear”. Both from Montreal, they had been making pilgrimages to Keremeos for years, picking fruit and selling art out of their van. Lux (who I kept calling “Jet” by mistake) had just gotten a new tattoo on her back-an intricate pink tree that weaved it’s way through several rings and orbs. She explained that it was designed to help keep her chakras aligned.

Guillaume.

I continued trekking through the campground amongst a fluorescent scattering of tents and hanging laundry. Soon I arrived at what appeared to be the “downtown”, a big open space with a large concentration of people milling around and enjoying chill activities. To my left was the “Italian District”, a cluster of shaved-headed pickers, some strumming guitars, others carving sticks. The local hash dealer, a teenager of ’70s Ozzy Osbourne resemblance, zipped by on a rusty children’s mountain bike making deliveries and taking orders. Beneath a tarp to my right, a stick n’ poke tattoo marathon was taking place. I spent the rest of the afternoon taking portraits while getting sunburned and reasonably faded. And despite my clean clothes and recent haircut, I tried to blend in.

Jaryd and Kiki.

The following day was spent cruising the scenic back roads of the valley and offering a complimentary taxi service to anyone in need. To and from their respective camps or the town hotspots (the laundromat, the beer store, the free WIFI-having nook in the alley behind the library), I shuttled truckloads of pickers of a kaleidoscopic variety. From the cherubic 17-year old sporting a Pokemon tank top and bedazzled neon skirt, to the Wiser’s Deluxe-stinking gutter punk whose home was under a highway overpass, the characters were fascinating and endless. The enormity of the scene and collective spirit of these sorta-ambitious fruit hustlers made me realize that the significance of Keremeos was far greater than I’d originally thought. It dawned on me that this must be the Woodstock or the Coachella of fruit picking, and right now cherry season was the headlining act.

Dusty 1.

That evening I drove out to River Valley Farm, a small organic orchard in the hills east of town. I’d planned to reunite with an eclectic crew of hyper French-Canadian teenagers I’d met earlier that day. At the time, being the people-person that I am, I cleverly wrote all of their names on my hand for future reference: Félix, Gabrielle, Leo, Tristan, Godfrey, Guillaume, Kiki, Félix 2, Charlotte, Patrick, Daphne, Vern.

Dusty 2.

River Valley Farm was a slice of heaven. The pickers had been assigned their own rustic bunkhouses, lined up in a row along the quiet grassy shore of the river. As the sun went down, the sky turned a hazy flamingo hue. The Frenchies enthusiastically took turns in front of the camera, maintaining their cool between fits of arm-flailing, mosquito-killing rage. After dark, I continued to resurrect my French skills following an invitation to hang out and play a drinking game called “Buffalo.” In a few short hours, it would be 4 AM and the pickers would be back to the grind, climbing ladders and filling tubs. While some retired to bed, most of us stayed up taking shots, skinny-dipping, and making up freestyle raps.

See more of Chris’ work on his website.

Lux.

Charlotte.

Vern.

Leo.

Obama Reveals His Most Ambitious Plan To Tackle Climate Change

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by RYAN KORONOWSKI

CREDIT: White House video screenshot

The Environmental Protection Agency released its long-awaited final rule to regulate carbon pollution from existing power plants on Monday afternoon. This is the most significant action any American president has ever taken to rein in climate change.

Addressing a crowd of scientists in the East Room of the White House, President Obama ticked through a list of threats that confronted the world since he took office: economic calamity, terrorism, nuclear weapons.

“But I am convinced that no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a changing climate,” he said. “I believe there is such a thing as being too late. That shouldn’t make us hopeless. It’s not as if there’s nothing we can do about it. We can take action.”

Existing power plants will no longer be able to pollute unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide into the air in the United States once the plan takes effect, which will be 60 days following the as-yet determined date the plan is published in the Federal Register.

The coal, oil, and gas burned in most of these plants is responsible for nearly 40 percent of all carbon pollution in the United States. The Clean Power Plan sets the first-ever federal limits on the main pollutant that causes climate change.

“We now have a real shot of protecting this beautiful planet of ours,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said before she introduced President Obama at Monday’s event. McCarthy summed up her agency’s approach in this video from the EPA:

The final rule’s national emissions targets were what had been expected. “Nationwide, by 2030, this final CAA section 111(d) existing source rule will achieve CO2 emission reductions from the utility power sector of approximately 32 percent from CO2 emission levels in 2005,” the rule stated. These reductions will result in $25-45 billion in net climate and health benefits by 2030, according to the agency’s analysis.

Obama also explained the plan at Monday’s event: each state will be able to come up with its own plan to cut emissions in a way that works for them. By 2030, each state must meet a certain emissions reduction target, custom-tailored to their current energy mix. The EPA does not implement a top-down solution across the country to cut emissions, or force specific coal plants to close.

“We’ll reward states that take actions sooner, rather than later, because time is not on our side,” Obama said.

Every state can meet its targets however it wants – closing old coal plants, building more renewable generation, increasing energy efficiency, or working with other states to balance emissions and cuts through market-based systems like the cap-and-trade model already being used by the RGGI states in the Northeast.

Since many states are already regulating carbon pollution, the president said that this federal action was just Washington catching up to that leadership demonstrated by the rest of the country.

Compared to the proposed rule, the new final version cuts more carbon pollution from the power sector, does it with more renewable energy and less natural gas, while providing more flexibility along the way to states trying to meet their targets.

The solar and energy efficiency industries lauded the rule. The wind power industry said it’s up to the task to help states comply.

“American wind power can do this,” Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement. “Low-cost wind energy reduced carbon emissions by five percent in 2014, and we’re capable of doing a lot more.”

Obama ticked through several of the criticisms the plan had received, including on electricity rates, coal jobs, and government overreach. He received a standing ovation for this passage about the plan’s impact on minority and low-income communities:

Even more cynical, we’ve got critics of this plan who are actually claiming that this will harm minority and low-income communities. Even though climate change hurts those Americans the most, who are the most vulnerable. Today, an African American child is more than twice as likely to be hospitalized from asthma. A Latino child is 40 percent more likely to die from asthma. So if you care about low income and minority communities, start protecting the air that they breathe and stop trying to rob them of their health care.

Carbon dioxide released from power plants traps heat and pollutants in the air, and so air quality diminishes. This helps to trigger asthma and heart attacks. The EPA says up to 90,000 asthma attacks will be avoided each year under the rule.

Later, the president went off script, saying “sometimes we feel as if there’s nothing we can do.”

“Tomorrow’s my birthday,” he said, and began to reflect on his younger college days. He said he arrived in Los Angeles in 1979 for college and wanted to go outside and take a run. But after five minutes, he couldn’t breathe, because of the horrible smog problem it faced. He listed other environmental calamities, such as Ohio’s Cuyahoga River being so polluted that it caught on fire.

Even with those horrible problems, he said, the nation came together to fix them. California’s air is much cleaner, as are Ohio’s waterways. The parallel to climate change was clear.

“We can figure this stuff out as long as we’re not lazy about it,” he said.

These rules are not the result of new congressional legislation. They are the result of what the Clean Air Act tells the executive branch it has to do.

When Congress passed, and President George H.W. Bush signed, the 1990 update to the Clean Air Act, it included a section on pollutants not specified or envisioned by lawmakers at the time. In 2007, the Supreme Court decided in Mass. v. EPA that carbon dioxide qualified as a pollutant that could be regulated under that section of the Clean Air Act if the EPA found it to be a danger to public health. In 2009, the EPA found exactly that, and so the Obama administration began regulating sources of carbon dioxide. It started with mobile sources of carbon pollution, and so the administration set greenhouse gas emission standards for cars, trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles. The Clean Power Plan is just the next step in regulating carbon pollution as required by the Clean Air Act. Monday’s announcement will set the EPA, working with the states, to regulating power plant carbon pollution.

The EPA also released its final rule for new, modified, and reconstructed power plants. Unlike the rule for existing plants, this rule sets a specific limit on coal-fired plants: 1,400 pounds of CO2 per megawatt‐hour, which is less-stringent than the proposed rule’s standard of 1,100 pounds of CO2 per megawatt‐hour. This change was made, after feedback the EPA received about the cost of implementing a carbon capture and sequestration system.

“I don’t want to fool you, this will be hard,” the president said in his Monday speech. “We’re the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, we’re the last generation that can do something about it. We only get one home. We only get one planet. There’s no Plan B.”

As the speech concluded, Obama got emotional, his voice softening. “I don’t want my grandkids not to be able to swim in Hawaii or not to be able to climb a mountain and see a glacier because we didn’t do something about it. I don’t want millions of people’s lives disrupted and this world more dangerous because we didn’t so something about it. That’d be shameful of us.”

“This is our moment to get this right and leave something better for our kids,” he said. “Let’s make the most of this opportunity.”

The event was supposed to be held outside on the White House South Lawn, but was moved inside due to high heat and humidity. Monday was the 11th straight day that cracked 90 in Washington, D.C.

7 Ways Homes Kept Cool Before The Age Of Air Conditioning

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The modern air conditioner was invented only in the 1920s, and it didn’t become a common home feature until the latter half of the 20 th century.

But, while some of us might wonder how our grandparents survived hot and steamy summers, the fact is those older homes had a few tricks up their sleeves. They were designed and built with features to help them stay cool without AC.

Mary Wheeler Schap is a registered architect who designs and restores historic buildings to their former glory in Cincinnati, Ohio. She offered this expert insight into the features that made older homes livable in the heat.

In northern states, it was common to create a “stack effect” by opening windows in the basement and top floor. This generated a cool breeze through the house. Further south, before AC many homes were built on blocks, allowing breezes to flow underneath and help keep them cool all summer long.

Ceilings as high as 10, 12 and even 14 feet were common in older homes. As heat rose to the ceiling, lower areas stayed cool and comfortable. Ceiling fans-powered by electricity or elaborate rope systems-also facilitated air movement.

A transom-a small window over a door-allowed warmer air at the ceiling to circulate up to higher floors, providing more air movement throughout the house. Transoms over exterior doors often had hinges and special hardware. This allowed easy access to open and close, helping create airflow while still providing security.

Many older and historic homes had large, double-hung windows. Opening the top sash would allow hot air near the ceiling to escape. Opening the bottom sash, especially at night, allowed cool air to flow inside. Rooms had many windows, some as large as doors. Thick, long draperies were often used in these large windows to keep out the heat. People would “draw the drapes” to help keep a room cool without sacrificing light.

I’m a historic preservationist and have been to many workshops and classes about window restoration. Most people have no idea how original windows were meant to function. When you open both sashes to the middle, heat escapes from the top and cool comes in from the bottom. If you do that in your entire house, you have an ac that works almost as well as modern ACs. The thing is, people have painted their sashes shut, especially upper sashes. Most people don’t even know that upper sashes are supposed to open. People installed triple track aluminum windows which only have one screen, at the bottom, which makes two sashes useless and why most upper sashes ended up painted/caulked shut.

If you restore your original double hung windows, and install a wood storm window with screens on upper and lower, you will have a window that is just as energy efficient as “replacement” windows and will outlast and outperform any new window. Unfortunately, people don’t believe this, they just believe what the window salesman tell them. You’ll NEVER save money with replacement windows. There is no return on investment EVER because it would take a minimum of 40yrs to see a return and no replacement window would last that long before needing replaced again. The data is out there. There have been thermal imaging studies done on the efficiency of original windows and on opening both sashes for air condition. Very efficient. With a minimal amount of work, any home owner can restore original windows, for cheaper than the cost of replacement, and have a much higher quality window that will last another 100yrs.”

 

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Lines Out the Door for Nation’s First Organic Drive-Thru Restaurant

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Think fast food has to be greasy, unhealthy and cheap? Think again.

The country’s first all-organic drive-thru has finally opened in California, with lines out the door as customers flock for a chance to support what could be the biggest step forward for industry ever.

The new Amy’s Organic Drive-Thru restaurant opened in Rohnert Park, California, featuring an all-vegeterian menu packed with items like veggie burgers, salads, and even mac n’ cheese in both regular and vegan flavors.

The company’s signature frozen pizzas have always been a top seller in health food and grocery stores nationwide, and now Amy’s first restaurant is serving them up piping hot with toppings ranging from spinach and diced tomatoes (on its popular margherita pizza) to regular mozzarella cheese and even vegan “cheeze.”

As reported by ABC-7 News in the Bay area, the new Amy’s Restaurant has been completely packed with long lines in the dining area and in the drive-thru, and reported wait times of 15-20 minutes.

Others have chimed in on review sites noting that they were excited to see huge crowds with lines going all the way out the door, reminiscent of another chain working to change the food system: Chipotle Mexican Grill, whose popularity is exploding at the same time that McDonald’s is faltering.

“Five days in and they can barely keep up with demand,” reported ABC-7 about Amy’s first week in business.

Manager Paul Schiefer was more than happy with the response.

“So many (have) showed up and it’s given us a lot of hope that this is a concept that works.”

Sustainably Grown, GMO-Free and Tasty!

While other fast food restaurants import virtually all of their products from factory farming operations and give nothing back to the community, Amy’s actually grows produce on site thanks to its roof-bound garden.

Amy’s, an independently owned organic frozen food company, also reportedly pays workers a living wage with health benefits and is believed to be the first vegetarian fast food restaurant as well.

Check out a report on the grand opening below and see the menu:

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5 Simple But Powerful Daily Practices That Will Radically Improve Your Health, Wealth and Happiness

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“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.” — Jim Rohn Mainstream media tends to glorify success stories, making us …

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Are Hospital Farms the Next Big Thing in Healthcare Reform?

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This summer, St. Luke’s Hospital started sending all new moms home from the hospital with a basket of fresh produce, recipes and literature about the importance of a healthy diet.

All of the produce in the basket was grown on an organic farm on the hospital’s Anderson campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The hospital-part of a six-campus network-has been running a farm on the 500-acre grounds since 2014.

“Our mission is to provide great healthcare and part of that is educating patients about the benefits of a plant-based, organic diet,” explains Ed Nawrocki, president of the Anderson campus. “One of the best ways to do that is to lead by example and show them how delicious produce grown on our farm tastes.

But it’s not just new moms who benefit from the hospital’s bounty. In its first season, the farm at St. Luke’s grew 12 varieties of vegetables on five acres, producing 44,000 pounds of produce that was served to patients, incorporated into the cafeteria menu, and sold at weekly farmers markets on several hospital campuses. This year, the farm expanded to 10 acres and 30 varieties of fruits and vegetables.

Mark “Coach” Smallwood, executive director at the Rodale Institute, the nonprofit organization that worked with St. Luke’s to help get its farm off the ground, believes there is a growing interest in serving organic, locally grown produce at hospitals.

Some, like the University of Wisconsin Hospital, buy produce from local farms, others allow the community to use land on their campuses for community gardens. Now, a few hospitals are taking the next step, starting farms on hospital campuses. Among them are Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island and Watertown Regional Medical Center in Wisconsin. Both are now using produce grown onsite to replace fruits and vegetables that are packaged and shipped thousands of miles before reaching patients.

“Hippocrates talked about food as medicine and we believe that to be true,” Smallwood says. “There is a paradigm shift happening and hospitals are realizing the value of producing fresh, local, organic food to serve to their patients.”

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan, planted the first crops on a 10-acre onsite farm in 2010 after patient satisfaction surveys revealed a demand. Over the past five years, the farm has grown to 25 acres, three hoop houses and four beehives. The farm grows fresh spinach, garlic, basil, collard greens and strawberries.

“The farm helps us support a culture of wellness in the hospital,” says director of nutrition and wellness Lisa McDowell. “We can’t grow enough to meet the needs of all of our patients and staff, but we can make an educational statement about the importance of eating a healthy diet.”

While farm-to-hospital efforts have been well received by patients and created PR opportunities, operating a hospital-run farm is not without its challenges.

For starters, administrators are experts in healthcare, not agriculture.

To help launch its farm, St. Luke’s partnered with the Rodale Institute for assistance in creating and implementing a plan, hiring a farmer, and managing operations. At St. Joseph Mercy, the hospital invested $32,000 in two hoop houses, hired a full-time farmer to manage farming operations for the 537-bed hospital and relies on interns and volunteers to handle most of the labor.

It took a $125,000 capital investment to start the farm at St. Luke’s and, after two growing seasons, the farm is operating at a loss (with a goal of breaking even in 2016). The reason: Growing organic produce on the farm is more expensive than purchasing it through a foodservice supplier or sourcing it from local farms. But Nawrocki still champions the idea, explaining that encouraging patients to eat healthier diets now could improve their health in the future.

In addition to the capital investment to start farms, hospitals that want to serve fresh produce must invest in recipe development and training foodservice workers to transition from heating and reheating prepared foods to making dishes from scratch.

“When we order produce from a food service provider, it comes peeled and chopped and portioned; all our staff has to do is open the package and add it to the recipe,” McDowell explains. “Cooking with fresh foods from our farm is much more labor intense.”

In the future, the hospital hopes to partner with a local culinary program, using interns to offset the additional labor costs and make its hospital farm cost neutral by 2020.

Smallwood admits that foodservice staff is often resistant to the changes, which create additional work; hospitals that contract with external foodservice providers face the additional obstacle of needing to get buy-in.

“A paradigm shift has to occur,” he says. “Outsourcing is easier; over time, we believe that hospital-based farms can be as easy as outsourcing.”

It’s not just the behind-the-scenes issues that can stymie efforts to grow and serve fresh produce. Convincing patients to trade comfort foods like mac and cheese for whipped turnips and sautéed spinach can also be challenging.

“Some people just don’t care,” Nawrocki admits.

But, with the help of robust marketing campaigns and creative efforts, some hospitals are determined to help patients rethink their diets. St. Luke’s reduced prices at the salad bar by 25 percent to promote the farm’s produce; cafeteria sales are up 15 percent and, earlier this month, farmers markets at all six campuses sold out of produce.

“It takes creativity and flexibility to make [a hospital-based farm] work,” Nawrocki says. “But we believe it’s the right thing to do and that drives our efforts.”

This is Tesla’s plan for a cheaper car

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Tesla’s road to a cheaper electric car has always appeared to lead straight to Reno, where the electric automaker is building a $5 billion gigafactory designed with enough capacity to reduce the per-kilowatt-hour cost of its lithium-ion battery packs by over 30% by the end of 2017.

Many companies are already planning concepts around the promise of cheaper, higher-capacity batteries. But, it turns out that Tesla has more than one path toward its ultimate goal of an electric car that’s 50% cheaper than its luxury Model S.

The newest direction Tesla is headed toward is silicon-not the Valley, but the material that is changing the way batteries are made. Tesla’s new 90 kilowatt-hour battery pack -an upgrade announced Friday that increases pack energy by 5% and adds about 15 miles of range to its vehicles-might look the same. But the inclusion of silicon is an advance for lithium-ion technology.

During a call with reporters last week, CEO Elon Musk said the company had improved the battery by shifting the cell chemistry for the pack to partially use silicon in the anode.

“This is just sort of a baby step in the direction of using silicon in the anode,” Musk said during the call. “We’re still primarily using synthetic graphite, but over time we’ll be increasing silicon in the anode.”

For the unfamiliar, this might sound like minor tinkering. It’s actually an important and challenging step for Tesla (and other battery manufacturers) that could lead to a better, cheaper battery.

“It’s a race among the battery makers to get more and more silicon in,” said Jeff Dahn, a leading lithium-ion battery researcher and professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who recently signed a 5-year exclusive partnership with Tesla. “The number of researchers around the world working on silicon for lithium-ion cells is mindboggling. A large number of academics and industrial folks are working really hard on this problem.”

Batteries 101

A battery contains two electrodes: an anode (negative) on one side and a cathode (positive) on the other. An electrolyte, essentially the courier that moves ions between the electrodes when charging and discharging, sits in the middle.

Graphite is commonly used as the anode in commercial lithium-ion batteries. However, a silicon anode can store about 10 times more (per unit volume) lithium ions. In theory, if you replaced a lot of graphite in the cell with silicon, the thickness of the graphite negative electrode could be reduced. There would be more space to add more active material and you could, in turn, increase the energy density-or the amount of energy that can be stored in a battery per its volume-of the cell.

In other words, you could pack more energy in the same space. Plus, the silicon used in the battery space doesn’t need to be the same quality as what’s used in solar cells and integrated circuits, which means it’s cheaper. The more silicon you put in the battery, the easier it is to drive costs down.

That’s the goal of battery makers everywhere: to improve their product while reducing costs.

Sounds easy enough, right? Hardly, says Dahn, who is currently working on a project funded by 3M and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to develop longer lasting, lower cost lithium-ion battery cells. Their exclusive partnership with Tesla will begin in June 2016, once Dahn has completed the 3M research project.

The trick is that when you add lithium to the silicon you end up with almost five times the original number of atoms you started with. And that causes all kinds of problems.

An Electrode Particle Walks Into a Party

Think of the battery electrode as a room and a lot of electrode particles-or people- are packed in there for a party, Dahn explains. Now imagine that everybody in that room suddenly becomes obese; the people aren’t going to fit anymore.

“If everyone is already packed in there and they all become 400 pounds, you’re in big trouble,” says Dahn.

This is what happens when all the particles in the electrode are silicon. But if only a few people in the room become obese, it’s not so bad because they can shuffle around and make enough space for these obese folks.

“This is why only a small amount of silicon is being initially added,” Dahn says.

That’s not the only issue with using silicon. To take the crowded room analogy a step further, imagine these obese people (or electrode particles) shrink when the battery is charged and then blow up again when it’s discharged. That enormous volume change causes another issue. The surface of every silicon particle is in contact with the electrolyte, and the protective film on the silicon is continually being stretched as the size of those particles change. When it shrinks it can flake off, which can impact the lifespan of the battery.

This means that the more silicon you put in, the more challenging it is to maintain cycle life, Dahn says.

Which brings us to where battery makers and researchers are today.

“Right now, you put in a touch-a little pixie dust-and it’s tolerable,” says Dahn. “Over the years, more and more will go in and that’s a good thing because it means these products are going to improve and get better.”

Dahn’s research team aims to increase both the energy density and the lifespan of lithium-ion cells, which could, in turn, help drive down costs in automotive and grid energy storage applications. They aren’t the only ones. “There are quite a few companies around the world that are starting to put silicon in the negative electrode,” explains Dahn. “And it’s not just Panasonic, Tesla’s supplier. Samsung and other companies around the world are doing this too.”

Most batteries today, even those in consumer electronics, have tiny amounts of silicon, says Sam Jaffe, a longtime analyst, formerly of Navigant Research, and now CEO of startup Cygnus Energy Storage.

The question is what percentage of silicon is Tesla using. The industry standard is between 1 to 3% silicon in battery recipes, Jaffe says. He believes Tesla has figured out how to use more.

“For them to have made a significant change in the energy density of the battery and then to publicly say it’s the silicon increase makes me think-and this is speculation now-that they’ve made progress getting higher percentages of silicon into the cell,” Jaffe says.

Model X and Tesla as a Supplier

“There’s a lot of incentive to continue to improve this battery technology for everyone in the industry,” Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, told Fortune. “It’s certainly the lifeblood for Tesla.”

Tesla had to increase the battery capacity for the highly anticipated Model X SUV because it’s heavier and without it, the vehicle would have lost range, Brauer says.

Brauer also believes the focus on battery tech isn’t just to improve the cars, but to set the company up as a supplier.

With many companies already anticipating the use of cheaper, more powerful lithium-ion batteries and competing to apply that technology to residential and commercial power grid applications, Tesla’s move could put them at the forefront of a newly revolutionized energy industry.

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