Sustainability Presentation

We ended the day with a presentation from each one of the students.  We were instructed to pick an Eco-municipality, a sustainable corporation, and a green/sustainable residential or commercial development.

We picked the City of Burlington, Vermont, Starbucks, and Farmers Branch Home for our presentation.  Please follow this link for the Powerpoint.

This class has open my eyes to a new world that I didn't know existed.  Thank you UTA for an opportunity to learn about such an important subject.

Tarrant Regional Water Districts - TRWD

April 13, 2013

After grabbing a quick lunch at a convenience store, we took a five minutes drive to Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) to see Laura Blaylock.  She has graciously agreed to meet with us and gave us a tour of a first LEED Gold building in Tarrant County, TRWD Annex Buiding.

This building houses the second largest roof-mounted solar array in Texas, with over 19,000 square feet of solar panels.

The facility is constructed with all materials came from 500 miles or less.  When we first walked into the building, we can see an educational plaque gave us an overview of the building.

This LEED Gold facility is equipped with 236 kW solar systems, 70% of the annual power supply came from roof-mounted solar panels, automatic lighting systems that adjust the brightness based on sunlight.

We've never seen such a unique way of running electric lines throughout the building.  These engineers have great tastes & good practical sense.

There are also three 2,500 gallon rain water tanks used for irrigation of native Texas landscaping.

Walking through the kitchen area, we noticed that TRWD encourage cycling program and healthy working environment.  They removed all soda machines and replace with fresh fruits, and provide a gym with personal trainer to promote healthy lifestyle, which result in lower insurance premium.

Fort Worth Trinity River Visiton Authority

April 13, 2013

After listening to a very interesting presentation from Sandy Bauman, we walked a few blocks over to the Trinity River Vision Authority to meet with Shanna Cate.

The awesome project includes three different areas along the Trinity River: Uptown/Central City, Gateway Park, and TRV experience.  

This project literally blow me a way and would leave the river walk in San Antonio, TX behind.  This video give you an in dept look at the projects.

 

UNTHSC Sustainability

April 16, 2013

Sandy Bauman, Sustainability Coordinator from the University of North Texas Health Science (UNTHSC) spoke with us today about her efforts to promote and educate people on sustainability.

UNT website shows us that they really "mean green".  Sandy promoted the use of public transportation vs. building more parking lot by offering E-pass.  UNTHSC also offers discount of LEFE vehicles.

To promote their sustainability agenda,  UNTHSC uses social media and newsletter to publish information to educate their faculties and students.

They purchased water bottle stations instead of the traditional water fountains we normally see to encourage sustainability behavior and minimized plastic bottle waste.

They move one step further by providing locations of these water stations so that people can easily find the nearest stations.

UNTHSC converted an old bowling alley into a LEED Gold facility:

• 92.4% of the previous building’s construction was recycled
  
• Over 20% of the MET’s construction materials contained recycled matter and/or was extracted, processed, and manufactured within 500 miles of the its location
  
• Indoor air quality was considered in the choice of the building materials and ventilation systems
  
• The fire suppression system does not contain ozone-depleting substances
  
• Approximately 250,000 gallons of potable water are saved each year
  
• An estimated $55,000 in energy costs are saved every year
  

SouthEast Fort Worth Inc

After our Cowtown Clean-up, we headed over to meet with Mr. Allan Smith from Southeast Fort Worth Inc to  learn about the planned development for the "forgotten" part of Fort Worth.

Mr. Smith has over 25 years of experience in the construction business.   He is also the VP of Black Chamber of Commerce.

Southeast Fort Worth Inc is a community development corporation that focus on developing businesses to make a strong community.  They work closely with the City of Fort Worth to pair up the developers and city's programs.

After our meeting with Mr. Smith, we drove over to the new Renaissance Square in southeast Fort Worth

Botanical Research Institute of Texas - BRIT

 We headed over to BRIT after our visit with Mr. Allen Smith from S.E Forth Worth.   This is the first LEED Platinum facility we visited.

This YouTube video shows us the Living Roof at BRIT http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IMJHHL3HVRs#!

Information on their website regarding the sustainability is as follow:

Through careful site design, responsible landscape management, and conscientious human behavior, BRIT seeks to reduce its footprint on the natural world as well as protect and restore ecosystem services. The new BRIT building was designed to accomplish several key goals: reduce energy and water consumption, enhance indoor environmental quality, and use recyclable and renewable materials. This was achieved through daylighting, photovoltaic panels (solar energy), low-flow and low-energy fixtures, low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials, wool and linen furnishings, certified wood products, and recycled-content steel and rubber, to name a few. In addition, the BRIT landscape—with its native plants, vegetated walls, bioswales, living roof, and retention pond—was designed to eliminate use of potable water, reduce overall maintenance costs, curb energy consumption, extend the life of building materials, mitigate urban heat island effects, and manage onsite storm water. But our sustainable campus means little if the people using it are personally wasteful. Therefore, BRIT’s employees and users are encouraged to model sustainable personal practices, such as recycling, composting, and water and energy conservation.

Fort Worth Cowtown Cleanup

April 6, 2013

Our class participated in the 28th annual citywide litter clean-up.  It was a rewarding feeling to be able to give back to the community. 

We saw many families, groups, and individuals participated in the event.  There were children as young as five years old (in my estimate) walking beside their parents.

The event is coordinated by Debbie Branch.  This special event has won various awards such as:

• Keep America Beautiful Awards
• President's Circle Award 2005-2010
• Keep Texas Beautiful Awards
• Gold Star Affiliate Award 2005-2010
• Sustained Excellence Award 2005-2009
• Volunteer of the Year – Susan Johannes – 2009
• Governor’s Community Achievement Award – second place – 2009
• Governor’s Community Achievement Award – second place – 2008
• Governor’s Community Achievement Award – second place – 2007
• Governor’s Community Achievement Award – first place – 2004

We were excited to have a chance to stop by our own Community Garden during this event.  However, sad facial expressions can be seen on everyone in our class when we arrived at the site.  Our garden is abandoned!

We were not able to take pictures while holding our trash bags.  But you can find lots of photos on the web.

Dallas' McCommas Bluff Landfill

After our healthy lunch at Chicken Scratch, we visited Dallas' McCommas Bluff Landfill located at 5100 Youngblood Rd, Dallas TX 75241.  Our tour guides are Dana & Jonathan.

Their duties include:

• Environmental Regulation compliance
• Pollution prevention
• Continuum Improvement

City of Dallas is taking advantage of yearly 1.2 million ton of trash and converting it to methane gas through the Landfill Methane Outreach Program.  Renewable energy from methane gas supply natural gas to over 90,000 homes.

Dana & Jonathan also informed us about Dallas Eco Park.  Currently, the City of Dallas is working on partnership with industries in increasing waste diversion education programs.  They are seeking academic institutions to partner with the city for Environmental study.

We parted with a nice gift bag with goodies to remind us to recycle.

Chicken Scratch

After our visit to Recycle Evolution, we stopped by Chicken Scracth (2303 Pittman St, Dallas) for lunch.  We were honored to meet the CEO and owner of the restaurant, Tim Byres, and Chris Jeffers.  This restaurant was featured on D Magazine.

The owner is so creative in re-using different things.  The "not a stage" is made of old pallets; old milk cartons and old turbines are used as light fixtures; shipping containers were cut open on one side and used as private sitting areas; road alligators are decorations. 

Below are some pictures I took and found on the internet:

Recycle Evolution - A Evolutionary Vision

Eddie Lott, owner & operator of Dallas' Recycle Evolution met with us to discuss his business model.  Like any other recycling facilities, it's not "pretty".  However, the concepts and business model is far more "attractive" than other business that I've seen in the past.

Started out as a small operation, Eddie eventually expended his operation into a bigger facility and servicing more and more local companies. 

95% of Recycle Evolution's revenues is from fees charged to its customers.  But the most unique part of this whole operation is the amount of time Eddie and his team spent to train and educate his customers.  They provided their customers with feedbacks regarding their recycling programs to promote zero-waste workplace.

According to their website, their approach is:

1. Educate potential Clients about how recycling works and how it can benefit their business, their community, and the environment;
2. Create simple and practical solutions for them based on their unique size and layout;
3. Offer those solutions at reasonable prices;
4. Provide all of the tools necessary to engage easily in the recycling process;
5. Collect Clients' recyclables and deliver them to responsible local processors; and
6. Promote Clients' healthy environmental practices to their local and greater communities
   

Omni Hotel in Downtown Dallas - A LEED Gold

On March 30, 2013, we have a pleasure of meeting with James Cannon, Director of Engineer for Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas.

Our tour started in the lobby in front of Texas Spice restaurant and ended with a surprise complementary snacks from this fine restaurant.  The restaurant use constructed with recycled wood and bricks.

The Omni Hotel is the newest addition to downtown Dallas.  It consists of 1001 guess rooms.  Mr. Cannon took us to the Presidential Suite, where we can get a spectacular views of downtown Dallas and over look the brand new Margaret Hill bridge that connect downtown Dallas to west Dallas over the Trinity River.

This Green Hotel have some these incredible features:

1. Green label plus carpet resulting in healthier indoor air quality.
2. 50% of wood are from Forest Stewardship, whose mission is to promote environmentally sound, socially beneficial, and economically prosperous management of world's forests.
3. Low-flow water fixtures saving the hotel 27% of water usage.
4. LED lights through-out the hotel resulting in a saving of over $60,000 per month on electricity. 
5. Local art works from local artists.
6. Native plants landscapes
7. White roof to reduce heat island effect.
8. Condensation from HVAC use for irrigation.
9. Recycle program at the hotel recycles over 50% of products with different color-coded baskets for different recyclable materials.

One of the most attractive features of the hotel is its 4.3 miles of LED lights surrounding the exterior of this beautiful hotel as seen below