Porous pavement to help reduce runoff
The “porous alley” between West Canton Street and Holyoke Street in Boston’s South End helps absorb rainwater and filters it back into the ground.
By Nicole Dungca http://ht.ly/GePIy
The average city street collects a lot of pollutants over time: Dog poop. Leaked oil. Leaves. When a storm hits, the microorganisms, phosphorus, and heavy metals from such debris make their way into the stormdrain system and often into the overflow that enters the Charles River.
City officials are hoping a solution to that problem lies in a small alleyway between West Canton and Holyoke streets in Boston’s South End. Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Friday afternoon announced the completion of a new “porous alley” that absorbs storm water and filters it into the ground, rather than allowing it to make its way into the sewer system. The 508-square-foot alley was completed in September, but officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.
During the ceremony, Walsh called Public Alley 543 a forward-looking way of tackling the problem. “This project’s important because it really is about the future of storm water and being able to capture storm water,” he said.
The innovative alley, developed with the Charles River Watershed Association and the Boston Groundwater Trust, is the city’s second “green alley.” The first was constructed in 2013 by the Boston Architectural College, in between the college’s buildings on Boylston and Newbury streets in Back Bay, in conjunction with the city.
Construction of the alleys marks another step in efforts to boost the quality of water in the rivers that flow into the harbor of Boston. In 2012, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission had to pay a fine for violating the Clean Water Act and take measures to minimize pollutants going into the waters.
Landscaped with green roofs & water features, Butterfly Square looks like a park
Heavily landscaped with green roofs, planting beds, and water features, Butterfly Square was designed to look like an extension of the neighboring park.
The architects have also embedded solar panels throughout the green roofs to mimic the way butterflies obtain energy from the sun through their wings. Large skylights on the rooftops stream in natural daylight into the terraced residential units. Construction will begin in 2016.
Weatherhead Architecture
Etna celebrates Green Infrastructure for Stormwater
Etna celebrates Green Infrastructure for Stormwater
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By Diana Nelson Jones / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The elegant grate with a pattern of fern leaves undulates from one circular tree grate to the next all the way down the block between Bridge and Freeport streets. Most of the 12 buildings along that block agreed to have their downspouts removed so the rainwater from their roofs is now routed under the grates to be filtered into the ground.
Etna Mayor Tom Rengers noted that the street is much prettier now, but added, “The real beauty of this is underground.”
He was referring to a system of pipes and holding tanks beneath the street that catch the storm water and then slowly release it into the ground.
The Environmental Protection Agency funded the first phase with a $415,000 grant. The next phase will repeat the grate for another block on Butler. The plan is being reviewed now, with construction funding pending, said Doug Goodlander, a program chief for the state Department of Environmental Resources.
Etna officials identified 25 sites where green infrastructure could have the highest impact and calculated that for a one-time cost of $6.1 million, the systems would divert 16.1 million gallons each year.
Short Video on Philadelphia’s first Stormwater Bumpouts
Short Video on Philadelphia’s first Stormwater Bumpouts: Calmer Community, Cleaner Creek – http://ht.ly/DF7QD
http://www.stormwaterpa.org/stormwater-bumpouts.html
Michael Van Valkenburg’s New Toronto Park is a Stormwater Treatment Plant in Disguise
Michael Van Valkenburg’s New Toronto Park is a Stormwater Treatment Plant in Disguise
Full Original Story is here: http://ht.ly/A6ikQ
The park is designed as a “cistern” that stores and treats stormwater to protect the surrounding neighborhood from flooding. This is done through natural elements like plantings, bioswales, a landscaped berm, and a living marsh. But the play areas do their part as well. Water used at the large splash pad, for example, is treated and then directed back through the marsh.
Zappos Says Farewell To Job Postings
Zappos Says Farewell To Job Postings
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Zappos has a new program called Zappos Insider, which can be found on their careers page. The Zappos Insider was created as a place for candidates to reference so they can learn more about the company and its culture. To do so, the candidates will need to become members of Zappos Insider.
By becoming a member, candidates have the opportunity to chat with Zappos Ambassadors. This interaction places them in a position of higher consideration when openings become available. The candidates who invest the time to enroll and learn more about the company are given preference. This process eliminates candidates who apply anywhere and everywhere. The Zappos Insider program encourages a more engaged relationship between the employer and prospective employees.
Solar Roadways installs energy harvesting parking lot
Solar Roadways installs energy harvesting parking lot. Roanoke’s Transportation Division has been in touch with the Brusaws since 2010 regarding their exciting R&D.
http://ht.ly/x6dtj
About 8 years ago, an electrical engineer and his counselor wife started throwing around an idea to replace asphalt on highways and byways throughout the US with electricity-producing solar panels that were tough enough to be driven upon. The idea blossomed into a project, where the panels featured built-in LEDs that could “paint the road” with markings and warnings, and could be heated to prevent snow and ice build up. The US Federal Highway Administration paid for the couple to produce a working prototype, which they did, and then again to expand the concept into an operational parking lot setup. As the latter contract comes to an end, the Solar Roadways project has released photos of the (almost) completed installation at its Idaho electronics lab. Now the team is dipping into crowd-funding waters with a campaign to raise funds for the move into commercial production.
the Solar Roadways project has hit Indiegogo (starting, appropriately enough, on Earth Day) to help raise enough money to hire a team of engineers and other professionals, streamline the production process and move into manufacturing proper.
A lofty funding target of $1 million has been set, and the project will receive all funding, even if the campaign goal is not met. Rewards include t-shirts, coffee mugs, a backer’s name engraved on one of the prototype’s 396 mounting hole covers, and samples of the toughened glass.
Be a Success in Life and Business with an Elevator Pitch
Be a Success in Life and Business with an Elevator Pitch
http://ht.ly/wu6gv
Your words are your most important competitive weapons. In this regard, your ability to deliver a compelling elevator pitch is crucial to achieve success. There are many situations where you have only a minute or two to make a positive first impression. You must be able to deliver a compelling and memorable message.
How Successful People Start their Day
How Successful People Start their Day
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All hours have sixty minutes, not all hours are created equal. Some will fly by as you are “in the flow,” doing something you find exciting and fulfilling.
In the summer of 2012, Fast Company looked at how successful people spend the first hour of their day, and not one included getting bogged down in tasks and processes.Just as we did in high school homeroom, our first hour should include private reflection, reviewing our schedule, catching up with our colleagues, and choosing the One Big Thing that you want to accomplish for that day.
#1 – Stay Away from the Minutia
#2 – Gain Awareness & Be Grateful
#3 – Choose Your Frog
#4 – Ask Yourself if You’re Doing What You Want to Do
Gardening plots at train stations let you raise veggies while you commute
Gardening plots at train stations let you raise veggies while you commute
http://ht.ly/vVAXS
With community garden plots atop train stations, Tokyo is solving two seemingly unrelated problems: Transit hubs can be ugly and industrial-looking, and city-dwellers often don’t have space to garden.
For about $82 a month, Tokyo residents can grow veggies, flowers, and herbs at one of five train station gardens, or “Soradofarms.” Those with thumbs more black than green can get advice, help looking for pests, and weeding assistance. Tools and seeds are provided too.
Not only does ripping up weeds sound therapeutic after a long day at work, but Fast Company says the spaces bring the community together, functioning almost like public parks. “For many, it’s just a place to come to relax,” writes Adele Peters. “[F]amilies come for picnics or to give their kids a little extra room to run around.”
The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders – Peter Diamandis
The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders
http://ht.ly/vHj50
In an era that feels starved for leadership, we’ve found men and women who will inspire you — some famous, others little known, all of them energizing their followers and making the world better. #43 Peter Diamandis – CEO, X Prize Foundation
Apart from the 14 other companies he has founded, Diamandis presides over X Prize Foundation, which hosts $10 million competitions to solve global problems. “He has an infectious optimism, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says futurist Ray Kurzweil. He makes “each person understand that their role is critical to the success of their organization and in turn that the overall project is critical to transforming the world.”
Delta Airlines Sky High on Roanoke Region
Delta Airlines Sky High on Roanoke Region
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Delta’s in-flight entertainment magazine Sky profiled the Roanoke Region for their April issue, which features Richard Branson on the cover.
Split into three parts over 30 pages, the profile features the best the Roanoke Region and the New River Valley have to offer in the realms of business and tourism. Beautiful photos of the area are spread throughout, interspersed with “My Roanoke” sidebars featuring quotes from locals such as Carilion Clinic CEO Nancy Agee, Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, musician Nicole Yun, and Robert Kulp and Mike Whiteside of Black Dog Salvage .
The feature begins by touting the region’s rebound from the Great Recession and its diverse economic turnaround in a section titled “Virginia in the Vanguard.” Roanoke’s health care industry, higher education, branding of the outdoors, and other factors, were cited as reasons for the region’s resurgence over the past decade.
The second segment of the profile focuses on the tourism industry, outdoor access, and cultural amenities of the region. Along with recommending a trip up Mill Mountain and a ride on the greenway, author Jenny Kincaid Boone lauded the growing craft beer and farm-to-table restaurant scenes, proving Roanoke is ahead of the cultural curve.
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet
Grow Salad In Your Kitchen Inside This Sleek Sensor-Driven Cabinet http://ht.ly/vVNB8
It started with an aquaponics system in a frat house. Now the two MIT grads want to scale the idea and make it easy to grow veggies right in your kitchen.
There’s plenty of excitement about urban farms using aquaponics and hydroponics. The idea of growing food closer to consumers means less fossil fuels burned, fewer chemical inputs, and fresher food. But logic says it should be possible to go further. Why stop with a farm somewhere on the edge of town? Why not bring it to the home and have even fresher food?
There are several home hydroponic systems on the market, such as this Internet-connected home garden, and even some involving fish. But what Grove Labs is talking about is more like an appliance, just like your fridge or washing machine.
To test out the OS, Blanchet and Byron are currently working with controlled-environment commercial farms in the northeast. Later this year, they’ll start prototyping the cabinet and piloting it in a few homes. The final product should be ready by the end of next year, Blanchet says. Grove has taken pre-orders.
N.H. city alderman sees need for Wellness Coordinator
N.H. city alderman sees need for wellness coordinator
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As city health costs soar, ‘wellness’ post pushed in Manchester
A member of the Board of Mayor and Alderman says he thinks the city can spend less on health coverage for employees by hiring a $48,000-per-year wellness coordinator to make sure municipal workers eat right, exercise and receive preventive medical care.
Alderman Garth Corriveau will renew his bid Tuesday to convince colleagues to create the position of city health and wellness officer in the Health Department.
The city is self-insured for most health claims and contracts; reinsurance companies cover excess coverage claims.
Corriveau said the goal for the new city job is to move city worker health plans from a system that pays fees for health care services to one that rewards good health. The wellness officer will try to teach city workers about the importance of good health practices and assist employees in working with the health insurance system.
”I believe with $40 million in annual spending, we can find massive amounts of savings; we can be more cost-effective,” Corriveau said. “I now believe this is an initiative we can’t afford not to do.”
The original 2010 proposal from Corriveau came soon after city Public Health Director Tim Soucy issued a “concept paper” on creation of an Employee Health and Wellness Program.
Soucy said at the time that a city wellness program could be constructed to look into “evidence-based practices that demonstrate reductions in municipal health care costs and improved health outcomes of city employees.”
The Bugs In Your Stomach Define You As Much – If Not More – Than Your Genes
The Bugs In Your Stomach Define You As Much–If Not More–Than Your Genes
http://ht.ly/vHho3
Every creature on earth has their own microbial community. This internal ecology determines how we digest food and resist disease and can even affect behavior or how often mosquitoes bite us. Rob Knight, a microbial ecologist, has concluded that microbes are as critical as the brain–they make each of us who we are.
“The three pounds of microbes [we carry] may be more important for some health conditions than every gene in our genome,” Knight says. We share 99.9% of our DNA with the people around us, but our microbes share only 10% similarity. The diversity in our microbial communities is astonishing and can help us differentiate health based on our genetic makeup from our health based on the way in which we developed as children.
Knight’s most recent project is called American Gut, an initiative to map the unique microbe makeup of individuals around the country to discover how our lifestyle and diet affect our health. But his discoveries have already unfurled exciting possibilities in understanding our bodies. This “microbial GPS” has the potential to transform human health from the early stages of life onward.
5 ways to be better at processing feedback
5 ways to be better at processing feedback
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Every leader needs honest feedback, but it’s all too easy to intimidate or stifle the people capable of giving it to you, writes Mary Jo Asmus. To get better feedback, stop being defensive and embrace criticism. “Someone giving their honest observations is like getting a gift carefully picked out especially for you,” Asmus writes
9 Ideas That Can Change Everything We Think About Cities
9 Ideas That Can Change Everything We Think About Cities
http://ht.ly/vlai8
By 2050, a staggering 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. (Right now it’s 51 percent.) That will be about 6.72 billion humans putting pressure on a lot of aging infrastructure.
The race is on for cities around the globe to meet the needs of a rising population amid a changing climate and a shifting technological landscape. The cities of the future will have to balance high-tech advances with sustainable living. Here are nine ways they can do that: http://ht.ly/vlai8
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever by:Alissa Walker
It seems counter-intuitive, right? Rip out eight lanes of freeway through the middle of your metropolis and you’ll be rewarded with not only less traffic, but safer, more efficient cities? But it’s true, and it’s happening in places all over the world.
Many freeway systems were overbuilt in an auto-obsessed era, only to realize later that cities are actually healthier, greener, and safer without them. Like freeway cap parks, which hope to bridge the chasms through severed neighborhoods—Boston’s Big Dig is a great example—freeway removal projects try to eradicate and undo the damage wrought from highways, while creating new, multifunctional shared streets that can be utilized by transit, bikes, walkers and yes, even cars.
Okay, you’re thinking, but where do all the cars go? It turns out that when you take out a high-occupancy freeway it doesn’t turn the surface streets into the equivalent of the Autobahn. A theory called “induced demand” proves that if you make streets bigger, more people will use them. When you make them smaller, drivers discover and use other routes, and traffic turns out to be about the same. Don’t believe it? Check out http://ht.ly/vdhTe to see freeway removals that have occured in cities all over the world.
Cradle to Cradle Product Standard Under Revision
Cradle to Cradle Product Standard Under Revision
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The Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard will be updated, and for the first time, outside input will be sought.
The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute’s certification standards board, an independent entity, said it is seeking more stakeholders in an effort to bring more transparency to the process.
The standards revision will continue throughout the year and will culminate in a new Cradle to Cradle Product Standards Revision to be finalized in the first quarter of 2015.
The call for advisors with scientific, academic, and/or industry expertise will be spread across the following five fields:
1. Material health examines whether ingredients are safe for human health and the environment
2. Material reutilization evaluates whether products can return safely to nature or industry after use
3. Renewable energy and carbon management measures the use of renewable energy in product manufacturing and assembly
4. Water stewardship determines whether product manufacturing processes protect water supplies
5. Social fairness evaluates the impact upon employees and communities involved in product production
This revision will result in Version 4 of the standard.
Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation turns dirty water into clean energy
Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation turns dirty water into clean energy http://ht.ly/tVQcH
As drought worsens in the western US, Cambrian Innovations aims to reduce water consumption and cost while making energy. Cambrian has federal and private equity funding, including $365,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s where we will go in the future, where waste is a resource and we don’t just want to get rid of it, we want to get energy out of it,” said April Richards of the EPA’s small-business innovation-research program.
Evolved from technology originally developed at MIT, a standard EcoVolt system can process daily flow rates between 10,000 and 300,000 gallons, depending on the number of modules. The prefabricated system “can be treated like more of a product and less like a project”, Silver claims.
A pilot test of the EcoVolt system already ran at the winemaker Clos du Bois, a division of beverage giant Constellation Brands. California brewer Bear Republic started its own pilot in January. Bear Republic already has a low wastewater-to-beer ratio, and the partnership will try to reduce the brewer’s outside electricity demands by half.
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s 14 ways to tell
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s 14 ways to tell
What makes some people more successful in work and life than others? IQ and work ethic are important, but they don’t tell the whole story. Our emotional intelligence — the way we manage emotions, both our own and those of others — can play a critical role in determining our happiness and success.
Plato said that all learning has some emotional basis, and he may be right. The way we interact with and regulate our emotions has repercussions in nearly every aspect of our lives. To put it in colloquial terms, emotional intelligence (EQ) is like “street smarts,” as opposed to “book smarts,” and it’s what accounts for a great deal of one’s ability to navigate life effectively.
“What having emotional intelligence looks like is that you’re confident, good at working towards your goals, adaptable and flexible. You recover quickly from stress and you’re resilient,” Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, tells The Huffington Post. “Life goes much more smoothly if you have good emotional intelligence.”
The five components of emotional intelligence, as defined by Goleman, are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social skills and empathy. We can be strong in some of these areas and deficient in others, but we all have the power to improve any of them.
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