Comments on: Sustainable Design Starts with Trees

By: Garden Beet

Garden Beet — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:26:05 +0000

great post – you will be pleased to know that many governments (in Aust. at least) have streetscape strategies that involved planting trees along many roadside verges.

Trees can create an immense change to streetscape character as well as provide other environmental benefits. There is no reason why cities can not have trees incorporated into the urban design.

By: Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis

Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:47:01 +0000

Cities are actually slowly moving to become more environmentally friendly. Cities across the globe are increasing designing and retrofitting buildings to be more green. Most recently PNC Financial Services Group completed the installation of a six story living green wall, which the company claims is largest such structure in North America

There are two types of green walls, with one called a green façade, composed of climbing plants, such as ivy, adhering to a building. The other type, which PNC has, is a living wall on the side of the building that is separated from the actual building structure by anywhere from a few inches to a foot, and is composed of modular panels of vegetation with irrigation systems.

These living walls are also designed so that they don’t produce fruit, and don’t attract pests. Living green walls are becoming more prominent in urban areas because studies have shown that such plant structures do reduce the overall temperatures of their buildings, which in turn lower energy consumption.

Randy Sharp, a principal at Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture Inc, wrote in an article for Building Design + Construction, that “the reintroduction of vegetation into cities has been correlated with the reduction of the urban heat island effect, and therefore will reduce energy consumption. Cities are cooler and quieter through shading, evaporative transpiration, and the absorption of sound by green walls.”

The full article that I wrote is called ‘PNC Achieves New Green Milestone: The Largest Living Wall in North America,’ which also has a link to Mr. Sharp’s article, can be read at: http://www.greenvitals.net/greenvitalsnet/2009/11/2/pnc-achieves-new-green-milestone-the-largest-living-wall-in.html

By: Sustainable Design Starts with Trees | The Seed of the Tree of Tomorrow

Sustainable Design Starts with Trees | The Seed of the Tree of Tomorrow — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:39:43 +0000

[...] Design Starts with Trees October 6th, 2009 Sustainable Design Starts with Trees August 05th, 2009 5 Comments Posted in Climate Change, Sustainable Lifestyle by Kait [...]

By: Zenab

Zenab — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:49:26 +0000

Good Article, i like the way you have enhanced the value of nature if every human bieng becomes sustainable. Thanks Zenab green journal - environment directory

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:22:19 +0000

What about cities located in semi-arid or arid regions that, prior to urban development, supported little or no tree growth? It seems that tree plantings in such areas would be unsustainable.

By: gcastillo5665

gcastillo5665 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:38:21 +0000

I myself prefer living in the city, as opposed to anywhere else. But thriving cities like L.A. are filled with pollution, toxins, and carcinogens. Trees and plant life are pleasing to the eye, and are of course a benefit to the environment and the overall well-being of our planet. Every city should be doing its part to plant more trees, if only for the better of our world.
gcastillo5665´s last blog ..Tunnels of Sun

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:30:07 +0000

Since the Industrial Revolution the urban environment has been plagued with unsanitary conditions. Even though this has improved substantially, we are now faced with another dilemma. Our cities are severely polluted. On a bad day visibility in Mexico City is a few km. Even though this might be an extreme case, what is being done to reduce air pollution? This article discusses an “environmental fix” to our human induced problem. It makes sense. Trees help with carbon sequestration, and help reduce the urban heat island affect. Increasing tree coverage would not only be a positive public health measure but it also contributes to a more sustainable design of the urban city.

By: Silent Spring

Silent Spring — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:53:42 +0000

Nice article. But too idealistic. It could work but modern day society would need to adopt a radically new attitude towards their local environment and I just don’t see this happening anytime soon.

Cities are a completely different type of entity to forests. The mood and feel of cities invokes an attitude and a feeling that often contrasts sharply with the feelings one would feel within a more ‘green’ environment.

Some people love the feeling of cities. They like the feel of its hardness, its solidity and its predictability. They love the speed of the city, they love its flow. These people don’t really care for trees, plants and the like.

I don’t belong to this group but I am well aware of their existence. They will find it difficult to understand the usefulness of trees.

I wish we could develop more, lush ‘greener’ urban environments but there is an intrinsic incompatibility between cities and ecological entities like forests.
Silent Spring´s last blog ..Nature is hitting back