Uncategorized

Nearly 25% of world population exposed to deadly city heat | Extreme weather | The Guardian

A rickshaw puller pours water on head during hot weather in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dhaka is the worst affected city in the world, experiencing 575 million person-days of extreme heat. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Amid surfaces such as concrete and asphalt, which trap and concentrate heat, and little vegetation, temperatures are generally higher in urban areas. “This has broad effects,” said Cascade Tuholske, the lead author of the study published in the journal PNAS and a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “It increases morbidity and mortality. It impacts people’s ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions.”

Source: Nearly 25% of world population exposed to deadly city heat | Extreme weather | The Guardian

Waste News

Iqaluit’s water crisis unveils a bigger problem: There’s no recycling in the Arctic  | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

Residents of Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut, have been without clean drinking water since last week. Photo by Timothy Neesam / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

“Unlike most southern Canadians, we have faced chronic, large, and growing municipal infrastructure gaps for decades,” wrote Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), an organization representing Inuit in Canada, in a forward to the report. “We currently have little to no direct decision-making involvement in the recycling, reduction, or diversion of the paper, cardboard, plastics, hazardous materials, and e-waste filling our landfills, threatening our freshwater supplies and locally harve

Source: Iqaluit’s water crisis unveils a bigger problem: There’s no recycling in the Arctic  | Canada’s National Observer: News & Analysis

Reuse Design

People We Meet: Steve Pierson, independent artistic guitar maker at Crude Luthier – Mission Local

Steve Pierson of Crude Luthier

Steve Pierson of Crude Luthier with one of his guitars at a 24th Street art walk last week. Photo by Anlan Cheney.

If he’s not collaborating with an artist, he likes to show off the reclaimed wood. He is partial to redwood from his old deck, red wine vats from Sonoma County, and the torn down polo fields in Golden Gate Park. The latter “is magical wood,” he said, “It just sings.”

Source: People We Meet: Steve Pierson, independent artistic guitar maker at Crude Luthier – Mission Local

Structure Reuse, Waste News

WindEurope CEO visits German cement plant that’s running on blade waste | WindEurope

On 4 October WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson visited Holcim’s Lägerdorf plant in Germany, together with Claudia Grotz of Siemens Gamesa and Chair of WindEurope’s Sustainability Working Group. They met the Geocycle team who are using wind turbines blade waste to generate heat and ash to help make cement. It’s currently the only such cement plant in Europe that’s using blade waste.

The organic content of blade waste is recovered as thermal energy while the mineral fraction of the waste is integrated as ash in the matrix of the cement clinker the plant produces.  This reduces the carbon footprint of cement production and makes it more resource efficient.  This is because the blade waste substitutes (partially) for fossil fuels in the incineration process and for other materials in the clinker production process.  One tonne of blade waste reduces CO2 emissions by 110 kg and saves 461 kg of raw materials.

Source: WindEurope CEO visits German cement plant that’s running on blade waste | WindEurope

Urban Blight to Farms, Waste News

A Ukrainian Oligarch Bought a Midwestern Factory and Let it Rot. What Was Really Going On? – POLITICO

A photo of downtown Harvard, Illinois, taken on July 11, 2009.

The story of Harvard suggests that lax U.S. laws around shell companies and real-estate purchases, in addition to a broader lack of regulatory oversight, may be putting America’s heartland in the crosshairs of elites like Kolomoisky. It’s a reality of global corruption that U.S. lawmakers are only just starting to grapple with: As money-launderers and illicit financiers hide their money in the American Midwest, they’ve become part of the story of the decline of small-town, blue-collar America.

Source: A Ukrainian Oligarch Bought a Midwestern Factory and Let it Rot. What Was Really Going On? – POLITICO

Structure Reuse

Garcia House: John Lautner’s modernist Los Angeles home renovated – Vogue Australia

The exterior stairwell, leading into the dining and kitchen area (at door), with original terrazzo floor.

In their quest to preserve Californian heritage, John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke have saved not one but two iconic homes. Early-1980s art has inspired the latest chapter in the enduring tale of the John Lautner-designed Garcia House in Los Angeles. Photographed by Roger Davies.

Source: Garcia House: John Lautner’s modernist Los Angeles home renovated – Vogue Australia

Reclamation Administration

Hatchery program at CHRHS to host community event, Oct. 23 | PenBay Pilot

Pittsburg and Denver, lets make this article accurate and let me assist you in creating a deconstruction ordinace!

 

The final presenter is Sara Badiali, “a very special guest” – said Salomon – who was instrumental in passing the “unprecedented deconstruction ordinance in Portland Oregon,” and has since helped other cities (Pittsburgh, Denver, etc.) pass similar ordinances and transition the wasteful demolition industry toward deconstruction which can save upwards of 90% of building material from heading to the landfill.

Source: Hatchery program at CHRHS to host community event, Oct. 23 | PenBay Pilot

Structure Reuse

Studio Bua turns Icelandic barn into artist’s studio

Reclaimed materials have been used where possible. The handrails on the first floor were made from plywood cut-offs from the interior cladding on the ground floor while outdoor seating furniture is formed from reclaimed concrete. All interior doors are reclaimed from the Reykjavik city recycling centre and the textile woollen curtain room partition in the studio was taken from the client’s previous family business inventory from the 1960s.

Source: Studio Bua turns Icelandic barn into artist’s studio

In Regards to LEED..., Reuse Design

Kirkland Breaks Ground On New 7-Story Apartment Building | Kirkland, WA Patch

The new seven-story building was designed to be eco-friendly and promote healthy living, developers said.

The building was developed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold standards and Puget Sound Energy’s Built Smart guidelines, with construction including reclaimed materials from the warehouse that used to occupy the site.

Source: Kirkland Breaks Ground On New 7-Story Apartment Building | Kirkland, WA Patch

Women in Deconstruction

‘Lean In’ circles help women in construction navigate bias

Sheet metal worker Carey Mercer assembles ductwork at Contractors Sheet Metal on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in New York. The construction industry is fighting to recruit more women into a sector that faces chronic labor shortages. As spending on infrastructure rises, construction firms will need to hire at least 430,000 new skilled laborers in 2021, according to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Builders and Contractors. Right now, only 4% of construction laborers in the U.S. are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)

Sheet metal worker Carey Mercer assembles ductwork at Contractors Sheet Metal on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in New York. The construction industry is fighting to recruit more women into a sector that faces chronic labor shortages. As spending on infrastructure rises, construction firms will need to hire at least 430,000 new skilled laborers in 2021, according to an analysis of federal data by the Associated Builders and Contractors. Right now, only 4% of construction laborers in the U.S. are women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen)

Yunmy Carroll, a veteran steamfitter, said a worker at a training session declared that women in construction are “whores.”

About 700 tradeswomen are participating the program, designed to help them navigate persistent bias and harassment on construction sites, from unwanted sexual advances to being assigned lesser duties like traffic control or fire watch.

Source: ‘Lean In’ circles help women in construction navigate bias

Waste News

Repurposing Single-Use Products in the Construction Industry | INN

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 11 million tons of asphalt roofing shingles are disposed of each year, contributing to over a million tons of waste produced by the roofing industry and companies are increasingly looking for methods to both offset their carbon footprint from re-using single-use products and find environmentally-friendly sourced products for their businesses. Landfills across North America are already over-crowded. Single-use asphalt shingles do not biodegrade or decompose and will sit in landfills for hundreds of years.

Source: Repurposing Single-Use Products in the Construction Industry | INN

Reuse Design

Architectural storytelling by Heliotrope Architects in NYC | Livegreenblog

Architectural storytelling by Heliotrope Architects in NYC

Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects has designed the renovation of the Filson NYC Flagship Store in mid-town Manhattan. It all originated with the conversion of a mattress shop that now houses an old barn, the central element in the architectural storytelling of the new shop.

Source: Architectural storytelling by Heliotrope Architects in NYC | Livegreenblog

Reuse Centers

US church faces neglect allegations after Haiti child deaths 

For a limestone mantel from the Waldorf Astoria, the church that owns the Olde Good Things antique stores asks for $8,500. But for the death of each child in a fire at a home it ran in Haiti, parents said the same church offered to pay just $50 to $100 in family compensation — along with $150 for funeral-related costs such as new clothes and transportation. The wealth of the Church of Bible Understanding in the United States has long stood in contrast with the shoddiness of its two children’s homes in Hai

Source: US church faces neglect allegations after Haiti child deaths

Reuse Centers

Haiti faults orphanage run by well-off US church – Story from 2013

At the Olde Good Things antique store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a French crystal chandelier can go for tens of thousands of dollars. A marble mantel sells for more than $20,000 and hand-carved dinner tables are priced even higher. The store’s Christian missionary owners offer their well-heeled customers a heart-warming story: Part of the proceeds pay for the group’s orphanage in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. What they don’t say is that even though they claim in IRS filings to be spending around $2.5 million annually, the home for boys and girls was so dirty and overcrowded during recent inspections that the government said it shouldn’t remain open.

Source: Haiti faults orphanage run by well-off US church

Markets

Pacaso Is Turning Houses Into Corporations : Planet Money : NPR

Brad Day and his neighbors in California’s Sonoma Valley have noticed a real estate startup is turning houses in their community into limited liability corporations. A group has formed to oppose the company’s moves. Day’s favorite sign reads, “The Pacaso house is the big one on the right with no soul.”
Brad Day

The company was co-founded by a Napa resident, and it converts houses into LLCs. Pacaso then sells shares of these corporate houses to multiple investors. Gardner Googled Pacaso, and, sure enough, the house on their cul-de-sac was on its website. The company had named the house “Chardonnay” and was now selling investors the chance to buy a one-eighth share of it for $606,000.

Source: Pacaso Is Turning Houses Into Corporations : Planet Money : NPR

Policy/Regulations/Government

Old-growth logging approvals in B.C. have gone up over the past year, report suggests | CBC News

Environmentalists worry old-growth logging approvals are increasing, which could be harmful for B.C.’s biodiversity. (The Wilderness Committee)

Old-growth logging approvals have gone up over the past year despite the B.C. government promising to protect old-growth forests, according to new research from an environmental group.

Source: Old-growth logging approvals in B.C. have gone up over the past year, report suggests | CBC News

Reuse Design

Combining comfort with cannabis | InspireDesign Innovative vision for today’s hotel

Scotia Lodge is so much more than just a hotel, rather it is a piece of the region’s rich and storied history.

Similar to the other ventures under the Humboldt Social brand, the design aesthetic of Scotia Lodge highlights the history and beauty of the North Coast, with an emphasis on reclaimed materials, vintage furnishings and lots of natural light.

Source: Combining comfort with cannabis | InspireDesign Innovative vision for today’s hotel

Reuse Design

Kansas City Man Turns Backyard Into ‘Jam Session Extraordinare’ For Musicians And Fans During COVID | KCUR 89.3 – NPR in Kansas City. Local news, entertainment and podcasts.

Performing on an improvised stage, trombonist Trevor Turla plays to the gathered crowd at The Raj Ma Hall, an outdoor concert venue in the Historic Northeast.Julie Denesha/ Performing on an improvised stage, trombonist Trevor Turla plays to the gathered crowd at The Raj Ma Hall, an outdoor concert venue in the Historic Northeast.

The yard is distinctive thanks to three rustic houses built from reclaimed materials. They’re the work of Roger MacBride, the sculptor and artist who lives here.

Source: Kansas City Man Turns Backyard Into ‘Jam Session Extraordinare’ For Musicians And Fans During COVID | KCUR 89.3 – NPR in Kansas City. Local news, entertainment and podcasts.

Markets

Will ThredUp’s Retail Partnerships Really Achieve a Circular Economy?

ThredUp 2021 Retail Report

In the 12 years since its launch, ThredUp has garnered a whopping total of 1.34 million active sellers, making its reach pretty damn high. But its impact on you — and on a much grander scale — the future of the planet is even greater than we previously thought, thanks to its Resale as a Service (or RaaS), a program that encourages retail partners to adopt a resale-first mindset and move towards a circular economy.

Source: Will ThredUp’s Retail Partnerships Really Achieve a Circular Economy?

Structure Reuse

‘People think you’re an idiot’: death metal Irish baron rewilds his estate | Conservation | The Guardian

Randal Plunkett at Dunsany Castle. He turned from a steak-eating bodybuilder with no interest in land, to a vegan on an environmental mission.

Randal Plunkett at Dunsany Castle. He turned from a steak-eating bodybuilder with no interest in land, to a vegan on an environmental mission. Photograph: Patrick Bolger

It is probably Ireland’s most ambitious attempt at rewilding on private land, an attempt to recreate a vanished landscape in a swath of County Meath, 20 miles north-west of Dublin.

Source: ‘People think you’re an idiot’: death metal Irish baron rewilds his estate | Conservation | The Guardian

In Regards to LEED...

Why Don’t Green Buildings Live Up to Hype on Energy Efficiency? – Yale E360

U.S. EPA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Analysts call it the “energy performance gap” — the difference between promised energy savings in green buildings and the actual savings delivered. The problem, researchers say, is inept modeling systems that fail to capture how buildings really work.

Source: Why Don’t Green Buildings Live Up to Hype on Energy Efficiency? – Yale E360

Landfill Mining

Today it’s cool, tomorrow it’s junk. We have to act against our throwaway culture | Jonathan Chapman | The Guardian

cobalt miners in congo

Cobalt mining in Congo: ‘In the urban mines of tomorrow, cobalt will be processed from broken flatscreens TVs, not acid-rinsed from a million tons of rubble.’ Photograph: Sebastian Meyer/Corbis/Getty Images

In the urban mines of tomorrow, gold will be extracted from old computers, not ore; cotton will be harvested from well-worn shirts, not fields; and cobalt will be processed from broken flatscreen TVs, not acid-rinsed from a million tons of rubble. If this all sounds like a pipe dream, note that the medals at the Tokyo Olympics are made of gold, silver and bronze recovered from the nation’s e-waste.

Source: Today it’s cool, tomorrow it’s junk. We have to act against our throwaway culture | Jonathan Chapman | The Guardian

Women in Deconstruction

Philly construction trades seek to recruit more women

Christina McNeill of Northeast Philadelphia (front) and other class members work with a trainer on physical strengthening exercises during the pre-apprenticeship program.

Christina McNeill of Northeast Philadelphia (front) and other class members work with a trainer on physical strengthening exercises during the pre-apprenticeship program.ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

“One of the ‘ah-ha’ moments was not to focus on high school seniors and young women,” Hoffman said. “Across the country, we’ve learned that many women make the choice to enter the trades in their mid-20s to mid-30s.” “They’ve been in the labor market. … They may have been in low-wage service jobs,” she said. “They are ready to look for something new, something that is high-paying because they may be needing to support children, and they are looking for the future.”

Source: Philly construction trades seek to recruit more women

Landfill Mining

Waste Not, Want Not: Grand Tajiguas Project Turns Proverb into Reality – The Santa Barbara Independent

In Gaviota: Tajiguas landfill’s 357 acres occupy the lower part of Cañada de la Pila. | Credit: Erick Madrid

“This will be a model of best practices for our country,” he said expansively of the new facility, citing the innovations and new technology it put into practice. “It’s great for addressing climate change through all the methane that won’t go into the air, the renewable energy we’re getting out of this, and the ability to divert trash from the landfill without the necessity of expanding it.”

Source: Waste Not, Want Not: Grand Tajiguas Project Turns Proverb into Reality – The Santa Barbara Independent

Policy/Regulations/Government

Deconstruction – Construction & Demolition Recycling

KAREN | AdobeStock

Pittsburgh officials aim to remove blight in neighborhoods by deconstructing city-owned properties that are condemned but not slated for demolition. The deconstruction will involve stripping buildings of useful materials to preserve their integrity so that they can be used in other building applications, according to the city.

Source: Deconstruction – Construction & Demolition Recycling

Maritime Deconstruction

Salmon face extinction throughout the US west. Blame these four dams | Fish | The Guardian

Lower Granite Dam seen on the Snake River in Pomeroy, Washington on Monday, May 10, 2021. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, has proposed breaching the Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Granite, Lower Monumental dams along the Snake River to help save the endangered salmon runs.

Lower Granite Dam seen on the Snake River in Pomeroy, Washington. Photograph: Mason Trinca/The Guardian

In 2016, it was reported that the four dams were producing on average over 1,000 megawatts of energy each year – or enough to power 800,000 American homes. But as the renewable energy sector continues to shift and hydropower competes against low-cost renewable energy, including solar and wind, there is some uncertainty when it comes to what the future will look like for the industry. Against this backdrop, more than $17bn has been spent in recent decades as part of federal salmon recovery efforts.

Source: Salmon face extinction throughout the US west. Blame these four dams | Fish | The Guardian

Maritime Deconstruction

Plan to remove 4 dams near Oregon-California border clears major hurdle – oregonlive.com

An aerial view of the Iron Gate Dam, powerhouse and spillway on the lower Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif.

This March 3, 2020, file photo, shows the Iron Gate Dam, powerhouse and spillway on the lower Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)AP

If the dams remained, PacifiCorp would likely have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit the structures to comply with today’s environmental laws. As it is, the utility has said the electricity generated by the dams no longer makes up a significant part of its power portfolio.

Source: Plan to remove 4 dams near Oregon-California border clears major hurdle – oregonlive.com

Maritime Deconstruction

Dams may release about twice as much carbon as they store | Popular Science

a dam reservoir storing carbon

“Carbon emissions from dams had been significantly underestimated,” wrote Matthias Koschorreck, a biogeochemist and the study’s senior author, in a press release. Where climate policymakers had once considered them a carbon sink, he argues, they should now be thought of as a source.

Source: Dams may release about twice as much carbon as they store | Popular Science

Policy/Regulations/Government

Support the creation of the Mendocino Coast Redwood Forest Reserve – Mendocino Trail Stewards


Petition

Governor Newsom, Cal Fire, and the California Natural Resources Agency continue to pay lip service to the climate emergency while promoting commercial logging and road building as appropriate responses to the wildfire crisis. They spend millions of dollars on a PR campaign for Nature-Based Solutions, but move forward with business as usual, promoting and approving the logging of millions of acres across the state, burning massive quantities of fossil fuel just to destroy our best ally in our fight to have

Source: Mendocino Trail Stewards

Structure Reuse

Amazon is buying up dead malls–adaptive reuse, or just eating its prey? | News | Archinect

Macy’s, 2018. Image © Jesse Rieser

“I’ve seen the economic development happen to our community — it’s frustrating on a local level,” he said. “But, at the same time, I see a regular list of articles about Amazon building here and Amazon building there. I’m not sure any of us really fully understand the implications because it’s happening so so fast.”

Source: Amazon is buying up dead malls–adaptive reuse, or just eating its prey? | News | Archinect

Markets

‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees | Environment | The Guardian

Thousands of logs seen from overhead at a timber terminal. Sweden is the world’s third biggest exporter of pulp, paper and sawn timber

‘Natural forests are not renewable. Trees can be planted, but not forests.’ They added: ‘If you plant pine trees, you get a timber field, not a forest. Real forests are complex ecosystems, a bedrock of a multitude of life and home for many species’

Source: ‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees | Environment | The Guardian

Reclamation Administration: News and Research on Building Material Waste Prevention