Portland is surprising

Last Sunday we returned to Spain, and before comig back to the routine at the EOI, I would like to express a bunch of interesting ideas we caught up during the study trip in Portland (Oregon).

     •  How to reuse contaminated soil

By walking along Portland downtown we came across this peculiar park.

This sweet environment has been created on the top of a former contaminated industrial site.

Rainwater falls on the slope of the park and it is collected and treated within this eco-friendly place. This is absolutely an amazing initiative to spread out to many other industrial areas.

The design is centered on the basic idea of filtering the water of such a rainy place, like Portland is, in the park as a green filter, instead of collecting this water into stormdrains. This down to Earth concept is complemented with high-tech, with an ultra violet light system to remove all those patogens that after the filtering process still may exist. In conclusion, no chemical are used to treat water in this close system. The system is long term sustainable by itself.

• Opportunities in green construction

 Green buildings are healthy places to live and work, and they must be by definition well-integrated into pedestrian and transit-friendly neighborhoods. One of the most significant consequences of this way of living is that citizens are a lot safer, healthier, and their productivity as workers is much higher than among workers living on the traditional way. There are so many things that can be done in order to develop this sytem in other places and still in advanced places with this technology, the potential to improve is really high.

                    –   Architecture:  Daylighting, passive solar design, water capture and reuse.

                    –   Engineering: Natural ventilation.

                    –   Construction:

                               Energy: Photovoltaic panels, fuel cells

                               Drywall: High recycled content

                               Construction waste recovery

                               Waste materials: Recycled plastic

                               Windows and doors: High-performance, energy-efficient products

• LEED

The LEED green building certification program encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through a suite of rating systems that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance.  The most important goals are:

• Sustianable sites
• Water efficiency
• Energy
• Materials ans Resources
• Innovation

• Natural food stocks:

They offer an abundant selection of organic produce, an amply stocked organic and natural  grocery section, a right from-scratch deli & bakery with an entrée, soup & salad bar. Furthermore they work hard to  strengthen their relationships with local farmers and locally produced products.

One of these stores is in Salem . These guys offer a huge selection of options that should be taken into account.

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MERME /

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