After the rain of today and the rain of tonight My mind drifts to storm water runoff.
A vegetated roof allows us to reduce the amount of impervious space we have, especially in our urban environments.
Here is a test we can all do right after a significant rain event. (if your anywhere on the east coast today was a significant rain event!!!)
Go look at a large body of water and make your own opinion on how clean or more likely dirty the water is.
If your in Baltimore go check out the inner harbor tomorrow.
Impervious space allows for 100% of the rain water to become runoff, collecting dirt, trash, oil, gas, and other grime and carrying it directly to bodies of water.
If our buildings had vegetated roofs the impact would be greatly reduced. During normal rain events a vegetated roof will store 75% of the storm water and the other 25% will become runoff but only after hours have passed as it must make it's way through the plants, media, drainage mats, root barriers, and then finally to the roof and roof drainage system.
This can have a massive impact on the health and cleanliness of our water and the Eco systems that depend on it. Oh and don't forget the crabs you ate this summer or the oysters you will have this fall.
It is unrealistic to think we can eliminate the roads and sidewalks that contribute to the mass of impervious space in urban environments but the roof can be our opportunity.
Help us share this idea. Visit us at www.greenroofgiveaway.com and tell a nonprofit about it so they can help us make our community a better place.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Corporate Profits and Hiring
This article was broght to my attention by my twitter friend @LeahThayer http://nyti.ms/ce6BvE
It is a wonderfully debatable topic. With Corporate profits heading upwards and Unemployment rates still lagging is it fair to beat up corporate America?
If the companies were able to cut payrolls and increase revenue or profits then I believe those CEO's deserve the gratitude of all their shareholders. If they were able to pull the double whammy off then clearly they were running fat and some good people were given the chance to shine and unfortunately some good people were let go.
The statement in the article is "Until we value our workers..." I would venture to say that for those who remain employed their value has risen tremendously. Finding the people in your organization that can make it happen is energizing to the leadership as well as the whole company.
If these companies did not share their success with these people than shame on them and they will not hold onto that superstar for very long.
I will admit that a change has occurred. Materials take longer to get. Phones and questions take longer to get answered. The marketplace is adjusting to this. My days are longer and more challenging, but that just makes me feel like we were cruising on easy street. Everyone was chasing the bubbles and easy money. Very few were actually working hard. I thought we were working hard but it is truly amazing what we are capable of when crisis hits.
I think it is a mistake to drag these companies through the mud when it appears their balance sheets are healthier and the employees who survived are better served by the refocusing of their efforts.
I believe any move to hire people back just because profits are up is an inherent disregard for how business works. Instead they should be looking to reinvest those profits into R&D to find new ways to grow their business.
Could it be, we are entering into a promising period where our ingenuity and drive will transform our country. I see articles all the time about people who lost their job and decided to start their own business. Most had wanted to do it but fear prevented them. Take away the steady paycheck and the fear went away… nothing to lose.
Some amazing things will come from those people and hopefully they will build their companies and be able to hire some of those without a job.
It is a wonderfully debatable topic. With Corporate profits heading upwards and Unemployment rates still lagging is it fair to beat up corporate America?
If the companies were able to cut payrolls and increase revenue or profits then I believe those CEO's deserve the gratitude of all their shareholders. If they were able to pull the double whammy off then clearly they were running fat and some good people were given the chance to shine and unfortunately some good people were let go.
The statement in the article is "Until we value our workers..." I would venture to say that for those who remain employed their value has risen tremendously. Finding the people in your organization that can make it happen is energizing to the leadership as well as the whole company.
If these companies did not share their success with these people than shame on them and they will not hold onto that superstar for very long.
I will admit that a change has occurred. Materials take longer to get. Phones and questions take longer to get answered. The marketplace is adjusting to this. My days are longer and more challenging, but that just makes me feel like we were cruising on easy street. Everyone was chasing the bubbles and easy money. Very few were actually working hard. I thought we were working hard but it is truly amazing what we are capable of when crisis hits.
I think it is a mistake to drag these companies through the mud when it appears their balance sheets are healthier and the employees who survived are better served by the refocusing of their efforts.
I believe any move to hire people back just because profits are up is an inherent disregard for how business works. Instead they should be looking to reinvest those profits into R&D to find new ways to grow their business.
Could it be, we are entering into a promising period where our ingenuity and drive will transform our country. I see articles all the time about people who lost their job and decided to start their own business. Most had wanted to do it but fear prevented them. Take away the steady paycheck and the fear went away… nothing to lose.
Some amazing things will come from those people and hopefully they will build their companies and be able to hire some of those without a job.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Clean Energy... An opportunity for America
Set your political views aside for a minute and just think about the opportunity our country has in front of it. We pride ourselves as being a country of innovators, inventors, and creators. We also stand up for freedom across all boundaries and believe that humans have an inherent right to freedom. Clean Energy sits squarely on all these principles. Having the ability to generate your own electricity, heat, or clean water could be a power shifting movement. That creates huge amounts of fear in people because it is change and we all fear change.
The United States trails most European countries in the deployment of renewable energy resources and yes, they were forced to do this out of necessity. They lacked the wealth of natural resources that we are blessed to have. We do however, understand that even our natural resources have a finite existence. With this in mind is it OK for us to just sit and wait for that to happen then go to Germany or China and ask for there technology? Seems like a shift in power to me.
The attached video is driven by a political group, don't ignore this just, take the video at face value and decide for yourself if what the guy is saying makes sense.
This is not an easy river to navigate but if we choose not to get in the water, we will still be standing on the banks when the flood comes...
http://bit.ly/a9ot3v
The United States trails most European countries in the deployment of renewable energy resources and yes, they were forced to do this out of necessity. They lacked the wealth of natural resources that we are blessed to have. We do however, understand that even our natural resources have a finite existence. With this in mind is it OK for us to just sit and wait for that to happen then go to Germany or China and ask for there technology? Seems like a shift in power to me.
The attached video is driven by a political group, don't ignore this just, take the video at face value and decide for yourself if what the guy is saying makes sense.
This is not an easy river to navigate but if we choose not to get in the water, we will still be standing on the banks when the flood comes...
http://bit.ly/a9ot3v
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
My Thoughts... somewhat random and emotional, on BP, Solar Panels, and what we want
For every kW of Solar installed it offsets roughly 41.4 barrels of oil over its 25 year life span.
So they said it was 3000 barrels a day pouring into the gulf, if we installed a 72.4 kW solar array on a commercial building we would offset that in 25 years.
Now they say it’s 60,000 barrels a day. Ok, not to worry we can offset that in 25 years by building a 1.44 mW system.
I'm not talking cleaning, I'm talking eliminating.
Did you know we can put a 1.44 mW system on a 150,000 square foot roof. That’s 500’ by 300’. That’s a big array and a big building but…
How big is your Walmart? Your Target? Your son or daughter’s elementary, middle , or high school? How about your office building, your warehouse?
No comments about stabilizing your business overhead or reducing operating expenses. Just think about the shift in need. Less drilling, less pipelines, less importing from people we aren’t really sure we want to import from…
Many of the companies I mentioned are moving in this direction. I’m sure their reasons vary but they are moving. The problem is we are trying to change the thinking in a world stuck in a recession. Cash and lending are tight as we sit around and wait for the next shoe to drop. Could this disaster and the restoration, occurring at a snail’s pace, help give momentum to a movement?
I’m not an engineer so I hesitate to pass judgment on the men and women working to fix the problem. I would rather focus on eliminating the potential for the problem. This isn’t about being green or trying to protect mother earth for our children. This is about how do we do things and why are so afraid of change.
As a lose control expert thinks, by the way I am not one of those either, when an accident occurs we spend countless hours examining and investigating it so we can prevent it from happening again. Along with accident investigation and training comes prevention analysis. How could we have avoided the accident? Where is the potential for an accident?
BP and the other Oil companies will tell us how they will prevent this from happening again but can they really? Oil rigs are dangerous business, #14 on the list of most dangerous jobs. http://bit.ly/97BDa5
So can we rely on them to really think without the parameters that the company buys and sells oil? I think they would be doing a disservice to their shareholders if they did that. No, we cannot rely on them. We need to, as a society, think about how we want our world to look.
We have a free source of power floating in the sky every day. From 93 million miles away it has the power to evaporate water and burn our skin. That’s a powerful energy source.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, solar is expensive. It could only be perceived to be expensive because there is no cost associated to polluting. I will not go the route of a political discussion on the government taxing pollution, we’ll save that for another day. What we can agree on is solar has an expense to it and there are costs, be it monetary or otherwise to use fossil fuel power. With that being said what is the true cost associated to our dependency on oil. Is it a catastrophe every 20 or so years (Valdez)? How many more can we afford? How many more do we want to endure? If the solution is there just maybe not wrapped in a box with a bow on it are we not the fearless, the determined, the innovators.
This has been all over the place but my frustration with the BP spill has my mind racing. There is plenty to read on this and it’s hard to decide who to believe. Why believe anyone? The BP’s of our world are a machine with deep pockets and we have been taught to have an inherent need for their services. The question is do we need to be so dependent. Many people have learned the hard way about diversification. Clearly renewable energy, Solar, Wind, Geothermal, etc, are a way of diversifying our energy needs. We have the technology to change some of the potential hazards we currently accept as a “part of doing business.” We just have to change the way we think about them.
So they said it was 3000 barrels a day pouring into the gulf, if we installed a 72.4 kW solar array on a commercial building we would offset that in 25 years.
Now they say it’s 60,000 barrels a day. Ok, not to worry we can offset that in 25 years by building a 1.44 mW system.
I'm not talking cleaning, I'm talking eliminating.
Did you know we can put a 1.44 mW system on a 150,000 square foot roof. That’s 500’ by 300’. That’s a big array and a big building but…
How big is your Walmart? Your Target? Your son or daughter’s elementary, middle , or high school? How about your office building, your warehouse?
No comments about stabilizing your business overhead or reducing operating expenses. Just think about the shift in need. Less drilling, less pipelines, less importing from people we aren’t really sure we want to import from…
Many of the companies I mentioned are moving in this direction. I’m sure their reasons vary but they are moving. The problem is we are trying to change the thinking in a world stuck in a recession. Cash and lending are tight as we sit around and wait for the next shoe to drop. Could this disaster and the restoration, occurring at a snail’s pace, help give momentum to a movement?
I’m not an engineer so I hesitate to pass judgment on the men and women working to fix the problem. I would rather focus on eliminating the potential for the problem. This isn’t about being green or trying to protect mother earth for our children. This is about how do we do things and why are so afraid of change.
As a lose control expert thinks, by the way I am not one of those either, when an accident occurs we spend countless hours examining and investigating it so we can prevent it from happening again. Along with accident investigation and training comes prevention analysis. How could we have avoided the accident? Where is the potential for an accident?
BP and the other Oil companies will tell us how they will prevent this from happening again but can they really? Oil rigs are dangerous business, #14 on the list of most dangerous jobs. http://bit.ly/97BDa5
So can we rely on them to really think without the parameters that the company buys and sells oil? I think they would be doing a disservice to their shareholders if they did that. No, we cannot rely on them. We need to, as a society, think about how we want our world to look.
We have a free source of power floating in the sky every day. From 93 million miles away it has the power to evaporate water and burn our skin. That’s a powerful energy source.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, solar is expensive. It could only be perceived to be expensive because there is no cost associated to polluting. I will not go the route of a political discussion on the government taxing pollution, we’ll save that for another day. What we can agree on is solar has an expense to it and there are costs, be it monetary or otherwise to use fossil fuel power. With that being said what is the true cost associated to our dependency on oil. Is it a catastrophe every 20 or so years (Valdez)? How many more can we afford? How many more do we want to endure? If the solution is there just maybe not wrapped in a box with a bow on it are we not the fearless, the determined, the innovators.
This has been all over the place but my frustration with the BP spill has my mind racing. There is plenty to read on this and it’s hard to decide who to believe. Why believe anyone? The BP’s of our world are a machine with deep pockets and we have been taught to have an inherent need for their services. The question is do we need to be so dependent. Many people have learned the hard way about diversification. Clearly renewable energy, Solar, Wind, Geothermal, etc, are a way of diversifying our energy needs. We have the technology to change some of the potential hazards we currently accept as a “part of doing business.” We just have to change the way we think about them.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Dipping a toe in the water
We have a deep respect for relationships. As a 90+ year old company we know that a large portion of our business comes from being part of the old Baltimore establishment. We are honored to be a member but we also recognize that just being old doesn't mean people know who we are. Or better yet, even if they have heard of us, do they know why we do what we do!
We have spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to understand the dynamics of evolving from a company leaning on long-term... some very long-term relationships, with the desire to reach new people.
Baltimore is a small town, with very loyal, civic-pride oriented people. There are also a lot of new faces. With this in mind we have committed to reintroducing ourselves to the community. You will see us dipping our toe in the water on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. We will be at networking events for many groups, and we will continue to give back to the community in many of the ways we always have as well as some new ones!
We have seen the Baltimore Orioles(as a AAA team) go 100-48 and we are working every day to be here when they win 100 games again.
Thanks for following, we truly appreciate it!
We have spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to understand the dynamics of evolving from a company leaning on long-term... some very long-term relationships, with the desire to reach new people.
Baltimore is a small town, with very loyal, civic-pride oriented people. There are also a lot of new faces. With this in mind we have committed to reintroducing ourselves to the community. You will see us dipping our toe in the water on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter. We will be at networking events for many groups, and we will continue to give back to the community in many of the ways we always have as well as some new ones!
We have seen the Baltimore Orioles(as a AAA team) go 100-48 and we are working every day to be here when they win 100 games again.
Thanks for following, we truly appreciate it!
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