Sustainability,Urbanism

The True North Strong and Green?

THURSDAY , October 27, 2011 | BY  

For the first time since Greenbuild’s inception, the annual green building tour de force was held outside the United States – in Toronto, Canada.

Being a Canadian, albeit that I am from Montreal and we have somewhat of a rivalry with Toronto, I was excited that the event was taking place in my native land. Growing up in Canada is part of the reason I feel a strong connection to the natural world. The country has 10 percent of the world’s forests, 25 percent of the world’s wetlands, and 7 percent of the world’s renewable water supply. Even the staunchest urban dwellers have experienced a night of camping under the stars, swimming in a freshwater lake, or being munched on by black flies during a trek through the woods. In fact, Canadians take nature and its resources so much for granted that we shamefully use more oil per capita than the US and almost as much water.

I was naturally curious as to what would distinguish this year’s event from previous Greenbuild conferences I had attended in Chicago, Boston or Phoenix. Now that the event was in its tenth year, what new and innovative topics would be discussed, and would any be Canuck-specific? How were environmental issues in Canada translated with respect to the global green building industry? Would there be lessons learned from the world’s top producer of hydropower? And how were some of the more controversial topics, such as certified wood, which has tremendous impacts on the Canadian lumber industry, being addressed?

In many respects, this was the best Greenbuild I have attended. FXFOWLE had a tremendous opportunity to share our work by presenting at two educational sessions, giving an interview to GreenSource magazine, and participating in a benchmarking roundtable between New York and Canadian governments. Unfortunately, this did not leave much room to attend many educational sessions, but those I did attend were well worthwhile. Other colleagues I spoke with also felt that the content at this year’s event was of a high caliber.

Yet at one point during the conference, I caught myself feeling as though I was not in Canada. True, there was a smattering of introductory words in French. Tom Friedman gave his eloquent keynote address under the old Stanley Cup banners at Maple Leaf Gardens, and to the credit of the conference organizers, there was a dedicated educational track entitled “The Best of Canada.”

However, these tokens of recognition did not get to the critical issues. Perhaps I missed them, but where were the discussions and debates about the Alberta tar sands – which are toxic, extremely greenhouse gas, energy, and water intensive? Or that the US imports more crude oil and petroleum from Canada than any other country in the world, much of which comes from this controversial source? What about the Boreal forests – which take up more than half of the country’s landmass and contain almost 40% of the planet’s carbon? In a country who is the third largest exporter of forestry products, why were there no sessions addressing issues of wood sourcing?

At future Greenbuild conferences, I hope that this opportunity to deeply educate and inform from a regional perspective is not missed. We must recognize that we build in a global society where a single construction product or commodity can have very complex international DNA. As sustainable designers and builders, we cannot afford to avoid controversial environmental questions, nor draw borders around them.

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Design,Sustainability,Technology

A Day in the Sun, part 2

TUESDAY , March 1, 2011 | BY  

Pascale continues her conversation with Minnie more about the process of developing and building the FabLab house.

Describe the FabLab team and your roles?
Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), with whom we collaborated, selected seven researchers from around the world, including Japan, Taiwan, Lithuania, Australia, France, and Mexico. We were in charge of design, structure, 3D modeling, communication with engineers and consultants, constructions documents, and actual construction.

Photo by ADRIÀ GOULA

As a LEED Architectural Design was there a sustainable system, either active or passive, that you learned while working on the FabLab house?
Instead of thinking of either active or passive systems, the Fablab house approached sustainability with four points.

Form follows energy: If the twentieth century championed the premise that ‘form follows function,’ the 21st century will be about ‘form follows energy.’ The house is no longer a machine but an organism to be inhabited.

A climate-passive structure: The Fab Lab House uses the resources of its environment—sun, water and wind—to create a microclimate that passively optimizes the basic conditions of habitability.

A house, a tree: A house is like a tree that captures energy with its solar ‘leaves’ and sends it down to its roots, where it is stored, shared, or returned to the house to produce the fruit of electricity.

A domestic metabolism: The house’s control system is designed to provide detailed real-time monitoring of its behavior and its interaction with the environment, creating historical profiles and sharing these socially.

What are some lessons learned?
FabLab house’s goal is to not industrialize production but to allow any person to manufacture a home anywhere in the world, from the platform of FabLabs, or Fabrication Laboratories. Most importantly, we can build a house with our own hands. In looking for a suitable structural system that also allowed us to fabricate digitally, we found Alvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Cecil Balmond’s Serpentine pavilion to be a great example of how to put parts together with minimal tolerance.

What were the challenges in constructing in the elements?
We proposed a pre-fabricated wooden construction in which all its structural components are computerized numerical controlled (CNC) cut from 2.5m x 12m laminated veneer lumber (LVL) sheets. All 3000 pieces have their own unique names, and keeping track of them and grouping them properly is the key for fast construction. Similar to a giant 3D puzzle, once you find A-1, you know the next piece would be A-2 and so on. These pieces combined into twenty portions that were assembled at IAAC’s warehouse in Barcelona then transported to Madrid. This ensured we had all the correct parts and reduced on site modification. Each structural member had a 1-2 mm tolerance. However, not all pieces were precut correctly, but since we were using wood it was simple to modify the pieces on site.

Provided by Daisuke Nagatomo & Minnie Jan

Describe the design, construction and exhibition processes?
The design and construction proceeded in parallel rather than linearly. The Solar Decathlon Europe organization gave feed back after each construction document submission and each team needed to modify and comply with all rules and regulations before entering the next stage. The process included ten days of construction and inspections, then ten days of competition during which the projects were open to public, and the four days of disassembly. In all, we had about 190,000 visitors to the Villa Solar, as the competition grounds were called.

How does it feel to have won the People’s Choice award?
We wanted to break the traditional box-shape solar house, and had taken a very high risk to create a visually striking image. It was very encouraging to know that the general public could appreciate our effort and enjoy their stay at the FabLab house.

Photo by ADRIÀ GOULA

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Design,Sustainability,Technology

A Day in the Sun, part 1

TUESDAY , February 22, 2011 | BY  

The recent controversy surrounding the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which this year is being displaced from its traditional sight on the National Mall in Washington DC to a yet to be decided venue, prompted me to learn more about this event.  I took the opportunity to talk to my former FXFOWLE colleague Minnie Jan, who participated with her team FabLab in the Solar Decathlon Europe in 2010.

The Solar Decathlon occurs every two years, in Europe on the even years, in America on the odd years, and China is set to join in 2013. Collaborating with the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC), the FabLab team produced a provocative design for a net zero home designed for a specific location, 2010’s site was in Madrid, with its particular solar resource and climatic demands.

Photograph by Daisuke Nagatomo & Minnie Jan

FabLab’s design, a rounded, solar panel coated, passive house assembled from prefabricated wood glulam panels that form an ellipsoid rib-like structure, rises on piloti of sorts to create air circulation space beneath the home and to impact the site minimally. Simultaneously, as the passive design increases in efficiency, intelligent systems become increasingly effective in monitoring and controlling the home’s temperature and energy use.

Fascinated with the design, I asked Minnie Jan more about the process.

How was working in Spain? How different or similar was the construction methods?
As a first timer in Spain, I found it incredibly beautiful and full of history. However, Spain is extremely hot and humid during summer, so we considered those factors in figuring tolerances for a wood construction house. Solar Decathlon Europe is a competition between universities from all over the world, but all construction methods have to comply with U.S. codes or standard codes of the schools locales.

What was the most challenging aspect of the home design process, why?
There were three challenges: geometry, space, and construction.  A standard paraboloid section is suitable for solar tracking—per year per day. We deformed it to get optimal orientation for summer—narrowing to the west, eastward widening and flattening toward the zenith of 70 degrees. The freedom of the paraboloid prototype model allowed us to swiftly and smoothly adapt the prototype’s envelope.

Provided by Daisuke Nagatomo & Minnie Jan

The FabLab House’s rounded shape maximizes internal volume with minimal exterior surface, and it elevates off the ground upon three ‘legs’ in order to create a space under the house for certain outdoor activities. Using the house itself to create shaded space allows cooled air to be introduced into the home for natural ventilation. This simultaneously creates a comfortable outdoor space that doubles the living area. These three ‘legs’ are structural and provide special points for programs and technical equipment for ground level access.

Solar Decathlon Europe required all homes to be assembled and disassembled on site at Madrid in ten days. Thus we designed the house so it could separate into 20 parts and be transported by five trucks. All plumbing and electricity were also pre-designed to be connected on site and be fully functional.

Provided by Daisuke Nagatomo & Minnie Jan

What programs or equipment did FabLab use to prepare the design for construction?
The maximum solar incident radiation in Madrid informed the prototype, so we used Ecotec to adjust the building position to maximize the surface area for solar panels. Achieving a desired volume and footprint, we then used Rhino to construct a precise 3D model, including plug-ins such as Grasshopper, to produce the necessary information for digital fabrication.

Next post I’ll talk with Minnie more about the process of developing and building the FabLab house. READ MORE >

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Culture,Design

Mourning the Loss of the SunChips Bag

FRIDAY , November 5, 2010 | BY  

 

Given the vast amount of trash that continues to pour into our landfills and coagulate in the Pacific Ocean each day, the recent backlash against the SunChips eco-friendly bag is a sad reflection on American consumers. Made by Frito-Lay and introduced to US shoppers earlier this year,  the revolutionary SunChips bags are made from a plant-based material that biodegrades quickly in landfills (in about 14 weeks, according to the company’s website), unlike traditional foil-lined snack chip bags which do not break down at all.

Given the considerable amount of snacking Americans do each day, and the extraordinary amount of packaging waste that it leads to, Frito-Lay’s SunChips bag had the potential to have a real impact our environment by significantly reducing landfill waste. Check out the “See for your self” video depicting the bag’s cycle of decomposition on the company website.

Unfortunately, all the SunChips eco-friendly bag did was expose our society’s pettiness. After only a few months on the shelves, Frito-Lay faced an abundance of criticism and public outcry, and is reverting back to its original packaging for all but its original flavor SunChips – all because of a deluge of inane complaints about the bags being too loud. 

See for yourself in this YouTube video.

Okay, I admit, the bag is loud, but does that really prevent folks from enjoying the chips? And is the noise really enough to justify hundreds of negative YouTube videos, feature stories on nationally-televised morning news programs, and a 50,000+ member anti-SunChips FaceBook group likening the bag’s noise to a 747 taking off?

Really people? Opening this bag is so hard on the ears that the minor annoyance overrides a significant environmental benefit? You know we’ve become a truly spoiled and selfish society when a little crinkling is enough to garner this much negative attention. I say, “Get over it!” If the noise is too hard for you to take, how ‘bout just emptying the chips into a bowl? Is that kind of inconvenience really too much to suffer for the good of the planet? Apparently so –according to SymphonyIRI Group, the market research specialist, SunChips have dropped 11 percent since the introduction of the eco-friendly bag.

Alas, I can only hope that Frito-Lay and other chip-makers head back to the drawing board and come up with a better biodegradable bag option – one that the “Me first, Earth later” snackers will accept. In the meantime, if shoppers are worried so much about noise, perhaps they should try leaving their cell phones at home. Now THAT would lead to a better shopping experience.

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Culture,Sustainability

Bag Ban Sacked

WEDNESDAY , September 1, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

Yesterday, the California Senate shot down (26 to 14) a bill intending to ban plastic bags. Environmentalists hailed the bill, AB1998, while the plastic bag industry, of course, denounced the bill as a job killer.

poptech-chris-jordan-plastic-bags_treehugger

Seattle-based photographer Chris Jordan depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds. via Treehugger

The bill included using $2 million from an existing recycling promotion fund to help convert industry equipment to produce reusable recycled-content plastic bags. Another approach suggested eliminating plastic and charging consumers a 5-cent surcharge per paper bag; however, proceeds would have remained with retailers. Critics argued $2 million couldn’t ensure California manufacturing jobs and that the state should enhance recycling programs.

Meanwhile, the American Chemistry Council, which represents Dow Chemical Co. and ExxonMobil Corp., have been spending mad money lobbying against banning single-use plastic bags. Last year they helped defeat Seattle’s environmentalists, who wanted to impose a 20-cent fee on all grocery bags, plastic and paper alike.

Tim Shestek, the Council’s senior director of state affairs added insult to injury, “We congratulate Senate members for discarding a costly bill that provides no real solutions to California’s litter problem and would have further jeopardized California’s already strained economy.”

Others viewed the bill as attacking citizens as a way to “nickel and dime” shoppers, who critics of the ban don’t think are capable of bringing their own bags. Meanwhile the waste management system, landfills, and marine wildlife suffer more inconvenience than consumers. Why propagate disposable lifestyles when responsible lifestyles are needed in our society?

Following San Francisco’s 2007 lead, several California cities require supermarkets and large drug stores to offer recycled-content or reusable bags. More are expected to follow after this sad defeat. Despite the debate, it seems obvious that plastic bag manufacturers need to shift toward making non-disposable bags, or at least toward bio-degradable bags.

Californians use approximately 19 BILLION plastic bags each year, costing $25 million to gather and haul to landfills. However, ban critics noted that nothing biodegrades in landfills because they seal waste from water and air to prevent leaching into water supplies, which seems like a pretty good argument for putting less fill in the land. Some senatorial opponents preferred incentives before mandates. Get rid of the bags; I think a 5-cent surcharge adds up to an easy incentive to bring my own bags.

Resources:

Environmental Literacy Council

Heal the Bay

Earthday Network

Treehugger

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Sustainability,Urbanism

Building the Ground, part 2

TUESDAY , August 24, 2010 | BY  

 

 

Having laid the groundwork for reclamation in part 1, I will now elucidate some of the geographical and thus wildlife considerations.  

Physically, one of the greatest threats to reclaimed land is the water around it. Generally, areas with dramatic tidal changes, such as the northeastern United States, are more vulnerable to inundation and erosion than areas with small fluctuation, such as the Oresund, the strait that separates Denmark from Sweden. Furthermore, climate induced sea level rises are predicted to increase non-uniformly around the globe; the Oresund should experience less increase than the U.S. Atlantic coast. Additionally, the threat of inundation is greater here as well, which, due to its particular ocean and wind currents, suffers hurricanes, storm surges, and floods more frequently than the well-protected Oresund. In fact, in 500-years of practicing land reclamation Copenhagen has not recorded a single flood. 

Prediction of global sea level change

One prediction of global sea level change (millimeters per year). Areas in red could see upwards of 30 mm increase per year .

Approaches to indigenous wildlife also differentiate our respective approaches to land reclamation. Both the U.S. and Denmark protect wildlife habitat with regulations that limit or prevent land reclamation, dredging, pier construction, and shoreline reconstruction. Since enacting the Endangered Species Act in 1970, many U.S. construction projects have been stopped or delayed. The most famous case is perhaps in protecting the snail darter fish (percina tanasi) from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s construction of the Tellico Dam (constructed only after being delayed through injunctions that were argued before the Supreme Court). Such measures are not uniformly applied—much depends on the specifics of each species and habitat. FXFOWLE’s new pier in the East River at the Northside Piers project in Williamsburg was delayed following a moratorium that prohibited disrupting the river bed and shoreline during the fish mating season. 

green toad

The Bufo Viridis, commonly known as the green toad.

Contrast our approach with the Danes’ treatment of the species found on the competition site. The Danes discovered that a large population of green toads (bufo viridis), protected by the European Economic Community Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May1992), had established themselves in the shallow ponds at the end of the Nordhavnen peninsula. Essentially, as long as sufficient measures were taken to create new habitats elsewhere on site, the toads and their ponds could be moved.

Next time, we will dig into some of the economic and historical cases involved in land reclamation issues.

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Sustainability,Urbanism

Building the Ground, part 1

THURSDAY , August 19, 2010 | BY  

 

Team Green, FXFOWLE’s in-house workgroup, is a key resource for researching the latest technologies and advancements in sustainable design. The group functions as an educational conduit across the architecture, interior design, and planning studios. This multi-disciplinary group will contribute posts each month in areas particular to each member’s research interests. This month, Toby Snyder discusses land reclamation, specifically through his experience on City Regenerative, our entry for a competition in Nordhavnen, Copenhagen, and the Northside Piers in Brooklyn.   —editor

Mark Twain once advised, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” No doubt he was aware of the sky-rocketing cost of land in the rapidly urbanizing world of the Industrial Revolution. Although well-traveled, perhaps he was not familiar with the practice of land reclamation, in which shallow bodies of water are filled in to create developable and/or arable land. Essentially, they are still making it.  

City Regenerative - FXFOWLE's vision for urban planning and innovative architectural strategies to house 40,000 residents, create 40,000 jobs, and provide access for 40,000 bicycles.

A case in point is our recent entry, City Regenerative, in an international competition for the Nordhavnen district, currently a container port and cruise ship termi­nal, in Copenhagen, Denmark. FXFOWLE’s vision for the 200-hect­are waterfront site connects ur­ban infrastructure, extends the existing waterway, weaves open space through a series of neighborhoods and commercial nodes, and sets a new standard for low-carbon consumption. And, it proposed reclamation of approximately 150,000 square meters of land.

Thomas McKnight, Senior Vice President of Development at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, recently took note of the project and asked, “If they can do all of that land reclamation in Copenhagen, why can’t we do it here in New York?” Puzzled, I began researching land reclamation, which has been practiced around the world for centuries, from the creation of farm land in Holland and of city neighborhoods in Miami to airports around the world. Recently, however, the U.S. has viewed it with greater suspicion than Denmark has. I found that physical geography, economy, history, and culture contribute to the differences in shaping our respective policies, and will share these with you over the next few days.

…to be continued

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Culture,Sustainability

Where does your garden grow?

FRIDAY , August 13, 2010 | BY  

 

By James Way

Tattfoo Tan, who I’ve written about previously, assembled a panel to discuss urban gardening at the Arario Gallery. I showed up expecting that the afore-unidentified panelists would provide tips on starting, maintaining, and harvesting urban greenery. On that front, I left as ignorant as I arrived. But, what I did get were a handful of activists who have made urban gardens their projects, either as a sustainability issue, access to fresh foods, or reconnecting urban dwellers to the fundamentals of nature.

L to R: Andrew Casner, Aki Hirata-Baker, Derek Denckla, and Daniel Bowman

Andrew Casner, an artist and urban gardener, uses his city plot to grow food and make art through organic processes, such as the mounds of dirt and vegetation eroding paper.

Aki Hirata-Baker, co-founder of Adopt-A-Farmbox, builds and donates farm boxes—made from 100% recycled materials—to local schools and community institutions. The mini-farms reconnect people with food.  She cited a study that estimates approximately three million New Yorkers have limited access to fresh foods and are vulnerable to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The best way to overcome these risks is exposure to healthier food options. Focusing on gardening, she is convinced “food is a catalyst for learning about other forms of sustainable activities.”

Derek Denckla, an all-around green activist, advocates using empty lots, underused land, and rooftops for urban gardens. In his researching and exploring best practices in urban agriculture he launched Farm City as both an online and real time forum for workshops, events, and resources. While experienced with sustainable buildings, Derek focuses on food because “food has a daily impact beyond buildings— a massive environmental impact.”

Daniel Bowman Simon, who began composting as a Peace Corps volunteer, has been campaigning tirelessly for a people’s garden at Manhattan City Hall. I’ve seen him at Pecha Kucha, the The City We Imagined exhibition opening; if it’s somewhat related to architecture, design, horticulture, health food he’s there with petition in hand.

While I may have missed the planting season this year, I now have a list of resources where I can get further information.

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Sustainability

So Full of Worm Poop

TUESDAY , July 20, 2010 | BY  

  

By James Way

Tattfoo Tan, a social activist/artist practicing in Staten Island, works with the sustainability movement but combines an ironic approach to art history while embracing performance. One of several works on display is Black Gold, a parody of a 1961 work by Piero Manzoni (I’ll leave it to you to follow the link and find it), presents the efforts of composting taken to an artistic and economic extreme. Tan bottled his “secret recipe” compost and is selling it at the going rate for gold, although his website offers recession pricing. But don’t let this fool you; the artist is not full of sh*t when it comes to his mission: greening urban lifestyles. 

Tafftoo Tan demonstrates compost materials.

Tafftoo Tan demonstrates compost materials and methods.

Last week the artist, included in Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don’t Make Work About Being Asian, at the Arario Gallery in Chelsea, held a composting workshop on how to produce some of the finest, most fertile compost around. One of the missing components in many compost bins are worms: red worms, commonly known as red wrigglers, scientifically known as eisenia fetida. “Don’t forget the worms,” he warned. “They eat, have sex, reproduce, and poop all day. They’re great!” Worms can provide compost so fertile that some of your composting material may actually begin growing. He also warned against drowning or suffocating the worms. The artist’s website, under the Black Gold link, provides a basic overview on how to begin. 

Thursday July 22 at 8pm at the Arario Gallery he will provide an urban gardening workshop and round table discussion.

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Sustainability

Green Death?

FRIDAY , June 25, 2010 | BY  

 

If you don’t want to think about death right now you should stop reading and move on to one of our other Blog posts. Well…maybe not the one about birds colliding into buildings…and not the one with the eco-coffin, but any of the others.

Greensprings Natural Cemetery, Newfield, NY (photo courtesy of Greensprings)

If you’ve ever been involved in planning a funeral you understand how surreal the whole process can be. No, not like an episode of Six Feet Under, but…strange. You’re expected to make important decisions during a time of extreme emotional duress, and even if you’re planning far in advance it can become overwhelming.

There are many aspects to consider and, like everything else, that includes sustainability practices. In regard to “deathcare” (yes, that’s the lingo), what are green(er) options? Although I had some awareness of this subject, I had no idea how vast and complicated it is, and defining “green” is not so easy. So, I did some basic research and here are a few thoughts:

Donate your body to a medical school. It will be used for training—truly the ultimate recycling. My excitement faded about this after finding out that it’s not as easy as it sounds since certain conditions (organ donation, disease…) may result in “non-acceptance.” Just like an exclusive club or admission to Harvard, I have a feeling that I just might not make the cut. Also, any unused remains must still be disposed of in the future.

Traditional cremation in a green facility. Since one of the major issues with burials is the actual physical space required, cremation seems like a green option. It’s been around for thousands of years. The cremains (more lingo) take little space to bury or store in a container made from recycled materials, or they can be scattered. It does, however, take energy to burn a body although the data that I found was very inconsistent (and often misleading) as to how much energy is actually required. Also, new crematories use half as much energy as older ones. Some even use the energy from the burning process to power their facilities. Furthermore, it appears that solar cremation is being developed. There can be toxic emissions from the fuels being used or from body implants such as dental fillings (yes, I have some) or breast implants (no, I don’t). Some crematories address this by using special multi-step filtration systems to reduce emissions and carbon offsets can also be purchased.

New technologies in lieu of cremation. If you’re looking for something more cutting-edge, there are new eco-friendly technologies: “promession” is a freeze-drying technique involving liquid nitrogen, and there is something called “bio-cremation” that speeds up natural decomposition by using water and an alkali solution. These seem very Doctor Who-ish to me, and I can’t imagine my loved ones learning that I had chosen one of these.

Burial in a memorial reef. OK…this one surprised me. If you do decide on cremation (and you love the ocean), you can have your cremains placed in a “memorial reef,” which is an artificial reef created to replicate a natural marine environment. These reefs, which allow coral and microorganisms to settle on and grow, were developed to offset the deterioration and loss of natural reefs. They are made from environmentally-friendly materials. The first artificial reefs were developed in the late 1980s in the Florida Keys, and the first memorial reef was created in 1998. There are memorial reef projects in Florida, South Carolina, and New Jersey.

A memorial reef (photo courtesy of Eternal Reefs, Inc.)

Green in-ground burial. If you want something more traditional that doesn’t involve embalming (it’s not required by law), try burial in a biodegradable shroud in a shallow grave (too deep and it impedes decomposition) without a marker. Most cemeteries, however, do not allow this type of burial. Although caskets are not required (you can actually rent one for a funeral), a steel or concrete vault is a necessity in most cemeteries to prevent collapse or sinking of the grave. If you live in a rural area, it may be possible to do all of this on your land although laws and regulations vary—but you might want to start on this now since it can take a long time if approvals are required. There are green cemeteries that allow this type of burial and some put special emphasis on the preservation of the land as open space for future generations.

I’ve certainly learned a lot, but I’m not sure about my plans. Decisions about deathcare depend on a variety of factors including religion and spirituality, customs, consideration of family and friends, practicality, and aesthetics, so it doesn’t seem possible to make decisions based solely on sustainability. It does, however, show that sustainability can be a consideration.

For more information: http://www.greenburialcouncil.com/

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