My last post about rainwater for a while, I promise

There is an online community dedicated to spreading information and awareness about sustainable water practices. They are called, fittingly enough, HarvestH2O.com and their website is worth spending some time on if any of this has struck a chord. From their website:

HarvestH2O.com is dedicated to the advancement of sustainable water management practices for individuals, families, communities, and businesses. We share knowledge and experiences in the following ways:

• advancing specific, common-sense recommendations for water conservation


• developing a best-practices repository in rainwater harvesting


• sharing stories, practical tips, cautions and notes of interest


• building on the experiences of community members who have already implemented water conservation solutions


• developing tools, templates and guidelines for building rainwater harvesting solutions educating individuals and organizations to shorten the learning process


• creating business justifications supporting water conservation as an economic investment providing a comprehensive list of vendors and products for residential and small-scale commerical water conservation projects

HarvestH2O is a great site for general research on the topic and they have an extensive, local directory of vendors who sell rainwater harvesting equipment, systems and training. Good job fellas, keep it up.

Dwell + Google = a match made in heaven

OK, now it's time for a shameless plug of my favorite corporate entities. A couple of months ago I wrote a gushing entry about Google's architectural rendering software, SketchUp. That was all the way back in March and I still stand by what I wrote then. I love SketchUp with a passion that borders on the unnatural. It seems I'm not the only one. My heroes and idols at Dwell Magazine have teamed up with Google SketchUp and they are holding a house design contest. You can get more information and an entry form here. From Dwell's website:

What does it mean to feel at home in the modern world? Dwell & Google SketchUp challenge you to explore what this means to you in the "Design Your
Dwelling" design competition featuring Google SketchUp software.

Most people define their home as a place where they feel comfortable and secure. But what does that actually look like? What would make it personal to you? Is it scale, materials, sustainability, environment? Only you know for sure. Entry period is July 3-August 31, 2008.

My enthusiasm for SketchUp has had the unique effect of empowering my math whiz friend from Tampa to the point where he's taught himself how to use the program to re-design his own house. Check out some of his work. I am impressed mightily. Now remember, this is the work of someone with no architectural or design training whatsoever. Granted, he has a love of technological solutions and innovations that makes me look like a Luddite, but an architect he ain't. You'd never know that from his work though. He send me his versions for my good-natured and loving critiques, one of which I've attached here.

Anyhow, go check out SketchUp and download it. It's a blast to play around with and learn. Then, check out Dwell's design-your-landmark-house contest, Design Your Dwelling. The whole thing's really slick. All of the entries have to fit on the same lot that you can find on Google Earth when you enter the contest. Think about entering. There's time.

Kiss the rain

Back to my rainwater reclamation kick from Tuesday, I was rooting around on the website for Tampa Bay Water this morning. Tampa Bay Water supplies water to 2.5 million people in Pinellas County, Saint Petersburg, Tampa, Hillsborough County, Pasco County and New Port Richie. That's an odd-looking list, but apparently there are municipalities within the counties listed who don't fall under the jurisdiction of Tampa Bay Water.

Anyhow, I was looking on their site to see if anybody at that hallowed body has ever given any thought to rainwater harvesting. It turns out they have, click here, but it doesn't appear that they've thought about it on any kind of large scale. The same goes for Swiftmud, their website lists this link to a discussion about rain barrels. Thanks to Mike Molligan, their Communications Director, for pointing that out to me.

As I talk to clients and friends about rainwater harvesting, the question always comes up about how many household uses harvested rainwater has. I'm fast to point out that it's perfect for toilet flushing, irrigation and clothes washing. I'd always assumed that it was illegal to use it as a drinking water supply. I figured that it wasn't possible to opt out of a municipal water supply. Well, it turns out that I was wrong on all counts. To quote Tampa Bay Water:

Currently, there is no existing regulation or policy in the State of Florida regarding the use of cisterns for potable or non-potable use. This research was undertaken to find policies and permitting criteria that is used by other governments that could provide some rationale for understanding how and why
permitting and design specifications may be required in the Tampa Bay region.

So a rainwater harvesting system paired with a reverse-osmosis filter could allow anybody to supply his own drinking water. For now anyhow. Interesting. I am not suggesting that any one actually do this mind you, but it's an interesting thought.

On a related note, I came across this story about a High School a week ago on the great blog Metaefficient. The Langston Brown Community Center and High School in Arlington, Virginia captures and uses 280,000 gallons of rainwater every year. The facility uses that water for non-potable purposes exclusively. This is in an area of the country with 39 inches of rainfall a year, so it's not as if this building is sited in a part of the country that's particularly wet. Metaefficient also linked me to a case study on the USGBC's (the US Green Building Council) website that about knocked my socks off.

The 32,000 square foot headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis MD, is said to be the most energy efficient building ever built. It saves the foundation housed in it $33,000 in energy and utility costs when compared to a conventional office building of the same size. Saving $33,000 a year isn't just for granola-eaters kids. Sustainability makes sound, solid, economic sense and continuing to build things conventionally because "that's the way we've always done it" is madness.

Finally, a lawn I can live with

Check this out!


This is a lawn made by a company called SynLawn --a waterless, maintenance-free alternative to the Great Satan, St. Augustine Grass. Imagine having the great American lush, green lawn that you never have to water, fertilize or cut.



So long as you don't live in a deed-restricted community that bans their product, please take a look at what this company is offering. If, on the other hand, you find yourself in a deed-restricted community; what were you thinking? No really, if you live in a place that's short-sighted enough to require that you have a natural lawn, take some of this information to your next homeowner's association meeting.

SynLawn is made and headquartered in Dalton, GA and they don't seem to be a presence in Florida. Yet anyhow. This stuff looks great, really. Their website is loaded with information, instructions and prices. Check it out!

Even Dachshunds love SynLawn.

The best PSA I've seen in a while

There is a honey bee problem in the US if you're not aware of it. The video below is Haagen Dasz's, the ice cream people, hilarious PSA on a real biological mystery. This video shows something called the Bee Boys' homage to the dances honeybees perform to communicate to their hive mates. That I have no idea what a Bee Boy is tells me that this is a one-time skit and not some kind of a trend among the youth of today

Honey bees' pollination is responsible for something like a third of the foods we eat and their numbers are collapsing and no one can figure out why. Honey bee colonies across the US are experiencing something called Colony Collapse Disorder. For reasons so-far unknown to science, honey bees flee a colony spontaneously and then die.

The honey bees that pollinate American food crops are European bees that have been introduced and are trucked around the country in a state of near domestication. Without bees, we don't get apples, almonds, oranges, etc. Not to mention no honey and no Burt's Bees lip balm.

I took this photo in May. It's an actual European honeybee in Europe. Seriously though, Bee Boys aside, this honeybee thing is pretty pressing. Check out Hagen Dasz's site and read up on it.