Posts Tagged ‘Announcement’
Green Water Infrastructure Founder to Serve on the Indy Rezone Steering Committee
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EPA’s Fix a Leak Week March 12 – 19, 2012
It’s the EPA WaterSense’s fourth annual Fix A Leak Week. From March 12th through March 19th WaterSense Partners, consumers, and professionals are asked to check their plumbing fixtures for leaking water.
The EPA estimates that each day over 10,000 gallons of water is lost due to leaking and dripping plumbing in American households. This is over 1 trillion gallons of water lost each year. This water loss is easily and inexpensively preventable by simply checking your toilets, showers, and facets for drips. It does not take much to fix a dripping facet or a leaky toilet.
If each of us makes a small effort to stop leaks we can, collectively, have a large impact. Click here to see what others are doing.
And here are some things you can do:
Faucets and Showerheads
- A leaky faucet that drips at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year. A home with WaterSense labeled toilets could use that water to flush for six months!
- Leaky faucets can be reduced by checking faucet washers and gaskets for wear and replacing them if necessary. If you are replacing a faucet, look for the WaterSense label.
- A showerhead leaking at 10 drips per minute wastes more than 500 gallons per year. That’s enough water to wash 60 loads of dishes in your dishwasher.
- Most leaky showerheads can be fixed by ensuring a tight connection using pipe tape and a wrench.
Toilets
- If your toilet is running constantly, you could be wasting 200 gallons of water or more every day.
- If your toilet is leaking, the cause is most often an old, faulty toilet flapper. Over time, this inexpensive rubber part decays, or minerals build up on it. It’s usually best to replace the whole rubber flapper—a relatively easy, inexpensive do-it-yourself project that pays for itself in no time.
- If you do need to replace the entire toilet, look for a WaterSense labeled model. If a family of four replaces its older, inefficient toilets with new WaterSense labeled ones, it could save more than 16,000 gallons per year. Retrofitting the house could save the family approximately $2,000 in water and wastewater bills over the lifetime of the toilets.
Outdoors
- An irrigation system should be checked each spring before use to make sure it was not damaged by frost or freezing.
- An irrigation system with pressure set at 60 pounds per square inch that has a leak 1/32nd of an inch in diameter (about the thickness of a dime) can waste about 6,300 gallons of water per month.
- To ensure that your in-ground irrigation system is not leaking water, consult with a WaterSense irrigation partner who has passed a certification program focused on water efficiency; look for a WaterSense irrigation partner.
- Check your garden hose for leaks at its connection to the spigot. If it leaks while you run your hose, replace the nylon or rubber hose washer and ensure a tight connection to the spigot using pipe tape and a wrench.
Source: EPA WaterSense Fix A Leak Fact Sheet
Here is a fun commercial from the Wisconsin DNR
“Leaks Don’t Fix Themselves”
Windridge Condos Breaks Ground on Rain Garden
Windridge Condominium Homes to Build Eco-Friendly Rain Garden
Indianapolis, Indiana—Windridge Condominium Homes, located in the Emerson and Fall Creek Parkway area, has announced that it will build a groundbreaking rain garden. Not only will this garden be beautiful, it will also help to alleviate existing flooding and moisture issues in the neighborhood.
Originally built more than 30 years ago, challenges associated with stormwater drainage have confronted Windridge from its inception. While the original developers installed traditional storm drains and conveyance systems in the neighborhood, ongoing development in the surrounding area has increased the frequency and volume of stormwater flow around and through Windridge. While various solutions have been implemented over the years to control flooding and standing water issues, the neighborhood’s infrastructure has been unable to handle the more than 91 million gallons of rain water that fall on the neighborhood annually.
The rain garden will not only reduce runoff into nearby Fall Creek, it will also improve local water quality by capturing pollution that normally contributes to algae growth, and improve the overall ecology of the local water systems.
“Rain gardens are a green way to solve many traditional storm water problems,” said Tom Barrett, owner of Green Water Infrastructure and a consultant on the project. “They’re also a great retrofit for many older, more established communities with persistent drainage issues.”
Fischer Design, an Indianapolis-based landscape architecture firm, will design the rain garden. Green Water Infrastructure in Westfield will provide green consulting. TERRA Site Development in Westfield will provide the civil engineering for the project. The project is expected to break ground in September 2011.
# # #
About Windridge Condominiums:
The Windridge community is a unique collection of two hundred and twenty one homes located in a natural setting along Fall Creek in Indianapolis, Indiana. Touring the property one easily recognizes our respect for the natural environment. You will see a number of wild animals, birds, countless plants, and trees. The Windridge community takes pride in maintaining our natural surroundings.
About Fischer Design, LLC:
Fischer Design is a landscape architecture design firm focused on the creative integration of man-made and natural environments promoting environmentally responsible, sustainable, functional, and aesthetically beautiful design solutions. For additional information about Fischer Design, please visit www.fischerdesignllc.com.
About Green Water Infrastructure:
Green Water Infrastructure is a consulting company that integrates water resources for sustainable site development. Their goal is to utilize one hundred percent of the on-site water resources at a site. Green Water saves communities money by combining green infrastructure with gray infrastructure and new technology with existing technology to create sustainable growth — environmentally and socially. For more information, please visit www.thinkgwi.com.
About TERRA Site Development, Inc.:
TERRA Site Development, Inc. (TERRA) is a site development consulting firm that provides specialized investigation, engineering design, and testing services for property and projects in all aspects of development. Assisting clients regardless of what stage their project is in – TERRA provides environmental and geotechnical assessment before property is purchased, civil engineering design and permitting assistance prior to construction, and materials testing and inspection during buildout. Located in Westfield and Indianapolis, additional information about TERRA can be found at www.terrasitedev.com.
Tom Barrett is featured in BizVoice Magazine
Chan•nel: |ˈ ch anl|*
noun:
– a length of water wider than a strait, joining two larger areas of water, especially two seas.
– a medium for communication or the passage of information.
– a navigable passage in a stretch of water otherwise unsafe for vessels.
verb:
– direct towards a particular end.
– cause to pass along or through a specified route or medium.
*excerpted from the Oxford University Press Dictionary
Global Water Infrastructure’s Tom Barrett is featured in the current issue of BizVoice (the Indiana Chamber of Commerce magazine), one of several dynamic business leaders serving as a vital “channel.”
Just like the enduring importance of water infrastructure, businesses are beginning to recognize the enduring importance of knowledge held by veteran workers and looking for ways to pay …or, channel…. that knowledge forward.
And, whether channeling their knowledge by way of mentoring, consulting or entrepreneurial initiatives, seasoned workers are helping businesses transition into the future.
You can read more about Tom and this forward looking process at:http://www.bizvoicemagazine.com/archives/11mayjun/WorkforceWise.pdf
Reflections on the Great Lakes Awareness Event
Recently, I spoke at the Great Lakes Awareness Event hosted by Patagonia Chicago.
The workshop and ensuing panel discussion was incredibly helpful to the people in the audience. Based on conversations I had with audience members, the point they found most interesting was the amount of pollution caused by the sewer water overflow that is created every time it rains. Most people are unaware that our stormwater systems are combined with our sewer systems and untreated sewer water is dumped into our local water ways when it rains.
The Alliance for the Great Lakes received a $10,000 grant from Patagonia for restoration efforts.
Panel members include:
• Mary Lammert Khoury, aquatic ecologist and conservation planner, Great Lakes Project, The Nature Conservancy;
• Tom Barrett, a nationally recognized speaker and authority on sustainable solutions and owner of Green Water Infrastructure;
Tom Barrett presenting stormwater issues to a standing room audience at the Great Lakes Awareness Event at Patagonia Chicago
• Jessica Dexter, staff attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization
Refreshments were provided by Goose Island with live music by Laura Glyda.
I am look forward to my next speaking engagement with the USGBC-IL on June 16th on Water Efficient Landscapes at the Ball Horticultural Center in West Chicago. Here is a link to the Event: http://admin.usgbc-illinois.org/widget/calendar?eventId=266507&EventViewMode=EventDetails
Great Lakes Awareness Charity Event with Patagonia
I am excited to be participating in the Great Lakes Awareness Event with Patagonia, the sportswear and outdoor apparel retialer in Chicago.
Have a Voice in the Future of the Great Lakes and Award a $10,000 Grant. Click here to read more….
Thursday, June 2, 6:30pm
Patagonia Chicago
Did you know there is a movement to privatize the Great Lakes, that they are plagued with invasive species, that raw sewage is regularly dumped into Lake Michigan from the city of Chicago?
Join us and the Alliance for the Great Lakes at Patagonia Chicago for a workshop and panel discussion by local experts about these issues and others surrounding our Great Lakes, and help us to decide which environmental group should receive a $10,000 Patagonia grant for restoration efforts.
Panel members include:
• Mary Lammert Khoury, aquatic ecologist and conservation planner;
• Tom Barrett, a nationally recognized speaker and authority on sustainable solutions and owner of Green Water Infrastructure;
• Jessica Dexter, staff attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization
This event is free. Refreshments will be provided by Goose Island with live music by Laura Glyda.
Patagonia Chicago
1800 N. Clybourn Ave.
312-951-0518
Click here for directions to the store: http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/patagonia.go?assetid=1936
Upcoming Presentation – Permeable Paving: A Transformative Approach to Sustainable Development
Presented by Tom Barrett
Chicago Center for Green Technology
Courtesy of Unilock
445 N. Sacramento Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
Thursday, February 24, 2011
6 p.m. to 8 p.m
Permeable paving is a transformative approach to sustainable site development. Permeable hard surface construction is part of a continuing series of engineering solutions to water management that protects, restores, and mimics the natural water cycle. Permeable paving is an efficient solution for stormwater runoff. It will reduce flooding, increase water infiltration, recharge groundwater and improve water quality.
Join Tom Barrett as he explains how to develop a “more natural approach” to stormwater management issues.
AIA/CES: 2 LU
Learning Objectives
• Understanding that stormwater is the largest source of water pollution in the United States
• Combining “green infrastructure” with existing, conventional “gray infrastructure,” as well as combining new technology with old technology creating a sustainable future.
This program is presented free of charge as part of the Chicago Center for Green Technology’s Green Tech U program. Registration is required by calling 312-746-9642 or by emailing your requested class and contact information to greentech@cityofchicago.org with “Green Tech U” in the subject line.
About Tom Barrett:
Tom Barrett is an accomplished corporate growth and change agent with over thirty years of landscape industry experience. Tom’s leadership experience, holding executive level positions, drives corporate revenue growth through change and innovation for business start-ups, corporate expansions, and divisional turnarounds.
Tom Barrett has been delivering energetic, dynamic presentations and training for over twenty years. These presentations empower people to become masters of change rather than victims of circumstance by developing tools for transformational thinking. For more information, please visit Book Tom Barrett.
About Green Water Infrastructure:
Green Water Infrastructure is a consulting company that integrates water resources for sustainable site development. Their goal is to utilize one hundred percent of the on-site water resources at a site. Green Water saves communities money by combining green infrastructure with gray infrastructure and new technology with existing technology to create sustainable growth — environmentally and socially. For more information, please visit www.thinkgwi.com.
About the Chicago Center for Green Technology: The Chicago Center for Green Technology is the first rehabilitated municipal building in the nation to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ™ (LEED) Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council. Mayor Richard M. Daley dedicated the building in 2002 and it has since become a national model for sustainable design and technology. The Center serves as the most comprehensive green design and educational resource in the Midwest.
Brave New World: Trends in Landscape Irrigation Presentation
Plainfield, Indiana
February 16, 2011
I presented my talk, “Brave New World: Trends in the Landscape Industry” at the Indiana Irrigation Contractor Council’s 2011 Winter Education Session.
We had a great turnout and great presentations for the 2011 Winter Educational Session. From the state of the industry to new ways to grow your business.
The program had it all.
I am look forward to my next speaking engagement on February 24th on Permeable Paving at the Chicago Center for Green Technology.
In case you missed it, below is a copy of the presentation:
Key Learnings
- The business is rapidly changing
- Opportunities exist in areas unavailable five years ago
- Customers have different needs and require a new approach
- Companies investing in marketing are growing