What's In Your Tap Water

One of the consequences of being "one nation under drugs" is being exposed to toxic, prescription drug metabolites via your tap water! Fortunately, with the right water filter, you can avoid it.

Drug giant Merck recently warned that "There’s no doubt about it, pharmaceuticals are being detected in the environment and there is genuine concern that these compounds, in the small concentrations that they’re at, could be causing impacts to human health and aquatic organisms." To wit, officials in Philadelphia identified 56 pharmaceuticals or by-products in tap water. Such medications included pain meds, cholesterol lowering drugs, birth control pills, antidepressants and blood pressure meds! None of which belong in little Johnny’s "sippy cup."

Don’t expect your city to be any different. The federal government doesn’t require any testing or safety limits for drugs in tap water. Protect yourself with the right water filter!

The market is flooded with various types of water filters - microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis reversal, membrane bioreactors, and combinations of membranes in series. For about $180, you can rest assured that your water is free and clear of "other people’s drugs.

Sustainable Waste Management Defined

A recent report produced by the Brundtland Commission (formally the World Commission on Environment and Development) provides an excellent definition of what sustainable development is. The UK Government’s Sustainable Development strategy, published by the DETR also defined it, and that definition can be found online.

However, these definitions need to be acted on and not just thought up. The idea is after all very simple to understand so here is a breakdown of what these definition might mean to you:

Sustainable development starts with the theory that the most sustainable aim for all is a better quality of life, not only today, but for generations to come.

To achieve this, sustainable development is about achieving economic growth, in the form of higher living standards. It is definitely not about scrimping and not buying things, or punishing ourselves for enjoying the use of the world's resources now.

But it is about protecting and enhancing the environment we live in, not just for its own sake but for our own enlightened self interest, because a damaged environment would quite soon begin to hold back economic growth and lead to a lower the quality of life.

To be truly sustainable, history shows us that things only work in the long term if we all make sure that economic and environmental benefits are freely available to the whole society and not just to the privileged few.

Sustainability is compatible with all the major faiths and can be supported by all. Therefore there should be no excuses for not meeting your objectives. It is commonly accepted that sustainable development must encompass four broad objectives;

*Social progress which recognizes the needs of everyone.

*Effective protection of the environment

*Prudent use of natural resources

*Maintaining stable levels of economic growth and employment.

One of the most important areas of sustainability for society to act on is the disposal of waste. Nothing else, other than fossil fuel energy over-use causing climate change, and war, has the potential to do so much accumulating damage.

Unsustainable waste management poisons watercourses and underground water, leaves litter around everywhere that harms our wildlife, encourages rats and vermin, pollutes the air with odors and unhealthy aerosols and can render vast areas of land damaged or largely unusable.

Doing What Green You Can; When You Can!

More and more people are realizing how important it is to lead a life that makes a minimal impact on the environment. Every person making their own individual contribution can lead to substantial difference for the future and protection of our planet. A big step that you can take is to use sustainable materials when constructing your home or commercial business. Appreciating how these green materials can be included into your life can go a long way to lessening your impact on the environment.

The best place to start when trying to understand what sustainable materials are-is to first understand what the term "sustainable" refers to. Sustainability means consuming quantities and categories of resources in such a manner that will make sure that the resource will be there for generations to come. Another way to think about this is as resources that renew themselves. This concept can be better understood through illustrations. Building with wood is an excellent example of sustainability. By Planting trees, a forest can be re-grown. Then wood can once again be used as a building material A counter example would be the use of steel for a building. Although steel cannot be replenished, it can at least be recycled.

The other aspect to sustainability is recyclable materials. Many materials are recyclable. You can use these materials for areas like floors, walls and countertops. You can also get recycled stone to use as a material as well.

As you pick and choose materials for your home, if you are going for sustainability, an aspect of the issue is understanding how much energy is used to get materials to you. Try to locate materials that have taken less energy to transport. For instance, if you fancy granite for a countertop, then go with the local manufacturer rather than purchasing it from a far-off provider such as Malaysia. Much more energy will be consumed getting that material from the Malaysia to your home than from the local supplier.

Using sustainable materials is just one step on the path of having an eco-friendly property. You also want to bring all of the other elements together, such as the architecture, materials, and the construction methods. Map out your plans for things like your water usage, energy usage, and make sure that the building site blends in with the natural locale of the home. You want to take as little as possible from nature and be mindful of your consumption.

Converting your home to a sustainable household is not something that you have to do all at once. Instead, you can convert your home over the course of time. When you have occasion to renovate or improve, pick sustainable materials. In place of of paint, use natural fibers that will make your home's air quality better. Rather than tile, use bamboo as a floor covering. For countertops, give cork a try in place of granite. Each of these changes will help make a difference.

Swiss Cheese

The future of building technology is here and it’s full of holes. The Swiss cheese exoskeleton shell of COR, the first sustainable, mixed use condominium in Miami, Florida is a hyper-efficient smart skin simultaneously providing the building structure, thermal mass for insulation, shading for natural cooling, terrace enclosures, armatures for energy producing turbines, and loggias for congregating at the ground level.

COR, represents a dynamic synergy between architecture, structural engineering and ecology. The design is not only revolutionary in sustainable terms, but in visual impact. The impression of this building is arresting even in light of the current architectural trend towards irregular, non-linear features exploding upon the recent architectural landscape.

The building rises 400 feet, and seems to float over the city as a futuristic and ethereal being, punctuated by a multitude of round Swiss Cheese holes, which at times come together to form a living bubble-on-pond effect.

The architect credits the developer for being receptive to the unusual design wherein the structure of the building is both the skin and an aperture to hold the wind turbines. Oppenheim notes that COR evolved from a complex architectural study including careful analysis of its site.

The surprise of the design arises from its functionality and its vision in creating an energy efficient sustainable building. Oppenheim states that he views building materials as opportunities to provide dual uses—for example, the skin of COR is not just cladding, it provides an armature for wind turbines, protection from the sun and forms an arcade at the ground level.

Rising 25 stories above Miami’s Design District, COR extracts power from its environment utilizing the latest in advancements in wind turbines, photovoltaic technology and solar hot water generation. With an estimated completion date of 2010, COR is 480,000 square feet, with 113 residential units ranging in size from 700 to 2,000 sf, with prices from $300,00 to 1 million. COR will have a café, 2 restaurants, office space and live work galleries.

Sustainable design is architecture that creates a minimal impact on the environment and makes maximum and intelligent use of the world’s dwindling resources. Sustainability and green design also includes creating healthy indoor environments.

Water is becoming the new frontier for concern, both through density and drought. Green and sustainable elements in COR include water harvesting, capturing rain water and roof run-off in cisterns, using filtration systems in recycling grey water produced from washing machines, dishwashers and other household and light business use, and filtering it for use again as irrigation.

The wind farms on the roof of COR will generate power-reducing dependency on electric power and saving energy by producing solar hot water. Energy efficient appliances with energy star features will be using less water overall. LED lighting will be used instead of incandescent, natural daylight will flood interiors through energy efficient glass, and the multi use building shell provides thermal mass for insulation and shading for outdoor terraces and cooking.

COR has been received with applause. Unanimously approved by the Urban Design Review Board of the City of Miami, the project represents the ideals fostered by Miami Mayor, Manny Diaz for its properties of green and ecologically sustainable sound design. Oppenheim is a part of Mayor Diaz’ Green Committee.

Oppenheim notes that this project may represent solutions for the concerns of global warming, dwindling resources such as land and water, and competition for fewer and fewer resources. Certainly it blazes across the new frontier of sustainability.