Urban Archives - Ambient Green

Low-Water Raindance Showers

PragueCzech Republic

Our hotel/hostel has installed special Raindance showers, which use up to 60% less water than others. They are designed to limit flow and adjust to differing water pressures, using only 1.5-2 gallons of water per minute, while maintaining a full shower experience.

Urban Solar Trail Lighting

MiamiUnited States

Our local park has solar panels that are used to power the trail lighting. There are about 40 individual installations, and we believe the lamps act on a light sensor that operates using standard dusk till dawn settings.

Drought-Proofed Public Park

BurbankUnited States

Our park uses recycled water for irrigation, in order to prevent a drain on drinking water for the community in times of drought.

Restaurant Urban Roof Beekeeping

Ville de QuebecCanada

On another section of our roof, two beehives are installed that house over 40,000 small employees. During the summer, they help to produce about 80 kg of honey for the restaurant.

Small Urban Solar Array

AustinUnited States

Small scale solar setup outside of a local business park.

EcoCamp Waste Sorting

Puerto NatalesChile

The camp sorts its output by organic and non-organic waste, paper, plastic, glass, and composting items. Even in such a remote location, where we do not have the resources available to recycle everything, we try as much as possible to recycle all that we can. We are also hoping to increase recycling capabilities in our area, not only to serve the camp, but the surrounding community as well.

EcoCamp Natural Light Optimization

Puerto NatalesChile

Our camp is thoughtfully designed to take full advantage of available natural light, within our domes. Not only does this serve to save on indoor lighting, it provides for a magnificent outlook on our extraordinary surroundings.

Hotel Grey Water System...

PragueCzech Republic

Our hotel/hostel utilizes a well designed grey water system with heat recuperation- the second such system in the world. Through this, heat may be harnessed from previously used water, allowing for a decrease in energy necessary for heating further incoming water. The system saves around 4,000 liters of water daily. In addition, heat recuperation is also used in our air, ventilation, and cooling processes.

Further information:

As seen here, our basement houses a recycling and regenerative unit- AquaCycle- which was tested and installed by Pontos Company. This system filters grey water in three cycles. We use the water for flushing the toilets, watering the plants, and washing the floors. This technology serves for the heat recovery from the recycling of grey water.

The water heating process is carried out in three steps. After cold water turns from 5°C to 25°C, heat recuperation from cooling heats the water from 25°C to 35°C. Then, our rooftop solar panels help us to heat the water from 35°C to 60°C. If the solar panels collect much energy during midday which is not used, the system stores the hot water (90°C) in an accumulating pot, and it is used toward any event rush.

Urban Vertical Lattice Gardening

HoustonUnited States

These are a few samples around our Downtown area of vertical vine growth for shade and privacy purposes. It is an excellent way of implementing urban greenery while providing a practical purpose.

The first group of images displays a line of green shading along several bus stop waiting areas. The next group shows the potential for green shading use in urban parking garages.

Restaurant LED Lighting

Ville de QuebecCanada

We recently converted all lighting from the restaurant to LED fixtures, saving us $ 700 per month. However, after finding these other LED filament bulbs- which adapt much better to our style of globes- we could not resist converting them another time.

Despite their retro appearance and high power (they are turned on at a minimum), these bulbs consume only 4 W of electricity, against 7 W from the previous LEDs, and 50 W for the initial halogens.

Urban Hotel Rooftop Solar...

PragueCzech Republic

The solar panel installation at our hotel can be seen at the center right of the image, and utilizes the sunlight as a source of energy to heat running water. The temperature of the working fluid can rise up to 80°C. Thanks to our Pontos, cooling, and boiler systems, the running water is then cooled to 55°C by the end of the whole process.

In the summer season, there is no need to activate the Pontos or boiler systems, as the solar panels absorb enough sun energy (up to 240 kW) to warm up the running water.

More information on the Mosaic House Pontos system may be read in another post:

Hotel Grey Water System with Heat Recuperation

Drought Resistant Landscaping

CaliforniaUnited States

Much of my area has problems with low rainfall and drought. As a landscaping alternative, many houses use clever designs with drought resistant plants, or low water / rock designs such as this one. It is still aesthetically pleasing, and it helps the overall community in trying times.

Restaurant Sustainably Caught Fish

LondonUnited Kingdom

Our fish from the grill is MSC certified, which means we only accept fish that is sustainably caught by local fishermen. In turn, we know future generations will be able to use and take advantage responsibly of the same fish resources as we have now.

Energy Intelligent Building Controls

Ville de QuebecCanada

Our restaurant has an extremely well integrated and efficient mechanical and electrical system design, allowing us to better control and minimize high peaks of electricity consumption. These are the control panels of different pumps, circuits, and hoods. In the foreground, the variable-frequency controllers and drivers of the restaurant’s air supply unit are used to modulate the fans for supplying fresh air, and the air for exhaust. This also maintains a comfortable ambient pressure, even if the door opens quickly or a kitchen hood starts.

Unique in Quebec’s catering industry, the air extracted from the building passes through a heat exchanger in order to preheat the fresh air, greatly reducing the heating requirements of the building. Each of the four hoods in our facility easily draws more than 1,000 cubic feet per minute (CFM) outside the building.

Since all of this air must be replaced by fresh air from the outside, a lot of heat is created, especially when the weather brings extremely low temperatures. Our heat recuperator therefore avoids one of the main energy expenditures of restaurants.

National Plastic Bag Tax...

BogotaColombia

This is one of the nice reusable bags we had received at a local store, after legislation regulating plastic use was enacted in Colombia in 2016. Due to the large amount of plastic waste ending up in surrounding water bodies, Colombia has banned all plastic bags smaller than 30×30 cm, and placed a small charge on others that can still be purchased in stores (with a plan set to increase the tax each year until 2020).

By the middle of 2018, this initiative had served to decrease plastic bag consumption by 35%, and raised around $4 million in taxes [see articles below]. Success from these efforts is spurring other similar initiatives and will hopefully continue to drive progress toward mitigating damage from plastic moving on.

More on Colombia’s Plastic Initiatives:

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