Our apartment complex has recycling bins in community mail areas, encouraging recycling directly at the source, where there is a high potential for mass paper waste. This has been an easy way to help residents responsibly dispose of unneeded letters and other mail that may otherwise be thrown away with regular trash.
Our park uses recycled water for irrigation, in order to prevent a drain on drinking water for the community in times of drought.
Our city has solar panels on all of the parking kiosks.
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.
Living art wall / vertical vegetation in Baltimore.
Here is a solar canopy parking lot at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in our area.
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:
We noticed during lunch that these gorgeous tables we were sitting at were made with wood from reclaimed bowling lanes. They were very soft, beautiful, and had an overall good-quality feel. Very impressive pieces- and what a great use.
Thanks to these cages in our city, recycling has become easier for everyone. If you have plastic bottles, cardboard, or glass at your house, instead of mixing it with organic matter, you take it out to these cages. It is also easier for our city’s waste collection team to take proper care of the recyclable waste.
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.
On one of our roofs, we maintain this rooftop garden. Not only does it allow for a more efficient use of space, but it also serves to help cool the roof in the summer, as rooftop gardens can provide better insulation than standard tar or gravel use, and help to remove heat from the air.
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.
These solar flowers were co-designed by students from UT Martin’s Engineering and Visual Arts departments.
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.
Skyscraper green wall art in our downtown. It is beautiful, and spans 2,380 square feet.