May
16th - Portland
Bella
Organic Farms
Bella
Organic Farms is a small organic farm an on island just outside of Portland,
Oregon. They have a thorough method of
growing organic fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, blueberries,
tomatoes, pumpkins. They even have a
pumpkin maze that helps provide not only revenue for the farm but also eases
traffic along the road for other neighboring farms that also provide their own
pumpkin maze during the fall season.
Unfortunately, Bella Farms is the only organic farm in that small area
on the island, being surrounded by other large scale, non-organic farms. This contributes to problems such as non-organic
pollination and possible non-organic pesticide and fertilization
contamination. However, they have done a
wonderful job protecting their crops and preventing cross-contamination,
through strategic crop placement. This family owned farm gets everyone
involved, planting and picking by hand.
With its location in the Oregon state, the climate provides just the
right sun and rain to provide for a fruitful crop during the prime growing
season. Bella Organic Farms is the
perfect example of how family farms can bring a personal touch to organic
produce world.
Portland
State University (School of Business)
We
met with a professor from the School of Business at Portland State University
to discuss the sustainability real estate degree programs at the
university. He discussed projects and
trends in the Portland Metro Area and their sustainable practices in not only
new developments but re-purposed and re-adapted projects as well. He discussed the cocktail of professions it
takes to complete a sustainable project.
Business majors that are able to implement the theory of what makes
business sense to build a particular business location. Architects are able to implement the design
aspect of the project, adding their knowledge of the built environment as
well. Real estate majors are able to
work with the business majors to find the prime location. Sustainability majors are able to implement
the green aspects to the projects, bringing it all together.
Portland
Department of Planning and Sustainability
The
Portland Department of Planning and Sustainability is leading the way for new
sustainable developments in the Portland area.
They are working with the city governments to provide sustainable
neighborhoods with the help of local residence and businesses. He discussed the planning department’s
efforts to include more bio-swells and strategic building initiatives, such as
higher density developments, bike lanes on main thoroughfares and a fabulous
line of public transportation. The
planning department has a great deal of state and city government support in
developing those sustainable initiatives and bringing Portland to the forefront
of sustainable communities within the nation.
The city is willing provide funds from taxes and other revenues to pay
for those sustainable initiatives where other city and state governments aren’t
willing to do same. One of the most
important jobs the Planning and Sustainability office does, is publicly
promotes new sustainable businesses and buildings. With those efforts, other businesses not only
gain new and innovative ways to become more sustainable and build more
sustainable, but gain a desire to become more environmentally conscience. One of my favorite sustainable design
practices they discussed was their implementation of “green streets”. This design encompasses the same principals
of “complete streets” but includes the added dimension of a permeable concrete
that allows for rain water to be absorbed verses producing water runoff. Portland promotes both walking and bike
traffic, which allows the city’s high density development to be very successful
and often embraced by many local residents.
With this higher density development, there are fewer cars on the road,
and less carbon emissions being introduced into the environment. Portland’s Department of Planning and
Sustainability is leading the way for the city itself to become one of the
greenest cities in the nation, and are pioneering ways to develop a major
metropolitan and lessons its impact on the world around them.
Heathman
Hotel
The Heathman Hotel is over 90 years
old, yet has been able to embrace green initiatives as part of their main
business practices. They started off by
making small changes such as turning up the average temp a few degrees and
turning off lights in empty rooms.
However, now they have progressed to turning the central air off in the
empty rooms, and even closing down entire floors of the hotel to drastically
cut down on energy usage. The hotel has
begun utilizing rainwater harvesting and implementing a composting program
throughout the hotel. They also use only
local distributors, maintenance services, and more for the pure reason of
keeping the funds spent on those services and supplies within the local
economy. They also spend a great deal of
time educating their guests on the hotel’s green initiatives, even educating
them on how to efficiently use their room during their stay.
Earth
Advantage
Earth
Advantage is a Portland non-profit that provides green building consulting and
LEED accredited classes to members of the local community. They partner with several over metro area
services to educate business owners, builders, and residences on not only green
building practices but other sustainability initiatives that they can implement
in their own daily lives. They also
serve as a middleman between builders, green building distributors, and
services. They are able to track a
building’s energy usage and provide those details to the owner and builder to
provide an accurate depiction of how sustainable their building performs. This non-profit is one of many in Portland
that are spending their time and money to educate the local community on
sustainability.
Portland
International Hostel
The
Portland International Hostel may seem like an unlikely place to embrace sustainable
practices; however, I was pleasantly surprised as to how sustainable this
facility truly was. For those of you who may not know what a hostel is, it’s a
facility, often a transformed house or business that provides a safe place for
young people to stay overnight while in another city or country. For just a few dollars a night, people are
able to reserve a bed and safe place to shower and eat. Often each room houses 4 to 8 beds, and a
small locker to secure personal belongings.
There is often a large bathroom with individual stalls and showers. This particular hostel provided a large kitchen
area that provided a space for guests to prepare meals for themselves and other
guests on a regular basis. The hostel
also provided a large gathering area both inside and out and contained other
smaller meeting areas. As for this
facility’s sustainable practices, they implemented simple every day methods
that by default were sustainable.
For
example:
-
Multiple bed guest
rooms provides an individual area for sleeping but with minimal electricity
usage through 1-2 light bulbs in use as well as a window for natural
ventilation vs central air which uses far more electricity
-
The facility is
implementing a composting system as well
-
They have an activity
board that provides information on guests heading throughout various areas of
the city and offers a ride to other guests as a ride sharing system
-
They also have city
tours with the use of bicycle transportation instead of the use of cars
This International Hostel is one of many that are naturally implementing their sustainable efforts. I have to applaud their efforts to not only provide a service to the traveling students all over the world, but for their efforts to be as sustainable as they are, and naturally at that.
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