Greenroofs.com's "This Week in Review" on GreenroofsTV: March 18th, 2011

Our daughter, Anjuli Velazquez, has been writing, filming and editing our “This Week in Review” video since August, 2010 and each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com. She’s become quite popular, and we thought it would be a great idea to start posting her transcript, too, to make things easier to research. Click on the photo below to see the video, or here. Enjoy!

– Hello, I’m Anjuli Velazquez and welcome to This Week in Review for March 18th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.

– Project of the Week

– Our Project of the Week is The Department Store, Stephen Marr Hair Salon Greenwall built in 2009 in Takapuna, New Zealand. In 2010 The Department Store was named top retail concept store in the world by Monocle magazine. One of the centerpieces of the store is the lush interior greenwall on the top floor. The double-sided greenwall, designed and installed by Natural Habitats Landscapes, is New Zealand’s first interior greenwall. The wall is 10 meters long by 2 meters high and boasts well over 1,000 individual plants. It divides the upper level, promoting unique spaces that can be used for presentations like fashion shows. The building has had skylights installed to ensure the wall is given as much natural light as possible, and so the use of supplementary man-made lighting is kept at a minimum. This greenwall is an original and breathtaking piece of artwork, but also offers some incredible environmental benefits, like: increased thermal insulation to buildings, noise dampening, and creating cleaner and better quality air, which means healthier buildings and people. From a commercial perspective, the greenwall increases the building’s value and has also been found to raise employee productivity.

– To learn more about The Department Store, Stephen Marr Hair Salon Greenwall, click on our project of the week photo on our homepage.

– “What’s New“

– Check out Linda’s latest Sky Gardens Blog posts about the New Zealand greenwall, and the “CitiesAlive 2011 Call for Paper and Poster Abstracts.” Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is pleased to be working with the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society as co-hosts for CitiesAlive, the 9th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference to be held later this year in Philadelphia from November 29th to December 3rd. GRHC says they’re looking for papers that display novel ideas on taking a green approach to storm water management through the use of green infrastructure, indoor greening and residential green infrastructure. All applications are due by April 15th, and for more information you can visit this blog post and/or e-mail Luna Ghose at lghose@greenroofs.org.

– Do you think green walls can’t survive in the cold; they don’t look good in the winter, they are only viable in the south or indoors”¦ well, think again! Contributing Editor George Irwin writes about Winter Interest with Green Walls in his latest column and shows some pretty interesting photos of various looks.

– Advertiser Press Release: Irrigation Water Technologies America, Inc. recently signed an exclusive agreement with Australia-based Irrigation Water Technologies to manufacture and distribute the revolutionary water conserving KISSS product in North America.

– Green Roof Jobs: Joy Kuebler Landscape Architect is seeking resumes for a Landscape Architect/Designer with 5-6 years experience for their busy Buffalo, NY office, so make sure to check this job and many others in JobLinks if you’re looking to work in our industry!

– “Upcoming Events“

– March 18th – 27th: is the WMG Water Harvesting Certification in Phoenix, Arizona.

– March 22nd: is the 2011 Green Roof Technology Workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

– March 23rd – 27th: is the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show in San Mateo, California.

– March 24th – 27th: is a Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – Green Roof Boot Camp in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

– March 25th – 26th: is the GreenScaped Buildings Spring Open House in San Diego, California.

– March 25th – 27th: is the Better Living Show – Home, Garden & Lifestyle in Portland, Oregon.

– And don’t forget that on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 8:30 PM (local time, wherever you are), lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour. With Earth Hour almost upon us, the organization’s thoughts, as well as ours, are with the people of Japan during this incredibly challenging and sad time for their country.

– “In the News“

– Kathleen E. Carey of the Delaware County Daily Times reports on “Green LEEDs to platinum: SAP America earns distinction for utilizing environmental sources for newest building.” The Newtown Square campus of SAP America Inc. in Delaware County is holding one of the highest environmentally sustainable distinctions in the world with its new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum level construction. Just some of the features that have led to its LEED Platinum certification are: its entry to the building – the passageway features a floor comprised of recycled materials, including seashells and pieces of crushed bottles and glass; glass panels surrounding the building with the goal of directing 90 percent of daylight to reach 75 percent of the employees; underneath the floors are tubes that transfer the natural temperature of the Earth which is generated from the 10 geothermal wells in the rear of the property to the inside of the building; and a rooftop garden that spans more than 1 acre which features lavender, rosemary, sedum and butterfly bushes.

– Katie Kosier of Care2.com talks about “Removing Barriers to Green Building.” With the help of Philadelphia based Re:Vision Architecture, Pennsylvania’s largest electric and natural gas utility company, PECO, installed a 45,000-square-foot vegetated green roof on its headquarters in central Philadelphia. It’s the largest in urban Pennsylvania and the roof absorbs more than 1.5 million gallons of rainwater runoff annually, it reduces air temperature in the summer and it also provides a beautiful habitat for wildlife. Principle Scott Kelly of RVA, says “For us, it’s about removing barriers to green building.” You can find more information about the PECO Greenroof in our International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database by typing in Project ID number 851.

– To learn more about these stories and new ones posted daily, go to our In the News or newslinks section of our website.

– Have something you think we should know about and post on our website? You can send us your green articles, videos and images to editor@greenroofs.com.

– Stay up-to-date with what’s going on at greenroofs.com by subscribing to our greenroofsTV channel on YouTube, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook and being a member of our network on LinkedIn.

– By the way, did you know that now you can watch YouTube videos just like this one on DirecTV? That’s fun!

– Still haven’t picked up one of our 2011 Greenroofs & Walls of the World 12 Month Wall Calendar yet? Go to greenroofs.com/calendar.htm and order some today! Thanks to George Irwin for this great photo!