The Chicago Green Roof Project

Pollution is one of the most concerning topics to talk about in today's modern world. It acts as a poison for anything that lives and breathes; it could toxify water, air, land, humans, and animals, and is not to be taken lightly.

Pollution has always been an issue within our society. Derrick Jenson and Stephanie McMillan as well as Michael Pollan have all written articles about the issues in our environment and the effects of pollution. We are causing an increasing amount of pollution as time goes on. Virtually everything we do causes some form of damage to the environment and it seems that regardless of how much we want to fix this issue we are making no progress towards a solution. Based on their articles “As The World Burns” and Pollans article “Why Bother” these authors have similar views and yet contrast on many points.

Every group had its own suggestions for green infrastructure. The most popular method among the projects was the implementation of green roofs. As every group stated, green roofs can help regulate temperatures inside buildings, saving costs on heating and cooling. They are handy in capturing storm water runoff, which can then be used for food production. Group A did a good job showing these benefits, but neglected to consider the possible detrimental

One World Trade Center (OWTC) is undoubtedly the tallest building in the western hemisphere (Bawaba, 2010). This carefully designed structure is the first building of its magnitude to aim for the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification (West, 2014). With the expertise and experience of Tishman Construction, the world’s leader in sustainable building knowledge (Bawaba, 2010). OWTC was awarded the LEED Gold v2.0 rating for multiple categories including several advanced energy and water saving technologies, lighting, materials, transportation, air quality, and people (Facility Executive , 2016). Making this work of art, the most environmentally sustainable building of its size, in the world (Contract 2010)

The world has faced extreme environmental issues, unlike ever before. There are billions of people living within the world today. There is a high demand for environmental resources and a low demand to consider where these resources are coming from. People are inconsiderate when thinking of the sacred environment that cannot be replaced. The importance of getting somewhere on time and as quickly as possible comes before the cleanliness of the air that people breathe. A majority of the world runs at an extremely fast pace, and is very technologically advanced. Unfortunately, with the world running at an all time high speed the environment cannot catch up causing devastating global issues. In this paper, the environmental issues of air pollution, water pollution, waste disposal, and recycling along with important ethical issues regarding these

They say history repeats itself and perhaps in some ways it does; however, in terms of environmental history, the sources and implications of the pollution humans create is ever-changing. For the past two centuries, humans have created a plethora of issues such as increased climate change, rising sea levels, soil degradation, and loss of biodiversity. Two major ways in which humans have altered the natural environment is by means of atmospheric and plastic pollution. This paper will serve as a response to two articles, one of which encapsulates the impact of air pollution, and the other the impact of plastic pollution. These two articles allow for a comparison of the pollution problems, relative to the century they were most prevalent in, and

Roofs are notorious heat sinks and by filling them with greenery it reduces this slow release of heat back into the surroundings. The green roofs will not only look amazing but also they help reduce the absorption of heat.

Roofs are the most important part of the residencies, massive halls and multi-storied skyscrapers. It protects from the burning heats and the violent rays of sunlight, rain and snowfall. Roofs have various following functionality:-

Little Rock has hired a team of landscape architects and utilized its own city staff to concentrate efforts on re-vitalizing the Main Street Corridor in the River Market and SOMA districts by redeveloping its vacant buildings, parking lots, improving the streetscapes. Automobile and pedestrian traffic, hydrology, and the pervious/impervious surfaces. . They have implemented parks and “green spaces” such as rain gardens, green roofs, rain barrels, and permeable paving. While these areas provide beautification of the historic districts near the capital, they also provide practical benefits. These green areas will help with storm water flooding and pollution. They also provide shade and help cool the sidewalks, which promotes foot traffic through the area.

Since the last century, society has been witness of great deal of changes, as political as economic, and technological. These changes have opened a new world of possibilities which was not available before, people should consider themselves fortunate of living on the 21st century. There is access to information as has never been before. Nevertheless, change always has consequences, and on this time of technology is not the exception. The earth is dying slowly, the air people is breathing is not safe anymore. The United States has a bad air quality, an example of it, is the city of Houston, in the state of Texas. In fact, Houston’s pollution problem has become a dangerous health issue over the last years. To solve this severe problem is necessary

Green buildings could become one of the main factors to preserve our rapidly decaying environment. There is no easy way to define a green building, but a green building is essentially a structure that amplifies the positives and mitigates the negatives throughout the entire life cycle of the building (Kriss, 2014). There are many definitions for a green building, but all of them include the planning, designing, constructing, and operating of the building while taking into huge considerations of the energy use, water use, indoor air environment, materials used and the effect it has on the site the green building is being built on. The first green buildings dates back to as far as the 1970’s, when solar panels went from experiments to reality. Green buildings were not as popular as they are today due to their extremely high pricing. With technology rapidly growing, solar panels are becoming cheaper and cheaper, making the transition to creating green buildings more affordable. This is the primary reason for the increased growth of green buildings today. A modern company that is paving the way to the growth of green buildings named LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, focuses primarily on new and effective ideas for environmentally friendly buildings projects. With more than 60,000 commercial projects worldwide and 1.7 million square feet being certified every day, LEED is one of the leading groups for promoting green buildings. LEED has popularized the entire

CSOs caused by flooding and storm water runoff is not only a concern for NYC’s preparation for the next hurricane, but it is a concern for the weaker storms that causes heavy periods of rain fall. Not every storm is going to be like Hurricane Sandy, but even weaker storms still causes storm water to create flooding and CSO’s problems in some NYC areas. It is a concern because CSOs contribute to water pollution and contamination of the city’s surrounding water bodies. A solution that combats the flooding of the combined sewers and excessive storm water from common storms are the green infrastructures that are being built throughout the boroughs of NYC.

Pollution has become a prevalent issue worldwide and has begun to affect the air used to breathe, the soil used to grow food, and the water used to drink. All of these effects result in commonly occurring destruction of health and wildlife that one may have seen on the news or heard from peers. In order to live, one needs food, water, clothing, and shelter. If the water and food that society consumes gets contaminated, a major component of life has been eradicated, which can only have negative consequences. If more people are educated as to what effects the environment, the world has a chance to counteract the effects of pollution. The main causes of pollution are the burning of fossil fuels such as with car exhausts, littering as a result of societal norms and laziness, and factory waste as a result of lax waste regulation, and can result in mass destruction of the environment and catastrophic effects on the everyday lives of contemporary people.

A green roof is a layered system, partially or completely covering the roof area and with the vegetation being planted directly in the soil media (Stewart, 2013). It is important to have a good understanding about the type of vegetated roofs and their maintenance as a facility manager. This combination of natural and man-made facility is expanding at a dynamic pace and proves to be beneficial in providing sustainability. All the basic stratigraphic composition remaining the same, green roofs can be classified as: Traditional vegetated roofs and Modular vegetated roofs (Velazquez, 2003). The difference between the two is the method of their installation and their mobility. Traditional roofs in general use either a single- ply or a multi-ply waterproofing system which is then followed by a drainage membrane and the substrate/ soil media. Whereas in a modular system the drainage, soil substrate and the plants are supported in a High density polyethylene (HDPE) trays of varying size, which are then transported to the roofs and installed. Traditional roofs can further be classified as: Extensive, Semi-intensive and Intensive (Wark and Wark, 2003). Extensive roofs are of low profile and performance, which are designed for maximum thermal and hydrological performance and minimum weight load. They contain low profiles of 6 inches or less, with smaller plant diversity and low access for active human use. When compared to extensive roofs, semi-intensive are slightly higher in profile

Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment. It is a major problem in America and as well as the world. Pollution not only damages the environment, but damages us also. It has cause many problems ranging from lung cancer to the greenhouse effect. It is all among us but we continue to live in our own filth. What is the reason behind this flawed logic? In this paper I will examine the problems and solutions for this issue.