Environment

Human impact on the Earth’s environment is creating climate change, global warming, and polluting air, land, and water on our planet with disastrous results. We must work to reverse these effects through sustainable practices and through thoughtful design and practices.

Good Earth Plants Helps Your Great Ideas Grow

| April 21, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
We can't function well mentally or physically when we are breathing oxygen depleted air. Adding plants to your indoor environment can help a lot. Good Earth Plants can help!
Many of us don’t have labor-intensive jobs, as in the kind of physical work leaving you tired and sore at the end of the day. Our version of heavy lifting gets done mentally, whether we are crunching numbers, crafting communication, or even shooting YouTube videos. But we’re still dependent on a productive and safe environment where we can breathe deeply and let oxygen fuel our brains. Did you know your brain consumes 20 percent of all the oxygen that enters your bloodstream through breathing, but it only makes up two percent of your total body mass? This means your brain uses ten times more oxygen than the rest of your body.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Says ‘Be Nice To Your Mother (Earth)’!

| April 14, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
We can't function well mentally or physically when we are breathing oxygen depleted air. Adding plants to your indoor environment can help a lot. Good Earth Plants can help!
It’s hard to believe Earth Day was a brand new idea well within my lifetime. The first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on or near April 22, coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It reaches more than 192 countries each year including hundreds of communities in the United States. Every day is Earth Day at Good Earth Plant Company! We love it when the rest of the world pauses to focus on environment issues and finding good solutions we can adopt on the official Earth Day, which is April 22. San Diego can brag about its Earth Day Fair, which is the largest free, all-volunteer Earth Day event in the world.… Read More

It’s Natural Good Earth Plants Loves the Start of Spring

| March 23, 2016 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Gardening, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Sometimes when you live in San Diego, you don’t take notice of the change in seasons. It’s not all that obvious when we move from spring to summer, or summer to fall. We don’t see spring when the cherry blossoms bloom like in Washington D.C. So if the first day of spring this year got by you on the calendar last Sunday in San Diego, it’s understandable. But if you look, you will find new growth and flowers that only bloom this time of year. Chances are though you know it’s spring from some undeniable internal signals. For one thing, we have more daylight.… Read More

Let’s Make San Diego A Biophilia Hub

| March 2, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
Leaders from 40 of the best large gardens in North America came to San Diego last week for the Directors of Large Gardens Conference at the San Diego Botanical Garden in Encinitas. When I opened my San Diego Union-Tribune on Saturday, I was glad to see an article about the meeting by reporter Phil Diehl, and I especially loved the headline:  “Stressed? You may need some nature.” Right up my alley. It’s worth reading. As many good things as the article covered, there were so many other great topics it couldn’t fit in. Many are the things we write about here in this blog: biophilia, bioinspiration, biomimicry, author Richard Louv’s concept of “nature deficit disorder,” the new Wellbeing Standards – I could go on.… Read More

Nature’s Answers: Cockroaches to the Rescue!

| February 11, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants
This super robotic roach is grabbing headlines around the world. It's a perfect example of the power of biomimicry to solve our greatest challenges. Photo: Courtesy UC Berkeley
Nobody loves cockroaches, except another cockroach. But you have to admire how tough they are. We joke about roaches being able to survive a nuclear blast. Who wouldn’t consider this the ultimate survival skill? Scientists at the University of California Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Laboratory made news this week with reports about their work with the X2-VelociRoACH, a robotic cockroach designed for its ability to nimbly navigate difficult terrain. These robots could be outfitted with small cameras and GPS to help locate victims in collapsed buildings after earthquakes and in other similar situations too dangerous to send in people or search dogs.… Read More

Super Bowl 50 is Super Eco-Friendly

| February 4, 2016 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Environment, Green Roofs, Living Walls
Standard compliant structures in the world. Photo: Courtesy Levi's Stadium website
Super Bowl 50 is just days away. Are you rooting for the Broncos or the Panthers? Or are you tuning in for the commercials, not the game? Looking forward to Coldplay and Beyonce? I’m excited about Super Bowl 50 because it is taking place in the first ever professional football stadium to be LEED Gold certified. Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California is the most eco-friendly, sustainable stadium in the world today. Levi’s Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers, is a typical multi-purpose modern stadium that can host all sorts of events. What sets it apart starts at the top: the NRG Solar Terrace green roof on the west side of the stadium.… Read More

Tell Your Stress to Take a Walk in the Woods

| January 28, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
Ward off the post-holiday blues or any kind of stress with Shinrin-yoku, the art of forest walking. Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia
We are nearly a month into 2016 already and the holidays seem like a distant memory. Many people are now dealing with the fallout from the holidays. We ate way too much We spent way too much. We overindulged in so many ways I won’t make you feel any worse by listing them all here. These things contribute to a mental hangover in January. Combine it with winter weather (yes, even in San Diego) and the negative effects of our poor planning and overspending sets in. Promising to practice moderation is fine for next year, but what can we do about all this stress now?… Read More

Even San Diegans Get The Winter Blues – How to Cope

| January 14, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Nature and Wellbeing
After suffering through several years of drought, the arrival of rain thanks to El Nino storms was welcome. Even with some flooding problems, we will benefit in the long run from watering out trees without irrigation, replenishing our reservoirs and groundwater. But I didn’t realize just how much the gray gloomy weather had gotten to me until the sun came back out. When it hit 70 degrees, it felt more like an 80 degree summer day. People were back in their shorts and flip flops, even if it was only for a few hours. Feeling the blues when the days grow shorter isn’t in your imagination.… Read More

Do Your Part to Stop Stormwater Pollution

| January 7, 2016 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Green Roofs, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Sustainable Living, Water and Water Conservation
El Nino has arrived in San Diego, and with it a lot of stormwater runoff polluting our waterways and ocean.
Just a few months ago, the Good Earth Plant Company blog was full of advice about surviving our Southern California drought. Now here we are in 2016, and our first blog post of the year is about too much rain. The anticipated El Niño winter rainstorms have hit our area. While we are all grateful to get some relief from our drought, watching our reservoirs fill back up and enjoying the sight of snow in our Laguna Mountains, we also have to be concerned about managing the negative effects of all this water, especially stormwater pollution. Stormwater runoff is the single biggest contributor to poor water quality in the ocean off San Diego.… Read More

Good Earth Plants New Year’s Resolution for 2016: Take A Breath

| December 30, 2015 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
Are you thinking about your New Year’s Resolution for 2016? You are in good company. Forty five percent of all Americans make at least one resolution. If you’re struggling with your resolution, blame the Babylonians. Four thousand years ago, they made promises to their gods hoping to win their favor in the coming year. Their most common pledge: to get debt free. Today, the most common resolutions have to do with health: losing weight, exercising more, eating healthier, drinking less alcohol, quitting smoking, and managing stress (source: Marist University poll). Only half of us are still keeping our resolution six months later.… Read More