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.

Save San Diego’s Trees and Save Our Future

| May 10, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Do your part! Take time to send a message to San Diego's elected officials and tell them not to cut the Urban Forestry budget.
If you know anything about me, you know I believe in the power of trees. One of the most powerful things you can do for the wellbeing of our planet is to plant a tree. Trees are nature’s conservation heroes. Studies show that trees clean the air by filtering pollutants and producing oxygen. Trees reduce soil erosion. Trees reduce energy costs by providing shade and cooling the air, which produces a natural way to offset the scorching heat coming from streets, concrete and buildings. We call this the “urban heat island effect.” California street trees alone save the amount of electricity it would take to air condition 530,000 households every year.… Read More

18 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day 2018 – Sunday and All Year Long

| April 19, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Sustainable Living
Environment, global warming
Forty-eight years ago today, the first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on 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. Not to brag, but we celebrate Earth Day every single day at Good Earth Plant Company! We are a green-run company and we believe in sustainable practices. They are now just a normal part of our everyday routines. We love it when the rest of the world takes a day to focus on environment issues and finding good solutions we can easily adopt.… Read More

Green Roofs Could Save San Diego Enough Tax Money To Fix our Streets

| April 5, 2018 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Green Roofs, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
We need urban and suburban parks to insure all San Diego residents are within walking distance of nature. Photo: Nathan Rupert/Creative Commons fix our streets
Sometimes I wonder why I read the news, because it can be depressing. I guess because it’s a relief none of my own problems ever make it into the San Diego Union-Tribune or on local TV. If they did, I’d know I’m having a REALLY bad day. A few recent stories in the news were a serious downer for this Eco-Warrior. In the first one, a report by the City of San Diego ran down our infrastructure funding gap. This is the money we don’t have to fix our streets, sidewalks, lights, traffic signals, and such. The one that got my attention was the $243 million we need to fund local parks.… Read More

Cool Things Made From Plants, Not Plastic

| March 29, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
uman beings are addicted to plastic and trashing our planet with discarded bottles, fishing nets, and more. We need to find a solution. Photo: Courtesy Ocean Cleanup Foundation
Forget being addicted to drugs, or sugar, or the internet. America is addicted most of all to plastic. Last week, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation published a report on the Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge mass of trash swirled together by the ocean’s currents. It sits between the California coast and Hawaii. It is hundreds of miles from land, from any major city. So much trash is getting into the Pacific Ocean that doesn’t biodegrade, it has now grown to 87,000 tons, four to 16 times bigger than anyone previously thought. It is four times the size of the state of California.… Read More

Hey Denver, Call Good Earth Plant Company About Your Green Roofs

| March 8, 2018 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Environment, Green Roofs
Hey Denver, Good Earth Plant Company has over a decade of experience with green roofs. This photo was taken on the first anniversary of our roof in March 2008.
The smart voters of Denver, Colorado are the first voters to pass their own Green Roof Initiative. It passed with 54 percent of the vote. The new city ordinance requires any building with more than 25,000 square feet of gross floor area under the roof to include green spaces. Fantastic! But trust elected officials and civil servents to screw up even the best idea. Four months later there is a crazy amount of handwringing going on over how to make the new ordinance “work.” The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment has formed a review task fore including initiative supporters, water and power authorities, and “green roof experts.”… Read More

Working A Little Plantscaping Magic In Arizona

| February 21, 2018 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Environment, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
Can you tell if these plants are real or replica?
Sometimes the best solution for one of our clients is a blend of multiple approaches in a customized design. Good Earth Plant Company recently worked with a San Diego dispensary client with locations in multiple states. For its Tempe, Arizona location, “Tend Tempe,” we needed to find ways to incorporate plants into their facility where the conditions weren’t optimal. Working with Basille Studios on the details, we decided a blend of real and replica (or “faux”) plants would work best. An “illusion” was created with our materials. Where there was enough light and/or enough access to provide ongoing maintenance, we used living plants.… Read More

Calling All Tree Huggers: Fans Rally Behind Pando

| February 15, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing
In last week’s blog post, I wrote about the world’s largest living plants. Thanks for all the positive feedback. Several readers pointed out an important entry for out list we’d missed, and I’m glad they did. We get some of our best blog posts from your suggestions! It is worth a blog post all to itself: the Utah aspen grove now believed to be the world’s largest living organism. It’s so big and utterly unique, it’s been given a name: Pando. Pando is Latin for “I Spread.” Botanist Burton Barnes from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor gave this aspen grove its name.… Read More

Good Earth Plants Thinks Big: World’s Largest Plants

| February 7, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
The Hyperion tree is the tallest tree in the world.
Regular readers of my blog know how much I love trees. The simple act of planting a tree is one of the most valuable things you can do for the planet. One of my first blog posts ever (in 2013) was about treehouses. In 2015, it upset me to learn Caltrans was cutting down mature trees to make way for freeway expansion. So I was happy to hear about plans to protect the health of Balboa Park’s huge Moreton Bay Fig tree next to the Natural History Museum. This tree and I go back a long way. One of my only real jobs before opening Good Earth Plants was working for the Natural History Museum, where I took admission tickets.… Read More

Amazon Goes Big With Biophilia: The Spheres Are Open

| February 1, 2018 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Amazon sphere
Seven years, 600 people, 40,000 plants from 300 species, and one really big Ficus tree later, the Amazon Spheres opened this week in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle. Public officials made speeches, people got their thank yous, and ribbons were cut. Because it’s Amazon, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos did the final honors with the help of Alexa, by saying “Alexa, open The Spheres.” For an Eco-Warrior and biophilic design advocate like me, something like this gets me as geeked out excited as the most hardcore costume wearing fans at Comic-Con. We wrote about the project under construction in 2016.… Read More

Glow In The Dark Trees Could Replace Streetlights

| January 25, 2018 | Categories: Environment, Nature and Wellbeing, Sustainable Living
Could trees one day glow like jellyfish? MIT researchers believe it's possible.
Human civilization took a giant leap when we learned how to make and control fire. Along with fire came the glow of firelight, and the history of man-made lighting is nearly as important to us as fire. Historians believe the first ancient lamp was probably made out of a hollowed-out rock, shell, or some other object that could hold a miniature fire safely about 70,000 years ago. Fast forward to 2018. Now scientists are trying to learn how to manipulate light the same way nature does to create new light sources. One of those methods involves using plants. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on ways to make plants glow by using different methods of bioluminescence (“the production and emission of light by a living organism”).… Read More