sustainable building

Urban Heat Island Effect Bigger Than We Thought

| February 5, 2013 | Categories: Environment, Good Earth Plant Company, Green Roofs, Living Walls, Sustainable Living
Remember when the terms “Global Warming” and “Climate Change” were first mentioned? Now it’s commonplace. I just read how a research meteorologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is suggesting that big cities in North America and Asia may generate enough heat to warm areas  as far north as Canada and Siberia as much as 1.8 degrees. In general, the heat gathered from the urban heat island effect rises and travels upwards and its energy may change high-altitude currents in the atmosphere that dictate prevailing weather. Meteorologists have known that cities are warmer than rural areas with cars, buildings, asphalt and roofs that absorb heat.… Read More

Selling Plantscaping to Upper Management

| July 23, 2012 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Case Studies, Gardening, Good Earth Plant Company, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping, Sustainable Living
6 Keys to Getting the Green-light to Green-Up Your Office As the Facilities or Operations Manager, your job is a delicate balance of keeping the company running smoothly and managing what seems like tighter and tighter budgets. Upper management expects you to ‘do more for less’ year after year and at some point, a priority needs to be made on the company workspace aesthetics and sustainability. After all, a well-heeled reception area and conference room can project an image of a company that prospects want to do business with and employees want to work for. Interior and exterior plantscaping is not just the “living art” that beautifies a space, it can also create a work environment that improves air quality, reduces absenteeism and increases both productivity and employee morale.… Read More

Innovator seeks to educate about green roof movement – San Diego Daily Transcript

| February 24, 2012 | Categories: Green Roofs, Media Coverage
If you visit Good Earth Plant Company Inc. and GreenScaped Buildings president and owner Jim Mumford’s office, you will notice two things: plants hanging from and growing on walls, and plants growing from the roof. Mumford has built a reputation for renting, installing and maintaining of plants, green roofs and green walls and has been doing so in San Diego and across Southern California for more than 20 years. Chances are you have seen or heard about his work, as he is one of the few who does these types of installations in the county. Mumford’s work has been published and broadcast in several newspapers and television stations over the years, and his companies have completed more than 16 green roof projects and numerous green walls and plant fixtures for corporate clients and private residents.… Read More

Walls you can eat – CNN Money

| April 12, 2010 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Living Walls, Media Coverage, Sustainable Living
SAN DIEGO (CNNMoney.com) — Mario Batali decided last year to install a garden between his adjoining West Hollywood restaurants, Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza. But a plain old backyard patch wouldn’t do. Batali wanted something more visually striking, something more … vertical? So he turned to Jim Mumford, the owner of Good Earth Plant and Flower Company in San Diego. Mumford, 52, had built a reputation as a nontraditional gardener. In March 2007, he embarked on a “giant experiment,” replacing the 1,800-square-foot roof of a commercial building he owned with a planter’s paradise: three inches of specialized, lightweight soil over a padded waterproofing and drainage system.… Read More

Mozza’s Edible Garden Wall: Please Don’t Eat the Geraniums While You Wait, LA Weekly

| February 26, 2010 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Media Coverage, Sustainable Living
Excerpt from the article that appeared in the LA Weekly blog, February 2010 The next time you’re stuck in line outside Pizzeria Mozza, you’ll have a much more pastoral setting for your wait than the usual valet caravan, the hungry crowds, the celebrities dodging TMZ for a pizza. This morning, Nancy Silverton and crew had an edible garden wall installed along the otherwise unremarkable wall between the Pizzeria and the Osteria on Highland Avenue. The wall is a testament to Mozza’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. It also provides some good aesthetics, as well as, perhaps, a get-your-own amuse bouche. The San Diego company Good Earth Plants & GreenScaped Buildings put up a vertical wall of herbs and flowers and lettuces, including 72 square feet of sage, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, beets, chicory, Italian dandelion, han tsai tai, 3 kinds of mint, 4 kinds of edible geraniums and Chinese celery.… Read More

Good Earth Plant Company: Vertical veggies – KFMB TV CBS 8 News

| February 10, 2010 | Categories: Agriculture and Farming, Media Coverage, Sustainable Living
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (CBS 8) – When the folks at Good Earth Plant Company want some from veggies or herbs, all they do is clip them right off their wall. “We’ve got parsley, we’ve got some beets, we’ve got some mint, a little bit of rosemary, strawberries,” Jim Mumford said. Mumford has developed a wall system to grow vegetables vertically. Watch the story here:// San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com Read more: http://www.cbs8.com/story/11923046/good-earth-plant-company-vertical-veggies

Environment-US: Growing Oases in the Sky, IPS News Agency

| June 7, 2007 | Categories: Environment, Green Roofs, Media Coverage
SAN DIEGO, Jul 5 2007 (IPS) – An industrial park seems an unlikely location to find a native plant garden. “It’s mind-blowing,” says Jim Mumford, who ripped up his old roof and replaced it with something alive and verdant atop a small one-storey building that he’s converted into a haven for wayward butterflies and pollinating plants. As the founder and president of Good Earth Plant Co., a container plant and design firm, Mumford combines business acumen with the enthusiasm of an amateur naturalist. He wants to turn neglected urban landscapes into green space for workers and wildlife, beginning with his own commercial property in the gritty neighbourhood of Kearny Mesa, San Diego.… Read More

Businessman hopes rooftop vegetation will be a growing trend – Bend Weekly News, Bend, OR

| April 13, 2007 | Categories: Green Roofs, Media Coverage
In a gritty industrial section of San Diego, “plantscaper” Jim Mumford is putting down roots. On his roof. The result, which will come to life this morning, is an elevated oasis in a desert of concrete and metal. Trucks rumble below. Small planes buzz past wispy clouds above. On one recent afternoon, Mumford settled into a lawn chair on what he bills as the first vegetated roof on a commercial building in the county. “We’ve planted a seed,” said Mumford. Read more: http://www.bendweekly.com/Business/4783.html