The past few blogs have mention in passing “walkable neighborhoods”—

What exactly is a walkable neighborhood and what are its benefits?

To truly be walkable, a neighborhood has to contain certain characteristics. It first needs to have a center such as a main street, public plaza, or other public area. This ties the community together and ends up being where most businesses and shops are located, and where community events occur.

A walkable neighborhood needs to be pedestrian friendly with wide sidewalks, possible seating areas (like benches), greenery that acts as a buffer between the street, and buildings with parking behind them. This means pedestrians have to worry less about watching out for cars and can walk comfortably.

Walkable neighborhoods should be designed for a variety of transportation such as bicycles, public buses, or trains, in addition to pedestrians and automobiles. This can be accomplished more successfully and easily through street planning that is intuitive and not confusing (like a block/grid system). But with care, any type of road structure can incorporate alternate transportation. Schools and workplaces should ideally be close enough to walk to daily. This can be accomplished by bringing in mixed use buildings that have businesses below and living above. Mixed use buildings don’t have to be huge skyscrapers, but can be smaller buildings that fit well with the scale of a neighborhood. Mixed use buildings allow for affordable housing and convenience which draw more people into a community. This is important as it allows for the success of buildings and public areas.

Of course, every walkable community needs to have plenty of parks. Green spaces are good for health, add beauty to the community, and encourage play & exercise!

Can your neighborhood become a walkable community?

All of these characteristics create a community –whether it’s a downtown area or small neighborhood – that is healthy, enjoyable, memorable, and energetic. As you think about the neighborhood you live in, turning it into a walkable community might seem like an overwhelming task. But, each characteristic can be taken into consideration and incorporated one at a time or with neighborhood specific adaptations. As this happens, your neighborhood will develop into a real community you can enjoy  being an active part of now and in the future.

Today’s blog is a shout out about a flame retardant product that is being developed and tested at Texas A&M. It’s made from natural and renewable resources: layers of clay and a polymer from crab shells. These layers are designed to help prevent a fire from igniting a surface instead of trying to extinguish it after ignition like most fire retardants.

In one test, the product was applied to a foam block and then exposed to flame. The clay-crab shell layers not only successfully kept the foam from igniting, but also prevented the foam from melting or hardening. The team at A&M is even exploring and testing other layers of polymers for potential fabric flame retardants. It’ll be great to hear news of their progress in the future! Who knows– this may be a product that we eventually use for fire proofing homes.

Here is link to a short article with a little more information about the product as well as a photo.

Like water, we need air to survive. Our cells require the oxygen found in air to live—they die within a few minutes without it. Because it is such a vital resource, we should take care that the air we breathe is clean and free of harmful pollutants! What are some of College Station’s goals that will help us do this?

The City hopes to reduce harmful emissions (that decrease outdoor air quality) through their example and through increasing our awareness of alternate means of transportation. You can join in by using these alternate means, such as bicycle trails throughout the city, to get to and from work or school. This is a great option if you live close by to your destination and enjoy being in the outdoors (especially during the times of year when the weather is wonderful!). Also consider taking the bus, or perhaps carpooling with coworkers and neighbors to reduce the amount of emissions caused by an over abundance of vehicles on the road.

Another way to help increase overall air quality is to reduce energy use. If we become more energy efficient in our homes and places of work, we decrease the amount of energy that needs to be produced in power plants. This in turn decreases emissions which can cause smog and other harmful conditions.

Remember, indoor air quality is also important! To ensure clean air in your home, be careful in your use of strong household chemicals, using them only in well ventilated areas. Also, educate yourself about products that emit VOCs or volatile organic compounds. These compounds can be found in certain types materials in your home, like carpet. There are many products available now that have decreased or even eliminated their emissions to help keep your indoor air healthy. For more suggestions of things you can do in your home, check out our blogs about indoor air quality and VOCs.

Open Space

College Station is proud to have 51 parks with more than 1,300 total acres. One of the City’s goals is to continue to develop more parks and natural conservation areas. Many of these parks contain native habitats, leaving existing natural spaces intact as green corridors for wildlife. Parks and other natural areas help to reduce storm runoff from rain and decrease the heat effect, issues caused by the increasing amount of pavement and buildings in our growing city. And don’t forget, natural spaces are good for our own health and well-being.

You can help support the City’s parks by participating in volunteer activities that plant trees annually and also by using and enjoying College Station’s parks with your family. Remember, to take care of these areas by doing things like picking up your trash while you’re there. Some parks even have information in them about local plants and native animals. Not only can this help you know what plants and animals to look out for while you are at the park, but it can also inspire you as to what plants to have in your own gardens.

Green Building

The City is also encouraging green practices in building and has goals to create codes for such a purpose. Whether you are thinking about remodeling and repairing your home, or constructing a new one, you can choose to include green products and sustainable approaches in the process. Some of these green methods are highly visible, as in flooring choices or paint. Others are less visible such as types of insulation and efficient heating/cooling systems.  All methods are beneficial to your home, health, and the environment. Be sure to talk to your contractor about available green options and don’t be afraid to do some research on your own.

In terms of design, your home should be integrated with the natural environment. Additions and new construction should be designed with existing trees, sunlight paths, breezes, and drainage in mind. Creating outdoor covered spaces are also economical ways to expand your home without adding additional loads for heating and cooling. They provide a great place for relaxing and connecting with nature, as well as socializing with your neighbors and friends. When inside and outside spaces work together, your home becomes functional, beautiful, and sustainable.

Reducing waste is another goal that the City of College Station is focusing on. A great way to do this is to recycle! In many single-family, duplex, and even some four-plex neighborhoods, curbside recycling pick-up is already in place. Once a week you can put out items such as papers, aluminum & steel cans, brown & clear glass, and plastics 1 & 2. This pickup also takes car batteries. If the area you live in doesn’t have curbside recycling, don’t feel left out—there are many places around Bryan-College Station to which you can take your recycling!

Normally when people think about recycling, they focus on paper, cardboard, and plastics—but many more things can be recycled. There is a great pamphlet created by the City that lists items you can recycle and where recycling collection for each item happens. These items include automobile waste, appliances, batteries, computers & print cartridges, glass of all kinds, metal, plastic bottles & bags, yard waste, cardboard, packing peanuts, paper, cell phones, paint, CFL’s, and more! Many of the locations are recyclers of more than one item type, and some are even stores. Once you start collecting items, try to make recycling part of your weekly (or monthly) errand running or shopping routine. If you have a hard time collecting enough items to warrant a trip, talk to your friends and neighbors about collecting recycling together.

Twice a year in Bryan-College Station, there is a Household Hazardous Waste Collection. For one weekend in April and October, this collection takes contaminated fuels, oils, antifreeze, chemicals, and solvents (like paint). They also collect computers, batteries, and CFLs.

As you can see, there are so many items that can be recycled and so many places to recycle! If you’re already a pro at recycling, remember to buy goods/products made from recycled material to continue your support of this good endeavor.  For more information about recycling and its benefits, check out another of our bogs.

Our bodies are 60-70% water—it’s a substance we vitally need to survive. In fact, all plants and animals need water to live. This means it’s crucial that we use water responsibly, especially in dry times like the present. Here are some City of College Station goals about water conservation as well as suggestions for how our community can become more responsible water users.

The City of College Station’s goals in regards to water are to reduce overall consumption and develop reuse methods. For example, they hope to begin reusing water for maintenance of athletic areas in City parks, thereby saving 1,000,000 gallons of potable (drinkable) water every day! If you’d like to reuse water, have a rain barrel installed in your yard to collect water runoff from your roof. This allows you to store the rain water for later use in your garden. Planting native or drought resistant plants that need less water is another way you can help decrease your home’s water consumption. Grouping plants with similar watering needs together also ensures that you won’t over-water or waste water on certain plants. When you do water, do so in the early morning or late evening when the temperature is cool—this will prevent the evaporation of water from your sprinklers. There are also some things you can do inside your home that will help you further conserve water. Installing low flow shower heads and shortening your normal showering time by a few minutes are good ways to decrease water use. If you have an older high volume toilet, consider replacing it. Or, you can use a toilet dam or plastic bottle (for water displacement) in the toilet tank to decrease the amount of water that fills it. Also, wash only full loads in your dishwasher and washing machine. If your washing machine has different load size options, make sure you adjust them before washing.

The City of College Station is also on a Brazos area committee that advocates keeping storm drain water clean of pollutants and chemicals. If you’d like to find out why this is so important and learn some ways you can help, read our blog about keeping water pure.

The City of College Station’s Green Committee is developing an action plan with goals that strive for environmental consciousness and responsibility. What are these goals and how can we as members of the community help reach them?

Energy efficiency and conservation is a topic that is on all our minds (especially when our monthly utility bills arrive in the mail). The City’s goals for this area include having renewable energy become a part of our purchased energy, and having it available for resale to Utility customers. This means the city buys energy from a wind farm in west Texas which you can then opt to use in your home. You can choose to have 10%, 50%, or 100% of your electricity come from wind power. A con is that the purchasing rate is a little more than standard electricity, but the good news is a portion of it goes into a fund to plant trees in College Station. We love our trees here in College Station (in particular those old oaks on campus) and I’m sure we all want future Aggies to have old trees they can enjoy around town too.

Another City goal is to reduce overall energy consumption. You can help with this by discovering and eliminating ways you waste energy. Switch out your incandescent light bulbs for CFLs or LEDs. Stop phantom loads from plugged in and turned off electrical devices. Think about having an Energy Audit to determine improvements for your home that will help make your heating and cooling more efficient. To learn more about the how-and-why to each of these suggested actions, check out our other blogs about phantom loads, efficient lighting, and air leakage.

Next week, we’ll talk about more of the City’s goals and more of the ways you can be a part of them. We are proud of our company President, Hugh Stearns, for being on a committee that is helping to develop the action plan.

Picture from inhabitat.com showing wind farm in Texas

Today we thought we’d share some information on a competition that exists to test out emerging green technologies (with emphasis on solar) in real life scenarios within the public’s view.

Every two years, academic teams compete to design and build an efficient solar house of around 1000 sqft which is set up in Washington D.C.’s West Potomac Park for two weeks. During this time the houses are open to the public for viewing and for workshops. This year’s teams from the US, Canada, China, Belgium, and New Zealand had the challenge of making their homes affordable (the budget was $250,000). Some technologies in the homes included waterfalls to regulate humidity, self watering bio-walls, insulation of sheep wool, and thick walls and roofs. This is a link to the ArchDaily website that shows models and rendering for all the solar houses. Some of them are quite fascinating, each one very unique. The houses was designed and built in real life by students of each University—you can check out the designs in more detail on the Solar Decathlon website.

It’s important that the exploration and experimentation with new building technologies never stops, as this will lead to practical and hopefully affordable products. When it comes to innovation and design, our only true limitations are the bounds of our imaginations.

Photo from ArchDaily