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Green News Plant Connection Unveils Largest Living Wall in Maryland A more than 2,000 square-foot exterior G-O2 Living Wall was recently installed on the building fa��ade of One East Pratt Street in Baltimore, making it the largest living wall in Maryland. The new living wall in Baltimore will help the surrounding environment in the popular Inner Harbor region by reducing pollution and smog, mitigating urban heat island effect, and increasing biodiversity in the downtown area. Green Walls Increase Business Plant Connection's G-O2 Living Wall has some important features that will help advance the success of living architecture, including the use of a unique, cutting edge, remote monitoring system. Individual sensors in the wall measure and collect important data about the green wall 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The information is used to maximize water efficiency and the health of the plants growing in the wall. This valuable data recorded will be studied and used to help inform and For the hardscape contractor, Backhus offers suggestions further advance the greater green wall industry as a whole. of what those interested in LEED should be familiar with. ���The two most important categories for (the hardscape) industry are sustainable sites and material and resources. ���The most relevant credits for (hardscape) contractors in the sustainable sites category will be Heat Island Reduction,��� asserted Backhus. ���Heat Island Reduction��� Roof and Nonroof credits focus on the materials and the placement of the materials, on the hardscape as well as the roof of the building. That includes paving, parking Milwaukee ���Green Infrastructure��� Offers Opportunities lots, sidewalks ��� essentially any reflective material other More rooftops in the Milwaukee area than plants.��� ���Since the beginning of LEED, it has been on a growth trajectory,��� said Theresa Backhus, sites technical specialist for LEED at USGBC. This is true even during a down economy. As such, embracing LEED offers more potential work to the qualified contractor. ���If you���re looking at the heat island reduction materials versus the storm water materials, you���ll be looking at options such as porous pavement (pictured) or pavement being broken up by landscape.��� Other LEED Options For Contractors Another opportunity for contractors to obtain LEED points is through the innovation category. ���If a contractor uses a strategy on a project and the service or product isn���t covered in the other categories it may be covered under the innovation category,��� Backhus says. ���The section gives the opportunity to propose strategies that are innovative. For example, that would work if you have a certain application of material that would provide environmental benefits.��� When completing LEED projects contractors must be aware of additional requirements. ���Contractors may be asked to track a portion of their work via logs or some other sort of data,��� Backhus said. ���The information will track the products they are using. They may also be asked to work more closely with designers.��� Get Involved Interested contractors should become accredited in several different LEED areas. ���Being accredited is helpful to have a better understanding of the requirements, and it is also required to have a LEED AP on projects,��� said Backhus. ���Whether or not you are a member company or a LEED AP you can get involved with your local chapter,��� she said. ���Your chapter can provide you with a network of professionals already working on LEED projects in your area. It���s a great way to get familiar with projects and get familiar with contractors working with LEED.��� 36 LC DBM will be going green now that the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has been given the nation's first wastewater discharge permit mandating "green infrastructure" to collect and absorb storm water. Green roofs offer a growing opportunity for qualified landscape contractors. Shown here is a green roof using Skyland product. The state Department of Natural Resources issued MMSD a new 5-year pollution discharge permit requiring the district to establish 1 million gallons of socalled green storm-water storage capacity each year, said Ted Bosch, a DNR wastewater engineer in Milwaukee. The district must use plants, soil and rain barrels to comply with the storage requirement. Apart from green roofs, the tools available include planting rain gardens at the ends of downspouts, installing porous pavement in parking lots, creating landscaped swales, and protecting wetlands and floodplains. http://v3.mmsd.com. Bill Seeks to Restrict Use of Pesticides on New Jersey Playing Fields A proposed measure would put new restrictions on pesticide use on elementary school and childcare center playgrounds and fields. The proposed Safe Playing Field Act places new restrictions on the use of pesticides on elementary school and childcare center playgrounds and fields. Sponsored by state Sens. Shirley Turner (DMercer) and Robert Gordon (D-Bergen), the Senate Bill S-1143 was unanimously endorsed by the Senate environmental committee last week. For information about pesticide regulations in your state and local area, visit The National Pesticide Information Center (http://npic.orst.edu).