[Greenbuilding] Living wall

[Norman Feldman]

a. Rob Tom wrote, "And why are these Greenwashed "living wall systems" using new plast-echhh! containers and new, high embodied-eergy "support structure" materials when all urban centres already have large repositories of salvaged, discarded porcelain and/or terra cotta and/or cast iron receptacles & plumbing pipes/fittings, miscellaneous structural materials awaiting re-use ?

I agreee that a plastic system makes little sense -- I think they deform, might deteriorate and leech hydrocarbons into the soil. Green Living Technology living wall panels are manufactured from recycled aluminum and stainless steel. If anyone wants to know I will find out how much of the metal in a panel is recycled.

b. John Salmen is correct when he says that greenroofs and living walls can add a significant, potentially damaging, amount of weight to a roof or wall. The first step in any installation is to determine how much weight the roof or wall can support, which may require a structural engineer's report. There are also freestanding living walls and mobile living walls (panels on moveable racks).

c. Adjoa Linda asked if anyone had pictures of these walls.
http://agreenroof.com/2010/06/green-living-walls/

d. Hydroponics v. soil. GLT walls are composed of panels; each panel is composed of cells 6"wide x 4" high which can be 2", 4" or 6" depth. A 1' wide x2' tall panel has two 6" wide columns, each six cells high. The cells are filled with a proprietary soil mix that includes organic nutrients and beneficial bacteria. Liquid fertilizer is delivered with the irrigation water. The yield is similar to or greater than hydroponics. Unlike hydroponics, no electric pumps running constantly. 

e. As far as embedded energy, I think recycled metal panels will break even after ten or twenty years. Elliot Coleman, in The Winter Harvest Manual, calculates the BTUs/head of lettuce when trucked from Los Angeles to Maine and when grown in unheated high tunnel greenhouses in Maine. I will send a copy of this calculation to anyone who requests it.

f. A factor in the etiology of cancer and other chronic illnessess is said to be lack of oxygen in the atmosphere (there's measurably less now than there used to be). Also malfunctions in the body's ability to process oxygen. Dr. Majid Ali has written about the many roles of oxygen in health and disease: majidali.com, ethicsinmedicine.us. The amount of oxygen in the air in cities is less than that in the air in the country. Living walls -- ornamental or food producing -- produce oxygen and clean the air so play a vital role. 

g. Here in New York City the borough taking the lead on greenroofs is the Bronx. Discovery High School is developing training in green job skills. Students from this high school install living walls and greenroofs. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/a-high-school-for-green-t_b_450105.html

h. Controlled environment agriculture is where food plants are grown indoors under lights. Unless you have a greenhouse, the light coming through windows won't make a difference so the ideal room is in the basement, where temperatures stay constant thoughout the year. Besides providing about sixteen hours a day of electric light, the room's temperature, humidity and ventilation have to be controlled. With such a room, having plants growing in living walls attached to the room's walls besides systems on the floor could mean more food produced.  

I realize there are many other ways to grow plants in a city, some of them less expensive. I'm asking you to consider that green walls might not be a foppish effete luxury.