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Green Building / Renovation

Strawberry Tower Construction Workshop - Carrollton

This month DFW Aquaponics Meetup will be sponsoring a short hands-on workshop to teach the techniques necessary to build a "strawberry tower" from common PVC pipe and a few other components. I will have instructions available ($5) that will detail the steps to build the tower, or we will provide the instructions along with the materials to build your own 4' tower ($25) [ Please make a comment in your RSVP if you would like materials to build your own tower.]

These structures are a great place to grow Strawberries (obviously), but also for all types of herbs, greens, and even certain vining plants. I will specifically discuss how to integrate these growing vessels into aquaponics systems and how to calculate their bio-filtration effectiveness.

Dallas Green Festival - Dallas

Dallas Green Festival at Texas Discovery Gardens and the inaugural Texas Discovery Gardens Green Exhibit at State Fair of Texas®!

Texas Discovery Gardens is once again hosting the Dallas Green Festival, a celebration of environmentally positive living! And this year we're extending it into the first ever Texas Discovery Gardens Green Exhibit at the 2011 State Fair of Texas®!

That's over a month of environmental seeing, learning and doing!

These two fantastic events in one will feature activities and demonstrations on:

Dallas Cohousing Planning Meeting - Dallas

Update on July outreach & possible properties; discussion of member roles in moving project forward. Bring a snack to share.

Describing New York City's first cohousing project, a New York Times article said cohousing speaks to people who want to own a home but not feel lost in an impersonal city. That's how we feel. And we want to live sustainably, with a smaller carbon footprint. To know our neighbors, grow some of our own food and use our united buying power to support local farmers and dairies. We want to model a more resilient way of life for the DFW metroplex.

Build an Aquaponic Garden Unit - Dallas

I recently installed a 500 gallon, 80 sq ft super-efficient aquaponic unit at Paul Quinn College (pics to be posted soon). This Meetup will be used to go over the design and construction of that unit, with hands-on training on the various steps in building it out. The same basic design (with minor changes) can be built using one, two, three or four totes depending on the size unit you wish to build, your energy budget, etc. These designs will be discussed and the differences will be explained in full. The unit at Paul Quinn utilizes four 275 gallon IBC totes, and has four gravel grow beds and two raft sections. The unit is simple enough to be built in a day using readily available, low cost components.

Greenweavers Networking Meetup - Dallas

“DFW Greenweavers is a power group of local, sustainable businesses that have been operating in the Metroplex as experts in their given Green fields.”

We will be following our synergizing format that we did last time. When people arrive you will be broken into three groups:

1) Home and Buildings 

2) Food and Gardening

3) Health and Lifestyle 

The first part of the meeting will be spent socializing with the people in your industry. There has been a great response from people spending time with others that are in their given fields.

After that you will draw a business card from the hat. You will then have a 5 minute 1-1 with that person and you will be giving their 30 second commercial! This was a HUGE success last time. Lots of FUN!

Each meeting will be sponsored by a different business every month. The sponsor will have 10 minutes to talk to the group about what they do. There will be several other perks that go along with sponsorship. The sponsor is paying the $75 room fee so that we can have our own private room that's quiet. Finally!

Green Weavers - Business Networking - Dallas

Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 6:30 PM
Times Ten Cellars
6324 Prospect Dallas, TX (map)
We will be meeting in the private building behind the main building. Times Ten II
Price: $1.00/per person

“DFW Greenweavers is a power group of local, sustainable businesses that have been operating in the Metroplex as experts in their given Green fields.”

We will be following our synergizing format that we did last time. When people arrive you will be broken into three groups:

1) Home and Buildings
2) Food and Gardening
3) Health and Lifestyle

The first part of the meeting will be spent socializing with the people in your industry. There has been a great response from people spending time with others that are in their given fields.

After that you will draw a business card from the hat. You will then have a 5 minute 1-1 with that person and you will be giving their 30 second commercial! This was a HUGE success last time. Lots of FUN!

Make A Rain Barrell - Dallas

We will use rainwater harvesting in the ecovillage. This usually means catching water from even the smallest roof. Although a rain barrel is not the appropriate size for serious rainwater harvesting at your home, it is appropriate for outbuildings, so we have included it in the skill building series.

Dr. Dotty Woodson, Extension Program Specialist - Water Resources will be teaching this class and will provide participants the opportunity to construct a 55 gallon rain barrel as well as discuss installing an efficient irrigation system. The rain barrel is yours to take home!

Cost is $40.00 for each barrel and they measure 24 inches in diameter and 36 inches tall. Bring a vehicle large enough to haul your rain barrel(s) home.

Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Pavilion Building, 17360 Coit Road, Dallas 75252.

Sustainable Showcase - USGBC,CES,AIA

17Seventeen McKinney
Dallas, Texas 75202

Managed by
Granite Properties
PARKING:  Free Parking is available in the building

The USGBC North Texas Chapter, the CSI Dallas Chapter, and Dallas AIA’s Committee on the Environment have joined together to host a showcase of the latest green building products, technologies and knowledge for commercial and residential use. This showcase is for Architects, Engineers, Landscape Architects, Interior Designers, Developers, Contractors, Owners, Facilities Managers and others interested in the sustainable building industry.

EVENT NEWS -

Keynote speakers will be Thom Mayne on Thursday at 5pm and Howard "the Dirt Doctor" Garrett on Friday at 8am.  Seating is limited so register early!

GBCI will offer a presention on GBCI LEED Certification and the process of getting your project through GBCI.  They will also have a GBCI Work Zone and three LEED revieweres in the Exhibit Hall for project teams to have questions answered about their LEED project reviews in process.

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