Tag: environment
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Navigating Sustainable Choices in Modern Life
Every so often someone challenges me on why I care so much about being sustainable. If I don’t have or plan on having children why do I try to hard to reduce waste, conserve energy, and overall create a smaller impact on the environment? What does it matter to me that the next generation has…
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Mitigating Climate Change through Preservation
This week I spent my days in virtual sessions for the PastForward conference hosted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. While I’m not a fan of virtual conferences, like most people, I was excited to see this conference go virtual because it gave me the opportunity to attend for the first time. This years…
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Cultural Heritage’s Role in Climate Action
In the summer of 2019 the Climate Change and Heritage Working Group of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) released The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging cultural heritage in climate action. ICOMOS, a non-governmental international organization, is a leader in protecting monuments and sites making their recognition of the impact of climate change…
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Designers’ Role in Combating Climate Change
My company is updating employee bios and sent out a questionnaire to help craft the text. One question in particular spurred this blog post—What role do you think designers / planners play in addressing climate change? My answer in a nutshell was—a very important one. In 2017 the U.S. EPA estimated commercial and residential markets…
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Revolutionary Edible Packaging: The Future of Sustainability
The average American throws away 185 pounds of plastic every year which takes between 500 and 1,000 years to degrade. Back in February I wrote a post on orange energy bags, a new advancement in reducing the amount of plastic waste sent to landfills (read about it here). The next wave of environmental sustainability is…
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Record Flooding in Nebraska: Causes and Impact
The flooding in Nebraska and surrounding states this past week looks like it will surpass the records set in 2011. A number of weather patterns over the past several months combined to form a perfect storm. We all felt the eighth coldest February on record in Nebraska (how could we forget the polar vortex) which meant…
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One Water: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Water Management
One Water is a way to manage all water in an integrated, inclusive, and sustainable manner that will allow future generations to prosper. The way we currently manage water is very compartmentalized with stormwater engineers handling the runoff, water utility departments focusing on the supply, and solid waste departments undertaking the waste. Their are non-profits…
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How Energy Bags Are Transforming Waste Management
When I started working at RDG Planning and Design I was excited to see their commitment to recycling, composting, and an overall conservation mind frame. The kitchen has several bins lined up for compost, recyclable plastics, non-recyclable plastics, and landfill (or trash as most people call it). We try to sort everything into either compost…
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History and Evolution of Texas Oil Exploration
I worked in Lubbock, Texas for just over a year when I first started out in planning and recently have been working on a plan for Kermit, Texas, taking me back to the oil fields. Lubbock did not have many operating pump jacks, but nonetheless one of my tasks while there was to map the…
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Enhance Your Sustainability with Google’s Tools
While reading the latest issue of Planning Magazine I came across an etcetera piece on Google’s new sustainability resources. I find it refreshing that major corporations are taking an interest in issues that have global affects, especially in a time when our national leaders are attempting to discount scientific research and roll back regulations that…
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The Planning Lady 