New Mexico, A Hot Bed For The Emerging Green Economy
New Mexico is a “Hot Bed” for the emerging Green Economy. It’s a garden bed nurturing the seeds of change to fruition. I have been on a job search for five months in the Land of Enchantment, and during this time I have found a myriad of self employed people and businesses built on the foundation of sustainability. My searches have been focused primarily in Albuquerque and the surrounding region, and my Google searches have brought me to people and businesses through out the entire state. For the first time I have experienced a land filled with the desire to become Earth based - not plastic based. I assume this is because of New Mexico’s deep roots in Earth Buildings. With Adobe, Rammed Earth, and Natural Plasters as the back bone of traditional building materials is it any wonder that New Mexico has organizations like:
- Adobe Association South West - www.adobeasw.com
- South West Solaradobe - www.adobebuilder.com
- Northern New Mexico Colleges’ Adobe Construction Department - www.adobecollege.com
- Eco-Nest Builders - www.econest.com
- American Clay: Makers of fine clay plasters - www.americanclay.com;
Just to name a few!
The magic is only just beginning there though. This land is also filled with many environmentally conscious and down to earth organic farmers with CSA’s, and permaculturalists with training institutes and landscape companies. Here are a few:
- Santa Fe Permaculture: A permaculture based landscape company - www.sfpermaculture.com
- Permaculture institute - www.permaculture.org
- Soilutions: permaculture based landscape, and recycling company - www.soilutions.net
- Permaculture Credit Union: A great idea! - www.pcuonline.org. The dedication and support for fresh, locally grown, organic food is eye opening - I love it!
- The Gardeners Guild is a great resource - www.gardenersguild.org
- Erda Gardens is another beautiful looking educational center and CSA - www.erdagardens.org, and I am looking forward to becoming a member of a CSA when we get established. I have found a few that have caught my eye and I am leaning towards -www.lospoblanosorganics.com.
The City of Albuquerque’s “Sustainability Page” has been a tremendous resource and a great insight into this areas commitment for a fertile future - www.cabq.gov/albuquerquegreen.
I have loved reading about all of Albuquerque’s green works and future goals. I can see a wonderful future laid out. The New Mexico Solar Energy Association has been indispensable in my job search, and an educational powerhouse of information - www.nmsea.org. New Mexico’s U.S. Green Building Council Chapter was the ground breaking site in my job search with their green business directory, and they have kept me excited about networking and social opportunities at their Green Drinks and Salon events. Albuquerque’s social network, Duke City Fix -www.dukecityfix.com ( It’s Green Social network started by Sustainable New Mexico - www.sustainablenewmexico.org) has been a great support in our establishment here in the Land of Enchantment.
I know I have only brushed against the tip of the iceberg in this article. New Mexico’s focus on sustainable energy and water conservation is vast enough for me to keep writing articles in this blog in days and years to come, and my focus is to be able to work with and experience many of these good people and businesses first hand. Look forward to highlighting people and businesses in future posts on The Knipfing Report, featuring those who are digging their way out of the Petroleum-based Economy and into a brighter way of living.
The National Institute of Health Green Roof 11/08-Present Site Supervisor
The green roof at the National Institute of Health has been a rather intense roof for us. For starters, we need to walk through metal detectors, give our ID’s and get badged. Then our vehicles are swabbed for bomb residue and sniffed by dogs everyday just to get on campus. Parking is a hassle as we try to find a place where the NIH police won’t ticket us. We have time restrictions, access restrictions, and multiple contractors working over us, giving us different and conflicting commands.
The first part of this job was the deconstruction and demolition of the original paver deck roof. (this was a first time for me and for the company.) At the time of deconstruction we were pressured by schedule constraints and we needed to fit this part of the project into three days (thirteen men and 40 work hours in 3 days). We completed our task by removing:
- 1,500 2′ x2′ pavers
- A layer of 2″x8′x2′ water logged Styrofoam boards. The Styrofoam was so heavy that one man could
only pick up one sheet at a time. - Demolishing two 4′x4′x4′ solid concrete umbrella bases.
We relocated all the materials and garbage to a storage area a quarter mile away to be discarded and stored for reuse on the future green roof and other projects at NIH.
The second part of this green roof was the reinstalling of the insulation board and the construction of the curvilinear paver deck. This was my first time creating a curvilinear hard scape with a Makita Chop Saw. I didn’t know how we were to do this work when I first saw the plans. Fortunately for us we hired on Patrick Dameron - a man with 20 years of landscape and hard scape experience. He taught us the “plunge”, “score”, and “snap” method:
- At each end of the curved line; plunge the saw through the entire paver in a straight line as far as you can before the curve becomes too intense.
- Connect the two plunged areas with a straight score line connecting the two end points; cut the score about halfway through the material.
- Move the paver to the edge of the cutting table and pivot it on the edge in order to take pressure off the cut area; then hit the discarded part of the paver with a dead blow and snap - the paver will crack right along the cuts.
- Use the chop saw to carve the little bit of material that is left along the curved line; this is accomplished through many cuts with the chop saw positioned at angle towards the cut and following the scribed line.
- The cut is completed by trimming with the saw and chipping away material with a brick hammer until the line is clean and curved.)
This project is still operational, and I will be writing another blog about the installation of the Jacob’s Trellis this week - A stainless steel cable system to train vines to grow up the face of exterior walls.
The all pictures that are shown in this post are the way it looked before we began to reinstall the green roof. Future postings and pictures will be added and updated showing the progress of this project.
