August Meeting Announcement Rainwater Harvesting

On Tuesday, August 24th, the San Antonio Sustainable Living monthly meeting will present another informative program free of charge to the general public. This month, we return to Rainwater Harvesting (RWH), one of the most important and sometimes controversial topics in our region and one we haven’t featured in many months. The presenters are new to our group but not new at all to the industry, Susan Oualline and Jim Champion of Texas Rainfall Catchment. If you are looking for a real in-depth discussion of rainwater harvesting, you will not want to miss this meeting. In addition to her expertise in rainwater harvesting, Susan is a Master Naturalist and will be able to add her vast knowledge of native/adapted plants and landscape design to the irrigation aspects of RWH. Susan and Jim will also discuss the current roadblocks arising from our country’s history of the development of waterworks. We as a nation are almost forced to use potable water for all our needs because of a failure to differentiate the various types of non-potable water and develop appropriate codes and standards. They will also mention the energy savings related to RWH because of the large amount of energy required to distribute and pressurize potable water (SAWS is CPS Energy’s biggest customer). The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that up to 58% of water demand could be appropriately met with non-potable water instead of potable water as at present. Think of the energy savings! This promises to be a very informative meeting that I hope you will attend. For more information regarding Susan and Jim, go to their website, www.texasrainfallcatchment.com

Our regular meetings are the 4th Tuesday of each month (except December), so make a bookmark for these dates on your calendar in advance and check back to this site or the SA Environmental Meetup page for more details on each months’ programs. Please attend the next San Antonio Sustainable Living meeting at 7pm on August 24th. The meeting will be held in the usual location in the classroom within Whole Foods Market in the Quarry Shopping Center (Basse @ 281 @ Jones-Maltsberger). There is no admission fee. Hope to see you there.

Wayne Haese of San Antonio's Grayscaping Inc to speak at March meeting of San Antonio Sustainable Living

Are you the kind of person who maybe goes to two or three San Antonio Sustainable Living meetings a year? You really ought to be coming to these meetings more often since the price of admission cannot be beat (FREE!). However, if you are particular about what topics are worth your time, this is one of those topics - WATER. Oh sure, you've been to water presentations at the San Antonio Sustainable Living before, and yes, they've been very informative and innovative. Still, we only have about one presentation per year on water issues (I keep track of these things), so you can't say this is all we talk about. This Tuesday's presentation is, trust me, the most important and encompassing water presentation we will have for a long time.

We are more familiar with water source issues. We are at the center of rainwater harvesting activity in the country. We are familiar with the excellent guidelines and programs offered by the San Antonio Water System regarding water efficiency and sensible landscaping. Build San Antonio Green has promoted wise water use for many years in their family of programs. But very little attention has been given to graywater systems. Graywater systems, in brief, makes the most out of water by making it work for you more than once. Very few have addressed this category of water efficiency.

Wayne Haese has been developing water use systems for many years and is a multiple award winner from the San Antonio Water System. I've been looking at a lot of water systems, and Wayne Haese's GrayScaping System is the most comprehensive, but simply elegant use of graywater I've seen. He has designed systems from individual houses to entire housing developments incorporating graywater recycling systems with rainwater recovery augmentation, and has also developed proprietary systems he calls RainPonics, GrayPonics, TreeScaping, FireScaping, and more. For additional information, visit his website. But by all means, do not miss next week's meeting in the classroom inside Whole Foods Market in the Quarry at 7pm.

Texas Rainwater Catchment Conference

Mark your calendars for March 12th and 13th for the Second Annual State Conference of the Texas Rainwater Catchment Association to be held in Kerrville. Go to the TRCA website to get details including a list of presentations and workshops for the latest and most practical applications of rainwater harvesting. All presentations are open to the public. Membership in the TRCA is very inexpensive for individual members and applicators alike but is not required for attendance. Sign up anyway to support one of the most intelligent strategies to incorporate into your life, especially in the light of our regional water quantity and quality concerns. Review the Conference schedule to see the wide range of topics you will not hear anywhere else and get some hands-on experience with related workshops and demonstrations. There will be some tours, too. Hope to see you there.

November 24th Monthly Presentation

This month, the San Antonio Sustainable Living Group welcomes David Lewis of Aquabank www.aquabank.net . A relative newcomer to the rainwater harvesting category of green building strategies, Aquabank brings a fresh and unique take on taking the best advantage of capturing, storing, and using rainwater. Please visit their site for more detail, but their Aquabank system features affordable below grade storage, surface water collection, combination with greywater and air conditioning condensate augmentation, and effective irrigation use. Yes, the Aquabank system is primarily for irrigation use, but the possibility for use in potable systems is alluring (in some cases). We hope to see you at our usual meeting place and time, in the classroom at Whole Foods Market at 7pm, Tuesday, November 24th. Remember, there will not be a meeting in December, but mark your calendar for the resumption of our meetings for January 26th.

3 DIY Water Levels (one a bunyip): all cheap and easy to make for construction, fence and deck building and rainwater catchment earthworks

Water-levels and bunyips are inexpensive easy to make tools that outperform some high tech costly laser levels in many situations. There are at least three basic DIY designs for different applications. All involve clear tubing and of course water.

In its simplest form all is required is a tube. You partially fill it with water. Set the water line (aka meniscus) at the height you want and the water line on the other end of the tube no matter how far away is guaranteed by gravity to be at the same height. Appropriately sized corks for each end make transport around the site less likely to become damp. Here's an explanation of this simple form of water level by Kelly Smith on DIY Life.

A reservoir or bucket and tube water level will be more accurate on a landscaping project where the goal is for a number of widely spaced objects to be absolutely level, or whenever you want multiple marks to be at exactly the same height. The bucket or reservoir stays in place as you move the one tube so that the water line at the end of the tube will always be at the level of water in the stationary bucket. Dale Williams on factsfacts.com has an excellent explanation of how to make a bucket style water level along with a second post explaining a a bit more on how to use it. Buildeazy.com has an illustration that may make it clearer how this type of water level is used for fence and deck construction on sloping property.

A bunyip or "Egyptian water-level" is the tool to use when you want to measure differences in elevation. This is used for creating water catchment earthworks among other things, when you want to make sure that the bottom of your earthwork is a certain distance below the top or that your french drain has a proper slope.

A bunyip water level requires a measuring stick, rod or post at each end to which the tube is attached. (Yardsticks can be used but typically the sticks used are longer and marked by hand.) When the bottom of each post is placed on the ground, the difference in elevation will be shown by difference in the from the meniscus on each to the top of the post or stick.

For example if the meniscus at one end is four inches from the top of the stick and the meniscus on the other end is ten inches from the top you know that the ground at the second site is six inches higher.

Here's a video by zhiniibones of Tuscon, Arizona that's the most complete explanation and demonstration on how to make a bunyip that I've run across.




If making your own seems too difficult or if you have more money than time you can also purchase a wide variety of water levels at watrlevel.com. They make water levels specifically designed for building decks, foundations, making patios, mobile home leveling, installing siding laying brick, concrete forms, laying lawns, installing cabinets, grading home inspection, t-bar installation, pond construction and installing rain gutters.

LionForce affordable San Antonio home earns LEED Gold / Level 3 Build SA Green certification

LionForce spoke back in September at our monthly meeting and introduced us to their brand of affordable, green building using their version of STEP (Steel Thermal Efficient Panels) which combined polystyrene insulation with metal studs.

Their home was open and efficient making good use of space and material. In July they learned they had received LEED Gold certification which is extraordinary considering that the home is a modest one.

From LionForce's blog:

Last week, the LionForce ecoLiving home located on Trumbo Road in San Antonio, Texas, was awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for achievement in green homebuilding and design. LEED for Homes is a green home certification system for assuring homes are designed and built to be energy- and resource-efficient and healthy for occupants. LEED certified homes complete a technically rigorous process that includes a home energy (HERS) rating and onsite inspections to verify that the home is built to be energy and water efficient, environmentally sound, and a healthier place to live.

Trumbo Road (T-2) is one of 3 local homes that have been certified using LEED, but the first to achieve Gold certification. The home was built by LionForce Building Systems, which is known for their ecoLiving System that empowers people to design and build LEED-rated homes. Green homes have substantially lower utility bills and may qualify for advantageous financing, lower insurance rates and government incentives. Through their commitment to green homebuilding, LionForce is helping to keep homeownership affordable.

“We use LEED parameters to direct all of our design decisions,” said Greg Edwards, LionForce Vice President of Construction. “We built the T-2 home using our integrated approach, and the LEED Gold Certification validates our belief that a customized, green home can be affordable to the average American.”

“As a LEED certified home, The LionForce ecoLiving home on Trumbo Road serves as a model of greener living for the entire community,” said Nate Kredich, Vice President of Residential Market Development for the U.S. Green Building Council. “The home is at the national forefront of quality; and their example can help us all to live better by reducing our environmental footprint, cutting our utility bills, and coming home to a healthier place to live.”

Specific information about the home: The LionForce home located on Trumbo road was constructed with a unique wall panel system made from light-gauge steel and Expanded Polystyrene. The panels are factory-fabricated to precise engineering drawings to minimize site waste and shorten construction time. The LionForce wall system creates an extremely tight building envelope and significantly reduces the amount of energy consumed.

Indoor air quality standards were met by following the 70-item checklist from the Indoor Air Package – provided by Energy Star for Homes, and a rainwater catchment system is used to capture 70% of the roof runoff to be used for irrigation. The home also received an award for “Best Custom Green Home” from the City of San Antonio, and the first and only Level 3 certification from Build San Antonio Green.

How Clean is Your Roof?

Thinking about installing a rainwater harvesting system someday that will be part of a system to provide you with ALL your water needs? Thinking about what that raindrop might encounter between the cloud and your throat? I sure do. What's a safe roof surface? What kind of roof (or other catchment surface) should we avoid? Well, there are general thoughts on this. Most feel that rainwater that comes off of asphalt composition shingles on a hot day might pick up some petrochemicals and other yukky stuff. And I suppose that most people who think about these things also assume that a good metal roof is probably the best surface to catch rainwater for drinking and bathing uses. To bring the image home, if you had to drink your water through a straw, would you prefer the straw to be made from an asphalt shingle or a metal tube. Okay, that's not exactly fair because I'm ignoring rain water filters and sterilizing, but you get the idea.

Finally, the folks at the Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center and other roofs in the Austin area are participating in a study conducted by the University of Texas, and funded by the Texas Water Development Board (the publisher of the Texas Manual of Rainwater Harvesting, available as a free download from www.twdb.state.tx.us/iwt/Rainwater.asp). The study is tracking the three most common roof types used in Central Texas, composition shingle, Galvalume, and concrete tile. The study includes collecting rainwater samples taken from roofs since earlier this year and making an analysis based on the presence of a variety of chemical and microbial elements, including suspended solids, pH, nitrates, nitrites, heavy metals, turbidity, total and fecal coliform, and synthetic organic compounds. None of these things we want to get past our teeth in any large quantity for sure!

More information about the project is available on TWDB’s rainwater harvesting Web site at www.twdb.state.tx.us/iwt/rainwater/rainquality.html. You may also contact the TWDB contract manager Sanjeev Kalaswad at sanjeev.kalaswad@twdb.state.tx.us.sanjeev.kalaswad@twdb.state.tx.us

Results are expected by the end of the year, so I'm really looking forward to finding out if our assumptions regarding the relative safety between different catchment surfaces match actual science. My thanks go out to Mike Mecke who gave me a heads-up on this study.

Leading San Antonio architect working to bring sustainable water design to San Antonio

The San Antonio Business Journal has an excellent short article on the Mission Verde Parks plan from Bob Shemwell, of Overland Partners. The plan brings some of the work he and his firm have done around the country on water management to San Antonio. Be sure to follow the link to Five Minutes with Bob Shemwell - 'New Water Ideas".

Thanks to Joe Barfield for passing on this March 20, 2009 article. At the San Antonio Clean Tech Forum in April, Joe says that Bob was calling the plan "Aqua Verde". So look out for that name as well.

Cibilo Nature Center: Rainwater catchment Workshop with John Kight, July 11, 2009

Thanks to the Cibilo Nature Center for passing this along:

John Kight, engineer and rainwater catchment owner, gives the latest technological information and the most practical advice. Learn about design and materials from someone who has done it himself! The Kight home with no well or outside water source is in a traditional development. Their system comfortably supplies delicious water for all household and landscape needs.

CNC Members $20/person & $30/couple; non-members $30/person & $40/couple.

Pre-registration required. Call 830-249-4616. Limit: 30.

July 11, 2009
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: CNC Auditorium and visit to Kight installation .

NPR archives hold two interviews with Brad Lancaster, author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands

Here's a link to a cache of NPR interviews with Brad Lancaster ,Tuscon's rainwater harvesting, plant growing superstar. Tuscon Man Harvests Rainwater (Morning Edition Sept 17, 2008) and Harvesting Rainwater by Not Letting it Go (Morning edition January 10 2008).

Brad is famous for capturing and using 180,000 gallons of rainwater on a small urban lot in Tuscon, Arizona where an average of 12 inches of rain falls each year.

By the way, Brad said in a recent talk in Austin that we are very lucky to have so much rain in our area. If we just use it we can make a beautiful environment without using our aquifer for landscaping. He considers us to be water rich!

Thanks to Joe Barfield for passing these interviews along.

Ten things I learned at Brad Lancaster's hands-on water workshop in Austin

Here are ten things I learned from attending Brad Lancaster's hands on rainwater / gray water workshop in Austin.

1. Sometimes lead and copper is showing up in air conditioning condensate having leached out of solder and other components. But some manufacturers avoid using lead and are more careful with their use of copper, so their condensate is lead and copper free. The good manufacturers need to be encouraged while we need to let the other manufacturers know that we care about this issue so that they will change.

2. We are really rainwater rich in South Texas. Brad feels like we have a great opportunity to use our runoff and rainwater let alone our condensate.

3. We have so much rainwater,that we probably don't need to try to capture water from streets for our own property, although for street trees on public right of way, diverted street water is a good use. The water from streets though usable is not as clean as that captured on soil.

4. Hand watering will always be more water efficient than drip irrigation because with a drip system you will be watering plants that don't need it. Of course either is more water efficient than broadcast watering.

5. Some products with ecology friendly names use lye or salt and should be avoided if you have a gray water system.

6. It isn't as difficult as it seems to calculate the water coming into our property. "Think like a raindrop" he said. The drop doesn't care about the slope, just the amount of ground covered by a roof.

7. Surprisingly some studies indicate that quality of rainwater collected off an asphalt roof is not significantly different from that collected from a metal roof.

8. Some septic tanks are made with a WR Grace product DARACEM 100 which includes Formaldehyde-naphthalenesulfonic acid polymer sodium salt among other things you don't want in your water. So quiz your manufacturer before you buy a septic tank to store water.

9. Making an earthen berm structure to capture water and allow it to soak in is not nearly as complicated as I thought.

10. I want a backyard community dojo like the Welch sisters have.

Design Build Live: June 17. David Venhuizen, PE on "What regulations say and don't say on gray water and rainwater harvesting"

From Design Build Live Austin:

Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Greywater & Rainwater - What the Regulations Say (or don’t)

Guest presenter: David Venhuizen, PE

Location: Casa de Luz, 1701 Toomey Road, Austin, Texas

As we, and many places in the world, continue to suffer from drought conditions, it would behoove us get more stingy and creative with ALL of our sources of water. Rainwater and reclaimed water such as greywater (typically defined as water from washing machines, showers & bathtubs, and handsinks) offer potential for significant contributions to an integrated water system.

But do our local and state regulations cramp our style with regards to what we can do with harvested greywater and rainwater? Local civil engineer and advocate of integrated, decentralized water/”wastewater” systems, David Venhuizen, will interpret the regulations for us. As David says, “It’s all water and it’s all good!”

This presentation is free and open to the public (donations to help cover room rental gratefully accepted). No RSVP required. For questions, contact Gayle through “Contact Us” or 512-478-9033.

There's Way More to Rainwater Harvesting than Gutters and Cisterns

Our friends in Austin, Design, Build, Live are sponsoring a series of events around rainwater harvesting. This post focuses on one of the events surrounding the visit by Brad Lancaster.

Integrated Water Strategies for the Home, Landscape, Garden, Farm & Community – by rainwater rockstar & author Brad Lancaster
A dynamic slide presentation on how to integrate rainwater, greywater and stormwater harvesting to create water abundance in place of water scarcity. Practical, doable, inexpensive ways to maximize the use of rainwater. Book signing follows the presentation.

Time & Location - Saturday, May 30, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, at AMD Lone Star Campus, Austin, Texas
Admission – $15 in advance, $20 at the door. $13.50 for DBL Donor Partners (Check out the many advantages of being part of DBL.) Advanced registration recommended.

Details & registration at www.DesignBuildLive.org

Green Camp SA Report 3: Texas Rainfall Catchment offers rainwater collection help from with in San Antonio.

One of the impromptu presenters at San Antonio Green Camp was Jim Champion of Texas Rainfall Catchment. Jim is located in San Antonio. He holds the designation Accredited Rainwater Professional from the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association.

Publish Post

His website includes advice to those investigating catchment whether for drinking or for landscaping. he also includes a link to a Rainwater calculator which will help you figure out how much rain you can collect from your roof. He even includes a rough estimate of costs.

The range of services he offers includes turn-key systems all the way to help for homeowners wanting to build their own. He installs gray water systems as well.

Detailed Information on Brad Lancaster's Visit to Austin

Design Build Live has posted details of Brad Lancaster's visit to Austin:

The way you think of rainwater and stormwater will be forever changed!

Brad Lancaster’s integrated, sustainable approach to harvesting and maximizing water for the home, landscape, garden, farm and community is eye opening. Brad has written and spoken extensively about maximizing the potential of our on-site resources - topsoil, sun, plants and WATER. Come to one or all events and learn how to turn water scarcity into water abundance!

Find full details on the Design Build Live page: Rainwater Harvesting Rock Star Comes to Austin.

Thanks to SASL member Joe Barfield for passing on this link via our Facebook group. Previous posts about Brad's work include: Radically Simple Sustainable Living (on the cheep!) and mostly at the library, Brad Lancaster's Rainwater Harvesting Basics Part 1 & 2 and Brad Lancaster will Revolutionize your thinking about Rainwater Harvesting.

Berkey Water filters can be part of a rainwater treatment regimen or used for filtering any water supply

How to make rainwater safe for drinking is an issue that concerns our health officials and homeowners. Jody L. Grenga's affordable rainwater system includes a Berkey Light filtration system adapted for home use. Note, that is is just part of a much more complex system.

Berkey Water makes gravity fed filtration systems that are meant to filter out pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites as well as unhealthy chemical contaminates and impurities.

Although Jody Grenga utilizes them as part of her rainwater purifying regime, they are designed to stand alone.

Models include the Travel Berkey, the Sport Berkey backpack bottle, the Big Berkey, the Royal Berkey for large families, the Imperial Berkey for small to medium groups and the Crown Berkey for medium to large groups which will purify up to 6.5 gallons per hour.

Berkey Water (New Millenium Concepts Ltd.) is headquartered in Arlington, Texas.

Design Build Live: May 20 Build Your Own Affordable Rainwater Harvesting System

Jody LaRaine Grenga. author of A Year of Drinking Berkey Purfied Rainwater is the featured presenter at May's Design Build Live Meeting. Here is an article about her system from lifegetinit.com.

From the DBL, Austin site:

Build Your Own Affordable Rainwater Harvesting System

Wednesday, May 20, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm – D~B~L Monthly Presentation

Guest presenter: Dr. Jody Grenga

Location: Casa de Luz, 1701 Toomey Road, Austin, Texas

Rainwater harvesting systems don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Come and learn how to build an “el cheapo” system for your home and landscape. Dr. Jody Grenga, resource mizer and author, will describe how she devised a very inexpensive way to collect and purify rainwater for drinking and watering the garden.

This presentation is free and open to the public (donations to help cover room rental gratefully accepted). No RSVP required. For questions, contact Gayle through “Contact Us” or 512-478-9033.

Radically Simple Sustainable Living (on the cheep!) and mostly at the library

I have been researching ways to reduce water and energy waste in my life. Elegantly.

Not with complicated stuff. Tanks aren't required to collect rainwater. Solar panels aren't necessary for capturing the sun's energy. Tanks and panels do have their place, but I lean towards cheap and easy.

By the way, I don't own any of the these books. Most are available at the San Antonio Public Library and the rest are available free through inter-library loan. Since I have several checked out, you may have to place them on hold for pickup (at your local branch - very cool!)

1. Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg
The Rhizome Collective has done an impressive job of enacting simple permaculture and sharing it with the public. A phenomenal resource to calibrate your brain for true sustainable living.

2. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (Vol. 1): Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life And Landscape by Brad Lancaster
Brad is a charismatic rainwater guru from Arizona. I highly recommend you Google him and visit his site and watch the few videos of him. Simple changes in the contours of your yard can retain thousands of gallons of water.

3. Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather Coburn Flores
Maybe I am too demanding of the plants I put in the ground. Aren't beauty, oxygen production and shade enough to justify a few square inches and a splash of water? I lean towards plants that offer up some food for my family or my chickens. If it's a perennial, all the better!

4. The New Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems - Includes Branched Drains by Art Ludwig
Art has provided me with wise counsel - Slow Down! I look forward to water trees with my laundry water, but I don't want to burn out my washing machine or kill my trees. That would be counter-productive. Art provides the philospohy and the How-To for greywater reuse.

5. Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks by Art Ludwig
Dee and I attended a Design-Build-Live rain jug workshop in Austin a few weeks ago. With a chicken wire, a bag of cement, a pinch of sand and a little bit of guidance means that you can make beautiful rain jars without a kiln or a potting wheel.

6. The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book by Ianto Evans
I have been pulling up asphalt in my backyard to encourage water retention. Turns out my soil is clay. Bummer? Nope- I can build a house or an outdoor oven. Ianto's book leaves me with a sense of peace and purpose.

7. Builder's Greywater Guide: Installation of Greywater Systems in New Construction & Remodeling; A Supplement to the Book "Create an Oasis With Greywater" by Art Ludwig
This is a guide for those of you who want to have your greywater system installed with city permits. This won't make it a slam dunk, but your efforts will pioneer the way for others.

8. The Green Lifestyle Handbook by Jeremy Rifkin
1001 tips from many smart people. Edited by Jeremy Rifkin.

9. Builder's Guide To Hot - Humid Climates. by Joseph Lstiburek
Joe Lstiburek is a Building Science rock star with compelling, common sense approaches to Advanced Framing, Indoor Air Quality, and Building Envelopes. Why invite hot and humid air into my vented attic to condense on my nice cool ceiling or AC ducts? Lstiburek didn't invent this, but he's the one who presented it best! (Buildsagreen.com podcast was first.)

10. Entropy: A New World View by Jeremy Rifkin
A sobering and simple concept introduced to me in high school. I forget what the concept was, but I am fairly sure I was sober...

11. Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin
Cover crops and poultry. How to improve your soil and feed your chooks. I am hoping to cut back on buying feed!

12. Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock by Judy Pangman
"Fun ideas. I built mine from recycled louvered screens from a bungalow in Mahncke Park. Lots of plans for chicken tractors for those of you who aren't ready to let your chickens wander."

Adapted from an Amazon Listmania by SASL member Joe Barfield. Republished with his permission.

The Miracle of Permaculture Part 3: Geoff Lawton introduces the Food Forest

In this video, Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia introduces the concept of the Food Forest. This is a small part of the DVD Establishing a Food Forest, which is available as a region free DVD that is playable worldwide. Unlike their Harvesting Rainwater DVD, this is in the NTSC television format which makes it viewable on US televisions.

The Miracle of Permaculture Part 2: Behind Greening the Desert

Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, reflects upon the success of Greening the Desert. "It's probably the most beneficial and productive 5 minutes we've ever created in our permaculture career." says Lawton.

In this short video he gives more details about the Jordan Project and goes into what happened to the project after the original video was made.