Builders know that water management is complex, challenging, and crucial for the success of their projects and for our well-being. But are we as a society still in La land, just beginning to realize that there will come a time when, despite all the technical science, the well may run dry? Maybe there isn’t a magic faucet in the sky waiting for our call, ready to burst. Anthony Splendora, a landscape architect specializing in regenerative design and tree company Clearwater at the award-winning ecologically focused Willow School in Bedminster, N.J., knows that water is precious — not to be wasted, not to be mistreated, not to be misused. In this spirit, the ecological planning and Development Company Back to Nature, founded in the early 1990s, includes economic management in its plans. We don’t have the resources we give them, they believe, we borrow them. Regarding water, Splendora, a board member of the US Green Building Council (USGBC-NJ), said he asked the project to produce better water than when it was approved.
But stewardship is a concept incompatible
With the pursuit of profit of the past, our attitude is “ownership is nine-tenths of the law”. Only now, when our generation is facing the rocks of hard waters in a wet situation, not even on purpose, may we have to react to the signs that it needs a change. No water, no bath.
A recent New York Times review of Elizabeth Rote’s book, “Bottle mania, How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It,” quotes the author as saying, “The coming shortage will destroy the growth of jobs, homes and businesses. Water experts predict that the shortage will fight against communities and the state, rights against the national interest, the rich against the poor, the city against the village, the corporation against the individual, and man against other creatures competing for water.
After having to pay attention to periodic drafts,
with more current discussions about global warming and climate change, and with existing problems and the rising costs of traditional water treatment technologies, our leaders are beginning to consider the consequences of continuing – lots of kicking and screaming. on the way…but still think about it. The problem is that stewardship not only requires us to change the way we think, but also to reshape our infrastructure to sustainable design a tall order.
In the case of water, a changing substance that comes and goes alternately in the forms of liquid, steam, vapor, and ice, stewardship also requires paying attention to the earth containing the water, the air through which it passes. , to plants and animals and to ourselves who drink it, bathe in it and use it in a thousand other ways – and especially with pride because of our assumption that water is and always will be for our use and pleasure. According to Rote, Arizona has imported all of its liquor. Well, maybe not on the mountain I was told in another conversation. But the situation gave him pause.
Back to Nature considers education to be key, Splendora said.
The company has an environmental and aesthetic focus in its landscape business and a new company, Ecological Development, whose goal is to create ecological residential, commercial and municipal properties.
“We use a regenerative approach to evaluate every piece of land we work on,” he said. “This allows us to see opportunities where others see challenges. When we see wetlands, instead of seeing them as a liability, we see them as an asset that can be beautiful and functional by adding groundwater, wildlife habitat, and When real estate that is treated Rivers Divide Rivers, unable to support aquatic life, we restore the land surrounding the river and the systems that flow into it so that the river can once again provide a home for fish and other wildlife.
However, in order to reach the mass of tree installation clearwater and homebuyers who are satisfied with the “chop trees, make houses, dispose of the remains” approach – a more innovative and sustainable approach must be developed. Adults and especially children must be brought back to nature and natural systems. This is different from preaching green buildings, he said, who listens that in practice, when people understand the relationship with nature, they are more customers. (They are also more likely to support leaders who promote change in the direction of sustainable development). However, to get there, Mr. Splendora said, they must be guided to understand the value of creating ponds, habitats and local food. People need to understand that apples come from trees and not from supermarkets.