Toronto Talk: Trees Inside - Indoor Ecosystems: November 7

Screenshot: Meetup: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems;
Thursday, November 7, 2013 at The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond;
Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8
Credit: meetup.com: My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON

We would like to invite everybody to attend this exiting talk about ecosystems:

Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

When: Thursday, November 7, 2013

Time: 6:30 PM

Where: The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond

Location: Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8 (Location/Map)
401 Richmond Street West is located on Richmond just east of Spadina Avenue.

Come out and hear from speakers Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on the topic of indoor ecosystems.

About the Speakers

Martina Ernst is the President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund. She is a design & build specialist who helps businesses improve the quality of their work spaces. Her education, both in architecture and business, and her 25-year building industry expertise give her a unique approach to designing spaces with a balanced emphasis on aesthetics, practicality and profitability. Featured on Extraordinary Women TV, the radio shows Small Business Big Ideas Show and From a Woman's Perspective, Martina's passion is to provide the healthiest indoor environment possible for her clients.

Attila Lendvai is the Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund.  He's a passionate social entrepreneur with one eye on the big-picture; the other on the bottom-line. Atilla has 20 years of international experience as a consultant and manager of both for-profit and non-profit ventures, working with companies such as IBM, ABB, Gas de France, Nova Scotia Power, Georgian Bancorp and Emilio & Coco. A seasoned speaker and emcee, Attila is also a blogger and author of The Attlas Project - SEE the World in a New Light, and contributing author of Competitive Intelligence and Global Business. Attila was recently interviewed on AllTalkTV.com with David Grossman and is a regular contributor to Greenaddition.blogspot.ca. Attila has made PeapodLife his life's mission to bring clean air indoors to serve humanity in a deep and meaningful way.

This is a pay what you can event. Proceeds go to the Genesis Eco Fund and upcoming tree-planting Meetup events.

About the Meetup Group

My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON
This is a group for anyone interested in meeting people and making a difference in protecting the natural environment for the future. All skill levels welcome. We started this group to connect with people interested in attending tree-planting events in Toronto and around Ontario.

Through these reforestation projects, and using tree saplings and seeds contributed by people/organizations from all walks of life, we make our best possible use of resources, people and knowledge to proactively protect the environment and offset carbon emissions.

This Meetup is run by a co-counder of My Personal Tree, a new Toronto start-up. Find out more about us at www.mypersonaltree.com.

Want to attend? Please RSVP here: meetup.com: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

Photo: PeapodLife's Booth at The Property Show

Martina Ernst, President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife and

Attila Lendvai, Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife

PeapodLife (www.peapodlife.com), a Division of Wo-Built Inc (www.wobuilt.com)

2013 @ wobuilt.com

Come out and get some insight from PeapodLife Social Entrepreneurs and GenesisEcoFund.org Directors Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on things that you have never thought of before, and get some knowledge of ecosystems in the company of a high-order rainforest ecosystem!

links:

blogTO: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems
genesisecofund/blog: Trees Inside: Talk + Meet n’ Greet a Real Indoor Ecosystem In Person
greenaddition/blog: 3 Secrets to Using Nature to Grow Your Business: Amazing New Keynote for Green Business Associations!

Why Go Green with Plants?

Image Montage by Wo-Built: Indoor Landscapes
Image Credits: Travels with Zen-Aida +
Plantscape - Interior Plant Service, Indoor Office Landscaping

The Benefits of Indoor Garden Living Spaces

I have rediscovered my love for plants, or shall I say, my passion for making my home and office overflow with plants.

They seem to be multiplying (each time I go to the local garden center some seems to find themselves in my cart on the way out); they are on desks, tables, window sills, hanging from the ceiling etc.

Frankly they are starting to be in the way of everyone, but somehow we all accommodate the plants. So they are shifted about a bit, the work space is adjusted, the mountain of paper is redistributed around the plants and what does it matter that the floor is being utilized to the maximum.

Everyone loves being around the plants, they bring life into the space, especially at this time of year. The cold, grey and dreary time, the winter time, the short day time. The blooming Christmas cactus is a real treat to look at. We like our medicinal Aloe Vera plant, we do not just have ornamental plants, such as our Revolutions Croton (love the decorative curly leaves).

So what you say, they have a lot of plants. Why write this in a post? Quite frankly, who cares?

We all should care. Studies have shown that plants are beneficial to our moods. There is even a term for this: the biophilia hypothesis. According to Wikipedia the hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Biophilia means the love of life or living systems and was popularized by Harvard University myrmecologist and conservationist E.O. Wilson.

The need for connections with living systems is deeply rooted in our nature. As we have lost the day to day interaction with plants (we spend most of our time in enclosed buildings), it is becoming very important that nature is brought back into buildings. We have a solution in our PeapodLife concept.

We have written several articles about the PeapodLife concept and how it is beneficial for the indoor environment and we would like to invite you to review previous articles:

• wobuilt.com/blog: Plants, People and Music Part 1: Listen for Life
• wobuilt.com/blog: Plants, People and Music Part 2: Plants Make Music?
• wobuilt.com/blog: Living with Plants inside an enclosed Ecosystem: Doctor Tested and Approved
• wobuilt.com/blog: The Next Big Thing in “Cleansing” ... Your House; House Plants
• wobuilt.com/blog: Plants, Water, Microwaves, and Wo-Built: Quality of Space = Better Quality of Life
• wobuilt.com/blog: Health and Wellness through Indoor Garden Living Spaces
• wobuilt.com/blog: Indoor Landscapes: Companies See the Light of a whole New Level of "wow, cool!"
• wobuilt.com/blog: Become a "Top Employer" – Install an Indoor Ecosystem!

Martina Ernst
President/CEO
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

Doors Open Toronto – Humber College Arboretum

Photos: Doors Open Toronto – Humber Arboretum
May 28, 2011 @ wobuilt.com

Humber Arboretum Centre for Urban Ecology
205 Humber College Blvd, Toronto, ON M9W 5L7
Event information: Visit the Humber Arboretum & Centre for Urban Ecology - a favorite location for photographers interested in modern architecture and nature alike. This site is where many Humber College photography, landscape, design, and media arts students learn their craft. Accordingly, student and staff work will be on display in the Centre with building and landscape tours scheduled throughout the day.
Architect and year: Taylor/Hazell Architects, 2007

This was a bit of a busman’s holiday, personally my first Doors Open Toronto. We had heard a lot about the Arboretum, LEED award winner, so we were interested. Granted it is a bit off the beaten path (427 and Finch), but once we found it, well worth the visit. Tucked behind the main college building, the Arboretum is located in the middle of a lovely garden park, nestling within the terrain. We were told that the park had oodles of wildlife (we saw geese and ducks), and we did enjoy sitting outside and talking to some of the visitors.

The building makes use of the slightly hilly terrain, a part of the energy efficient set-up. A teaching and research facility it packed almost all the known “green” systems into a small space and expressing them architecturally. The most visible systems of course are the sun shading slats on the south facing wall, reducing the high sun angles and the ventilation shaft in the center of the building, that extends 1 storey above the main floor and that facilitates the natural ventilation. Form follows function, making for interesting architecture. Rain water tanks for plant watering are buried into the hillside; behind the building are grey water recycling tanks, also used for plant irrigation. Other elements include green roofs, daylight and motion sensors, triple gazing, radiant heating, dual flush toilets and more. My favorite: large amount of daylight in the space.

The most interesting aspect of the building for me was the natural cooling system. Outside air is drawn into the building, directed into the basement which is several degrees cooler and then distributed to the warmer spaces where the air differential will have a cooling effect.

We were given an informative tour around the building and were assured that the environmental conditions are great and working there is a pleasure. As it is a small building all these systems are bound to be very effective as they can be finely tuned. They also would work very well for any other centrally controlled building (residential or non residential) provided there is enough space available to implement the measures. In multi-unit dwellings the implementation would become more complicated. Some measure such as green roofs, triple glazing, radiant heating, grey and rain water recycling, sun shading will all work as they are not part of individual choice. Ventilation and cooling is however a more personal matter. How much control would the individual units have to relinquish to make the natural ventilation and cooling work?

The Arboretum is an example and showcase on how any of these systems work. We need more examples accessible to the public to increase awareness of what can be done. We are committed to incorporate as many of these systems as possible in all our buildings. It is not necessary to incorporate all systems in each building. Even just one or two measures will make an impact over time. Going “green” is a valid way to reduce our footprint on the environment we live in, and we encourage anyone to take baby steps.

Martina Ernst
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

link:
Doors Open Toronto 2011 Featuring City in Focus: Architecture + Photography

Helping to Green our Province

Certificate of Confirmation

As part of having partnered with Trees Ontario, Wo-Built would like to showcase the certificate that will be presented to our clients. For each new client Wo-Built Inc. will make a donation of (#) new healthy tree(s) in the province of Ontario on their behalf. Healthy trees and forests help reduce our environmental footprint, enrich the air that we breathe and enhance our forests and natural surroundings.

You too can donate to Trees Ontario and help support the planting of more trees across the province. Visit www.treesontario.on.ca for more details on how you can be a part of this initiative.
________________________
Lonya is the staff writer for Wo-Built Inc.

links:

Screenshot: Trees Ontario: Planting tomorrow's forests
Credit: Trees Ontario

Trees Ontario: Gathering of experts from science, forestry, government, community groups and the business world that plants trees and forests throughout Ontario
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources: Ontario's Forests
Ontario’s Plant A Tree Challenge: Lend a Hand Plant a Tree
Go Green Ontario: Things we can all do to make a difference
Environment Canada: Take Action for the Environment
wikipedia: Trees of Ontario

link:
Wo-Built Goes Greener by Planting Trees!!!

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Wo-Built Joins Trees Ontario to Improve Air Quality

TORONTO – August 12, 2008 – Trees Ontario and Wo-Built Inc. are proud to announce a partnership that will connect home renovations with improving air quality and natural landscapes through tree planting.
treesontario.ca: Press-release: Partnership helps get more healthy trees into the ground

We have partnered with Trees Ontario!

Wo-Built has signed on with Trees Ontario and has made a commitment to help replenish our Forestry. Over the years, the impact of climate change and a decline in tree planting has put our trees and forests in peril. Trees are a vital part of our ecosystem. They replenish our oxygen, cool our cities, help to filter pollutants from our air and so much more.

Trees Ontario has a mission to increase the forested landscape of Ontario's private lands by working with partners, government and sponsors, and through the support and promotion of its' tree planting programs. As a partner Wo-Built is committed to helping Trees Ontario with its reforestation efforts. Trees are important!

links:

Screenshot: Trees Ontario: Planting tomorrow's forests
Credit: Trees Ontario

Trees Ontario: Gathering of experts from science, forestry, government, community groups and the business world that plants trees and forests throughout Ontario
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources: Ontario's Forests
Ontario’s Plant A Tree Challenge: Lend a Hand Plant a Tree
Go Green Ontario: Things we can all do to make a difference
Forest Stewardship Council Canada: FSC
Environment Canada: Take Action for the Environment
news.google.ca: web results for trees ontario
blogsearch.google.ca: web results for trees ontario
wikipedia: Trees of Ontario

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