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Rain-Storing Benches
2007-02-27 16:34:16 UTC
I posted recently about a Philadelphia University student competition to design alternatives to traditional rainbarrels. While there were many great ideas, the winner took the traditional rainbarrel and turned it on its side as a bench. Instead of asking people to do something for the environment, they would be buying lawn furniture, or sidewalk furniture, something they might already plan to do. They are particularly well suited to dense urban areas where a water source on the front of a house might be useful. Some of the other design features included:
- a foot pump to strengthen the flow so water could be used for car-washing or sprinkling kids.
- a small tool to cut the drainpipe enclosed with every unit.
- optional self-watering planters attached to the bench.
Another approach to storing water in lawn furniture was having a water storing bladder inside a bench that requires assembly. This would allow a flat-pak, Ikea-style-- not shipping bulky plastic containers full of air. The university is seeking funding and partners to produce the rainbench. One rainbarrel manufacturer estimated that it would take $30,000 to bring the design to production. We were amused to learn about the HGTV show "Living with Ed," in which the main character (rabid environmentalist) installed a rainbarrel and his wife (not quite so committed) removed it because it was ugly. We contacted the producer, who promised to put the rainbench on the show if we get it to production. Here's the website. http://www.livingwithed.net/eguide.asp?CID=2&xepisode=Season%20I
Mindy Lemoine
Environmental Innovation Branch (3EA40)
Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: (215) 814-2736,
Fax: (215) 814-2783
[email protected]
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Rethinking Rainbarrels as Self-Watering Planters
2006-12-15 12:07:35 UTC
I'm coordinating with a community development corporation to reduce stormwater in a dense rowhouse neighborhood of Philadelphia. The obvious intervention is rainbarrels, but they would either sit on the sidewalk or take up some of the small open space available for gardening, playing or entertaining. The city gives them away but they're not popular in this area. One of the ideas coming out of our project is to change the product. Instead of an ugly and inconvenient rainbarrel, why not have a beautiful planter that never has to be watered! We're hoping for the Martha Stewart effect. One of the project partners is Philadelphia University. They are organizing a student design competition to include students from the industrial design, landscape architecture, and biology programs. We'll bring in a container gardening expert and a marketing expert. They're hoping to design a product that would actually be manufactured and sold. There are lots of technical and marketing challenges, but also lots of fun possibilities. Holiday themed wraps in the wintertime. Holders for seasonal flags. Tomatoes. Fig trees. Water striking chimes as it flows down. Color coordinated streets. Anybody have ideas to add? Do you think this might work?
Mindy Lemoine
Environmental Innovation Branch (3EA40)
Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: (215) 814-2736,
Fax: (215) 814-2783
[email protected]
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Developing SM Study Group in My Organization
2005-11-22 17:42:47 UTC
I'm organizing a social marketing study group within my agency. I have the most knowledge of the group, but haven't actually done a SM project. Ideally we would have an outside instructor, but I haven't marketed the idea well enough to get the funding! Yet. Does anyone have experience in this kind of internal leader-less learning process for SM? Any suggestions for other basic guides or curricula that would build on the DMM book? I'll provide these background materials:
- Getting in Step,the EPA social marketing guide for watershed outreach.
- Fostering Sustainable Behaviorwebsite and book.
- Handouts from Peter Mitchells SM workshop. (Peter is with the firm Marketing for Change)
- Materials on the Chesapeake Club fertilizer campaign from the Chesapeake Bay Program.
I will prepare a two hour introduction to the topic for our workgroup. For the next four to six weeks, we would meet weekly to go through the initial steps of selecting an environmental objective and behavior change focus, identifying the audience, understanding the current process relative to the activity, developing a hypothesis and identifying audience research needs. In the first month, we would meet with Chris Conner, the communications coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay Program, to learn about their fertilizer SM campaign. Once we have identified research needs , we would meet less frequently, perhaps monthly. Each of us would identify a few people to help us with the process, whether inside or outside EPA. At each meeting we would report on progress and help each other move our projects forward. The participants I've lined up so far are interested in reducing pesticides in lawns, overcoming barriers to tree planting in urban areas, reducing pharmaceutical waste going into streams, achieving better implementation of an EMS, and increasing use of BMPs to reduce volume and velocity of stormwater. Part of the project would be linking the social marketing approach to performance measurement. The expectation is that a clear understanding of the assumptions were making, and applying data to plan a behavior change project will allow us to more accurately measure environmental results. Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for your help.
Mindy Lemoine
Environmental Innovation Branch (3EA40)
Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Voice: (215) 814-2736,
Fax: (215) 814-2783
[email protected]
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